As someone who suffers on and off from RSI, I find that the pointing device is really the thing that causes my wrists, arms, and fingers to act up.
That's why I use (and swear by) a trackball. I don't have to move my wrists at all while using it. I can spend hours at a computer, as long as I have a good quality wrist rest and a trackball. However, if I have to do any significant amount of work on a computer with a mouse and no wrist rest, guaranteed within an hour I'll be experiencing a fair amount of physical discomfort.
BTW, the trackball I use is Microsoft's IntelliTrackball, and I swear by it. (Microsoft did something right for a change!)
Another big thing is the movement from the keyboard to the pointing device... to minimize the movements, I force myself to use pointing devices with my left hand (I'm right handed - it doesn't take long to become proficient though - this might sound awkward, considering that the MS IntelliTrackball is specifically designed for right hand use, but I use my two outer fingers to move the ball, and my first finger to press the buttons).
The problem with using the pointing device with your right hand is that to reach the pointing device, you're always forced to reach all the way across the numberpad, which is a considerable distance. By using the pointing device with my left hand, my hand has a much smaller distance to travel.
Using emacs for many tasks is another thing which helps, especially on Windows running computers. I find that I can minimize, if not eliminate my interactions with a pointing device by using a tool with which I know all of the keyboard combinations for the actions I wish to perform.
Thank you for adding that... Well said. It disgusts me to think that people are viewing clones as some kind of "organ farms"... when they are equally alive, conscious, etc... as you are. You have no right to their organs.
Honestly, I don't want to be accessible. I have no boss to worry about; I'm a university student. If I feel like talking on the phone, I stay in and talk on the phone. If I was to own a cell phone, it would be a completely meaningless expense, because it would always be off.
People ran out of gas and managed fine in the days before cell phones. Perhaps cell phones are convenient in that situation, but honestly, how often does that happen? I've been on this planet for 23 years, and have never been stranded on the side of a remote highway.
I would never buy a cellphone, for the mere fact that I wouldn't want to be that accessible. I hardly ever answer the phone when I'm home, so why would I want to cart a cellphone around with me?
However, I do have the occasional need when I'm out in public to make a phone call, in which case I'm thankful for public phones.
I don't think public phones will be going anywhere any time soon. The majority of people that I know don't have cell phones, and the public phones in the areas I frequent seem to experience moderate usage.
Not all drugs have proven to be bad for your health. To lump up all drugs into one category and say that they are bad for your health is like lumping all people of a certain race together and calling them dangerous killers because one or two of them have killed before.
Marijuana and cocaine have about as much in common as apples and buffalo. Sure, there are a few similarities, but more differences.
No one, ever, has died from a direct result of marijuana use.
And if taken responsibly with sufficient knowledge and precautions, nearly all the dangers associated with drug use can be minimized. Unfortunately, many people are stupid and don't take the proper precautions.
I like what the other poster said. Have you ever read the ingredients in a Big Mac? How about a McChicken, which is ten times worse? People have been smoking marijuana for thousands of years and we know the risks involved. We don't know the long term risks of consuming huge quantities of monosodium glutamate, mono and di-glycerides, sulfates, sulfites, and a whole slew of other chemicals. And these chemicals are becoming more and more commonplace in the food industry. Go to your grocery store; it is almost impossible to find products that do not contain preservatives and flavour enhancers.
For instance, glutamic acid, which is, by every definition of the word, a drug, is present in about 98% of food items you'll find at the grocery store, just because companies are too cheap to use quality ingredients.
It never seems to occur to people like you that drug users use drugs for specific reasons, and have determined that the benefits outweigh the risks.
Both the new 500 and 600 MHz models have CDRW. Check out the Apple store.
v
Mac OS X is better than I could have imagined!
on
OS X
·
· Score: 5
Let me begin by saying that I used to be a rabid, frothing at the mouth Linux/UNIX advocator. I've been using Linux exclusively for nearly two years.
Anyways, when I found out about Mac OS X, I was very excited. I wanted to try it. The interface looked so incredibly well done. Whoever says that Windows has a nice user interface must be joking; I think that the Windows GUI is extremely bland.
So I bought an iMac 233 for a steal over at eBay. I ran Mac OS X Public Beta for many months in anticipation of the final release.
The day the final release came out, I was so impressed with Apple hardware and the beta, that I ran out and bought one of the new iMacs just so that I would have the extra speed boost in running OS X.
Anyways, let me say that I have not been disappointed in the slightest! OS X is everything that Linux should have been. It's powerful enough for the command line lovers, but elegant enough for the common desktop user. I don't care what anyone says; Linux is not ready for the common user.
Common Linux scenario. I'm running KDE with some GNOME apps, along with Netscape 4.77 and emacs. Say I want to change my computer's theme. That means I have to find a KDE theme, a GTK theme (and figure out how to install it from KDE), and edit my.Xdefaults file, testing new values for Netscape and emacs until everything is the way I want.
That's just too inconvenient. In fact, after running OS X for a week now, I found that there were a lot of annoying inconveniences that I put up with in Linux that I don't have to deal with in OS X. It got to the point with Linux where I was saying, "I'm so tired of constant sysadmin battles... I just want something that works." You know what? Mac OS X just works.
Not to mention the fact that I find Apple hardware far superior. There's none of the Intel Driver Hell that I've dealt with using other OSes. I plugged in my iMac (which was equipped with CDRW, ethernet, modem, etc...) and everything worked, no tweaking necessary.
What I like the best is the XonX program that a bunch of sourceforgers are working on. By hitting Command-Alt A, I can switch back and forth between my old XFce desktop and my new, spiffy Aqua desktop.
To those who say that Apple hardware is too expensive... yes, the powermacs and the cubes are still fairly high in price. If you're looking to play around with OS X, pick up an iMac. They're very reasonably priced machines that pack a lot of power.
I'm surprised than no one has mentioned LiveJournal - it's definitely one of the more popular online journals with over 100,000 members and clients for many different OSes.
Contrary to what people seem to think here, I don't think that the majority of online journal keepers do so because they want other people to read them. My motivation for keeping an online journal was because I always wanted to have a journal, but to do so with pen and paper or even at my computer was far too inconvenient. I didn't want a swarm of text files sitting around. This way, all I have to do is fire up a client (which I can do from any computer I'm at), type up an entry, and there it goes to the server. LiveJournal allows me to make entries public or private to my discretion. Personally, I don't have anything to hide, and if someone wants to read about my life, they're more than welcome to. I've met a lot of interesting people on LiveJournal; there's a large sense of community there with discussion groups, etc...
I don't mean to troll, but I really disagree with the hypothesis of the experiment.
I think the more likely culprit is nutrition and changes to the educational system more than whether or not we are using computers and PDAs.
Firstly, did you know that the amount of monosodium glutamate (a neurotoxin and flavour enhancer) and preservatives in food has been increasing by a factor of 10 every decade? This means that today's teens and 20 year olds are consuming around 10,000 times the number of preservatives and chemicals that our parents consumed, and we are consuming them often during critical mental and physical development stages. Laws go into place so that companies have to indicate monosodium glutamate on their ingredient lists so that people can avoid it if they want. You know the solution companies use to avoid this? Hide MSG in completely natural sounding ingredients like hydrolyzed proteins, yeast extracts, natural flavour, modified starches, etc... They might seem natural, but they're teeming with chemicals that our grandparents were largely not exposed to.
Who knows the long term effects of these chemicals on people? In fact, it's been shown that even in people who are not sensitive to MSG, the amount of MSG consumed, on average, in a day, overexcites and kills (fries) a large number of neurons in your hypothalamus.
Education systems have also changed. My mom went to school with the nuns and they were forced to spend long hours at night memorizing things like Shakespeare passages and such. We don't encourage that in today's education system. Memory is like a muscle; the more you work it, the stronger it becomes. Less emphasis goes on memory and more emphasis on thinking. Thus it's only natural that memory will decrease.
Personally, I seriously doubt that Macs will go ahead and support OS X. The great thing about Apple is that they create the computers as well as the OS... this probably simplifies things like driver creation and hardware support considerably. If anyone wants to make hardware for a mac, they have to make their hardware compatible. This is unlike the vast mishmash collection of hardware for Windows where you need 650 drivers to do anything.
I bought an old 233 MHz iMac on eBay for a great price, just because I wanted a new toy to play with. Being an Intel afficionado for years, I wouldn't have touched other hardware until recently. I went to a computer store, played around with a Cube while I was there, and decided that Macs weren't so bad, and thus began my journey into Mac-dom.
Anyways, I upgraded my iMac from 32 MB of RAM to 160 MB of RAM, and this machine (created three years ago) rocks! It seems as fast as, and often performs better than my Intel P3 550 MHz with 256 MB of RAM (which was created one and a half years ago, and was nearly top of the line at the time). Even when messing with XMMS' priorities in Linux, my MP3s skip when I do anything much with the HDs. On my iMac running Mac OS 9.1, I can be copying files, have three IE windows open, be downloading MP3s off Napster, and have various other background apps like FTP servers and stickies and such, and the MP3s never even flinch.
My next computer will definitely be a G4 PowerPC. The only thing that deters from my enjoyment of my iMac is the lack of command line, which should be no issue with OS X.
If you really, really want to try OS X, stop pressing for an Intel port (I doubt that's going to happen), and run out and buy yourself one of the older iMacs (233 - 333). You can probably pick one up for $450 - $650 if you shop around on eBay and do some last minute bidding. Trust me; you won't regret it. And if you end up not liking OS X, just go and install Linux on it.
I never claimed to not understand the American way of thinking about this situation (you somehow inferred this from my defending the Canadian point of view in my argument).
I can appreciate how someone might feel as you do (but I don't share your beliefs). However, you make it clear that you cannot understand how someone might believe in the social welfare of the entire country, instead of the welfare of the self.
You may have problems too, but I'm sure your problems aren't of the calibre of many of the people who have become addicted to hard drugs. Have you ever been chronically, severely depressed? Well, several years ago I was (because of a chemical imbalance completely out of my control), and let me tell you that it is absolute hell. I can see why people with severe depressions, suicidal tendencies, and feelings of helplessness could turn to hard drugs as a means of escape.
As far as I can tell from my considerable studies of neuropharmacology (from a non-chemist point of view) is that the problems with heroin are purity, contaminants, and lack of education re dosage and safety precautions. Many successful English poets and philosophers addicted to laudanum (morphine + alcohol, IIRC) lived successful lives well into their 70s during the 18th century. While obviously not dictating any universal truths, this gives a fairly good indication that when pure, uncontaminated forms of opiates are given, that there is little danger in consumption (besides a stubborn physical addiction, of course, which is not inherently dangerous in itself).
Why am I ranting about this? Well, partly because I don't think that the government is spending grossly huge sums of my tax money helping heroin addicts every year because I sincerely doubt that emergency rooms and clinics are filled with heroin addicts (I've yet to see one, but somehow you've concluded that heroin is incredibly dangerous and that hospitals are filled with heroin addicts). And the few that do need help have obviously let their lives get out of control.
I also believe that it is possible, given the right set of circumstances, for anyone's life to get out of control, and I don't discount that there's a probability that one day it could happen to me. Thus, by investing in health care now, I am making a potentially huge investment in myself for the future.
If my spouse leaves me, I become depressed, eat more, gain weight, and suffer a heart attack as a result, then we can conclude that it was my fault that I suffered a heart attack just as we can conclude that it is a heroin addict's fault that s/he is addicted to heroin.
If I DO have a heart attack and need an emergency transplant, or I get diagnosed with cancer, or hell, even if I get addicted to heroin and need help, because I've donated tax money, the government will be there to help me out during an extremely stressful time when I am unable to fend for myself. I won't have to lie in a hospital bed, having the situation's stress compacted by worrying about where the money will come from.
My money isn't valuable enough to me that I should have it at the expense of the well being of people around me. I earn enough to buy myself all the things I need, and a fair number of the things I want as well. I don't mind sharing it with less forunate people.
Like I said, I can appreciate your point of view on this issue. It's not for me, and thus isn't it grand that you live in a country that supports your point of view, and I live in a country that supports my point of view? But your opinions, e.g.:
"And perhaps if the government wasn't taking my money and feeding it into
its many failed, backward, ineffecient, vote-buying, income
redistribution schemes then I would have more money to give to
charities."
are just that, opinions. They are by no means universal truths, so please stop toting them about as if they were.
Being Canadian, I'm quite pleased that the government allows me to say no to drug testing in the workplace if I choose to do so. The fact that so many American corporations require drug testing sickens me to no end, and I find it appalling that your government does not protect your freedoms more than this.
Drug testing is obtrusive and digusting. At the last company I worked for, I was requested to fill out a form giving the company a right to ask me for drug testing. The only reason I was asked this was because the company was based in the US. I refused, and could not be forced to sign such a form.
I mean, what the hell? Do big corporations want to post people in my home at night to make sure I'm not having any sex that might be offensive and reflect poorly on the company? Do they want to monitor my personal relations to ensure that I am not involved with people in my spare time that they do not approve of?
You're speaking from an American point of view; for some reason, many Americans cannot understand _why_ Canadians want to pay tax for a healthcare program that helps people like heroin addicts and homeless people.
Personally, I don't think people move out onto the streets and become addicted to heroin because it's fun, or because there's nothing better to do. Usually, these people have more serious problems than a mere heroin addiction.
I'd like to think that if I was having such serious problems that I turned to hard drugs to alleviate the psychological pain of what was going on that someone would be available to help me break free when I was ready to do so.
People make mistakes; life is about learning. I will make mistakes in my lifetime, and I'd appreciate it if people were there to help me. I'd like to be able to do the same for others. A heroin addict is not a depraved lunatic; s/he is merely a person that has made some wrong choices, and needs help.
You might prefer to have your fancy cars, but I'm quite content aiming away at something so commercially shallow and helping my fellow man, thank you very much.
By the way, I don't know which health care clinics that you're going to, but I've never been to one where a heroin addict with a syringe hanging out of his arm starts showing me his pus.
Hmm... well I wouldn't take advice from someone with your mastery of the English language. bou? what the hell does that mean? And it's "a lot", not "alot".
Besides, I have four operating systems installed on my desktop now, and I use them all frequently to know what I'm talking about, thank you. Go troll elsewhere. Shoo.
I have an ATI Rage 128, and it's just excellent. I've had nothing but good experiences with it. It works under every operating system I've tried without hassles (Linux + other X running UNIX variants, BeOS, QNX RtP, and Windows), and I had no problem getting it configured with XFree86 3.3.6 and 4.0.1.
I did have problems running the original Corel Linux 1.0 installation because of my video card, but then I switched to Mandrake and everything was fine. I'm just guessing, but I suspect that this has been fixed in the latest Corel distro.
While this is pretty cool, I can't help but wonder how people would react if Windows 2000 got a technology which has been around on Unix for a long time - "Wow, they've caught up with Unix... of 10 years ago!"
Just because some people choose to emulate other popular operating systems on their Linux box, does not mean that *X GUI offerings are up to par with those operating systems.
*duh*... that should have read that *X GUI offerings are NOT up to par with those operating systems.
OTOH, I can't see why anyone would like an Apple theme on their GNULIX/BSD/WhateveX. It reminds me of people who call themselves vegetarians and then crave for veggie sausages, veggie burgers and the like. Such hypocricy.
Sorry, but this is the stupidest argument that I've ever heard. Isn't it possible to be a vegetarian in practice (because of your beliefs) but miss the taste of meat? That's like calling a recovering alcoholic who has a craving for alcohol a hypocrite.
Personally, as a Mac user, I am ashamed to see Apple behaving in this manner. I would be flattered if people were this impressed by Aqua. I think their behaviour is petty and they have lost some respect in my eyes.
HOMM III - $29.95
Shipping - $13.95 (!!!)
Total - $43.90
Convert from USD to CD - $70.24
Add Canadian sales taxes - $80.77
Add import Brokerage fee - $20.00
Total = $100.77
That's about $30 more than I would pay for a game, and about $50 more than I would pay for the Windows version. Dual booting is inconvenient, but not _that_ inconvenient.
Slashdot Mirror
It is just another *nix, but it doesn't use X, so a lot of the API would have to be rewritten / modified for Mac OS X's Aqua.
As someone who suffers on and off from RSI, I find that the pointing device is really the thing that causes my wrists, arms, and fingers to act up.
That's why I use (and swear by) a trackball. I don't have to move my wrists at all while using it. I can spend hours at a computer, as long as I have a good quality wrist rest and a trackball. However, if I have to do any significant amount of work on a computer with a mouse and no wrist rest, guaranteed within an hour I'll be experiencing a fair amount of physical discomfort.
BTW, the trackball I use is Microsoft's IntelliTrackball, and I swear by it. (Microsoft did something right for a change!)
Another big thing is the movement from the keyboard to the pointing device... to minimize the movements, I force myself to use pointing devices with my left hand (I'm right handed - it doesn't take long to become proficient though - this might sound awkward, considering that the MS IntelliTrackball is specifically designed for right hand use, but I use my two outer fingers to move the ball, and my first finger to press the buttons).
The problem with using the pointing device with your right hand is that to reach the pointing device, you're always forced to reach all the way across the numberpad, which is a considerable distance. By using the pointing device with my left hand, my hand has a much smaller distance to travel.
Using emacs for many tasks is another thing which helps, especially on Windows running computers. I find that I can minimize, if not eliminate my interactions with a pointing device by using a tool with which I know all of the keyboard combinations for the actions I wish to perform.
Thank you for adding that... Well said. It disgusts me to think that people are viewing clones as some kind of "organ farms"... when they are equally alive, conscious, etc... as you are. You have no right to their organs.
Honestly, I don't want to be accessible. I have no boss to worry about; I'm a university student. If I feel like talking on the phone, I stay in and talk on the phone. If I was to own a cell phone, it would be a completely meaningless expense, because it would always be off.
People ran out of gas and managed fine in the days before cell phones. Perhaps cell phones are convenient in that situation, but honestly, how often does that happen? I've been on this planet for 23 years, and have never been stranded on the side of a remote highway.
Well, my cell phone would more or less be permanently off, and the monthly fees would cost considerably more than the 4 payphone calls that I'd make.
I would never buy a cellphone, for the mere fact that I wouldn't want to be that accessible. I hardly ever answer the phone when I'm home, so why would I want to cart a cellphone around with me?
However, I do have the occasional need when I'm out in public to make a phone call, in which case I'm thankful for public phones.
I don't think public phones will be going anywhere any time soon. The majority of people that I know don't have cell phones, and the public phones in the areas I frequent seem to experience moderate usage.
Not all drugs have proven to be bad for your health. To lump up all drugs into one category and say that they are bad for your health is like lumping all people of a certain race together and calling them dangerous killers because one or two of them have killed before.
Marijuana and cocaine have about as much in common as apples and buffalo. Sure, there are a few similarities, but more differences.
No one, ever, has died from a direct result of marijuana use.
And if taken responsibly with sufficient knowledge and precautions, nearly all the dangers associated with drug use can be minimized. Unfortunately, many people are stupid and don't take the proper precautions.
I like what the other poster said. Have you ever read the ingredients in a Big Mac? How about a McChicken, which is ten times worse? People have been smoking marijuana for thousands of years and we know the risks involved. We don't know the long term risks of consuming huge quantities of monosodium glutamate, mono and di-glycerides, sulfates, sulfites, and a whole slew of other chemicals. And these chemicals are becoming more and more commonplace in the food industry. Go to your grocery store; it is almost impossible to find products that do not contain preservatives and flavour enhancers.
For instance, glutamic acid, which is, by every definition of the word, a drug, is present in about 98% of food items you'll find at the grocery store, just because companies are too cheap to use quality ingredients.
It never seems to occur to people like you that drug users use drugs for specific reasons, and have determined that the benefits outweigh the risks.
Huh? Where is your logic that follows to the equation:
drugs users == stupid people
???
Some of the most intelligent people that I know are drug users.
If you are in Aqua, you must do: # startx -- -quartz
# setenv PATH "${PATH}:/usr/X11R6/bin"
# startx
this should work.
I beg to differ. I have XFree86 and XonX working right now. Either somebody fixed it, or I have an older build that works.
v
Both the new 500 and 600 MHz models have CDRW. Check out the Apple store.
v
Let me begin by saying that I used to be a rabid, frothing at the mouth Linux/UNIX advocator. I've been using Linux exclusively for nearly two years.
.Xdefaults file, testing new values for Netscape and emacs until everything is the way I want.
Anyways, when I found out about Mac OS X, I was very excited. I wanted to try it. The interface looked so incredibly well done. Whoever says that Windows has a nice user interface must be joking; I think that the Windows GUI is extremely bland.
So I bought an iMac 233 for a steal over at eBay. I ran Mac OS X Public Beta for many months in anticipation of the final release.
The day the final release came out, I was so impressed with Apple hardware and the beta, that I ran out and bought one of the new iMacs just so that I would have the extra speed boost in running OS X.
Anyways, let me say that I have not been disappointed in the slightest! OS X is everything that Linux should have been. It's powerful enough for the command line lovers, but elegant enough for the common desktop user. I don't care what anyone says; Linux is not ready for the common user.
Common Linux scenario. I'm running KDE with some GNOME apps, along with Netscape 4.77 and emacs. Say I want to change my computer's theme. That means I have to find a KDE theme, a GTK theme (and figure out how to install it from KDE), and edit my
That's just too inconvenient. In fact, after running OS X for a week now, I found that there were a lot of annoying inconveniences that I put up with in Linux that I don't have to deal with in OS X. It got to the point with Linux where I was saying, "I'm so tired of constant sysadmin battles... I just want something that works." You know what? Mac OS X just works.
Not to mention the fact that I find Apple hardware far superior. There's none of the Intel Driver Hell that I've dealt with using other OSes. I plugged in my iMac (which was equipped with CDRW, ethernet, modem, etc...) and everything worked, no tweaking necessary.
What I like the best is the XonX program that a bunch of sourceforgers are working on. By hitting Command-Alt A, I can switch back and forth between my old XFce desktop and my new, spiffy Aqua desktop.
To those who say that Apple hardware is too expensive... yes, the powermacs and the cubes are still fairly high in price. If you're looking to play around with OS X, pick up an iMac. They're very reasonably priced machines that pack a lot of power.
I'm surprised than no one has mentioned LiveJournal - it's definitely one of the more popular online journals with over 100,000 members and clients for many different OSes.
Contrary to what people seem to think here, I don't think that the majority of online journal keepers do so because they want other people to read them. My motivation for keeping an online journal was because I always wanted to have a journal, but to do so with pen and paper or even at my computer was far too inconvenient. I didn't want a swarm of text files sitting around. This way, all I have to do is fire up a client (which I can do from any computer I'm at), type up an entry, and there it goes to the server. LiveJournal allows me to make entries public or private to my discretion. Personally, I don't have anything to hide, and if someone wants to read about my life, they're more than welcome to. I've met a lot of interesting people on LiveJournal; there's a large sense of community there with discussion groups, etc...
Shameless journal advertisement: My journal can be found at http://vorpal.livejournal.com
I don't mean to troll, but I really disagree with the hypothesis of the experiment.
I think the more likely culprit is nutrition and changes to the educational system more than whether or not we are using computers and PDAs.
Firstly, did you know that the amount of monosodium glutamate (a neurotoxin and flavour enhancer) and preservatives in food has been increasing by a factor of 10 every decade? This means that today's teens and 20 year olds are consuming around 10,000 times the number of preservatives and chemicals that our parents consumed, and we are consuming them often during critical mental and physical development stages. Laws go into place so that companies have to indicate monosodium glutamate on their ingredient lists so that people can avoid it if they want. You know the solution companies use to avoid this? Hide MSG in completely natural sounding ingredients like hydrolyzed proteins, yeast extracts, natural flavour, modified starches, etc... They might seem natural, but they're teeming with chemicals that our grandparents were largely not exposed to.
Who knows the long term effects of these chemicals on people? In fact, it's been shown that even in people who are not sensitive to MSG, the amount of MSG consumed, on average, in a day, overexcites and kills (fries) a large number of neurons in your hypothalamus.
Education systems have also changed. My mom went to school with the nuns and they were forced to spend long hours at night memorizing things like Shakespeare passages and such. We don't encourage that in today's education system. Memory is like a muscle; the more you work it, the stronger it becomes. Less emphasis goes on memory and more emphasis on thinking. Thus it's only natural that memory will decrease.
v
Personally, I seriously doubt that Macs will go ahead and support OS X. The great thing about Apple is that they create the computers as well as the OS... this probably simplifies things like driver creation and hardware support considerably. If anyone wants to make hardware for a mac, they have to make their hardware compatible. This is unlike the vast mishmash collection of hardware for Windows where you need 650 drivers to do anything.
I bought an old 233 MHz iMac on eBay for a great price, just because I wanted a new toy to play with. Being an Intel afficionado for years, I wouldn't have touched other hardware until recently. I went to a computer store, played around with a Cube while I was there, and decided that Macs weren't so bad, and thus began my journey into Mac-dom.
Anyways, I upgraded my iMac from 32 MB of RAM to 160 MB of RAM, and this machine (created three years ago) rocks! It seems as fast as, and often performs better than my Intel P3 550 MHz with 256 MB of RAM (which was created one and a half years ago, and was nearly top of the line at the time). Even when messing with XMMS' priorities in Linux, my MP3s skip when I do anything much with the HDs. On my iMac running Mac OS 9.1, I can be copying files, have three IE windows open, be downloading MP3s off Napster, and have various other background apps like FTP servers and stickies and such, and the MP3s never even flinch.
My next computer will definitely be a G4 PowerPC. The only thing that deters from my enjoyment of my iMac is the lack of command line, which should be no issue with OS X.
If you really, really want to try OS X, stop pressing for an Intel port (I doubt that's going to happen), and run out and buy yourself one of the older iMacs (233 - 333). You can probably pick one up for $450 - $650 if you shop around on eBay and do some last minute bidding. Trust me; you won't regret it. And if you end up not liking OS X, just go and install Linux on it.
v
I never claimed to not understand the American way of thinking about this situation (you somehow inferred this from my defending the Canadian point of view in my argument).
I can appreciate how someone might feel as you do (but I don't share your beliefs). However, you make it clear that you cannot understand how someone might believe in the social welfare of the entire country, instead of the welfare of the self.
You may have problems too, but I'm sure your problems aren't of the calibre of many of the people who have become addicted to hard drugs. Have you ever been chronically, severely depressed? Well, several years ago I was (because of a chemical imbalance completely out of my control), and let me tell you that it is absolute hell. I can see why people with severe depressions, suicidal tendencies, and feelings of helplessness could turn to hard drugs as a means of escape.
As far as I can tell from my considerable studies of neuropharmacology (from a non-chemist point of view) is that the problems with heroin are purity, contaminants, and lack of education re dosage and safety precautions. Many successful English poets and philosophers addicted to laudanum (morphine + alcohol, IIRC) lived successful lives well into their 70s during the 18th century. While obviously not dictating any universal truths, this gives a fairly good indication that when pure, uncontaminated forms of opiates are given, that there is little danger in consumption (besides a stubborn physical addiction, of course, which is not inherently dangerous in itself).
Why am I ranting about this? Well, partly because I don't think that the government is spending grossly huge sums of my tax money helping heroin addicts every year because I sincerely doubt that emergency rooms and clinics are filled with heroin addicts (I've yet to see one, but somehow you've concluded that heroin is incredibly dangerous and that hospitals are filled with heroin addicts). And the few that do need help have obviously let their lives get out of control.
I also believe that it is possible, given the right set of circumstances, for anyone's life to get out of control, and I don't discount that there's a probability that one day it could happen to me. Thus, by investing in health care now, I am making a potentially huge investment in myself for the future.
If my spouse leaves me, I become depressed, eat more, gain weight, and suffer a heart attack as a result, then we can conclude that it was my fault that I suffered a heart attack just as we can conclude that it is a heroin addict's fault that s/he is addicted to heroin.
If I DO have a heart attack and need an emergency transplant, or I get diagnosed with cancer, or hell, even if I get addicted to heroin and need help, because I've donated tax money, the government will be there to help me out during an extremely stressful time when I am unable to fend for myself. I won't have to lie in a hospital bed, having the situation's stress compacted by worrying about where the money will come from.
My money isn't valuable enough to me that I should have it at the expense of the well being of people around me. I earn enough to buy myself all the things I need, and a fair number of the things I want as well. I don't mind sharing it with less forunate people.
Like I said, I can appreciate your point of view on this issue. It's not for me, and thus isn't it grand that you live in a country that supports your point of view, and I live in a country that supports my point of view? But your opinions, e.g.:
"And perhaps if the government wasn't taking my money and feeding it into
its many failed, backward, ineffecient, vote-buying, income
redistribution schemes then I would have more money to give to
charities."
are just that, opinions. They are by no means universal truths, so please stop toting them about as if they were.
v
One more thing...
Being Canadian, I'm quite pleased that the government allows me to say no to drug testing in the workplace if I choose to do so. The fact that so many American corporations require drug testing sickens me to no end, and I find it appalling that your government does not protect your freedoms more than this.
Drug testing is obtrusive and digusting. At the last company I worked for, I was requested to fill out a form giving the company a right to ask me for drug testing. The only reason I was asked this was because the company was based in the US. I refused, and could not be forced to sign such a form.
I mean, what the hell? Do big corporations want to post people in my home at night to make sure I'm not having any sex that might be offensive and reflect poorly on the company? Do they want to monitor my personal relations to ensure that I am not involved with people in my spare time that they do not approve of?
So much for rights and freedoms.
v
You're speaking from an American point of view; for some reason, many Americans cannot understand _why_ Canadians want to pay tax for a healthcare program that helps people like heroin addicts and homeless people.
Personally, I don't think people move out onto the streets and become addicted to heroin because it's fun, or because there's nothing better to do. Usually, these people have more serious problems than a mere heroin addiction.
I'd like to think that if I was having such serious problems that I turned to hard drugs to alleviate the psychological pain of what was going on that someone would be available to help me break free when I was ready to do so.
People make mistakes; life is about learning. I will make mistakes in my lifetime, and I'd appreciate it if people were there to help me. I'd like to be able to do the same for others. A heroin addict is not a depraved lunatic; s/he is merely a person that has made some wrong choices, and needs help.
You might prefer to have your fancy cars, but I'm quite content aiming away at something so commercially shallow and helping my fellow man, thank you very much.
By the way, I don't know which health care clinics that you're going to, but I've never been to one where a heroin addict with a syringe hanging out of his arm starts showing me his pus.
v
Hmm... well I wouldn't take advice from someone with your mastery of the English language. bou? what the hell does that mean? And it's "a lot", not "alot".
Besides, I have four operating systems installed on my desktop now, and I use them all frequently to know what I'm talking about, thank you. Go troll elsewhere. Shoo.
v
I have an ATI Rage 128, and it's just excellent. I've had nothing but good experiences with it. It works under every operating system I've tried without hassles (Linux + other X running UNIX variants, BeOS, QNX RtP, and Windows), and I had no problem getting it configured with XFree86 3.3.6 and 4.0.1.
I did have problems running the original Corel Linux 1.0 installation because of my video card, but then I switched to Mandrake and everything was fine. I'm just guessing, but I suspect that this has been fixed in the latest Corel distro.
v
While this is pretty cool, I can't help but wonder how people would react if Windows 2000 got a technology which has been around on Unix for a long time - "Wow, they've caught up with Unix... of 10 years ago!"
What about the Win 2000 decision to use Kerberos?
v
Just because some people choose to emulate other popular operating systems on their Linux box, does not mean that *X GUI offerings are up to par with those operating systems.
;p.
*duh*... that should have read that *X GUI offerings are NOT up to par with those operating systems.
next time i won't post until i'm fully awake
v
OTOH, I can't see why anyone would like an Apple theme on their GNULIX/BSD/WhateveX. It reminds me of people who call themselves vegetarians and then crave for veggie sausages, veggie burgers and the like. Such hypocricy.
Sorry, but this is the stupidest argument that I've ever heard. Isn't it possible to be a vegetarian in practice (because of your beliefs) but miss the taste of meat? That's like calling a recovering alcoholic who has a craving for alcohol a hypocrite.
Personally, as a Mac user, I am ashamed to see Apple behaving in this manner. I would be flattered if people were this impressed by Aqua. I think their behaviour is petty and they have lost some respect in my eyes.
v
Ahhh, yes.
HOMM III - $29.95
Shipping - $13.95 (!!!)
Total - $43.90
Convert from USD to CD - $70.24
Add Canadian sales taxes - $80.77
Add import Brokerage fee - $20.00
Total = $100.77
That's about $30 more than I would pay for a game, and about $50 more than I would pay for the Windows version. Dual booting is inconvenient, but not _that_ inconvenient.