The US Army can't even manage to pay their troops...
Army priority list:
1) Find Osama. 2) Get logistics troops better armored vehicles. 3) Find insurgent hideouts. 4) Pay troops on time. . . . 253) Ban cameras from parties and prisons. . . . 21348) Provide cheaper communication for our troops to call home. . . .
So, rest assured, we will answer your call in priority sequence.
I prefer the old, "Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains." -- Sir Winston Churchill
You left one part out though, ignoring it. You said that the Old Empire (the US, ie the good) is rife with decay/decadence: "There were no clear sides, just decay throughout the entire old republic." There is a clear side; whatever side is opposite the Emporor/Palpatine is good. Do you really think that Lucas is criticizing the US (Old Empire...) as suffering decay and decadence? While I believe this (that the US is going the way of Rome), I'm not so sure about Lucas. If Lucas doesn't believe this/desire to portray it, then I think that your earlier readings of epI-III are slightly...generous to Lucas.
I'm not saying that movies parallel current events, but rather that they mirror our current popular ideas and fears. There's a difference. Star Trek tended to do the same thing, and actually came close to paralleling events (with the climax in movie number 6). I'm talking more about the "mood". 80's movies were more good vs. evil, man vs. man. Today's movies are more about man vs. himself. There's a lot more anxiety. There's more distrust of authority now than there ever was when I was growing up. Ideas like that cause revolutions.
Yeah, because, you know George W. Bush is Senator Palpatine. Let's look at the similarities.
Ok, strawman argument... give it a rest. I never made the comparison, neither did I intend to imply one. I have little respect for the man's approach, but I do actually think he has good intentions.
Here are some real comparisons:
1) The "Phantom Menace". Why couldn't that be terrorists? They're an evil that you can't see.
2) The Republic. That's just any bureacracy on the planet. It's big - doesn't work right anymore, and is full of individuals no longer united on what the want to accomplish. Maybe the UN, or any government, or the IMF. Whatever.
3) Jar Jar Binks. Ok, that's definitely got to be Bush. Dumb. Talks weird. Good intentions, but ultimately causes the downfall of civilization.:) Kidding, kidding....
Since Palpatine is the Emperor, how can he be on both sides?
He's a politician, right? It doesn't matter which side of the aisle he sits on, he's evil through and through.
Seriously, episodes 4, 5, and 6 were about the rebels (clearly good guys fighting for their freedom) overcoming the "evil empire". It was clear where the good/bad distinction was. In episodes 1, 2, and 3, it's the story about how they got to that point. There were no clear sides, just decay throughout the entire old republic. Some people were good and some people were bad, but the good guys weren't organized to see what was going on.
To me, this is all very much related to how we all perceive world events. In the late 70's, early 80's, there was a clear good and bad side to the world (from our perspective in the west). The soviets were the "evil empire", and we were all the good guys fighting for freedom. In this day and age, the lines have blurred. Nobody's sure who's on "our" side, and we're all afraid about terrorists infiltrating our own neighourhoods. We still want to live by the old ideals of freedom, but we are also aware that there are people in power who might not have the noblest intentions. It's hard to paint Iraq or Iran as truly "evil" because we shy away from stereotypes now. The governments can't unite us against any enemy that we can't all agree is evil.
When I was growing up 20 years ago, the U.S. was the ultimate "good guy" nation. Now, none of us (outside the U.S.) know who the good guys really are anymore. Many of us expect the U.S. to turn on the rest of us merely out of its own self interest, even if it's against its own self-proclaimed principles to do so. Within the U.S., it seems like many people also worry about whether their own government will turn on them some day.
Movies tend to mirror the ideas and fears of the time when they are made. These movies are no exception.
A/D and D/A converters are essential components in todays digitized world.
It's not only that. It's hard for regular non-techies to understand what the concept of this issue really is, but try this analogy: what if book publishers wanted to installa microchip in every pen or pencil that was sold so that it would recognize if you were using it to copy a protected piece of literature, and would stop working? Not only is it insanely stupid, but now a 39 cent pen is going to cost you 10 dollars, and maybe more because the microchip it uses will be patented and only available for license through the industry association that lobbied the government for the rule in the first place. Yes, it's THAT bad.
D/A and A/D converters are something that electronics students build in a lab during one of their classes. Will we all be forced to be bonded like locksmiths in order to get a degree in electrical engineering now, because we have the knowledge to bootleg copyrighted material? Yes, it's THAT bad. It affects almost any modern electronic system that interacts with the real world.
I'll tell you, people NEED to put just as much effort into blocking this type of bad legislation as they do into the pro-gun lobby. This is even more fundamental than that. It's about the freedom to measure the physical world and store it in digital form. Unfortunately, people just don't understand the technology, especially politicians.
Seriously, I purchase A/D and D/A cards for industrial uses all the time. They're expensive enough. Now, do I have to pay extra just to stop someone from hooking up the headphones of their MP3 player to a resolver input on a conveyor and record the music through the control system? That's insane!
I think it is cowardly and ignorant to rely solely upon others for your own personal safety and one of the worst instances of irresponsibility.
What kind of anarchist crap is that? One of the primary, and only legitimate, roles of government is to provide security, i.e. police and military. We pay them to do that, and we're better off for it. There are lots of places in the world where you would rely only on yourself for security, but I don't see you heading off there to find your utopia.
If someone wants to take it upon themselves to defend themselves, that's excellent, but they're not doing anything morally wrong by just sitting there and doing nothing. The person who breaks in and robs them is the criminal. You're blaming the victim.
Certainly we all live in the real world, and have to take measures to protect ourselves, but the person who buys a stronger door, more secure windows, an alarms system, gets a dog, or organizes a neighborhood watch is doing just as much to protect themselves as the person who gets a gun. In fact, they're being more proactive - they're stopping the person before they enter.
Your insistence that everyone should get a gun is just as absurd as another person's insistence that nobody should have them. What happened to freedom? What happened to my rights, or do you just want to force your own ideals upon me? That in itself is violence, and would give me the moral right to respond with force to stop you.
How about you own a gun, and realize that other rational people do other things to protect themselves, and maybe they're right, and maybe you're right, but neither is particularly WRONG. Get it? I was never saying that you SHOULDN'T own a gun, but was making the point that it doesn't make sense for all people.
I've seen many anti-gun people parrot the phrase, "A firearm in the home is more likely to be used against a person in that home, than against a burglar." That is an example of misleading statistics at its most wretched.
That is an example of a strawman argument, since nobody in this thread made that claim.
Here's what I figure on having a gun for "home defence"... where do you keep it? A guy I work with keeps it loaded in his kitchen drawer. That's useless if a person breaks into your home - they probably have a weapon, and you are NOT going to get to yours in time. Ditto if you're sleeping.
No matter where you keep it in your home, there are 3 problems: one, the home invader has the advantage of surprise, with the weapon in their hand. Two, if it's lying around, especially where it's easily accessible, and you keep it loaded, then it is dangerous to your family, no matter how much "training" they have. People make mistakes, and all children are curious. Just ask people from the military - they're trained and accidents happen all the time. You're trained how to use your car, and you could still have an accident, right? So there is some risk that has to be considered. I'm not afraid of guns, but I'm not blind to the danger either. If you have poisonous chemicals under your sink, you put a childproof lock on the door to keep your 2 year old from getting in there while you are off going to the bathroom, right? Three, if someone knows you have a gun, it makes you a target for burglary - a gun is easy to turn into cash on the street. Someone looking to steal it isn't going to break in while you're there, they will break in while you're gone and having that gun won't do anything to protect your house - it's passive.
For us, our answer was to get a dog. She's a visible deterrent, and most opportunistic burglars would rather just pass it by and go to the next house. She's also active 24/7, has better hearing than us, and of course we just like dogs too. I agree she's more expensive than a gun, but well worth it. Sure, someone who was determined to get in could shoot her too, but again, would me having a gun prevent such a determined person either? In that case you know someone is out to get you, and that's not what I'm talking about here.
If I were to get a gun, I would do whatever I needed to get a carry permit, and I would have that weapon strapped to me at all times. That keeps it at the ready, and out of the hands of any kids (if I had them) or their friends who were over to play.
Look, I'm not trying to say nobody has a use for a gun for home defence, but some people seem to think that if you don't have a loaded gun under your pillow that you're crazy, and I just don't follow that argument.
What if you're being attacked in your home, and...
What's the chance of getting attacked in your home? I mean really? Somewhere around 10 to 25 per 100,000 people? The murder rate in the U.S. in 1998 was 7.4 per 100,000. The highest rate per state was Louisiana with 17.5 per 100,000. In the U.S. the number of murders is a little over 18,000.
By comparison, "41,821 people were killed in auto accidents in 2000 based on data collected by the Federal Highway Administration".
I'm certainly not saying you shouldn't have a gun, but think about this, even a smart gun just doesn't have that many parts to go wrong with it. The chance of it not working if you treat it properly is miniscule. On the other hand, your car has a billion moving parts and IS more likely to get you killed.
So, worry about maintaining your car, not your smart gun. You need to set priorities.
Well, I was the good Canadian consumer and bought a GMC Sierra pickup truck. Some are manufactured near Toronto, but they're made other places in North America. Since I purchased it 3 years ago, I took it back 4 times for the air conditioner (which eventually was fixed), the trim on the tailgate had to be re-fitted so I could fit a tonneau cover on properly, the driver side window freezes EVERY morning in the winter and the mechanism for putting the window down broke, and will probably do so again. The line that carries the windshield washer fluid to the wipers rubs against the battery and wears a hole in the tube, so was replaced once and needs to be done again. To rub salt in the wound, the left hand rear springs are sagging by an inch more than the right side (truck actually sits visibly on an angle), and the dealership tells me that's within spec.
Yesterday I had a flat tire, and when I went to use the jack, it's too tall to fit under the frame of the truck when your front tire is actually flat, so I had to borrow another person's scissor jack to change my tire.
These aren't the only problems I've had. My father owns a similar truck just a year older, and has also had many problems.
I could buy a Dodge, but I know from several friends that the transmissions just aren't very good. I suppose I could buy a Ford, but there's a reason why Honda is beating them now. (Honda makes cars in Canada too, by the way).
I was looking at those Nissan Titan trucks when I was visiting where they manufactured the seats for them in Mississippi, and they look alright. We recently leased a Nissan Sentra as a second car, and I'm happy with the reliability. I'm thinking of buying a Titan next time, in a few years.
It's too bad - it's not like my truck doesn't have some good points... the mileage is good and the engine and transmission haven't given me any problems, but when it comes to the details, I've had too many problems to say I'm satisfied.
I have no doubt that import brands are going to continue to encroach on domestic brand car sales, and honestly, I'll be a part of that. But the big 3 will cope - they always do.
NORAD, jointly operated by the United States and Canada, has been tracking Santa for 50 years, ever since a newspaper in Colorado mistakenly printed a number for a "Santa Hotline".
The number turned out to be the operations hotline for NORAD headquarters in the state where tense radar operators were hunched over their radar screens on a cold night at the beginning of the Cold War.
"Needless to say, the military personnel on duty were very surprised to hear small children's voices on the operations hotline asking to speak to Santa," the release said.
The senior officer told childrens he could see Santa heading south from the North Pole, starting a tradition that has now endured for half a century.
Re:The last time someone predicted the future of p
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The Future of the P.C.
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· Score: 1
Re:NORAD santa tracker
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Ho, Ho, Ho
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· Score: 2, Insightful
You yanks always complain about everything... what are you some PC freak that insists everyone says, "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas". Calm down.
Besides, I'm pretty sure it's all voluntary labour on behalf of the officers.
languages like VB are bastards and people who think they are programmers because they can use VB are idiots.
...and companies who write quick user interfaces in C because it's 1337 usually don't stay in business past year 1. Use the right tool for the job.
If the customer wants a program that collects a couple choices from the user on his desktop machine, writes it to a file and FTPs it off to some central server, I use VB. If they want a server program that processes 3000 100k files every hour, and might process more in the future, I use C.
If I want to do some offline batch processing of files to sort out some useable information, I use Perl.
If I'm programming a machine, I use ladder logic for manual mode operations and alarming, or flowcharts for sequence, or function block diagrams for data flow. Then I drop into structured text to parse the data at the string level.
Don't be the guy who only has a hammer and thinks all problems are a nail.
Where on earth would you live that someone wanting to steal your DVD player and the $50 worth of cash in your dresser would actually bother to bring a gun with them? If they come in and realize you're home, they just going to leave. Plus, try it in my house and you're going to get a jaw full of rottweiller teeth in your leg.
I just find it odd that even though property crime rates are about even in both Canada and the U.S., you see the following difference in homicide rates:
Homicide (per 100,000) Canada: 1.9 U.S.: 5.6
That's even though Canadians are more urban, less pro-life, less fire-and-brimstone religious, just as multi-cultural, and own almost as many guns (about 70% of the U.S. rate of ownership - though it's admittedly hard to find exact rates).
Does anybody have ANY idea why the homicide rate is so much higher in the U.S. than other industrialized nations? I mean a real intelligent idea? Canadians and Americans just aren't that different, so why the huge difference in this one area? If someone could figure it out, the U.S. could stand to stop 10,000 homicides per year. If each life is 1 million dollars (per insurance rates), thats 10 billion in savings every year!
Oh Yes! Just like 1976, where they imposed a garden hose/lawn sprinkler ban, if not started rationing water altogether. Not bad for an island state completely surrounded by deep oceans.
I believe that if you dumped seawater on your lawn, you soon wouldn't need to water your lawn at all. You need to de-salinate the water first, and even though technology is improving, it's still expensive.
What a retarded thing to say. Can you say sore loser. ?
Not to be too nitpicky, but the original post was talking about "people", not Americans. Pretty certain the majority of all people on Earth might not mind seeing the whitehouse getting blown up in ID4. Actually, it got quite a good cheer the first time around in the theatre I was in, and that was back in Clinton's time. Then again, I was watching it in Canada, not the U.S.
I'm a controls engineer (some call us control system integrators) (we make machines move) and during the startup phase of a project, we will typically be onsite in a distant city, away from our families, and you work 12 hour days, 7 days a week. This can last anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 or more months, but it is the final phase of the project (the crunch time), not the norm. On average, our engineers are on the road anywhere from 60 to 120 days a year. A full 7 * 12 hour days will get you over 80 hours. However, you should never put in more than 12 hours a day, and never keep working if you're sleepy, because when you're working around 480 volts and machinery with all the safeties disabled, that would be a Bad(tm) idea. Fingers have been lost (not mine, thankfully).
However, even on a long haul project like that, we still get to go home for one weekend every 2 or 3 weeks, or fly another person out to your location for the weekend on the same schedule (in case you're some place nice like ocean side California - not the norm). There are 2 cases where I had to stay longer than 3 weeks without seeing my wife: once was September 2001, right after the 9/11 attacks when I was supposed to return the following weekend. I just skipped that weekend of travel. The second time was when we really had a tight set of deadlines, and I worked over 30 days straight, even Easter Sunday, though I took half that day off.
So it does happen, and you can still be productive, especially when you're away from home, but you do drain yourself after a few weeks.
One other thing to keep in mind is that I probably make as much base salary as those EA programmers, and I get straight time overtime, so if I work 80 hours a week, I get double the pay (gross, that is - it probably pushes you into another tax bracket for that paycheck, so you don't get double the take home pay).
I think the fact that I don't feel an attachment to the game is what appeals so much. How's that for backwards? I stopped SWG after I'd mastered artisan and architect because I realized I had too much invested in that character to change it, and I didn't want to start over. Not to mention, even though the crafting system is really great in SWG (compared to other games), it's still very boring. You can't DO anything with the credits you make doing it, and you can't use half the stuff you build because you've spent all your skill points on your profession. This was an attempt to make people have to interact and work as teams, but it made it so boring. Taking me as an architect on a mission was almost a liability.
I like planetside's idea better. Instead of making the typical FPS where everyone is of equal strength if you pick up all the weapons in the game, it limits you to specific armament. You have to choose anti-infantry, anti-air, or anti-armor. Also, the more powerful of a weapon you pick, the more specialized you become in that area. It turns the game into a big rock-paper-scissors game, which means you get benefits to working with other people, but you still get to take part in the fun stuff. They also let the engineers and medics still carry weapons and get into the action.
Actually I just read this too...
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Joel On Software
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My review would be that it was a quick, enjoyable, and thought provoking read. I don't think you should necessarily live by what he says, but he makes some good points. I particularly appreciated his essay about how to write functional specifications, and after reading that online, I decided to go out and purchase his book.
The book doesn't flow too well, since it's a collection of loosely related (or sometimes not-at-all related) material. You also have to check the dates on each one, since some of the essays, particularly his early comments about.NET, seem quite dated.
Overall, I'm happy I read it. If 30% of it has something useful or insightful, then it's a bargain.
Slashdot Mirror
I always thought one cubic centimetre of water at standard temperature and pressure had a mass of 1 gram. I guess it's not already defined that way?
The US Army can't even manage to pay their troops...
Army priority list:
1) Find Osama.
2) Get logistics troops better armored vehicles.
3) Find insurgent hideouts.
4) Pay troops on time.
.
.
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253) Ban cameras from parties and prisons.
.
.
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21348) Provide cheaper communication for our troops to call home.
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So, rest assured, we will answer your call in priority sequence.
I prefer the old, "Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains." -- Sir Winston Churchill
You left one part out though, ignoring it. You said that the Old Empire (the US, ie the good) is rife with decay/decadence: "There were no clear sides, just decay throughout the entire old republic." There is a clear side; whatever side is opposite the Emporor/Palpatine is good. Do you really think that Lucas is criticizing the US (Old Empire...) as suffering decay and decadence? While I believe this (that the US is going the way of Rome), I'm not so sure about Lucas. If Lucas doesn't believe this/desire to portray it, then I think that your earlier readings of epI-III are slightly...generous to Lucas.
I'm not saying that movies parallel current events, but rather that they mirror our current popular ideas and fears. There's a difference. Star Trek tended to do the same thing, and actually came close to paralleling events (with the climax in movie number 6). I'm talking more about the "mood". 80's movies were more good vs. evil, man vs. man. Today's movies are more about man vs. himself. There's a lot more anxiety. There's more distrust of authority now than there ever was when I was growing up. Ideas like that cause revolutions.
Yeah, because, you know George W. Bush is Senator Palpatine. Let's look at the similarities.
:) Kidding, kidding....
Ok, strawman argument... give it a rest. I never made the comparison, neither did I intend to imply one. I have little respect for the man's approach, but I do actually think he has good intentions.
Here are some real comparisons:
1) The "Phantom Menace". Why couldn't that be terrorists? They're an evil that you can't see.
2) The Republic. That's just any bureacracy on the planet. It's big - doesn't work right anymore, and is full of individuals no longer united on what the want to accomplish. Maybe the UN, or any government, or the IMF. Whatever.
3) Jar Jar Binks. Ok, that's definitely got to be Bush. Dumb. Talks weird. Good intentions, but ultimately causes the downfall of civilization.
Since Palpatine is the Emperor, how can he be on both sides?
He's a politician, right? It doesn't matter which side of the aisle he sits on, he's evil through and through.
Seriously, episodes 4, 5, and 6 were about the rebels (clearly good guys fighting for their freedom) overcoming the "evil empire". It was clear where the good/bad distinction was. In episodes 1, 2, and 3, it's the story about how they got to that point. There were no clear sides, just decay throughout the entire old republic. Some people were good and some people were bad, but the good guys weren't organized to see what was going on.
To me, this is all very much related to how we all perceive world events. In the late 70's, early 80's, there was a clear good and bad side to the world (from our perspective in the west). The soviets were the "evil empire", and we were all the good guys fighting for freedom. In this day and age, the lines have blurred. Nobody's sure who's on "our" side, and we're all afraid about terrorists infiltrating our own neighourhoods. We still want to live by the old ideals of freedom, but we are also aware that there are people in power who might not have the noblest intentions. It's hard to paint Iraq or Iran as truly "evil" because we shy away from stereotypes now. The governments can't unite us against any enemy that we can't all agree is evil.
When I was growing up 20 years ago, the U.S. was the ultimate "good guy" nation. Now, none of us (outside the U.S.) know who the good guys really are anymore. Many of us expect the U.S. to turn on the rest of us merely out of its own self interest, even if it's against its own self-proclaimed principles to do so. Within the U.S., it seems like many people also worry about whether their own government will turn on them some day.
Movies tend to mirror the ideas and fears of the time when they are made. These movies are no exception.
A/D and D/A converters are essential components in todays digitized world.
It's not only that. It's hard for regular non-techies to understand what the concept of this issue really is, but try this analogy: what if book publishers wanted to installa microchip in every pen or pencil that was sold so that it would recognize if you were using it to copy a protected piece of literature, and would stop working? Not only is it insanely stupid, but now a 39 cent pen is going to cost you 10 dollars, and maybe more because the microchip it uses will be patented and only available for license through the industry association that lobbied the government for the rule in the first place. Yes, it's THAT bad.
D/A and A/D converters are something that electronics students build in a lab during one of their classes. Will we all be forced to be bonded like locksmiths in order to get a degree in electrical engineering now, because we have the knowledge to bootleg copyrighted material? Yes, it's THAT bad. It affects almost any modern electronic system that interacts with the real world.
I'll tell you, people NEED to put just as much effort into blocking this type of bad legislation as they do into the pro-gun lobby. This is even more fundamental than that. It's about the freedom to measure the physical world and store it in digital form. Unfortunately, people just don't understand the technology, especially politicians.
Seriously, I purchase A/D and D/A cards for industrial uses all the time. They're expensive enough. Now, do I have to pay extra just to stop someone from hooking up the headphones of their MP3 player to a resolver input on a conveyor and record the music through the control system? That's insane!
I think it is cowardly and ignorant to rely solely upon others for your own personal safety and one of the worst instances of irresponsibility.
What kind of anarchist crap is that? One of the primary, and only legitimate, roles of government is to provide security, i.e. police and military. We pay them to do that, and we're better off for it. There are lots of places in the world where you would rely only on yourself for security, but I don't see you heading off there to find your utopia.
If someone wants to take it upon themselves to defend themselves, that's excellent, but they're not doing anything morally wrong by just sitting there and doing nothing. The person who breaks in and robs them is the criminal. You're blaming the victim.
Certainly we all live in the real world, and have to take measures to protect ourselves, but the person who buys a stronger door, more secure windows, an alarms system, gets a dog, or organizes a neighborhood watch is doing just as much to protect themselves as the person who gets a gun. In fact, they're being more proactive - they're stopping the person before they enter.
Your insistence that everyone should get a gun is just as absurd as another person's insistence that nobody should have them. What happened to freedom? What happened to my rights, or do you just want to force your own ideals upon me? That in itself is violence, and would give me the moral right to respond with force to stop you.
How about you own a gun, and realize that other rational people do other things to protect themselves, and maybe they're right, and maybe you're right, but neither is particularly WRONG. Get it? I was never saying that you SHOULDN'T own a gun, but was making the point that it doesn't make sense for all people.
I've seen many anti-gun people parrot the phrase, "A firearm in the home is more likely to be used against a person in that home, than against a burglar." That is an example of misleading statistics at its most wretched.
That is an example of a strawman argument, since nobody in this thread made that claim.
Here's what I figure on having a gun for "home defence"... where do you keep it? A guy I work with keeps it loaded in his kitchen drawer. That's useless if a person breaks into your home - they probably have a weapon, and you are NOT going to get to yours in time. Ditto if you're sleeping.
No matter where you keep it in your home, there are 3 problems: one, the home invader has the advantage of surprise, with the weapon in their hand. Two, if it's lying around, especially where it's easily accessible, and you keep it loaded, then it is dangerous to your family, no matter how much "training" they have. People make mistakes, and all children are curious. Just ask people from the military - they're trained and accidents happen all the time. You're trained how to use your car, and you could still have an accident, right? So there is some risk that has to be considered. I'm not afraid of guns, but I'm not blind to the danger either. If you have poisonous chemicals under your sink, you put a childproof lock on the door to keep your 2 year old from getting in there while you are off going to the bathroom, right? Three, if someone knows you have a gun, it makes you a target for burglary - a gun is easy to turn into cash on the street. Someone looking to steal it isn't going to break in while you're there, they will break in while you're gone and having that gun won't do anything to protect your house - it's passive.
For us, our answer was to get a dog. She's a visible deterrent, and most opportunistic burglars would rather just pass it by and go to the next house. She's also active 24/7, has better hearing than us, and of course we just like dogs too. I agree she's more expensive than a gun, but well worth it. Sure, someone who was determined to get in could shoot her too, but again, would me having a gun prevent such a determined person either? In that case you know someone is out to get you, and that's not what I'm talking about here.
If I were to get a gun, I would do whatever I needed to get a carry permit, and I would have that weapon strapped to me at all times. That keeps it at the ready, and out of the hands of any kids (if I had them) or their friends who were over to play.
Look, I'm not trying to say nobody has a use for a gun for home defence, but some people seem to think that if you don't have a loaded gun under your pillow that you're crazy, and I just don't follow that argument.
What if you're being attacked in your home, and...
What's the chance of getting attacked in your home? I mean really? Somewhere around 10 to 25 per 100,000 people? The murder rate in the U.S. in 1998 was 7.4 per 100,000. The highest rate per state was Louisiana with 17.5 per 100,000. In the U.S. the number of murders is a little over 18,000.
By comparison, "41,821 people were killed in auto accidents in 2000 based on data collected by the Federal Highway Administration".
I'm certainly not saying you shouldn't have a gun, but think about this, even a smart gun just doesn't have that many parts to go wrong with it. The chance of it not working if you treat it properly is miniscule. On the other hand, your car has a billion moving parts and IS more likely to get you killed.
So, worry about maintaining your car, not your smart gun. You need to set priorities.
Forty two? :)
Well, I was the good Canadian consumer and bought a GMC Sierra pickup truck. Some are manufactured near Toronto, but they're made other places in North America. Since I purchased it 3 years ago, I took it back 4 times for the air conditioner (which eventually was fixed), the trim on the tailgate had to be re-fitted so I could fit a tonneau cover on properly, the driver side window freezes EVERY morning in the winter and the mechanism for putting the window down broke, and will probably do so again. The line that carries the windshield washer fluid to the wipers rubs against the battery and wears a hole in the tube, so was replaced once and needs to be done again. To rub salt in the wound, the left hand rear springs are sagging by an inch more than the right side (truck actually sits visibly on an angle), and the dealership tells me that's within spec.
Yesterday I had a flat tire, and when I went to use the jack, it's too tall to fit under the frame of the truck when your front tire is actually flat, so I had to borrow another person's scissor jack to change my tire.
These aren't the only problems I've had. My father owns a similar truck just a year older, and has also had many problems.
I could buy a Dodge, but I know from several friends that the transmissions just aren't very good. I suppose I could buy a Ford, but there's a reason why Honda is beating them now. (Honda makes cars in Canada too, by the way).
I was looking at those Nissan Titan trucks when I was visiting where they manufactured the seats for them in Mississippi, and they look alright. We recently leased a Nissan Sentra as a second car, and I'm happy with the reliability. I'm thinking of buying a Titan next time, in a few years.
It's too bad - it's not like my truck doesn't have some good points... the mileage is good and the engine and transmission haven't given me any problems, but when it comes to the details, I've had too many problems to say I'm satisfied.
I have no doubt that import brands are going to continue to encroach on domestic brand car sales, and honestly, I'll be a part of that. But the big 3 will cope - they always do.
See this.
You yanks always complain about everything... what are you some PC freak that insists everyone says, "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas". Calm down.
Besides, I'm pretty sure it's all voluntary labour on behalf of the officers.
And, don't forget: blowing pieces of this earth that belong to other people.
:-)
Doesn't that fall under the porn category?
Because the customer's standard is .Net, and C# is an abomination.
languages like VB are bastards and people who think they are programmers because they can use VB are idiots.
...and companies who write quick user interfaces in C because it's 1337 usually don't stay in business past year 1. Use the right tool for the job.
If the customer wants a program that collects a couple choices from the user on his desktop machine, writes it to a file and FTPs it off to some central server, I use VB. If they want a server program that processes 3000 100k files every hour, and might process more in the future, I use C.
If I want to do some offline batch processing of files to sort out some useable information, I use Perl.
If I'm programming a machine, I use ladder logic for manual mode operations and alarming, or flowcharts for sequence, or function block diagrams for data flow. Then I drop into structured text to parse the data at the string level.
Don't be the guy who only has a hammer and thinks all problems are a nail.
Cite ref please.
Where on earth would you live that someone wanting to steal your DVD player and the $50 worth of cash in your dresser would actually bother to bring a gun with them? If they come in and realize you're home, they just going to leave. Plus, try it in my house and you're going to get a jaw full of rottweiller teeth in your leg.
I just find it odd that even though property crime rates are about even in both Canada and the U.S., you see the following difference in homicide rates:
Homicide (per 100,000)
Canada: 1.9
U.S.: 5.6
That's even though Canadians are more urban, less pro-life, less fire-and-brimstone religious, just as multi-cultural, and own almost as many guns (about 70% of the U.S. rate of ownership - though it's admittedly hard to find exact rates).
Does anybody have ANY idea why the homicide rate is so much higher in the U.S. than other industrialized nations? I mean a real intelligent idea? Canadians and Americans just aren't that different, so why the huge difference in this one area? If someone could figure it out, the U.S. could stand to stop 10,000 homicides per year. If each life is 1 million dollars (per insurance rates), thats 10 billion in savings every year!
Oh Yes! Just like 1976, where they imposed a garden hose/lawn sprinkler ban, if not started rationing water altogether. Not bad for an island state completely surrounded by deep oceans.
I believe that if you dumped seawater on your lawn, you soon wouldn't need to water your lawn at all. You need to de-salinate the water first, and even though technology is improving, it's still expensive.
What a retarded thing to say. Can you say sore loser. ?
Not to be too nitpicky, but the original post was talking about "people", not Americans. Pretty certain the majority of all people on Earth might not mind seeing the whitehouse getting blown up in ID4. Actually, it got quite a good cheer the first time around in the theatre I was in, and that was back in Clinton's time. Then again, I was watching it in Canada, not the U.S.
I'm a controls engineer (some call us control system integrators) (we make machines move) and during the startup phase of a project, we will typically be onsite in a distant city, away from our families, and you work 12 hour days, 7 days a week. This can last anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 or more months, but it is the final phase of the project (the crunch time), not the norm. On average, our engineers are on the road anywhere from 60 to 120 days a year. A full 7 * 12 hour days will get you over 80 hours. However, you should never put in more than 12 hours a day, and never keep working if you're sleepy, because when you're working around 480 volts and machinery with all the safeties disabled, that would be a Bad(tm) idea. Fingers have been lost (not mine, thankfully).
However, even on a long haul project like that, we still get to go home for one weekend every 2 or 3 weeks, or fly another person out to your location for the weekend on the same schedule (in case you're some place nice like ocean side California - not the norm). There are 2 cases where I had to stay longer than 3 weeks without seeing my wife: once was September 2001, right after the 9/11 attacks when I was supposed to return the following weekend. I just skipped that weekend of travel. The second time was when we really had a tight set of deadlines, and I worked over 30 days straight, even Easter Sunday, though I took half that day off.
So it does happen, and you can still be productive, especially when you're away from home, but you do drain yourself after a few weeks.
One other thing to keep in mind is that I probably make as much base salary as those EA programmers, and I get straight time overtime, so if I work 80 hours a week, I get double the pay (gross, that is - it probably pushes you into another tax bracket for that paycheck, so you don't get double the take home pay).
I think the fact that I don't feel an attachment to the game is what appeals so much. How's that for backwards? I stopped SWG after I'd mastered artisan and architect because I realized I had too much invested in that character to change it, and I didn't want to start over. Not to mention, even though the crafting system is really great in SWG (compared to other games), it's still very boring. You can't DO anything with the credits you make doing it, and you can't use half the stuff you build because you've spent all your skill points on your profession. This was an attempt to make people have to interact and work as teams, but it made it so boring. Taking me as an architect on a mission was almost a liability.
I like planetside's idea better. Instead of making the typical FPS where everyone is of equal strength if you pick up all the weapons in the game, it limits you to specific armament. You have to choose anti-infantry, anti-air, or anti-armor. Also, the more powerful of a weapon you pick, the more specialized you become in that area. It turns the game into a big rock-paper-scissors game, which means you get benefits to working with other people, but you still get to take part in the fun stuff. They also let the engineers and medics still carry weapons and get into the action.
My review would be that it was a quick, enjoyable, and thought provoking read. I don't think you should necessarily live by what he says, but he makes some good points. I particularly appreciated his essay about how to write functional specifications, and after reading that online, I decided to go out and purchase his book.
.NET, seem quite dated.
The book doesn't flow too well, since it's a collection of loosely related (or sometimes not-at-all related) material. You also have to check the dates on each one, since some of the essays, particularly his early comments about
Overall, I'm happy I read it. If 30% of it has something useful or insightful, then it's a bargain.