What I hate most is cutting and pasting tabs. One program will treat it as a tab, another as x number of spaces, and another as y number of spaces. It's horrible. If you use spaces you know what you are getting.
Or you can intent with a single space and your code will be clear and easy to read instead of quickly rolling off the end of my 30" monitor. I should never have to scroll horizontally when reading code. Of course some dipshits think the entire program should be on one line.
Who uses a crappy editor that doesn't adjust formatting to match your preferences?
The tab character has the semantic meaning of jumping to a random spot in the middle of the page with the behavior being different in every app on every computer. It's best left for meaningless tasks like switching between windows.
Do they count all of us who bought computers with Windows 7 pre-installed and then deleted it? Sure people rushed to Windows 7 - it's been a while since anyone running a PC could buy it with an OS that wasn't total crap so they could all finally get the updates they wanted. Windows PCs tend to be cheaper than Macs. Saying they outsell Macs is like saying they sell more Ford Focus's than BMW's. A PC does what a Mac does for half the price. It just doesn't look as good, work quite as well, last as long, or offer the same smug bragging rights. And of course you can get a juiced up PC just like same people will take a Ford Focus and soup it up. Why I dunno but I guess some people enjoy the challenge or are just smoking to much crack.
I stopped using PayPal when they froze thousands of dollars of my assets and started giving away refunds to customers for which I provided valid tracking numbers proving their orders had been delivered. They put me out of business. They made it so it was a nightmare trying to prove they were screwing me because they controlled the records. They started freezing the accounts of my friends and family or anyone they had any reason knew me. Now after several years they have the nerve to send me a bill saying I owe them $800. The whole thing was a nightmare and I will never use PayPal again.
What I hate is arguments that if the copyright is allowed to lapse that anyone will be able to create whatever derivative they want and sell them as legit. I've had educated people try to tell my that copyright is keeping Mickey Mouse porn from being sold at Walmart. Talk about a basic misunderstanding. This is the exact bullshit that lets them get away with extending copyrights over and over.
I still think the easiest system is to charge a yearly fee that starts off at $1 for the first year and doubles each year afterward. Anyone that doesn't bother to register doesn't want copyright protection. When the cost exceeds the benefit people will let the copyright lapse. I think most material would let copyright lapse within 10-20 years then. Maybe provide an extra time of protection against commercial use if you wanted to be nice - allowing first just personal/non-profit use. One of the problems with patents for example is that companies are willing to wait for your protection to expire and then will use your idea with no renumeration - that IS a problem. I'd also block copyright for any material that uses DRM and hasn't filed a full raw copy with the LoC that can be obtained by the public after the copyright lapses.
Yeah I complained about a similar issue with being aggressively scanned by bots that ignored robots.txt and didn't identify themselves with a user-agent and their answer was to first ignore my question and then to almost stop scanning my site altogether. Bing sucks.
IMO journalism is dead. For actual news I'd rather look at Wikipedia or my local coverage. I don't care much for opinion pieces because they're almost always biased, poorly informed, and outdated. I'd rather hear community discussion than some big shot tell me what they think.
My sister has cerebral palsy so I do realize that disabilities can be a major issue. However, I have frequently been frustrated by disabled people that feel entitled and even more by organizations that are unreasonable in their demands. I can totally see asking Amazon to make sure the Kindle has support for reading aloud or via touch terminal but asking for people not to use the device seems completely crazy. So what if a blind deaf quadapalegic can't use the device - so nobody can? My sister would be hard pressed to use any device so I should just sue to have laptops, ebooks, iPods, motor vehicles, soda machines, etc removed?
I have a grudge I admit. I've had handicapped people come in and complain that somebody was parked to close to the line of the handicapped space at my store even though there were six other spaces equally good for their needs right there. People who complain that their one-of-a-kind five foot wide wheelchair has trouble getting to the bathroom. They aren't asking for help, which would be reasonable, but instead are just bitching. I'm not unfamiliar with the issues and make an effort to keep things friendly but you literally can't make things perfect for everyone. I get tired of people yelling and threatening lawsuits at every little thing.
I actually liked the new Star Trek. I liked the emphasis on action and that the makers didn't get carried away with CG. I think staying focused on the plot and not CG was very much a Star Trek thing. You could say they didn't take a lot of time to focus on science but really all the ideas are old and tired and no longer need explained. Nothing in Sci Fi is new anymore and to really jump to the next stage will be rough because bleeding edge science and near future science is going to be mind bending for the average person. Science is approaching magic and is no longer visually understandable in the way engines and lasers were.
I probably won't watch a new Spider-Man movie anytime soon without Raimi and Maguire. I think they have made very good Spider-Man movies and it hasn't been long enough to see the same story with new eyes. Aren't there enough comic heros that they could wait on the next Spider-Man and instead role out something else? I'd rather have quality than quantity anyway.
So? Anybody can get an SSL cert and you don't need to expose your identity to do it. Besides I know from experience that many people happily shop without SSL.
If you really want to steal people's info just throw up a quick Magento site pretending to sell things at unlikely prices and submit a Froogle feed. Soon you'll be getting lots of orders and you can collect credit card numbers, addresses, etc to your hearts content and then disappear and repeat the process next week. Lots of people will give you their info without thinking about it.
Without privacy we all decide what is bad. You're wrong. It's with privacy that government is the only one peeking in our windows. It's a one way experience with no way to know who knows what. Transparency will let you know that everyone knows but you'll also know everything about them. If you want to. After the first excitement most people would get bored. Secrets aren't fun when everyone knows them.
Agreed. If Firefox gets rid of extensions I'll just use Safari. The only reason I continue to use Firefox is it's extensions and it is usually right up there with Safari with earliest support for new standards.
I feel old because everything seems to have skyrocketed in price. A candy bar that was $.25 when I was a kid is $.75 now. In the past ten years my rent has more than doubled. Fuel has more than doubled and at some point had more than tripled. Everything costs a lot more than it did 10 years ago but in the same time period my pay has actually gone down by a third despite having way more experience, education, and responsibility.
You must not go through the plug/unplug ritual much. It's a pain, cords tend to get lost, you don't have enough cords for every location, and the connectors wear out. Sure they are working on standards for wireless power that don't require a specific location but why not take advantage of what works for now?
I for one am eagerly awaiting support from all the handheld devices I use frequently. I'd love to have a desk where the entire surface can charge devices and a laptop that can charge that way. I've considered getting one of the cases for my iPod Touch that charges it this way but I'd rather see a standard before I spend my money.
My opinion is that privacy hurts more than it helps. If everyone is transparent about what they are doing then we don't all have to feel weird for just being normal. It's these people that do bad things and hide behind privacy while publicly judging others that are the problem. Lack of privacy is maybe the biggest equalizer of all as it puts everyone on a equal playing field.
Besides from a purely practical point of view we're getting close to a time when privacy will be nearly impossible to achieve in any meaningful way. You could try to fight technology with lots of laws but it'd be a losing battle. Just accept that people are going to see you naked, know everything you do, and know exactly where you are. Facebook is the least of your worries if you don't like this.
Seriously - how many people are so eager to watch the released movies that they can't wait a month but weren't going to buy the movie? Yeah so they are going to piss off a lot of people just so they can pick up a tiny portion of the market?
I've stopped buying DVDs because I don't want the junk discs. I buy some content from Apple and rip it so it plays anywhere but they are overpriced and they won't let you re-download in case of losing your content (such as if a fire destroys your computer) - stupid IMO as that'd be a great feature. Usually I download hard to find content off the net and rip new release RedBox discs so that I can get around to watching them whenever I get to it (not usually the same day).
Most content is put in high quality copies on my iPod Touch which I can carry anywhere and watch on the go or by plugging into a tv or computer. IMO that is the future and either studios go with it or they are going to get smoked by pirate content. I'd buy from them if they didn't want twice the price of the DVD from Walmart, if all content was easily available (not put in the Disney vault), and if they were DRM free or easily cracked.
Apple is well positioned with the AppleTV and iPod/iPhone but they are being stupid with the iPod/iPhone. You need an expensive ($50) and bulky cable and the interface is far from up to Apple quality. They need to slim down that cable, half the price and/or throw in a remote, and bring the interface up to par. Combine that with getting their content partners to half their prices and drop DRM and I think they'd kill DVD/BlueRay. I think people would casually buy movies a lot more with cheap downloads than with discs because they can sit at home and pick from every movie ever made rather than the 50 or so titles the local store has. I'd price old movies at $3, new movies at $7, and tv episodes at $1 each. People would buy.
I haven't had a land line in about five years. I don't really miss it. I mostly use a pre-paid cell phone and Google Voice to route my calls to whatever phones I'm currently using. I used Vonage for a while but they screwed me when I moved (closed my account, tried to open a new account a few months later to find they canceled only one of my old lines and then kept billing me for the other. even though i had no calls that whole time they wouldn't clear the bill. wouldn't let me use my $300 phones on a different/new account.) so I don't use them anymore. Tried MagicJack and found out it didn't work well at all. I use Skype now. It works okay but doesn't offer a way to send/receive faxes which seems pretty retarded to me. I'm wary of getting a Skype-specific nice phone after my issues with the Vonage phones I bought being locked.
If the iPhone was ever available by anyone but AT&T and had a decent data plan for a reasonable rate I'd probably get one but I almost always have Wifi and my iPod Touch and laptop with me. I only use my cell phone for the rare times I need to contact someone and don't have Wifi access. I usually send text messages instead of calling anyway.
What I hate most is cutting and pasting tabs. One program will treat it as a tab, another as x number of spaces, and another as y number of spaces. It's horrible. If you use spaces you know what you are getting.
Or you can intent with a single space and your code will be clear and easy to read instead of quickly rolling off the end of my 30" monitor. I should never have to scroll horizontally when reading code. Of course some dipshits think the entire program should be on one line. Who uses a crappy editor that doesn't adjust formatting to match your preferences? The tab character has the semantic meaning of jumping to a random spot in the middle of the page with the behavior being different in every app on every computer. It's best left for meaningless tasks like switching between windows.
Do they count all of us who bought computers with Windows 7 pre-installed and then deleted it? Sure people rushed to Windows 7 - it's been a while since anyone running a PC could buy it with an OS that wasn't total crap so they could all finally get the updates they wanted. Windows PCs tend to be cheaper than Macs. Saying they outsell Macs is like saying they sell more Ford Focus's than BMW's. A PC does what a Mac does for half the price. It just doesn't look as good, work quite as well, last as long, or offer the same smug bragging rights. And of course you can get a juiced up PC just like same people will take a Ford Focus and soup it up. Why I dunno but I guess some people enjoy the challenge or are just smoking to much crack.
I stopped using PayPal when they froze thousands of dollars of my assets and started giving away refunds to customers for which I provided valid tracking numbers proving their orders had been delivered. They put me out of business. They made it so it was a nightmare trying to prove they were screwing me because they controlled the records. They started freezing the accounts of my friends and family or anyone they had any reason knew me. Now after several years they have the nerve to send me a bill saying I owe them $800. The whole thing was a nightmare and I will never use PayPal again.
What I hate is arguments that if the copyright is allowed to lapse that anyone will be able to create whatever derivative they want and sell them as legit. I've had educated people try to tell my that copyright is keeping Mickey Mouse porn from being sold at Walmart. Talk about a basic misunderstanding. This is the exact bullshit that lets them get away with extending copyrights over and over. I still think the easiest system is to charge a yearly fee that starts off at $1 for the first year and doubles each year afterward. Anyone that doesn't bother to register doesn't want copyright protection. When the cost exceeds the benefit people will let the copyright lapse. I think most material would let copyright lapse within 10-20 years then. Maybe provide an extra time of protection against commercial use if you wanted to be nice - allowing first just personal/non-profit use. One of the problems with patents for example is that companies are willing to wait for your protection to expire and then will use your idea with no renumeration - that IS a problem. I'd also block copyright for any material that uses DRM and hasn't filed a full raw copy with the LoC that can be obtained by the public after the copyright lapses.
Yeah I complained about a similar issue with being aggressively scanned by bots that ignored robots.txt and didn't identify themselves with a user-agent and their answer was to first ignore my question and then to almost stop scanning my site altogether. Bing sucks.
IMO journalism is dead. For actual news I'd rather look at Wikipedia or my local coverage. I don't care much for opinion pieces because they're almost always biased, poorly informed, and outdated. I'd rather hear community discussion than some big shot tell me what they think.
Agreed. I didn't like the Times anyway so this is just the final nail in the coffin. I won't be even considering paying.
Blind users should sue publishers that disable text to speech. They are the bastards to blame.
My sister has cerebral palsy so I do realize that disabilities can be a major issue. However, I have frequently been frustrated by disabled people that feel entitled and even more by organizations that are unreasonable in their demands. I can totally see asking Amazon to make sure the Kindle has support for reading aloud or via touch terminal but asking for people not to use the device seems completely crazy. So what if a blind deaf quadapalegic can't use the device - so nobody can? My sister would be hard pressed to use any device so I should just sue to have laptops, ebooks, iPods, motor vehicles, soda machines, etc removed? I have a grudge I admit. I've had handicapped people come in and complain that somebody was parked to close to the line of the handicapped space at my store even though there were six other spaces equally good for their needs right there. People who complain that their one-of-a-kind five foot wide wheelchair has trouble getting to the bathroom. They aren't asking for help, which would be reasonable, but instead are just bitching. I'm not unfamiliar with the issues and make an effort to keep things friendly but you literally can't make things perfect for everyone. I get tired of people yelling and threatening lawsuits at every little thing.
Tesla seemed to think this idea was workable. Can't say about RCA's product but I'll trust Tesla.
I actually liked the new Star Trek. I liked the emphasis on action and that the makers didn't get carried away with CG. I think staying focused on the plot and not CG was very much a Star Trek thing. You could say they didn't take a lot of time to focus on science but really all the ideas are old and tired and no longer need explained. Nothing in Sci Fi is new anymore and to really jump to the next stage will be rough because bleeding edge science and near future science is going to be mind bending for the average person. Science is approaching magic and is no longer visually understandable in the way engines and lasers were. I probably won't watch a new Spider-Man movie anytime soon without Raimi and Maguire. I think they have made very good Spider-Man movies and it hasn't been long enough to see the same story with new eyes. Aren't there enough comic heros that they could wait on the next Spider-Man and instead role out something else? I'd rather have quality than quantity anyway.
So? Anybody can get an SSL cert and you don't need to expose your identity to do it. Besides I know from experience that many people happily shop without SSL.
If you really want to steal people's info just throw up a quick Magento site pretending to sell things at unlikely prices and submit a Froogle feed. Soon you'll be getting lots of orders and you can collect credit card numbers, addresses, etc to your hearts content and then disappear and repeat the process next week. Lots of people will give you their info without thinking about it.
Without privacy we all decide what is bad. You're wrong. It's with privacy that government is the only one peeking in our windows. It's a one way experience with no way to know who knows what. Transparency will let you know that everyone knows but you'll also know everything about them. If you want to. After the first excitement most people would get bored. Secrets aren't fun when everyone knows them.
Agreed. If Firefox gets rid of extensions I'll just use Safari. The only reason I continue to use Firefox is it's extensions and it is usually right up there with Safari with earliest support for new standards.
If you want a crappy browser go use Internet Explorer.
If your face has an anti-piracy device built-in. I dunno if being ugly counts.
I feel old because everything seems to have skyrocketed in price. A candy bar that was $.25 when I was a kid is $.75 now. In the past ten years my rent has more than doubled. Fuel has more than doubled and at some point had more than tripled. Everything costs a lot more than it did 10 years ago but in the same time period my pay has actually gone down by a third despite having way more experience, education, and responsibility.
You must not go through the plug/unplug ritual much. It's a pain, cords tend to get lost, you don't have enough cords for every location, and the connectors wear out. Sure they are working on standards for wireless power that don't require a specific location but why not take advantage of what works for now? I for one am eagerly awaiting support from all the handheld devices I use frequently. I'd love to have a desk where the entire surface can charge devices and a laptop that can charge that way. I've considered getting one of the cases for my iPod Touch that charges it this way but I'd rather see a standard before I spend my money.
My opinion is that privacy hurts more than it helps. If everyone is transparent about what they are doing then we don't all have to feel weird for just being normal. It's these people that do bad things and hide behind privacy while publicly judging others that are the problem. Lack of privacy is maybe the biggest equalizer of all as it puts everyone on a equal playing field. Besides from a purely practical point of view we're getting close to a time when privacy will be nearly impossible to achieve in any meaningful way. You could try to fight technology with lots of laws but it'd be a losing battle. Just accept that people are going to see you naked, know everything you do, and know exactly where you are. Facebook is the least of your worries if you don't like this.
Seriously - how many people are so eager to watch the released movies that they can't wait a month but weren't going to buy the movie? Yeah so they are going to piss off a lot of people just so they can pick up a tiny portion of the market?
I've stopped buying DVDs because I don't want the junk discs. I buy some content from Apple and rip it so it plays anywhere but they are overpriced and they won't let you re-download in case of losing your content (such as if a fire destroys your computer) - stupid IMO as that'd be a great feature. Usually I download hard to find content off the net and rip new release RedBox discs so that I can get around to watching them whenever I get to it (not usually the same day). Most content is put in high quality copies on my iPod Touch which I can carry anywhere and watch on the go or by plugging into a tv or computer. IMO that is the future and either studios go with it or they are going to get smoked by pirate content. I'd buy from them if they didn't want twice the price of the DVD from Walmart, if all content was easily available (not put in the Disney vault), and if they were DRM free or easily cracked. Apple is well positioned with the AppleTV and iPod/iPhone but they are being stupid with the iPod/iPhone. You need an expensive ($50) and bulky cable and the interface is far from up to Apple quality. They need to slim down that cable, half the price and/or throw in a remote, and bring the interface up to par. Combine that with getting their content partners to half their prices and drop DRM and I think they'd kill DVD/BlueRay. I think people would casually buy movies a lot more with cheap downloads than with discs because they can sit at home and pick from every movie ever made rather than the 50 or so titles the local store has. I'd price old movies at $3, new movies at $7, and tv episodes at $1 each. People would buy.
My Internet works when the power goes out. Spend $40 and buy a UPS. It'll power a cable modem for quite some time.
I haven't had a land line in about five years. I don't really miss it. I mostly use a pre-paid cell phone and Google Voice to route my calls to whatever phones I'm currently using. I used Vonage for a while but they screwed me when I moved (closed my account, tried to open a new account a few months later to find they canceled only one of my old lines and then kept billing me for the other. even though i had no calls that whole time they wouldn't clear the bill. wouldn't let me use my $300 phones on a different/new account.) so I don't use them anymore. Tried MagicJack and found out it didn't work well at all. I use Skype now. It works okay but doesn't offer a way to send/receive faxes which seems pretty retarded to me. I'm wary of getting a Skype-specific nice phone after my issues with the Vonage phones I bought being locked. If the iPhone was ever available by anyone but AT&T and had a decent data plan for a reasonable rate I'd probably get one but I almost always have Wifi and my iPod Touch and laptop with me. I only use my cell phone for the rare times I need to contact someone and don't have Wifi access. I usually send text messages instead of calling anyway.