And an earlier study showed a correlation between television watching [suite101.com] and depression [naturalnews.com].
And researchers apparently aren't smart enough to realize that depressed people tend to spend most of their time alone, and as such, do solitary activities. That's not a matter of "doing X because they're depressed" it's "they're alone because they're depressed" and "doing X because they are alone".
"Normal" being "people who don't spend hundreds of hours learning every keyboard shortcut (though they know they'll never use 99% of them)" type of people. As in the other 99.8% of the population that's not reading slashdot right now. Way to not realize that the typical slashdotter doesn't represent the general population at all, douche.
So because you, one person, don't like it, I should ignore the feedback of several hundred users in offices that DO like it? Now who's assuming that they are like most people?
If they couldn't open your documents then either one of you were screwing things up - perhaps they only had Office 2003 and you were saving as.docx? I've sent files back and forth between MS Office and Open Office with no problems plenty of times.
All ribbons did was take the menus and turn them into tabs, then the items buried under the menus are now out in the open once you select the tab. Most normal people actually find the ribbon much easier to use because they (and I as well) never wasted the countless hours to memorize how many menus deep you had to go to find X rarely used feature. Now X rarely used feature is out in the open once you select the tab for what general thing you're trying to do - no more digging for it.
What nerds don't get is that most people don't care about "user's freedom." They're happy to buy a controlled but stable device that lets them browse the web.
Except that when they see that for less money they can buy a netbook with the same size screen that lets them do a hell of a lot more then browse the web, a lot of people will stop and think "why the hell should I get this?" The only people I know planning on buying the iPad (and before the details were released, I was very eager for it as well) are the diehard Macolytes who would buy and eat Steve Job's shit as long as it was called iShit and branded with the Apple logo. Everyone else has said "the functionality is so limited that it's not worth buying - my netbook and phone already cover all of that and cost less".
Do you add and remove components of your car's dashboard?
Actually, even professional modders rarely do that. I think you don't really know what you're talking about here. But then again, your lack of a clue when it comes to cars is backed up by your next sentence...
Do you drive a stick-shift, or do you let the computer in the car change gears for you?
I absolutely drive a manual. I refuse to own an automatic because they cost more, up until recently they were slower and got worse mpg, and you don't have as much control over the car. There's a reason why the US is the only country that views manuals as evil - because the US is the only country too lazy to learn how to properly drive a car. That's why car choices in the US are so limited for me - because most cars don't have the option of a manual and are automatically (no pun intended) disqualified.
If Apple wants to just be a hardware company (and they do make good hardware), then they need to act like one and let you install whatever the hell you want on said hardware. Nvidia doesn't tell you what OS or software to use with their cards, Intel doesn't tell you what you have to use with their hardware, Dell / HP / every other company doesn't try to force you to use only the software they tell you to. There's nothing wrong with pre-installing an OS / software, but there is something wrong when you claim to be a hardware company and then prevent people from using said hardware in the manner in which they choose.
Why? Because every time you consent to the government controlling another aspect of your life, it makes it that much easier for them to gain more control because you've already accepted X amount of control, so you'll think "what's the harm in them having X+1 amount of control?" - and they know that. It's been proven throughout history that if you take away citizens rights all in one go, you get a revolt. If you do it slowly, they'll accept it just fine.
No, I don't actually. Then again, I'm not old enough to remember flying before we already had the multi-hour waits at the airport before you could board the plane and it's only gotten worse as time has gone by. I haven't flown in almost 10 years and I'm glad about that.
Except that unless they are specifically saying "Pay $X to see the Super Bowl on Y inch screen", charging for food is NOT using the Super Bowl for profit, that's using FOOD for profit - the Super Bowl just happens to be playing but that is NOT what is being charged for. For instance, if you go to a Wendy's and they're playing the radio (which they normally do), you are paying for FOOD, not paying to go hear songs on the radio, therefore they are not guilty of copyright infringement, nor is anyone charging for food while having people over to watch the Super Bowl.
My only intention is to give light to the fact that a discussion is possible.
Except people like him consider using animals for necessary testing to be equal to slavery - so there is no possibility of a discussion when one side refuses to discuss anything.
The iPad is an appliance. It is a coffee maker, microwave, or stove. It isn't designed or meant to be tinkered. Stop trying to make it a computer.
No, the iPad is a computer, but due to Apple's restrictions, it's limited (purely by software) to being an appliance. I was very interested in the iPad at first, but the more I found out about it, the more I said ".......so it's just like my iPhone, but with a bigger screen......definitely not worth buying". If they had added NEW features to it (like handwriting recognition) it would have been more useful (taking notes at school / in meetings or for writers who prefer to write by hand), but instead it does nothing that an iPhone doesn't already do, and that keeps it firmly in the "toy" category, and it's not a particularly useful one at that other than being an e-reader / portable movie player.
If you knew anything about the pharmaceutical industry, you'd know that only a small number of the drugs they try to get approved are in fact approved (which means hundreds of billions lost) so yes, the few that get approved need to cost more to keep the company going. There's also the fact that those top notch scientists creating the drugs kind of like to get paid....
A population of old people supported by a few young workers isn't going to be particularly viable either. It's a balancing act.
Hence why you're supposed to save and take care of yourself. If you didn't have a society built on taking from the young and giving to the old, it wouldn't be an issue at all.
Well with ebook readers they typically charge MORE for an ebook than an actual paperback. So your argument would be valid as long as the game apps cost less than the actual boardgame.
Science is necessary for medical treatments meaning saving and improving lives. Animals are not more important than humans and if X animals have to die so that countless human lives can be saved / horrible medical conditions can be treated so that their quality of life is better, then yes, it's a worthwhile trade off.
Your argument would have a point if we were talking about human testing against people's will (as was done during the Holocaust). However, since we're talking about animal testing, the ethics part doesn't fit in.
You don't text much, do you? I texted with T9 and it was alright - now that I have an iPhone i can text pretty fast, but it gets tedious if you tried to write something long (such as taking notes in a business or classroom setting). That keyboard, while it's much bigger than the iPhone (obviously) is still not going to be as nice for taking notes as handwriting recognition would be.
With the average h264 video being in the 1.5 GB - 2 GB range, that means that once you install apps, download your email, copy over pictures and music, you might be lucky to get 4 movies on a 16 GB iPad. The whole point of the iPad is that it's easily portable - for situations like traveling. However, if you have to lug a laptop with you in order to sync over new movies, you might as well just watch the movies, use programs, and listen to music on the laptop. It's a great idea, it's just that the iPad is only about 85% done. Like I said, maybe by the second or third generation of the device I'll buy one. I honestly see most sales of this being to the Apple fanboy / "gotta have the new thing" crowd who will quickly go ".....I can do that on my iPhone / iPod Touch" and most either toss it in the closet to collect dust or sell it on ebay.
And I'll say what I always say - fuck PETA. Yes, I'm against being unnecessarily cruel to animals, but if you eliminate animal testing then several areas of science will pretty much grind to a halt. I for one would gladly sacrifice countless animals if it means we can slow down the rate of aging.
The lack of stylus in itself isn't my complaint, but the fact that there's no handwriting recognition built in. I suppose someone could make an app to allow you to do handwritten notes, but it would be much nicer if it was integrated and would work for the iWork suite as well.
As for syncing, yes, that works, but the hard drives (even the biggest) are SMALL when it comes to storing videos. If you want a variety of videos, you'd have to take a laptop along on vacation, which sort of defeats the point of the iPad then. Apple has an SD card adapter (plugs in to the bottom of the iPad), but it only does basic picture / video importation, nothing else.
I agree with your post in general, but the iPad misses out on a couple of things that would make it truly useful - one of them being that the SD card adapter only lets you import pics / movies as opposed to letting you load any type of file (would make it a lot easier to use iWork on the iPad if you could have the documents on an SD card as well as let you store movies on it, which would make it a lot easier to watch movies on when travelling), but the biggest fault of the iPad is that it doesn't have a stylus to input handwriting. That I think is where they missed the boat with this. It would be an absolutely WONDERFUL device to take notes on (whether for students or at work) due to it being so lightweight and portable, but you can't. As a result, (and I really wanted to like the iPad, but the longer I think about it the less impressed I am) the iPad really is just a toy - it's primary purpose is reading books and watching movies, so yes, it's much better than buying an ebook reader since it can browse the web (as long as you stay away from flash), do your email, and watch movies and play music - all things you can't do with an ebook reader, but as anything other than an entertainment device, it just falls short. Maybe Apple will add in handwriting and a few other things in the iPad generation 2, in which case I might buy one. I already have an iPhone 3GS, an iPod 80 GB classic, and am planning on getting a Macbook Pro soon, so I'm far from being against Apple, but they just haven't made a compelling reason to buy an iPad except as an alternative to ebook readers, which the majority of people on slashdot are still pretty "meh" about ebook readers.
Given that Obama has a complete lack of understanding of economics and every bill / way to fix the economy he proposes only serves to make it worse, a president with a fully functional brain would go a long way to fixing things. No society has ever been able to tax it's way to prosperity, but that's what Obama is trying to do - and we can all look around us and see how well that's working out.
Some poor people are poor because of bad luck, I've never tried to deny it. However, for the majority, the reason that they are poor is because they did not work hard / make good decisions in life. I made bad decisions in my life and for awhile I was one of those hardworking poor - I took responsibility and fixed things. I didn't sit back and demand the government steal money and give it to me. So yes, while some of the poor "work harder", it's because they DIDN'T work hard or make wise choices earlier in life that led them to being in that position.
But don't try to make it sound less like greed by acting like you're any better than the single mom working two jobs to support her kids because her dipshit husband left her.
And if that single mom had made smart choices (such as going to college) she wouldn't be in that situation. It all comes down to choices. Yes, in some rare circumstances people just have plain bad luck (disabilities or some such beyond their control), but that is the exception and local charities are much better suited to helping them then a government program which embezzles money in the process. However, the overwhelming majority of poor people are poor because of their own choices - they chose to drop out of school, chose to have poor work ethics causing them to be middle aged and still making minimum wage (even someone with no education but a good work ethic can easily become a manager at some sort of business making a decent living), they chose to do drugs, they chose to have kids without getting married, etc. Do not punish those who made good decisions and reward those who made bad decisions.
Slashdot Mirror
Shocking news: depressed people try to escape from reality!
Wait wait wait - so does this mean that Obama is depressed? Because he sure as hell doesn't have a grip on reality!
And an earlier study showed a correlation between television watching [suite101.com] and depression [naturalnews.com].
And researchers apparently aren't smart enough to realize that depressed people tend to spend most of their time alone, and as such, do solitary activities. That's not a matter of "doing X because they're depressed" it's "they're alone because they're depressed" and "doing X because they are alone".
"Normal" being "people who don't spend hundreds of hours learning every keyboard shortcut (though they know they'll never use 99% of them)" type of people. As in the other 99.8% of the population that's not reading slashdot right now. Way to not realize that the typical slashdotter doesn't represent the general population at all, douche.
So because you, one person, don't like it, I should ignore the feedback of several hundred users in offices that DO like it? Now who's assuming that they are like most people?
Overgeneralization - assumption that you are like most of people.
No, my "assumption" is from deploying Office 2007 as a replacement for Office 2003 at multiple companies and hearing user feedback.
If they couldn't open your documents then either one of you were screwing things up - perhaps they only had Office 2003 and you were saving as .docx? I've sent files back and forth between MS Office and Open Office with no problems plenty of times.
All ribbons did was take the menus and turn them into tabs, then the items buried under the menus are now out in the open once you select the tab. Most normal people actually find the ribbon much easier to use because they (and I as well) never wasted the countless hours to memorize how many menus deep you had to go to find X rarely used feature. Now X rarely used feature is out in the open once you select the tab for what general thing you're trying to do - no more digging for it.
What nerds don't get is that most people don't care about "user's freedom." They're happy to buy a controlled but stable device that lets them browse the web.
Except that when they see that for less money they can buy a netbook with the same size screen that lets them do a hell of a lot more then browse the web, a lot of people will stop and think "why the hell should I get this?" The only people I know planning on buying the iPad (and before the details were released, I was very eager for it as well) are the diehard Macolytes who would buy and eat Steve Job's shit as long as it was called iShit and branded with the Apple logo. Everyone else has said "the functionality is so limited that it's not worth buying - my netbook and phone already cover all of that and cost less".
Do you add and remove components of your car's dashboard?
Actually, even professional modders rarely do that. I think you don't really know what you're talking about here. But then again, your lack of a clue when it comes to cars is backed up by your next sentence...
Do you drive a stick-shift, or do you let the computer in the car change gears for you?
I absolutely drive a manual. I refuse to own an automatic because they cost more, up until recently they were slower and got worse mpg, and you don't have as much control over the car. There's a reason why the US is the only country that views manuals as evil - because the US is the only country too lazy to learn how to properly drive a car. That's why car choices in the US are so limited for me - because most cars don't have the option of a manual and are automatically (no pun intended) disqualified.
If Apple wants to just be a hardware company (and they do make good hardware), then they need to act like one and let you install whatever the hell you want on said hardware. Nvidia doesn't tell you what OS or software to use with their cards, Intel doesn't tell you what you have to use with their hardware, Dell / HP / every other company doesn't try to force you to use only the software they tell you to. There's nothing wrong with pre-installing an OS / software, but there is something wrong when you claim to be a hardware company and then prevent people from using said hardware in the manner in which they choose.
Why? Because every time you consent to the government controlling another aspect of your life, it makes it that much easier for them to gain more control because you've already accepted X amount of control, so you'll think "what's the harm in them having X+1 amount of control?" - and they know that. It's been proven throughout history that if you take away citizens rights all in one go, you get a revolt. If you do it slowly, they'll accept it just fine.
remember when it was pleasant to fly?
No, I don't actually. Then again, I'm not old enough to remember flying before we already had the multi-hour waits at the airport before you could board the plane and it's only gotten worse as time has gone by. I haven't flown in almost 10 years and I'm glad about that.
Except that unless they are specifically saying "Pay $X to see the Super Bowl on Y inch screen", charging for food is NOT using the Super Bowl for profit, that's using FOOD for profit - the Super Bowl just happens to be playing but that is NOT what is being charged for. For instance, if you go to a Wendy's and they're playing the radio (which they normally do), you are paying for FOOD, not paying to go hear songs on the radio, therefore they are not guilty of copyright infringement, nor is anyone charging for food while having people over to watch the Super Bowl.
My only intention is to give light to the fact that a discussion is possible.
Except people like him consider using animals for necessary testing to be equal to slavery - so there is no possibility of a discussion when one side refuses to discuss anything.
As annoying as flash is, missing out on a good chunk of the web due to lack of flash is highly irritating.
The iPad is an appliance. It is a coffee maker, microwave, or stove. It isn't designed or meant to be tinkered. Stop trying to make it a computer.
No, the iPad is a computer, but due to Apple's restrictions, it's limited (purely by software) to being an appliance. I was very interested in the iPad at first, but the more I found out about it, the more I said ".......so it's just like my iPhone, but with a bigger screen......definitely not worth buying". If they had added NEW features to it (like handwriting recognition) it would have been more useful (taking notes at school / in meetings or for writers who prefer to write by hand), but instead it does nothing that an iPhone doesn't already do, and that keeps it firmly in the "toy" category, and it's not a particularly useful one at that other than being an e-reader / portable movie player.
If you knew anything about the pharmaceutical industry, you'd know that only a small number of the drugs they try to get approved are in fact approved (which means hundreds of billions lost) so yes, the few that get approved need to cost more to keep the company going. There's also the fact that those top notch scientists creating the drugs kind of like to get paid....
A population of old people supported by a few young workers isn't going to be particularly viable either. It's a balancing act.
Hence why you're supposed to save and take care of yourself. If you didn't have a society built on taking from the young and giving to the old, it wouldn't be an issue at all.
Well with ebook readers they typically charge MORE for an ebook than an actual paperback. So your argument would be valid as long as the game apps cost less than the actual boardgame.
Science is necessary for medical treatments meaning saving and improving lives. Animals are not more important than humans and if X animals have to die so that countless human lives can be saved / horrible medical conditions can be treated so that their quality of life is better, then yes, it's a worthwhile trade off.
Your argument would have a point if we were talking about human testing against people's will (as was done during the Holocaust). However, since we're talking about animal testing, the ethics part doesn't fit in.
You don't text much, do you? I texted with T9 and it was alright - now that I have an iPhone i can text pretty fast, but it gets tedious if you tried to write something long (such as taking notes in a business or classroom setting). That keyboard, while it's much bigger than the iPhone (obviously) is still not going to be as nice for taking notes as handwriting recognition would be.
With the average h264 video being in the 1.5 GB - 2 GB range, that means that once you install apps, download your email, copy over pictures and music, you might be lucky to get 4 movies on a 16 GB iPad. The whole point of the iPad is that it's easily portable - for situations like traveling. However, if you have to lug a laptop with you in order to sync over new movies, you might as well just watch the movies, use programs, and listen to music on the laptop. It's a great idea, it's just that the iPad is only about 85% done. Like I said, maybe by the second or third generation of the device I'll buy one. I honestly see most sales of this being to the Apple fanboy / "gotta have the new thing" crowd who will quickly go ".....I can do that on my iPhone / iPod Touch" and most either toss it in the closet to collect dust or sell it on ebay.
And I'll say what I always say - fuck PETA. Yes, I'm against being unnecessarily cruel to animals, but if you eliminate animal testing then several areas of science will pretty much grind to a halt. I for one would gladly sacrifice countless animals if it means we can slow down the rate of aging.
The lack of stylus in itself isn't my complaint, but the fact that there's no handwriting recognition built in. I suppose someone could make an app to allow you to do handwritten notes, but it would be much nicer if it was integrated and would work for the iWork suite as well.
As for syncing, yes, that works, but the hard drives (even the biggest) are SMALL when it comes to storing videos. If you want a variety of videos, you'd have to take a laptop along on vacation, which sort of defeats the point of the iPad then. Apple has an SD card adapter (plugs in to the bottom of the iPad), but it only does basic picture / video importation, nothing else.
I agree with your post in general, but the iPad misses out on a couple of things that would make it truly useful - one of them being that the SD card adapter only lets you import pics / movies as opposed to letting you load any type of file (would make it a lot easier to use iWork on the iPad if you could have the documents on an SD card as well as let you store movies on it, which would make it a lot easier to watch movies on when travelling), but the biggest fault of the iPad is that it doesn't have a stylus to input handwriting. That I think is where they missed the boat with this. It would be an absolutely WONDERFUL device to take notes on (whether for students or at work) due to it being so lightweight and portable, but you can't. As a result, (and I really wanted to like the iPad, but the longer I think about it the less impressed I am) the iPad really is just a toy - it's primary purpose is reading books and watching movies, so yes, it's much better than buying an ebook reader since it can browse the web (as long as you stay away from flash), do your email, and watch movies and play music - all things you can't do with an ebook reader, but as anything other than an entertainment device, it just falls short. Maybe Apple will add in handwriting and a few other things in the iPad generation 2, in which case I might buy one. I already have an iPhone 3GS, an iPod 80 GB classic, and am planning on getting a Macbook Pro soon, so I'm far from being against Apple, but they just haven't made a compelling reason to buy an iPad except as an alternative to ebook readers, which the majority of people on slashdot are still pretty "meh" about ebook readers.
Given that Obama has a complete lack of understanding of economics and every bill / way to fix the economy he proposes only serves to make it worse, a president with a fully functional brain would go a long way to fixing things. No society has ever been able to tax it's way to prosperity, but that's what Obama is trying to do - and we can all look around us and see how well that's working out.
Some poor people are poor because of bad luck, I've never tried to deny it. However, for the majority, the reason that they are poor is because they did not work hard / make good decisions in life. I made bad decisions in my life and for awhile I was one of those hardworking poor - I took responsibility and fixed things. I didn't sit back and demand the government steal money and give it to me. So yes, while some of the poor "work harder", it's because they DIDN'T work hard or make wise choices earlier in life that led them to being in that position.
But don't try to make it sound less like greed by acting like you're any better than the single mom working two jobs to support her kids because her dipshit husband left her.
And if that single mom had made smart choices (such as going to college) she wouldn't be in that situation. It all comes down to choices. Yes, in some rare circumstances people just have plain bad luck (disabilities or some such beyond their control), but that is the exception and local charities are much better suited to helping them then a government program which embezzles money in the process. However, the overwhelming majority of poor people are poor because of their own choices - they chose to drop out of school, chose to have poor work ethics causing them to be middle aged and still making minimum wage (even someone with no education but a good work ethic can easily become a manager at some sort of business making a decent living), they chose to do drugs, they chose to have kids without getting married, etc. Do not punish those who made good decisions and reward those who made bad decisions.