The demonstration was aimed aiganst islamisation of europe, not against islam.
No, that's just the convenient excuse. There is no "islamisation of Europe", there's only a bunch of scared little men. There is absolutely zero chance of any Sharia-based rules getting made into law in any EU country. If a German judge decided to let that guy off there must either be more to the case, or that particular judge is out of line and will be dealt with by the judicial system.
So, in your opinion there would also not be a problem when the counting of the votes is falsified: you can vote; the vote just isn't counted...
Great logic there : all votes being counted is exactly the same as not all votes being counted.
I guess it's pretty useless for me to go up against an intellect like this.
A demonstration in Brussels against islamisation of Europe on 9/11 was forbidden. At the same time, violent demonstrations against the danish mohammed cartoons were not forbidden.
The organisations behind that demonstration are a bunch of racists, and neo-nazis from all over Europe are planning to come. No matter what they claim on their website and elsewhere, the underlying message is that they want all muslims to get out of Europe. The only thing this demonstration will accomplish is to give more muslims the idea that there really is a fight "us versus them". No country in the world will ever consist of a homogenous population again, there will always be different cultures that need to live together. It's pointless (and downright offensive) to wish everyone who's different than you to simply go away, and that's the message behind these organisations. Guess what the Taliban's message is...
If the point of the demonstration isn't blatant provocation, why did they choose that particular date ?
If there are problems with different cultures living together, you deal with them as a society ruled by law, not by wishing the problem away. And I have at least some hope that a new government is more willing than the previous one to make some of the necessary reforms to handle those problems.
About the cartoon demonstrations, I very much doubt a mayor was asked "We want to hold a violent demonstration" and then said yes. I don't remember if things actually did get violent here, but if people got injured or property damaged the individuals involved should be prosecuted.
The Belgian government does everyting it can to outlaw the large opposition party Vlaams Belang.
But still people were able to vote for them. So it had no actual effect except the feeding of the persecution complex.
The public television channel was able to ban the party almost completely from its political debates.
Using the VRT as a measure of journalistic integrity is of course never a good idea, but since I didn't watch those shows I can't determine if Vlaams Belang was unjustly excluded. I do know that using other channels and other media as a reference I never felt that I wasn't informed about their positions.
It wasn't about ads by the way. It was about a typical podcast (half an hour MP3).
If it was made in the election period and contained political messages it probably fell under those rules. If he has actual evidence of identical cases where people were not getting fined I'm sure his lawyers will know what to do.
How exactly is Belgium horribly repressive ? Is someone forbidding you to gather ? Is someone limiting your access to the Internet so you can't make posts like this ? Were you not able to vote on the party you wanted ?
I am in fact also very suspicious about the motivations behind the lawsuit against Vlaams Blok, but it has had no influence on the popularity, the ability to publish, the ability to organize gatherings, or the ability to participate in local government of Vlaams Blok / Belang.
And I don't know what podcast you're referring to, but if someone was using the Internet to go around political advertising laws, I'm glad they got fined. Do you want to end up with the type of horrible attack ads common in the US ? They add nothing good to the political climate, they only strengthen people in their belief that there is no such thing as a good politician. There are plenty of legal ways to get your ideas published at election time.
I know Vlaams Belang thrives on persecution complexes ("The government is trying to shut us down !", "Foreigners are ruining everything !",...), but try not to make claims like this without at least knowing what REAL persecution and repression is (hint : some of the older party members may have first-hand experience).
To make a really bad joke (you have been warned) : "If you choose to inform yourself in stead of blindly following what FoxNews tells you, you just might not be a redneck".
Redneck in its current incarnation (I don't claim to know the full history of the word) is an insult. It is not a synonym for Southern person, or a word for someone exhibiting the characteristics you attribute yourself in the message above. If you still choose to call yourself a redneck then you're the one trying to change its meaning.
As for feeling superior : anyone who is not a racist or a homophobe is superior over people who are. Those kinds of ideas and behaviours are not acceptable in a civilized society.
Legitimate criticism is not the same as America-bashing.
The reason you found more than one post by me criticizing America is because the government happens to do a lot of bad things.
None of those posts contain lies. None of those posts "seek out" to include criticism on America, it was on topic each time, or it was a joke.
I won't go for personal attacks, that's a tactic for people without arguments. I'm not interested in your posting history.
If your average American would spend as much energy examining the administration's policies as they do attacking people reporting the plain facts, a lot would be solved. But no, someone says something bad about America, and we're the good guys, so the one reporting it must be an America-hater. No critical thought required.
While Americans are not angels, a large reason for such activity is envy and a desire to force their religion and way of life on others.
Where do you guys get this "They don't like us, they must envy us" nonsense ? You keep assuming everyone wants to be like an American. They don't. They just want to live their lives.
The US will support Israel in whatever it does. So when a Palestinian father all of a sudden is not allowed to go to work anymore, and can't provide any income for his family, he's supposed to like the US ? When a farmer wakes up to find a huge concrete wall where his fields used to be, he's supposed to just shrug it off ? What exactly are his courses of action here : can he go complain to the Israeli authorities ? These people have no control over large parts of their every day lives. Men who never had any bad thought in their entire lives will get so frustrated with being powerless that they're an easy target for people who try to get them to support terrorist activity. Give them the tools to control their own lives, and they will ignore the extremists.
This in no way excuses any harmful activity against others. But the Americans keep handing extremists the perfect recruitment tools.
Oh yes, our vast push for more open markets and industrialization to provide jobs and expanding economies globally really sucks for all non-US citizens.
But you forget that not all people see industrialization and globalization as a good thing. I personally have no problems with the principles (I do have issues with the execution), but there are cultures who do not want their society be driven by unbridled capitalism.
Couple that with the fact that there are cases where the US is caught circumventing the rules of open markets : artificial monopolies, no-bid contracts, import tarrifs,... The US is not the only country guilty of doing this, but the country most loudly defending capitalism as the ultimate system should respect its rules.
Same thing with the military : most of Europe has certainly benefited from being part of NATO, and none of the nations has any issue with its defensive role. It's the offensive actions of the US military most people object to.
You're absolutely right, the US is doing a lot of great things too.
The problem is that all this goodwill is immediately pissed away when something like Guantanamo, Haditha,... comes out, precisely because a lot of Americans feel the need to constantly shout how their country is best, how they are the Protectors of Freedom.
If the US government would stop taking unilateral action, and behave more like a citizen of the world, you would see most of the anti-US sentiment disappear.
BTW, I actually wouldn't mind having a beer with Bush (non-alcolohic for him of course), I just don't want him anywhere near a big red button.
The disapproval for some of the actions of the US government has nothing to do with the fact that they're American, but everything with the nature of the actions themselves.
I don't care who is imprisoning people indefinitely without a trial, it's the act itself which is horrible. If members of my family were involved in committing such acts, I would be just as appalled.
If there were indeed French soldiers firing into crowds and it wasn't in self defense or to protect other people, it should have been world news. I don't know the particular incident, so I can't comment any further on it.
Cultures do not need someone to demonize, ignorant people do. In Europe these idiots are usually racists who blame everything on immigrants. Racists don't look at the actions of people, they only look at skin color. Legitimate criticism of people's actions is not the same as irrational hatred.
I don't make fun of rednecks to feel better about myself (I feel fine, thank you, I don't need to measure my self-worth against anyone else), I make fun of them because they deserve to be made fun of. That whole "culture" is about being proud of being an ignorant fool. It's about preferring "likable" over "competent". It's when being perceived as a good guy by others (going to church, putting flags everywhere,...) becomes more important than actually being a good guy. This behaviour is certainly not exclusive to Americans, it's just that's it's so incredibly obvious in their case.
You're right that there are a lot of people around the world who like the US, but there are not a lot of people who like how the US behaves itself in the world.
You're not American, yet you claim that the average citizen in your country is more concerned about criticizing the US than about their own issues ? Where do you live ?
Where is this proof that EU countries are torturing people ? Or is it again a case of repeating a lie often enough so people will think it's the truth ?
I can tell you one thing : unlike in the US where the people even cheer on the torture we would have a public outrage, and governments would fall.
And even if someone else is torturing people, violating international treaties,... how the hell does that make it OK for you to do the same ?
When the US stops making the world a worse place to live in for all non-US citizens, we'll stop criticizing your politics.
And tell me, how exactly would you know what other countries' citizens are focused on ? I assume you visited each and every one of those countries ? Or at least have access to their mainstream media ? You do speak other languages, right ?
What the US should be focused on internally is educating its people. Stop this celebration of stupidity. You don't need a president you would like to have a beer with, you need a president who can run the @#!? country !
Teach people that issues are almost never black and white.
Teach them that being criticial on human rights abuses by the US does NOT mean you can't also be critical on human rights abuses by other countries.
But hey, making "France surrenders" jokes is much more fun, right ?
Then I'd say you took the wrong courses.
I attended the KULeuven (graduated in 1999, Master of Computer Science), and in the last 2 years most of the courses I took had assignments, either individual or for a group. But since people could pick and choose a lot of their courses it's possible someone would end up with a lot more theory classes.
Students are allowed to work more than a few weeks, it's just that they (or rather their parents) are taxed quite heavily if they earn more than a certain amount.
The difference is also that students usually don't need to work, since the costs of studying at a university here are a fraction of the costs in the US.
About the hands-on knowledge : I was asked recently by a high school computer teacher if I knew any companies where people who where thinking about going into programming could see what that is like every day. The truth is that you can't give a job description for a "typical programmer". Working in the backoffice of a bank is completely different from working in a Web startup, writing embedded code for hardware, going on the road as a consultant,...
I personally can't see how any internship would have helped me in my career.
There are Belgian universities that do internships though, in my first job we had about 6 of them for a number of weeks. I happened to end up at the same company as one of those students a few years later, and I now have to rewrite his crappy code every day. I know that at least in his case it didn't help him at all, I'd much rather he'd had some general OO design classes instead.
Peter Moore wouldn't be saying all of these positive things about the Wii if he wasn't scared to death of what it could do to Xbox 360 sales.
Of course, how could someone possibly admire other people doing interesting things in their field. I mean you would never hear someone from Ferrari say that Land Rover makes nice cars, would you ? And that if you're interested in both driving fast and going off-road you should get an Enzo and a Range Rover ?
The XBox 360 and Wii have a different target audience. In the current generation, a lot of games came out on XBox, GameCube and PS2. The good multiplatform titles took advantage of each console's features (better graphics on XBox and GC, hard drive and online on XBox,...), the bad ones just ported the PS2 version.
In the next generation, I think we'll see a lot less multiplatform titles. We'll get the usual EA shovelware, but I think each console will highlight its strengths a lot more :
Wii : unique controller
XBox 360 : high definition, XBox live
PS3 : high definition, and ehh... even more unskippable CGI cutscenes because they can put more data on a BluRay disc ? I guess we'll have to wait to see what will be the distinguishing features.
And all 3 will have exclusive titles.
The Wii could conceivably cost half as much as the 360 Premium Package
How about avoiding words like "conceivably" and waiting until the thing is actually in the shops before pulling out the fuzzy math ? All evidence suggests that the Wii will be cheaper than the other consoles, but exactly by how much no one can know right now.
and Nintendo has announced a Wii title in nearly all (or maybe all?) of its major franchises.
And those franchises are a big part of why a lot of people will never be interested in owning a Nintendo console. I cringe every time I see another Mario variation. And yes, I know games like Resident Evil 4 exist, but they are in the minority. See how it works ? I'm not part of Nintendo's audience. And I don't have to be, there are plenty of other people who are. Just like I'm completely underwhelmed by the GTA series, don't play any sports games, pity CounterStrike nuts, and can't even begin to understand the attraction of Japanese RPGs or MMORPGs. And still there are millions of people who enjoy all of these things.
The world is not black and white : in the current generation, the XBox matches my taste in games the best. But still I got a PS2 too after a few years because it had some exclusives I also wanted to play. If there was some exclusive GameCube title that I'm very interested in, I would probably get one of them too. And none of those decisions would cause my head to explode. When I bought the XBox several years ago, I didn't have to sign over my undying loyalty to Microsoft. It didn't cause me to ignore impressive games on other systems.
The US system, annoying as it can be, at least gets you elected officials with a much larger representation of the population, more often.
You only get a larger representation within the section of the population that voted. In Belgium voting is compulsary (you can even go to jail if you don't show up), and it's on a Sunday so no-one has to take time off from work (those who do have to work on Sunday can give someone else authorization to vote for them).
Also, the two big parties in the US have no real identity, precisely because they are so big. See the controversy over the latest Supreme Court nomination : religious extremists (because that is exactly what they are, even if they themselves only use that word for Muslims) and other factions within the Republican party can't even agree on whether she'd be a good candidate. There are so many different factions within the big parties that you're not voting for issues, you vote for a brand name. "Vote Republican, the Jesus party". "Vote Democrat, at least we're not Republicans". It's more like being a fan of a sports team than actually making an informed decision.
The party I've voted for since I was 18 will probably never be big. But it has already had some major influences on Belgian politics because it had to be included in negotiations. Its representatives are able to convince people in other parties to work together on certain issues. I have no special loyalty to them though : if they suddenly change their views on certain key issues, they will no longer have my vote.
they spend all of their time swinging deals with each other and no time actually getting anything done
Gee, a government that tries to come to a solution that pleases everyone who voted and not only those who voted for the biggest party. How evil !
How can we poor Europeans stand it that extremists can't completely take over the government and force their views on everyone without any resistance ?
I hear alot of comments saying this would be a good idea, if it weren't for the innocents who would be harmed. Well guess what, Blue Security sends the ISP a notice that they have a spammer site.
So if I find out that there's a murderer living in your city, I am in my right to bomb the entire city as long as I've warned the mayor a few hours before ? If they really cared they would have evacuated the innocents, right ?
Oh wait, this is called American foreign policy. If you leave out the warning part.
It was an insult to all the people like me who prepaid, bought friends copies of the game, and waited in line to get the deluxe super duper versions of Halo 2.
So basically you are angry because Microsoft's marketing was so successful that you went out and spent a lot of time and money getting a game you didn't even know for sure would be good.
The only requirement Halo 2 has to fill in order to be considered a good game is : do you have fun playing it. Check the XBox live numbers : a lot of people do.
I loved the Halo:CE campaign. I loved the Halo 2 campaign, even though I felt less involved in the story. I like playing Halo 2 over XBox live, even though I'm not that good at it. The texture popup bothers me, and gives the game less of a quality feel. But I still have lots of fun playing.
There is no such thing as a perfect game. If you thought Halo 2 would be the last game you would every play because everything else would pale in comparison, that's YOUR fault. If you thought that when finishing Halo 2 on Legendary Cortana (or Master Chief, whatever you're into) would come over and have sex with you, that's YOUR fault.
How about doing what I do : I only paid full price for a handful of games (Halo 2 was one of them, Halo:CE wasn't). All others were at least half price, just by waiting a few months. And by that time, I have read plenty of reviews so I know what to expect. The result : I've never felt cheated.
And how exactly is Microsoft "forcing" you to buy an XBox 360 and Halo 3 ? If you feel the need to know the continuation of the story, it means you're interested in it. So you like their product.
But like a lot of immature Slashdotters you want everything for free, right now, and on your terms.
Other people live in the real world.
What people who compare European unemployment figures to US numbers always ignore is the following :
In the US you have a lot of low-paying jobs that don't exist in Europe : "greeters" in supermarkets, people pumping gas for you,...
In Europe if you have a job and are sensible with your money you are not poor. You will not need a second job just to cover food and rent. That's what the concept of minimum wage is all about. If you need two jobs just to cover the basics, how can it be called the minimum wage ?
In most European countries there's a much better safety net for when you do lose your job. Some people will of course abuse this system and not even try looking for work.
I'm not saying that unemployment isn't too high in parts of Europe, I'm saying that the numbers don't tell the whole story. European countries will never have an employment rate comparable to the US, the job markets are too different.
for example, you cannot power off an XBox or eject a DVD using the remote
I've never understood why someone would need an eject button on the remote control. To put a disc in or take one out you still have to physically move to the player.
I've seen the same "criticism" in some user reviews of my HD/DVD recorder (Panasonic DMR-HS2), but I've never needed such a button on my remote control.
The problems you mention aren't JBuilder's fault, you just had a lazy developer !
The default visibility of generated variables is a project configuration setting (at least it is in JBuilder 4, I can't imagine they've taken it away in later versions).
As for the default naming (jLabel3 etc): how do you suppose the designer would figure out the correct name on its own ? As far as I know there's no mind-reading plugin yet. Just rename the thing after dropping it on your design area using the property editor.
If you manually write all GUI code you can probably avoid a few variable declarations for layout managers if you always use their default settings (e.g. myPanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout())). But runtime this doesn't make a difference, the layout manager is still in scope for the entire lifetime of the instance.
I usually hate code generators (well, except for the ones I write myself). Rational Rose (a while ago, using C++) and Together have caused me a lot of headaches, but JBuilder's designer hasn't given me any problems. About the only thing we have to change manually is a call to a GridBagConstraints constructor that didn't exist before JDK 1.2, since we have to be Mac OS 9 compatible.
Slashdot Mirror
No, that's just the convenient excuse. There is no "islamisation of Europe", there's only a bunch of scared little men. There is absolutely zero chance of any Sharia-based rules getting made into law in any EU country. If a German judge decided to let that guy off there must either be more to the case, or that particular judge is out of line and will be dealt with by the judicial system.
So, in your opinion there would also not be a problem when the counting of the votes is falsified: you can vote; the vote just isn't counted...Great logic there : all votes being counted is exactly the same as not all votes being counted. I guess it's pretty useless for me to go up against an intellect like this.
The organisations behind that demonstration are a bunch of racists, and neo-nazis from all over Europe are planning to come. No matter what they claim on their website and elsewhere, the underlying message is that they want all muslims to get out of Europe. The only thing this demonstration will accomplish is to give more muslims the idea that there really is a fight "us versus them". No country in the world will ever consist of a homogenous population again, there will always be different cultures that need to live together. It's pointless (and downright offensive) to wish everyone who's different than you to simply go away, and that's the message behind these organisations. Guess what the Taliban's message is...
If the point of the demonstration isn't blatant provocation, why did they choose that particular date ?
If there are problems with different cultures living together, you deal with them as a society ruled by law, not by wishing the problem away. And I have at least some hope that a new government is more willing than the previous one to make some of the necessary reforms to handle those problems.
About the cartoon demonstrations, I very much doubt a mayor was asked "We want to hold a violent demonstration" and then said yes. I don't remember if things actually did get violent here, but if people got injured or property damaged the individuals involved should be prosecuted.
The Belgian government does everyting it can to outlaw the large opposition party Vlaams Belang.But still people were able to vote for them. So it had no actual effect except the feeding of the persecution complex.
The public television channel was able to ban the party almost completely from its political debates.Using the VRT as a measure of journalistic integrity is of course never a good idea, but since I didn't watch those shows I can't determine if Vlaams Belang was unjustly excluded. I do know that using other channels and other media as a reference I never felt that I wasn't informed about their positions.
It wasn't about ads by the way. It was about a typical podcast (half an hour MP3).If it was made in the election period and contained political messages it probably fell under those rules. If he has actual evidence of identical cases where people were not getting fined I'm sure his lawyers will know what to do.
How exactly is Belgium horribly repressive ? Is someone forbidding you to gather ? Is someone limiting your access to the Internet so you can't make posts like this ? Were you not able to vote on the party you wanted ?
I am in fact also very suspicious about the motivations behind the lawsuit against Vlaams Blok, but it has had no influence on the popularity, the ability to publish, the ability to organize gatherings, or the ability to participate in local government of Vlaams Blok / Belang.
And I don't know what podcast you're referring to, but if someone was using the Internet to go around political advertising laws, I'm glad they got fined. Do you want to end up with the type of horrible attack ads common in the US ? They add nothing good to the political climate, they only strengthen people in their belief that there is no such thing as a good politician. There are plenty of legal ways to get your ideas published at election time.
I know Vlaams Belang thrives on persecution complexes ("The government is trying to shut us down !", "Foreigners are ruining everything !", ...), but try not to make claims like this without at least knowing what REAL persecution and repression is (hint : some of the older party members may have first-hand experience).
To make a really bad joke (you have been warned) : "If you choose to inform yourself in stead of blindly following what FoxNews tells you, you just might not be a redneck".
Redneck in its current incarnation (I don't claim to know the full history of the word) is an insult. It is not a synonym for Southern person, or a word for someone exhibiting the characteristics you attribute yourself in the message above. If you still choose to call yourself a redneck then you're the one trying to change its meaning.
As for feeling superior : anyone who is not a racist or a homophobe is superior over people who are. Those kinds of ideas and behaviours are not acceptable in a civilized society.
Legitimate criticism is not the same as America-bashing.
The reason you found more than one post by me criticizing America is because the government happens to do a lot of bad things. None of those posts contain lies. None of those posts "seek out" to include criticism on America, it was on topic each time, or it was a joke.
I won't go for personal attacks, that's a tactic for people without arguments. I'm not interested in your posting history.
If your average American would spend as much energy examining the administration's policies as they do attacking people reporting the plain facts, a lot would be solved. But no, someone says something bad about America, and we're the good guys, so the one reporting it must be an America-hater. No critical thought required.
Where do you guys get this "They don't like us, they must envy us" nonsense ? You keep assuming everyone wants to be like an American. They don't. They just want to live their lives.
The US will support Israel in whatever it does. So when a Palestinian father all of a sudden is not allowed to go to work anymore, and can't provide any income for his family, he's supposed to like the US ? When a farmer wakes up to find a huge concrete wall where his fields used to be, he's supposed to just shrug it off ? What exactly are his courses of action here : can he go complain to the Israeli authorities ? These people have no control over large parts of their every day lives. Men who never had any bad thought in their entire lives will get so frustrated with being powerless that they're an easy target for people who try to get them to support terrorist activity. Give them the tools to control their own lives, and they will ignore the extremists.
This in no way excuses any harmful activity against others. But the Americans keep handing extremists the perfect recruitment tools.
I guess you really showed them you're superior.
But you forget that not all people see industrialization and globalization as a good thing. I personally have no problems with the principles (I do have issues with the execution), but there are cultures who do not want their society be driven by unbridled capitalism. Couple that with the fact that there are cases where the US is caught circumventing the rules of open markets : artificial monopolies, no-bid contracts, import tarrifs, ... The US is not the only country guilty of doing this, but the country most loudly defending capitalism as the ultimate system should respect its rules.
Same thing with the military : most of Europe has certainly benefited from being part of NATO, and none of the nations has any issue with its defensive role. It's the offensive actions of the US military most people object to.
You're absolutely right, the US is doing a lot of great things too. ... comes out, precisely because a lot of Americans feel the need to constantly shout how their country is best, how they are the Protectors of Freedom.
The problem is that all this goodwill is immediately pissed away when something like Guantanamo, Haditha,
If the US government would stop taking unilateral action, and behave more like a citizen of the world, you would see most of the anti-US sentiment disappear.
BTW, I actually wouldn't mind having a beer with Bush (non-alcolohic for him of course), I just don't want him anywhere near a big red button.
The disapproval for some of the actions of the US government has nothing to do with the fact that they're American, but everything with the nature of the actions themselves.
I don't care who is imprisoning people indefinitely without a trial, it's the act itself which is horrible. If members of my family were involved in committing such acts, I would be just as appalled.
If there were indeed French soldiers firing into crowds and it wasn't in self defense or to protect other people, it should have been world news. I don't know the particular incident, so I can't comment any further on it.
Cultures do not need someone to demonize, ignorant people do. In Europe these idiots are usually racists who blame everything on immigrants. Racists don't look at the actions of people, they only look at skin color. Legitimate criticism of people's actions is not the same as irrational hatred.
I don't make fun of rednecks to feel better about myself (I feel fine, thank you, I don't need to measure my self-worth against anyone else), I make fun of them because they deserve to be made fun of. That whole "culture" is about being proud of being an ignorant fool. It's about preferring "likable" over "competent". It's when being perceived as a good guy by others (going to church, putting flags everywhere, ...) becomes more important than actually being a good guy. This behaviour is certainly not exclusive to Americans, it's just that's it's so incredibly obvious in their case.
You're right that there are a lot of people around the world who like the US, but there are not a lot of people who like how the US behaves itself in the world.
You're not American, yet you claim that the average citizen in your country is more concerned about criticizing the US than about their own issues ? Where do you live ?
Where is this proof that EU countries are torturing people ? Or is it again a case of repeating a lie often enough so people will think it's the truth ? I can tell you one thing : unlike in the US where the people even cheer on the torture we would have a public outrage, and governments would fall.
And even if someone else is torturing people, violating international treaties, ... how the hell does that make it OK for you to do the same ?
When the US stops making the world a worse place to live in for all non-US citizens, we'll stop criticizing your politics.
And tell me, how exactly would you know what other countries' citizens are focused on ? I assume you visited each and every one of those countries ? Or at least have access to their mainstream media ? You do speak other languages, right ?
What the US should be focused on internally is educating its people. Stop this celebration of stupidity. You don't need a president you would like to have a beer with, you need a president who can run the @#!? country !
Teach people that issues are almost never black and white.
Teach them that being criticial on human rights abuses by the US does NOT mean you can't also be critical on human rights abuses by other countries.
But hey, making "France surrenders" jokes is much more fun, right ?
Then I'd say you took the wrong courses.
I attended the KULeuven (graduated in 1999, Master of Computer Science), and in the last 2 years most of the courses I took had assignments, either individual or for a group. But since people could pick and choose a lot of their courses it's possible someone would end up with a lot more theory classes.
Students are allowed to work more than a few weeks, it's just that they (or rather their parents) are taxed quite heavily if they earn more than a certain amount. The difference is also that students usually don't need to work, since the costs of studying at a university here are a fraction of the costs in the US.
About the hands-on knowledge : I was asked recently by a high school computer teacher if I knew any companies where people who where thinking about going into programming could see what that is like every day. The truth is that you can't give a job description for a "typical programmer". Working in the backoffice of a bank is completely different from working in a Web startup, writing embedded code for hardware, going on the road as a consultant, ...
I personally can't see how any internship would have helped me in my career.
There are Belgian universities that do internships though, in my first job we had about 6 of them for a number of weeks. I happened to end up at the same company as one of those students a few years later, and I now have to rewrite his crappy code every day. I know that at least in his case it didn't help him at all, I'd much rather he'd had some general OO design classes instead.
The XBox 360 and Wii have a different target audience. In the current generation, a lot of games came out on XBox, GameCube and PS2. The good multiplatform titles took advantage of each console's features (better graphics on XBox and GC, hard drive and online on XBox, ...), the bad ones just ported the PS2 version.
In the next generation, I think we'll see a lot less multiplatform titles. We'll get the usual EA shovelware, but I think each console will highlight its strengths a lot more :
And all 3 will have exclusive titles. How about avoiding words like "conceivably" and waiting until the thing is actually in the shops before pulling out the fuzzy math ? All evidence suggests that the Wii will be cheaper than the other consoles, but exactly by how much no one can know right now. And those franchises are a big part of why a lot of people will never be interested in owning a Nintendo console. I cringe every time I see another Mario variation. And yes, I know games like Resident Evil 4 exist, but they are in the minority. See how it works ? I'm not part of Nintendo's audience. And I don't have to be, there are plenty of other people who are. Just like I'm completely underwhelmed by the GTA series, don't play any sports games, pity CounterStrike nuts, and can't even begin to understand the attraction of Japanese RPGs or MMORPGs. And still there are millions of people who enjoy all of these things.
The world is not black and white : in the current generation, the XBox matches my taste in games the best. But still I got a PS2 too after a few years because it had some exclusives I also wanted to play. If there was some exclusive GameCube title that I'm very interested in, I would probably get one of them too. And none of those decisions would cause my head to explode. When I bought the XBox several years ago, I didn't have to sign over my undying loyalty to Microsoft. It didn't cause me to ignore impressive games on other systems.
You only get a larger representation within the section of the population that voted. In Belgium voting is compulsary (you can even go to jail if you don't show up), and it's on a Sunday so no-one has to take time off from work (those who do have to work on Sunday can give someone else authorization to vote for them).
Also, the two big parties in the US have no real identity, precisely because they are so big. See the controversy over the latest Supreme Court nomination : religious extremists (because that is exactly what they are, even if they themselves only use that word for Muslims) and other factions within the Republican party can't even agree on whether she'd be a good candidate. There are so many different factions within the big parties that you're not voting for issues, you vote for a brand name. "Vote Republican, the Jesus party". "Vote Democrat, at least we're not Republicans". It's more like being a fan of a sports team than actually making an informed decision.
The party I've voted for since I was 18 will probably never be big. But it has already had some major influences on Belgian politics because it had to be included in negotiations. Its representatives are able to convince people in other parties to work together on certain issues. I have no special loyalty to them though : if they suddenly change their views on certain key issues, they will no longer have my vote.
Gee, a government that tries to come to a solution that pleases everyone who voted and not only those who voted for the biggest party. How evil !
How can we poor Europeans stand it that extremists can't completely take over the government and force their views on everyone without any resistance ?
So if I find out that there's a murderer living in your city, I am in my right to bomb the entire city as long as I've warned the mayor a few hours before ? If they really cared they would have evacuated the innocents, right ?
Oh wait, this is called American foreign policy. If you leave out the warning part.
So basically you are angry because Microsoft's marketing was so successful that you went out and spent a lot of time and money getting a game you didn't even know for sure would be good.
The only requirement Halo 2 has to fill in order to be considered a good game is : do you have fun playing it. Check the XBox live numbers : a lot of people do.
I loved the Halo:CE campaign. I loved the Halo 2 campaign, even though I felt less involved in the story. I like playing Halo 2 over XBox live, even though I'm not that good at it. The texture popup bothers me, and gives the game less of a quality feel. But I still have lots of fun playing.
There is no such thing as a perfect game. If you thought Halo 2 would be the last game you would every play because everything else would pale in comparison, that's YOUR fault. If you thought that when finishing Halo 2 on Legendary Cortana (or Master Chief, whatever you're into) would come over and have sex with you, that's YOUR fault.
How about doing what I do : I only paid full price for a handful of games (Halo 2 was one of them, Halo:CE wasn't). All others were at least half price, just by waiting a few months. And by that time, I have read plenty of reviews so I know what to expect. The result : I've never felt cheated.
And how exactly is Microsoft "forcing" you to buy an XBox 360 and Halo 3 ? If you feel the need to know the continuation of the story, it means you're interested in it. So you like their product.
But like a lot of immature Slashdotters you want everything for free, right now, and on your terms. Other people live in the real world.
- In the US you have a lot of low-paying jobs that don't exist in Europe : "greeters" in supermarkets, people pumping gas for you,
...
- In Europe if you have a job and are sensible with your money you are not poor. You will not need a second job just to cover food and rent. That's what the concept of minimum wage is all about. If you need two jobs just to cover the basics, how can it be called the minimum wage ?
- In most European countries there's a much better safety net for when you do lose your job. Some people will of course abuse this system and not even try looking for work.
I'm not saying that unemployment isn't too high in parts of Europe, I'm saying that the numbers don't tell the whole story. European countries will never have an employment rate comparable to the US, the job markets are too different.I've never understood why someone would need an eject button on the remote control. To put a disc in or take one out you still have to physically move to the player. I've seen the same "criticism" in some user reviews of my HD/DVD recorder (Panasonic DMR-HS2), but I've never needed such a button on my remote control.
Ads for Bush on the web ? Great !
It's been a while since I've seen a "Punch the monkey" ad.
The problems you mention aren't JBuilder's fault, you just had a lazy developer !
The default visibility of generated variables is a project configuration setting (at least it is in JBuilder 4, I can't imagine they've taken it away in later versions).
As for the default naming (jLabel3 etc): how do you suppose the designer would figure out the correct name on its own ? As far as I know there's no mind-reading plugin yet. Just rename the thing after dropping it on your design area using the property editor.
If you manually write all GUI code you can probably avoid a few variable declarations for layout managers if you always use their default settings (e.g. myPanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout())). But runtime this doesn't make a difference, the layout manager is still in scope for the entire lifetime of the instance.
I usually hate code generators (well, except for the ones I write myself). Rational Rose (a while ago, using C++) and Together have caused me a lot of headaches, but JBuilder's designer hasn't given me any problems. About the only thing we have to change manually is a call to a GridBagConstraints constructor that didn't exist before JDK 1.2, since we have to be Mac OS 9 compatible.
Bombardier makes the TGV ? That would be news to Alstom, one of Bombardiers main competitors.