google's ads somewhat apply... if you notice, there's almost always an ebay ad that tells you to click the link for all the auction selling whatever you searched for... so say you search for heroin, you can buy it on ebay (yes, i have done this... searched for it, not bought it). but the problem is, you can't actually buy heroin on ebay.
google's ads are a step in the right direction, but they are also kind of a niche area right now. google's ads work for them because they are a search site, those kinds of ads won't work for a site that displays lots of graphics, there would still be a large section at the top with text ads making the site relatively unbearable.
it said they're only going to offer something like 10-15% to the public. guess they realize they need the controlling interest to keep control over their business.
i don't see them totally telling their stockholders to suck it. they might do things that the stockholders don't agree with (like not sellout to MS), but in general, they have seemed to keep things pretty balanced there. that's what has made them what they are now... and i definitely don't see them selling out to MS. linux has been a big part of their business. if MS takes over, i don't think their search engine will be as good.
here's the issue... a 4 way red light would almost definitely cause backup. the reason they turn lights green is so that they can get through more quickly. it would take longer if the traffic was stopped and the ambulance had to get through it. this wouldn't be an issue on a two-way undivided road, but if it's one way or a divided road, the ambulance can't go in the lane of opposite direction to get around the cars. having the 4 way red would cause more backup for teh ambulance making it take longer to get wherever it had to go.
you can replace ambulance with your emergency vehicle of choice.
the difference between software and this jig is that there is already a lot of free software for all platforms that aid in writing software. this jig is something that most woodworkers would have made on their own anyways. it's just a simple aid to them. nothing that would greatly improve their work or change things. microsoft's software is different, it's not a tool for programmers (with the exception of their developers tools, but that's specific for microsoft's platforms). the jig is universal. it's a broader tool. it's like saying that you have to pay to use the middle click or ctrl-v/x and ctrl-c combo to copy/cut and paste. like you need a license for each developer, or even each person that uses a computer, to use those keys to make their jobs easier. if i made a ton of dove-tailed joints, i'd probably make a jig for myself from the ones i've already made. if i bought a jig to help make them, i'd let the other people that worked in my shop use it. it's stupid not to. and $40 for a thing like that? yes, i realize that sounds like complaining about MS's costs for windows and office. copying the jig and copying software are completely different. it's much more difficult to make the same exact jig (using the same materials and all) than it is to copy a piece of software. the kicker is the fact that no one other than the person who paid for the license can use the methods explained on how to make a dove-tailed joint, even if they aren't using the jig.
the license is more restrictive than a software license because a software license restricts software to one computer, not one user. that's what separates them. even MS doesn't say "only the person who paid for this software can use it".
Not only can you not use it if you didn't buy, the un-buyable device, you can't use the jigs it products.
so basically it's only useful for people that work for themselves with no other employees, unless the other employees are not allowed to use the jig. makes it kind of a pain in the ass for woodworkers having only one guy allowed to make dove-tailed joints. it's really a stupid product without a real purpose. they'll lose money on it.
a jig is a tool used to help in the wood working process. most woodworkers make custom jigs for their own use for certain types of projects that they do over and over. i'm sure most serious woodworkers have made their own jigs for dove-tailed joints. this product seems like a stupid way to make money off of newer woodworkers so they can save some time. the cost is appalling. it looks like a little piece of crap thing.
this won't. i've worked as a woodworker, and knowing the mentality of woodworkers, it won't happen that way. they won't buy into it. if they do, the majority if them will have broken it within a few weeks. it's not worth it to the company to try to sue each and every one of them. not to mention woodworkers do a lot of their work under the table.
the only part of the license that is wrong is the fact that you can't make jigs with the tool and sell those jigs. those jigs aren't made using the same ways of the jig master, it's just used as the tool. most experienced woodworkers could make the same jig with another tool, it just might take a little longer. there's no reason for such a license. i hope the company understands that they're not going to make it in the woodworking world.
they can't be charging you at all. if it's not your fault the jig broke, if it's just natural wear and tear or some flaw in the design (which they seem to think they are immune from with this whole license thing), they have to replace it since you don't own it.
i want to know how it can be unlikely to pass the house and have the pres sign it if it passed unanimously in the senate. that makes no sense to me. the house and senate are both fairly evenly divided between dems and repubs, and if they all agreed in teh senate, why shouldn't they all agree in the house or come pretty close to it? and if it got so much praise in the legislature, why would bush not sign it?
i agree that it won't put an end to spam, but at least there'd be a way to really do some damage if you catch a spammer.
if every slashdotter posted in big letters on top of their own personal websites "GATOR IS SPYWARE! DO NOT USE GATOR! IT WILL CAUSE PROBLEMS ON YOUR COMPUTER!" and we all linked to each others webpages (or at least a few of them), we'd have some serious impact on searches for "gator" on at least google. and gator couldn't sue us all beacuse of thousands of slashdotters agree, it must be true.;) GATOR IS SPYWARE NO MATTER WHAT WAY YOU LOOK IT. consider this my big "FAH-Q" to the gator corporation.
btw- i work in a comptuer lab in a high school and had to clean off all the stuff students have installed, including gator. stupid IT people in this school district don't know what they're doing and don't really care. if only i had administrative access to this network and the suer accounts...
what on earth is a man bag? if i was gonna carry a bag with me, i might as well bring my laptop, then i don't need a pda or mp3 player. the whole point of combining things is so you don't have to carry a ton of stuff and you can lose the bag. but i like things small. if i wanted an mp3 player, i'd get that sony pen style one (if they still make it).
i don't have an mp3 player and i don't have a digital camera (normal camera i do have). i also don't have a laptop, but that's what i'd get if i had to carry a bag with me. the other option is cargo pants or a jacket with lots of pockets.:)
you'll never see me walking around with a man "purse" though.
my issues with pda phones is the size. they're still bigger than you'd really want to keep in your pocket. it's not a big deal for women because they carry purses. i own a cell phone and a palm, but i rarely use my palm unless i really need it because i just don't want to carry it with me. it's just too big.
as for a regular camera phone, i don't see the size as being that bad, but i don't see a need for it. i'm sure i'll have one in a couple years.
the one company i don't ever see carrying any camera phones is nextel, but their service isn't that great and either are their phones. verizon just started carrying camera phones, and i don't see them moving towards camera-only ever since they seek the best of the best for their phones.
president bush became a born-again christian within the recent years. he lived a life that was not too good when he was younger, drug abuse, poor student (the only reason he got into yale was because of his parents), etc. a lot of his policies and the stuff he wants to do with the country have to do with his religious beliefs. the US has a very strong separation of church and state (i think that is different in much of europe, especially italy for obvious reasons).
the bible belt of the US has a very evangelical viewpoint of things. it's crazy. but it pisses me off because they go and do things that are completely against the teachings of jesus in that they judge others. they are very judgemental and go around telling people to change their ways or they will not be saved. i had a personal experience with some of these people. i worked in a warehouse for a while and they needed some extra workers, so they went to this drug rehab program called teen challenge (pretty successful, something like a 95% success rate). people go there either on their own or by a court order because of drug problems and other bad behavior. they live pretty poorly there, and have to endure a lot, but the whole thing is based on pentecostalism (a protestant sect of christianity). they are very evangelical and i have been working with them and randomly one would ask "have you been saved?" and it would kind of freak me out. i'm catholic, so i believe in jesus and everything, but it's different "not as pure" in their eyes. catholics aren't christian as far as they're concerned, but they're wrong. so i've been in a lot of religious discussions with these people while working for them. the worst part is, they are rehabilitating drug addicts and alcoholics who have lived a life pretty much of crime (fights and gang stuff). and they go and ask me all this. kind of hypocritical because they try to act all high and mighty but they don't want to work when they come to work. they don't get paid for it, so i don't totally blame them, but they can leave the program at any time if they aren't court ordered there. the one thing i have to say about them is that they're really firm in their beliefs although they weren't necessarily christian before that.
as for a lot of people violating their religions, that's totally true. i'm catholic, i don't go to church, but i don't consider myself a great catholic either. i hold the beliefs, i try to keep the morals and rules, but i also disagree with a lot of what they say about some things (capital punishment for one, masturbation is another, no joke). some rules that they have expect people to be of the utmost strength and everything and sometimes when they fail, they do something bad or have a bad result (which is why i think masturbation isn't wrong).
the terrorists in the middle east believe they are following their religion of islam, but it's completely wrong. islam is a peaceful religion and there's really no argument against that. someone came up with a demented view of it and said that the western world is evil and must be killed, but western religion is older than islam, which is the funny part. judaism is arguably the oldest religion (with buddhism and hinduism also much older than islam). islam started in the 600's or 700's making it fairly recent. their calender is in the 1300's or 1400's still because they start their calender when mohammed came. i just think their whole thing against the western world is kind of weird. we didn't invade their space, our religions were pretty much there first. the funny thing is, islam is very close in beliefs and views to christianity. so i'm going to guess that mohammed had some major christian influence when he started islam.
religion is all weird. i prefer those who are tolerant of others and don't go forcing their beliefs on anyone, that's just wrong in my opinion. people have a right to believe what they want. and the worst part is, all religions basically hold the same beliefs and morals, even the eastern ones compared to the western ones.
i believe in miracles... i have seen stuff that is definitely not normal activity.
example... person takes a picture of a temple in israel, gets the photos developed and out comes a picture of jesus.
second example... person takes rosary beads to this place, plain old normal rosary beads... they get blessed and the chain holding the beads turns to gold. i have the rosary beads
explain those, tehre's no scientific explanation. i believe it's a work of god. he works in mysterious ways. if the shroud were said to be completely true by science, it would make for the hottest item on the black market. and like i said about the prayer thing, of course it's not going to work if someone is testing god, and someone tested god with the shroud too, so he worked his magic.
i'd rather not have IE installed on my cmoputer, but removing it causes all sorts of general not good stuff. if i could remove it without havnig to worry about the patches, i would, but it's a bitch.
all windows update does is run a script that checks which updates are already installed on your system. i have seen other websites that do similar things. how hard would it be for ms to make their thing more universal? once it determines which patches are already installed and which aren't, it just downloads them and installs them in "one easy step". i'd rather it gave me the option to download them now and install them later without having to search for each patch on their website to download.
and their patching system isn't 100% great either, once a week i notice that i need to install the IE patch that i have installed about 10 times now. same patch, same date, nothing different. it's not installing for some reason, i don't get it. i use mozilla now, so i don't really care.
microsoft has been hacked/cracked before, who's to say it won't happen again? and how is it compliant if they have certain sites that require their browser. what's the deal with any site requiring a certain browser? that's just plain dumb.
of course these are ideal thoughts, so god knows it'll never happen.
they have to go back to court to determine if they are keeping their promises or not. it'll probably be a good 6 months before that happens, most likely longer. the justice system here takes way too long to get anything done.
itunes and napster allow you to use the default browser, which could be mozilla or opera or netscape or even IE. they aren't an alternative to IE, they are an alternative to using microsoft's music thing. microsoft is deceiving windows users into thinking that their default browser is whatever you set as it when it's really only the default browser for non-microsoft software. that's what the problem is.
not so necessary disclaimer: i am a microsoft windows user, and i was an IE/eudora user until about a week ago when i installed mozilla for both web and email. i do not hate microsoft products, i just hate their ways. i find windows 2000 to be a great OS (no joke here).
isn't windowsupdate another thing that requires IE? i think that's pretty bad. get your security updates, but use an insecure browser to do it with. makes a lot of sense to me...
i guess it's different for different places. i've had it tell me to get off an exit and the exit dumps you out onto a road with a median (one of those nice pretty medians with flowers and trees in it, but not a highway) and then tell you to take the road that's nearly directly across the divided road, but you can't get there because of the median. the only thing i like about it is that it takes one way streets into account when giving directions.
i have recently seen a discovery channel documentary that was made more recently than 1993 that still says that the "thing" on top of ararat could be a ship. it looks at more recent photos of the mountain. we'll never have a real answer or real proof of either side of the argument until turkey allows people to go up there.
carbon dating isn't 100% accurate, and i don't believe anything was said about the shroud being created to look like jesus. if that was the case, it would've had to happen many many many many years ago because there are burn marks in it from a fire in a convent a long time ago. also, the dating that i heard dates it to the 1300's, which is pretty damn old. and the image on the shroud looks like jesus, has all the blood marks where jesus' would have been, including the crown of thorns.
as for the ark of the covenant, i could be wrong about that one. i thought i learned in a religion/history class that it was kept in a temple in israel, but that could be a combination of watching raiders of the lost ark and learning that it was originally kept in that temple. that's the only thing i'll concede defeat with.
i've never seen mapquest use landmarks. but that's my one gripe about any online mapping/direction service. if you get directions from whoever you're going to, they'll give you landmarks, especially if the turn isn't obvious.
i have a feeling most direction/mapping websites have issues with lots of quick turning and exiting and entering different highways just because of the way many road systems are designed (usually poorly).
i've never had mapquest tell me that an exit is a left exit when that's the case, but i don't think it's designed to.
in general, i have no problems. it gets me where i need to go when i don't knw the way.
when science constructs a human being from scratch, i will concede. otherwise, it isn't alive, it's not made of living cells. a computer is not made up of the same things as a human, or any other animal at that.
cloning does not count because it makes a duplicate of an animal using the dna and the natural process of growth.
Slashdot Mirror
google's ads somewhat apply... if you notice, there's almost always an ebay ad that tells you to click the link for all the auction selling whatever you searched for... so say you search for heroin, you can buy it on ebay (yes, i have done this... searched for it, not bought it). but the problem is, you can't actually buy heroin on ebay.
google's ads are a step in the right direction, but they are also kind of a niche area right now. google's ads work for them because they are a search site, those kinds of ads won't work for a site that displays lots of graphics, there would still be a large section at the top with text ads making the site relatively unbearable.
it said they're only going to offer something like 10-15% to the public. guess they realize they need the controlling interest to keep control over their business.
i don't see them totally telling their stockholders to suck it. they might do things that the stockholders don't agree with (like not sellout to MS), but in general, they have seemed to keep things pretty balanced there. that's what has made them what they are now... and i definitely don't see them selling out to MS. linux has been a big part of their business. if MS takes over, i don't think their search engine will be as good.
here's the issue... a 4 way red light would almost definitely cause backup. the reason they turn lights green is so that they can get through more quickly. it would take longer if the traffic was stopped and the ambulance had to get through it. this wouldn't be an issue on a two-way undivided road, but if it's one way or a divided road, the ambulance can't go in the lane of opposite direction to get around the cars. having the 4 way red would cause more backup for teh ambulance making it take longer to get wherever it had to go.
you can replace ambulance with your emergency vehicle of choice.
the difference between software and this jig is that there is already a lot of free software for all platforms that aid in writing software. this jig is something that most woodworkers would have made on their own anyways. it's just a simple aid to them. nothing that would greatly improve their work or change things. microsoft's software is different, it's not a tool for programmers (with the exception of their developers tools, but that's specific for microsoft's platforms). the jig is universal. it's a broader tool. it's like saying that you have to pay to use the middle click or ctrl-v/x and ctrl-c combo to copy/cut and paste. like you need a license for each developer, or even each person that uses a computer, to use those keys to make their jobs easier. if i made a ton of dove-tailed joints, i'd probably make a jig for myself from the ones i've already made. if i bought a jig to help make them, i'd let the other people that worked in my shop use it. it's stupid not to. and $40 for a thing like that? yes, i realize that sounds like complaining about MS's costs for windows and office. copying the jig and copying software are completely different. it's much more difficult to make the same exact jig (using the same materials and all) than it is to copy a piece of software. the kicker is the fact that no one other than the person who paid for the license can use the methods explained on how to make a dove-tailed joint, even if they aren't using the jig.
the license is more restrictive than a software license because a software license restricts software to one computer, not one user. that's what separates them. even MS doesn't say "only the person who paid for this software can use it".
Not only can you not use it if you didn't buy, the un-buyable device, you can't use the jigs it products.
so basically it's only useful for people that work for themselves with no other employees, unless the other employees are not allowed to use the jig. makes it kind of a pain in the ass for woodworkers having only one guy allowed to make dove-tailed joints. it's really a stupid product without a real purpose. they'll lose money on it.
a jig is a tool used to help in the wood working process. most woodworkers make custom jigs for their own use for certain types of projects that they do over and over. i'm sure most serious woodworkers have made their own jigs for dove-tailed joints. this product seems like a stupid way to make money off of newer woodworkers so they can save some time. the cost is appalling. it looks like a little piece of crap thing.
this won't. i've worked as a woodworker, and knowing the mentality of woodworkers, it won't happen that way. they won't buy into it. if they do, the majority if them will have broken it within a few weeks. it's not worth it to the company to try to sue each and every one of them. not to mention woodworkers do a lot of their work under the table.
the only part of the license that is wrong is the fact that you can't make jigs with the tool and sell those jigs. those jigs aren't made using the same ways of the jig master, it's just used as the tool. most experienced woodworkers could make the same jig with another tool, it just might take a little longer. there's no reason for such a license. i hope the company understands that they're not going to make it in the woodworking world.
they can't be charging you at all. if it's not your fault the jig broke, if it's just natural wear and tear or some flaw in the design (which they seem to think they are immune from with this whole license thing), they have to replace it since you don't own it.
i want to know how it can be unlikely to pass the house and have the pres sign it if it passed unanimously in the senate. that makes no sense to me. the house and senate are both fairly evenly divided between dems and repubs, and if they all agreed in teh senate, why shouldn't they all agree in the house or come pretty close to it? and if it got so much praise in the legislature, why would bush not sign it?
i agree that it won't put an end to spam, but at least there'd be a way to really do some damage if you catch a spammer.
if every slashdotter posted in big letters on top of their own personal websites "GATOR IS SPYWARE! DO NOT USE GATOR! IT WILL CAUSE PROBLEMS ON YOUR COMPUTER!" and we all linked to each others webpages (or at least a few of them), we'd have some serious impact on searches for "gator" on at least google. and gator couldn't sue us all beacuse of thousands of slashdotters agree, it must be true. ;) GATOR IS SPYWARE NO MATTER WHAT WAY YOU LOOK IT. consider this my big "FAH-Q" to the gator corporation.
btw- i work in a comptuer lab in a high school and had to clean off all the stuff students have installed, including gator. stupid IT people in this school district don't know what they're doing and don't really care. if only i had administrative access to this network and the suer accounts...
where does one get a man purse? any pics of one online?
what on earth is a man bag? if i was gonna carry a bag with me, i might as well bring my laptop, then i don't need a pda or mp3 player. the whole point of combining things is so you don't have to carry a ton of stuff and you can lose the bag. but i like things small. if i wanted an mp3 player, i'd get that sony pen style one (if they still make it).
:)
i don't have an mp3 player and i don't have a digital camera (normal camera i do have). i also don't have a laptop, but that's what i'd get if i had to carry a bag with me. the other option is cargo pants or a jacket with lots of pockets.
you'll never see me walking around with a man "purse" though.
my issues with pda phones is the size. they're still bigger than you'd really want to keep in your pocket. it's not a big deal for women because they carry purses. i own a cell phone and a palm, but i rarely use my palm unless i really need it because i just don't want to carry it with me. it's just too big.
as for a regular camera phone, i don't see the size as being that bad, but i don't see a need for it. i'm sure i'll have one in a couple years.
the one company i don't ever see carrying any camera phones is nextel, but their service isn't that great and either are their phones. verizon just started carrying camera phones, and i don't see them moving towards camera-only ever since they seek the best of the best for their phones.
president bush became a born-again christian within the recent years. he lived a life that was not too good when he was younger, drug abuse, poor student (the only reason he got into yale was because of his parents), etc. a lot of his policies and the stuff he wants to do with the country have to do with his religious beliefs. the US has a very strong separation of church and state (i think that is different in much of europe, especially italy for obvious reasons).
the bible belt of the US has a very evangelical viewpoint of things. it's crazy. but it pisses me off because they go and do things that are completely against the teachings of jesus in that they judge others. they are very judgemental and go around telling people to change their ways or they will not be saved. i had a personal experience with some of these people. i worked in a warehouse for a while and they needed some extra workers, so they went to this drug rehab program called teen challenge (pretty successful, something like a 95% success rate). people go there either on their own or by a court order because of drug problems and other bad behavior. they live pretty poorly there, and have to endure a lot, but the whole thing is based on pentecostalism (a protestant sect of christianity). they are very evangelical and i have been working with them and randomly one would ask "have you been saved?" and it would kind of freak me out. i'm catholic, so i believe in jesus and everything, but it's different "not as pure" in their eyes. catholics aren't christian as far as they're concerned, but they're wrong. so i've been in a lot of religious discussions with these people while working for them. the worst part is, they are rehabilitating drug addicts and alcoholics who have lived a life pretty much of crime (fights and gang stuff). and they go and ask me all this. kind of hypocritical because they try to act all high and mighty but they don't want to work when they come to work. they don't get paid for it, so i don't totally blame them, but they can leave the program at any time if they aren't court ordered there. the one thing i have to say about them is that they're really firm in their beliefs although they weren't necessarily christian before that.
as for a lot of people violating their religions, that's totally true. i'm catholic, i don't go to church, but i don't consider myself a great catholic either. i hold the beliefs, i try to keep the morals and rules, but i also disagree with a lot of what they say about some things (capital punishment for one, masturbation is another, no joke). some rules that they have expect people to be of the utmost strength and everything and sometimes when they fail, they do something bad or have a bad result (which is why i think masturbation isn't wrong).
the terrorists in the middle east believe they are following their religion of islam, but it's completely wrong. islam is a peaceful religion and there's really no argument against that. someone came up with a demented view of it and said that the western world is evil and must be killed, but western religion is older than islam, which is the funny part. judaism is arguably the oldest religion (with buddhism and hinduism also much older than islam). islam started in the 600's or 700's making it fairly recent. their calender is in the 1300's or 1400's still because they start their calender when mohammed came. i just think their whole thing against the western world is kind of weird. we didn't invade their space, our religions were pretty much there first. the funny thing is, islam is very close in beliefs and views to christianity. so i'm going to guess that mohammed had some major christian influence when he started islam.
religion is all weird. i prefer those who are tolerant of others and don't go forcing their beliefs on anyone, that's just wrong in my opinion. people have a right to believe what they want. and the worst part is, all religions basically hold the same beliefs and morals, even the eastern ones compared to the western ones.
i believe in miracles... i have seen stuff that is definitely not normal activity.
example... person takes a picture of a temple in israel, gets the photos developed and out comes a picture of jesus.
second example... person takes rosary beads to this place, plain old normal rosary beads... they get blessed and the chain holding the beads turns to gold. i have the rosary beads
explain those, tehre's no scientific explanation. i believe it's a work of god. he works in mysterious ways. if the shroud were said to be completely true by science, it would make for the hottest item on the black market. and like i said about the prayer thing, of course it's not going to work if someone is testing god, and someone tested god with the shroud too, so he worked his magic.
it's called faith, i have a lot of it.
i'd rather not have IE installed on my cmoputer, but removing it causes all sorts of general not good stuff. if i could remove it without havnig to worry about the patches, i would, but it's a bitch.
all windows update does is run a script that checks which updates are already installed on your system. i have seen other websites that do similar things. how hard would it be for ms to make their thing more universal? once it determines which patches are already installed and which aren't, it just downloads them and installs them in "one easy step". i'd rather it gave me the option to download them now and install them later without having to search for each patch on their website to download.
and their patching system isn't 100% great either, once a week i notice that i need to install the IE patch that i have installed about 10 times now. same patch, same date, nothing different. it's not installing for some reason, i don't get it. i use mozilla now, so i don't really care.
microsoft has been hacked/cracked before, who's to say it won't happen again? and how is it compliant if they have certain sites that require their browser. what's the deal with any site requiring a certain browser? that's just plain dumb.
of course these are ideal thoughts, so god knows it'll never happen.
they have to go back to court to determine if they are keeping their promises or not. it'll probably be a good 6 months before that happens, most likely longer. the justice system here takes way too long to get anything done.
itunes and napster allow you to use the default browser, which could be mozilla or opera or netscape or even IE. they aren't an alternative to IE, they are an alternative to using microsoft's music thing. microsoft is deceiving windows users into thinking that their default browser is whatever you set as it when it's really only the default browser for non-microsoft software. that's what the problem is.
not so necessary disclaimer: i am a microsoft windows user, and i was an IE/eudora user until about a week ago when i installed mozilla for both web and email. i do not hate microsoft products, i just hate their ways. i find windows 2000 to be a great OS (no joke here).
isn't windowsupdate another thing that requires IE? i think that's pretty bad. get your security updates, but use an insecure browser to do it with. makes a lot of sense to me...
i guess it's different for different places. i've had it tell me to get off an exit and the exit dumps you out onto a road with a median (one of those nice pretty medians with flowers and trees in it, but not a highway) and then tell you to take the road that's nearly directly across the divided road, but you can't get there because of the median. the only thing i like about it is that it takes one way streets into account when giving directions.
i have recently seen a discovery channel documentary that was made more recently than 1993 that still says that the "thing" on top of ararat could be a ship. it looks at more recent photos of the mountain. we'll never have a real answer or real proof of either side of the argument until turkey allows people to go up there.
carbon dating isn't 100% accurate, and i don't believe anything was said about the shroud being created to look like jesus. if that was the case, it would've had to happen many many many many years ago because there are burn marks in it from a fire in a convent a long time ago. also, the dating that i heard dates it to the 1300's, which is pretty damn old. and the image on the shroud looks like jesus, has all the blood marks where jesus' would have been, including the crown of thorns.
as for the ark of the covenant, i could be wrong about that one. i thought i learned in a religion/history class that it was kept in a temple in israel, but that could be a combination of watching raiders of the lost ark and learning that it was originally kept in that temple. that's the only thing i'll concede defeat with.
i've never seen mapquest use landmarks. but that's my one gripe about any online mapping/direction service. if you get directions from whoever you're going to, they'll give you landmarks, especially if the turn isn't obvious.
i have a feeling most direction/mapping websites have issues with lots of quick turning and exiting and entering different highways just because of the way many road systems are designed (usually poorly).
i've never had mapquest tell me that an exit is a left exit when that's the case, but i don't think it's designed to.
in general, i have no problems. it gets me where i need to go when i don't knw the way.
when science constructs a human being from scratch, i will concede. otherwise, it isn't alive, it's not made of living cells. a computer is not made up of the same things as a human, or any other animal at that.
cloning does not count because it makes a duplicate of an animal using the dna and the natural process of growth.