I wouldn't forget a class in biology. General knowledge of chemistry I've given up on expecting from people, but the number I run into who are ignorant of basic biological processes is growing - and appalling.
If you are religious, you should be prohibited from serving in public office.
Bosh. Let them believe what they want. However, let them ONCE state (or otherwise demonstrate) they'll allow their religious beliefs to color their political decisions, and they're gone.
And your attitudes similarly don't prevent me from thinking that you are too afraid of the notion that you might have to be eternally accountable for your beliefs to even consider the possibility that you could be wrong.
Oh, I do - I hedge my bets by trying to be a "good person". But oddly enough, that has sociological benefits in addition to the religious ones. I let god, the afterlife, and the tooth fairly rule my life in exact proportion to the evidence for their existence - i.e. pretty close to zero.
Challenge: Give me one shred of evidence, other than hearsay, that there IS an afterlife. I'll wait...
Seems to me there was already a movie (Gattica) about that. Any gambler will take every chance possible to reduce his risk. Insurance of ANY kind is gambling; in this case, you're gambling you'll get sick, the insurance company (and, by proxy, the employer) is gambling you won't. Taken to its logical conclusion, only genetically-perfect, clean-living supermen will be employable.
Please, that's the worst argument I've ever heard. Do you agree, morally, with the other expenditures your government makes on your behalf? If you do, you're not paying attention. At the very worst, the Apollo program didn't bomb or torture anyone.
First, I've never had one good experience with Lexmark inkjets. Bad drivers, expensive ink, shoddy engineering...
About that latter two: I was once doing a presentation on Apple products at a major educational customer. The Lexmark rep was on before me. In response to questions about the cost of ink cartridges, he recommended to the school district they simply buy many, many, new printers and discard them as the cartridges emptied. Seems a set of cartridges cost more than a new printer, and the printers weren't all that reliable anyway...
I don't believe he worked for Lexmark after that. And why do you think most printers come with "starter" ink cartridges these days?
I don't get people. You can have something that SEARCHES, or something that doesn't. Once you start censoring the search, the engine becomes, to a varying extent, a PR outlet - and useless. But each person or organization that doesn't want THEIR pet bugaboo found apparently assumes they're the only one with that right.
The real reason that consumer electronics are so difficult to repair has nothing to do with corporate conspiracy. Electronic design has shifted over the past generation from using large and discrete components to being almost exclusively dependent on integrated circuits and highly miniaturized surface mount devices. Twenty years ago perhaps, a hobbyist could get out a volmeter and soldering iron to trace a circuit problem to an individual transistor within, say, a pre-amp or filter assembly, and then easily replace the defective part within minutes. Now the entire assembly, formerly involving dozens of components, has been replaced by a single and often very tiny IC chip. In addition, any resistors or capacitors in modern circuits, once large enough for anyone to easily manipulate, have now been reduced to the size of grains of salt and are nearly impossible to extract and replace. In fact, the rule is that it is now much cheaper to simply dispose of defective circuitry than it is to attempt any kind or repair.
Replacing a battery, touch pad, or screen may still be within the realm of possibility, but broken electronics are better just destroyed and replaced with new.
I manage the service department of an Apple authorized retailer. The above is perfectly correct; we use a volt/ohm meter about twice a year, and none of the techs even remembers where the soldering iron is. We run tests and replace modules. While there are some specialized fasteners, the only ones not necessitated by the design are the ones on the batteries - we discourage people from mucking with those for safety reasons. As far as the iPad, we don't fix 'em - APPLE doesn't fix 'em. They go back to Apple and are remanufactured; that is, some components are stripped out and re-used. The customer ALWAYS gets back a new serial number. If that weren't true, the product couldn't be the iPad consumers know and love.
"Huh, really, you did this in your spare time? So you can do this stuff? Well, how's about your task for the next month is to write an identical (but newer) version on our time and equipment so we own it?"
That was the scenario I ran into. Long ago, I wrote (on my own time) a desktop interface to a minicomputer database, solely to make it easier to produces sales quotations. A co-worker asked for a copy... within a month or two it was the defacto official quoting system. (Yes, I know I was stupid) Then they came to me with a list of changes and improvements they wanted. When I asked about additional compensation - I was a SALESMAN after all - they immediately went hostile and refused to even speak to me about it. Eventually, they hired someone to maintain it...
So "progress?" I don't think that word means what you think it does. The first world has made it's decision and you can flog the dead horse of nuclear, but the only new adopters will be the third world and powers that want to refine for nuclear weapons, such as arabic countries, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Yes, progress. It's clear that fossil fuels aren't viable even in the medium term, and unless we stop our population growth or drastically change lifestyles, "renewable" isn't going to cut it, either. The "future" ultimately, can and must be fusion. And we aren't going to get it by abandoning high technology, high energy density engineering. Though they aren't directly related, fission makes a good trainer for fusion. Teaches you to be CAREFUL.
In case you haven't noticed, the United States has essentially ceased the manufacture of tangible goods (unless you count foodstuffs). All we really have left to base our wealth upon is intellectual property. Problem is, you point to a hammer and see value: iron, wood, and the energy to mold them. With IP, especially media, the only value is that which the customers choose to give it. We MUST force our laws and perceptions regarding IP on the world. We have no choice.
I'm actually quite tired of this calumny. Xerox was well paid for the presentations (in stock, IIRC) and the use of the GUI elements demonstrated. No one "snuck in" or "stole" anything.
It going to get extended forever.... Like Syrian "state of emergency", which was in place for over 20 years.
Here in Pennsylvania, we still pay a special tax enacted to pay for repairs following the Johnstown flood in 1889. Once they get hold of power OR money, they never let go. Ever.
I lobbied hard to get my local cable company to add SciFi; and was markedly disappointed when they did. The actual science fiction content has only declined since then. I no longer see a reason to watch it at all; there's zero chance I'd pay to do so. OTOH, making it a pay channel would hasten their bankruptcy, freeing up bandwidth for something else.
Downsizing an operation is slow and painful. Downsizing employee benefits more so. I have a good friend who is a rural letter carrier. Her job is to drive up to your mailbox and put stuff in it. No offense to anyone, but this is not rocket science. She makes more money than I do in IT, and has vastly better benefits. She also has a no-layoff clause in her contract that basically means, as long as she has a couple of years seniority and doesn't shoot up the place, she can't be fired. There are also redundant (and expensive) levels of management like you wouldn't believe. This (somehow) needs to be moved closer to reality for a private business, which the post office employees all claim to work for.
I have no problem with 44 cents to deliver a letter. I have no problem with 88 cents - it's still a bargain, and an essential service. My opinion, the bulk mailers get too good a deal; if they can't afford to send me junk for almost nothing, so be it. And I do realize this will downsize the printing and bulk mailing businesses, too. Better that than lose mail service entirely.
No, they don't. That was settled a long time ago when Apple was ruled against in their suit against MS over look and feel. If you look at the previous summary it's very clear that Apple is trying to do an end run around the normal prohibition on suits over look and feel.
Actually, that wasn't why they lost the case. You can certainly protect your look and feel, companies do it every day. Apple lost that particular case, against that particular company, because Microsoft had a license allowing them to use some elements of the GUI. Granted, Apple had foolishly given away much more in that contract than they intended to; if they hadn't, computing would be very different today. And BTW, don't bring up Xerox - they were paid handsomely for their contribution, all nice and legal.
I'd try to calm down before posting next time - and check a few facts. Take a look at what happened to Apple without Steve Jobs... and what happened last time Apple let other companies use their OS.
My grandfather was a police sergeant; at a very early age, the one piece of advice he gave me was "Never piss off a judge" I didn't understand then, but I sure do now. In this case, I see no real reason to make the agreement public other than to embarrass Righthaven. Pissed indeed...
...are snatching up whatever space vehicles they can. I hear there's gonna be a shortage. Change the tubes in the radio, slap a coat of paint on it, and you can sell the US government seats to the space station. They're not going to get there any OTHER way. Sellers market...
...vastly fewer TSA thugs groping your children and gawking at your genitals.
Ya think so? No. Trains are at least as vulnerable to terrorism, if a bit harder to crash into buildings. If we had any significant passenger rail use, the security would be just as tight. Matter of fact, if we went to the mythical "tube trains" we'd all be riding them naked, after a cavity search. A small bomb would take out a trillion dollar tube, instead of a few hundreds of millions in planes and skyscrapers.
Traveling at high speed is inherently an expensive pursuit, in terms of energy, materials cost, and engineering. We've burned through millions of years worth of petroleum in the last century, like a kid burning through the cash in a found wallet. Other natural resources are becoming scarcer as well, with a greater population every year to support. If we're honest, eventually another resource - cheap labor - will be exhausted, too, as standards of living rise. The Chinese aren't going to build stuff cheaply forever.
If our CURRENT population all rose to a 1950 standard of living, we'd only be able to afford 1900 technology. But the population won't stabilize without starvation; it's a biological imperative. So the balance will slip further.
If it doesn't have a 6502/6510 processor, it's not a C64. They may stick something else in there for modern software; but if it has to emulate "itself" it's disingenuous to use the name. Of course, they may emulate other things, too - when I was selling the originals to schools, they'd put 15 on the truck for each 10 that were ordered. Because about 1/3 were dead out of the box.
MANY years. My eighth grade (circa 1969) science project was a "working" model of a gun-type uranium bomb. If you have the fissionable material and do the math right, the engineering is almost trivial. Unfortunately for me, the hidden flash bulb that triggered when my "uranium" masses met caused my teacher to soil her underwear. I got an "F" for inappropriate subject material (overturned on appeal).
I guess if that continues to be the case I'll have to invest in an eyepatch.
Actually, would that help?
Does for me. First couple of 3D movies I went to, I wound up covering one eye after about 20 minutes. You get a dimmer, blurrier version of the film, but you don't get sick. Then I stopped going to 3D movies - permanently.
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I wouldn't forget a class in biology. General knowledge of chemistry I've given up on expecting from people, but the number I run into who are ignorant of basic biological processes is growing - and appalling.
If you are religious, you should be prohibited from serving in public office.
Bosh. Let them believe what they want. However, let them ONCE state (or otherwise demonstrate) they'll allow their religious beliefs to color their political decisions, and they're gone.
And your attitudes similarly don't prevent me from thinking that you are too afraid of the notion that you might have to be eternally accountable for your beliefs to even consider the possibility that you could be wrong.
Oh, I do - I hedge my bets by trying to be a "good person". But oddly enough, that has sociological benefits in addition to the religious ones. I let god, the afterlife, and the tooth fairly rule my life in exact proportion to the evidence for their existence - i.e. pretty close to zero.
Challenge: Give me one shred of evidence, other than hearsay, that there IS an afterlife. I'll wait...
Seems to me there was already a movie (Gattica) about that. Any gambler will take every chance possible to reduce his risk. Insurance of ANY kind is gambling; in this case, you're gambling you'll get sick, the insurance company (and, by proxy, the employer) is gambling you won't. Taken to its logical conclusion, only genetically-perfect, clean-living supermen will be employable.
Question is, how far will we allow it to go?
Please, that's the worst argument I've ever heard. Do you agree, morally, with the other expenditures your government makes on your behalf? If you do, you're not paying attention. At the very worst, the Apollo program didn't bomb or torture anyone.
First, I've never had one good experience with Lexmark inkjets. Bad drivers, expensive ink, shoddy engineering...
About that latter two: I was once doing a presentation on Apple products at a major educational customer. The Lexmark rep was on before me. In response to questions about the cost of ink cartridges, he recommended to the school district they simply buy many, many, new printers and discard them as the cartridges emptied. Seems a set of cartridges cost more than a new printer, and the printers weren't all that reliable anyway...
I don't believe he worked for Lexmark after that. And why do you think most printers come with "starter" ink cartridges these days?
I don't get people. You can have something that SEARCHES, or something that doesn't. Once you start censoring the search, the engine becomes, to a varying extent, a PR outlet - and useless. But each person or organization that doesn't want THEIR pet bugaboo found apparently assumes they're the only one with that right.
The real reason that consumer electronics are so difficult to repair has nothing to do with corporate conspiracy. Electronic design has shifted over the past generation from using large and discrete components to being almost exclusively dependent on integrated circuits and highly miniaturized surface mount devices. Twenty years ago perhaps, a hobbyist could get out a volmeter and soldering iron to trace a circuit problem to an individual transistor within, say, a pre-amp or filter assembly, and then easily replace the defective part within minutes. Now the entire assembly, formerly involving dozens of components, has been replaced by a single and often very tiny IC chip. In addition, any resistors or capacitors in modern circuits, once large enough for anyone to easily manipulate, have now been reduced to the size of grains of salt and are nearly impossible to extract and replace. In fact, the rule is that it is now much cheaper to simply dispose of defective circuitry than it is to attempt any kind or repair.
Replacing a battery, touch pad, or screen may still be within the realm of possibility, but broken electronics are better just destroyed and replaced with new.
I manage the service department of an Apple authorized retailer. The above is perfectly correct; we use a volt/ohm meter about twice a year, and none of the techs even remembers where the soldering iron is. We run tests and replace modules. While there are some specialized fasteners, the only ones not necessitated by the design are the ones on the batteries - we discourage people from mucking with those for safety reasons. As far as the iPad, we don't fix 'em - APPLE doesn't fix 'em. They go back to Apple and are remanufactured; that is, some components are stripped out and re-used. The customer ALWAYS gets back a new serial number. If that weren't true, the product couldn't be the iPad consumers know and love.
Remember when Microsoft saved Apple's ass via a cash infusion?
Thank god for Microsoft.
Interestingly enough, that turns out not to be true.
"Huh, really, you did this in your spare time? So you can do this stuff? Well, how's about your task for the next month is to write an identical (but newer) version on our time and equipment so we own it?"
That was the scenario I ran into. Long ago, I wrote (on my own time) a desktop interface to a minicomputer database, solely to make it easier to produces sales quotations. A co-worker asked for a copy... within a month or two it was the defacto official quoting system. (Yes, I know I was stupid) Then they came to me with a list of changes and improvements they wanted. When I asked about additional compensation - I was a SALESMAN after all - they immediately went hostile and refused to even speak to me about it. Eventually, they hired someone to maintain it...
So "progress?" I don't think that word means what you think it does. The first world has made it's decision and you can flog the dead horse of nuclear, but the only new adopters will be the third world and powers that want to refine for nuclear weapons, such as arabic countries, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Yes, progress. It's clear that fossil fuels aren't viable even in the medium term, and unless we stop our population growth or drastically change lifestyles, "renewable" isn't going to cut it, either. The "future" ultimately, can and must be fusion. And we aren't going to get it by abandoning high technology, high energy density engineering. Though they aren't directly related, fission makes a good trainer for fusion. Teaches you to be CAREFUL.
In case you haven't noticed, the United States has essentially ceased the manufacture of tangible goods (unless you count foodstuffs). All we really have left to base our wealth upon is intellectual property. Problem is, you point to a hammer and see value: iron, wood, and the energy to mold them. With IP, especially media, the only value is that which the customers choose to give it. We MUST force our laws and perceptions regarding IP on the world. We have no choice.
I'm actually quite tired of this calumny. Xerox was well paid for the presentations (in stock, IIRC) and the use of the GUI elements demonstrated. No one "snuck in" or "stole" anything.
It going to get extended forever.... Like Syrian "state of emergency", which was in place for over 20 years.
Here in Pennsylvania, we still pay a special tax enacted to pay for repairs following the Johnstown flood in 1889. Once they get hold of power OR money, they never let go. Ever.
I lobbied hard to get my local cable company to add SciFi; and was markedly disappointed when they did. The actual science fiction content has only declined since then. I no longer see a reason to watch it at all; there's zero chance I'd pay to do so. OTOH, making it a pay channel would hasten their bankruptcy, freeing up bandwidth for something else.
Downsizing an operation is slow and painful. Downsizing employee benefits more so. I have a good friend who is a rural letter carrier. Her job is to drive up to your mailbox and put stuff in it. No offense to anyone, but this is not rocket science. She makes more money than I do in IT, and has vastly better benefits. She also has a no-layoff clause in her contract that basically means, as long as she has a couple of years seniority and doesn't shoot up the place, she can't be fired. There are also redundant (and expensive) levels of management like you wouldn't believe. This (somehow) needs to be moved closer to reality for a private business, which the post office employees all claim to work for.
I have no problem with 44 cents to deliver a letter. I have no problem with 88 cents - it's still a bargain, and an essential service. My opinion, the bulk mailers get too good a deal; if they can't afford to send me junk for almost nothing, so be it. And I do realize this will downsize the printing and bulk mailing businesses, too. Better that than lose mail service entirely.
No, they don't. That was settled a long time ago when Apple was ruled against in their suit against MS over look and feel. If you look at the previous summary it's very clear that Apple is trying to do an end run around the normal prohibition on suits over look and feel.
Actually, that wasn't why they lost the case. You can certainly protect your look and feel, companies do it every day. Apple lost that particular case, against that particular company, because Microsoft had a license allowing them to use some elements of the GUI. Granted, Apple had foolishly given away much more in that contract than they intended to; if they hadn't, computing would be very different today. And BTW, don't bring up Xerox - they were paid handsomely for their contribution, all nice and legal.
I'd try to calm down before posting next time - and check a few facts. Take a look at what happened to Apple without Steve Jobs... and what happened last time Apple let other companies use their OS.
You don't wanna piss off the judge.
My grandfather was a police sergeant; at a very early age, the one piece of advice he gave me was "Never piss off a judge" I didn't understand then, but I sure do now. In this case, I see no real reason to make the agreement public other than to embarrass Righthaven. Pissed indeed...
...are snatching up whatever space vehicles they can. I hear there's gonna be a shortage. Change the tubes in the radio, slap a coat of paint on it, and you can sell the US government seats to the space station. They're not going to get there any OTHER way. Sellers market...
...vastly fewer TSA thugs groping your children and gawking at your genitals.
Ya think so? No. Trains are at least as vulnerable to terrorism, if a bit harder to crash into buildings. If we had any significant passenger rail use, the security would be just as tight. Matter of fact, if we went to the mythical "tube trains" we'd all be riding them naked, after a cavity search. A small bomb would take out a trillion dollar tube, instead of a few hundreds of millions in planes and skyscrapers.
Traveling at high speed is inherently an expensive pursuit, in terms of energy, materials cost, and engineering. We've burned through millions of years worth of petroleum in the last century, like a kid burning through the cash in a found wallet. Other natural resources are becoming scarcer as well, with a greater population every year to support. If we're honest, eventually another resource - cheap labor - will be exhausted, too, as standards of living rise. The Chinese aren't going to build stuff cheaply forever.
If our CURRENT population all rose to a 1950 standard of living, we'd only be able to afford 1900 technology. But the population won't stabilize without starvation; it's a biological imperative. So the balance will slip further.
If it doesn't have a 6502/6510 processor, it's not a C64. They may stick something else in there for modern software; but if it has to emulate "itself" it's disingenuous to use the name. Of course, they may emulate other things, too - when I was selling the originals to schools, they'd put 15 on the truck for each 10 that were ordered. Because about 1/3 were dead out of the box.
MANY years. My eighth grade (circa 1969) science project was a "working" model of a gun-type uranium bomb. If you have the fissionable material and do the math right, the engineering is almost trivial. Unfortunately for me, the hidden flash bulb that triggered when my "uranium" masses met caused my teacher to soil her underwear. I got an "F" for inappropriate subject material (overturned on appeal).
I guess if that continues to be the case I'll have to invest in an eyepatch.
Actually, would that help?
Does for me. First couple of 3D movies I went to, I wound up covering one eye after about 20 minutes. You get a dimmer, blurrier version of the film, but you don't get sick. Then I stopped going to 3D movies - permanently.