You could just grab the installers from the app store on a Lion client and burn them to a CD, or stick them on an internal server. For most places I've worked that would fall within the bounds of acceptable. Then create one master "Mac Sever" image file from a hardened vanilla setup, and just clone the rest of the batch with a fully patched and updated OS. The you can config the specific services needed on the individual systems that will provide them.
I think it's likely to be relegated to calendar server duty, and I'm going to move mail, web, and FTP to some variety of Linux.
I'm confused as to why based on this article. It sounds to me as if everything is still there, but some of it has to be command line configured like it would in Linux. I generally think that for servers command line and text file configuration are much preferred anyway, and it's the way you'd have to do it in Linux. I was reading the whole article trying to find out what the problems are. The installation issues sounded mildly annoying, but usually with a new server OS deployment I'm going to build one then image it anyway, so not a huge deal. There's still a lot more GUI tools than you typically get with a Linux server if that's your thing, and the group policy capabilities sound like a big step in the right direct.
If anything, assuming that your IT department is competent, this article seems to be complaining from the wrong point of view. It sounds like Lion Server might kinda suck for a SoHo type setup where the users and the admins are the same people, no one is really an expert, and there are minimal resources for things like imaging and deployment; but for an enterprise IT shop these changes shouldn't have much impact. I won't be rushing out to buy it, but to be honest I've never used Mac servers. I like them as clients, but I'd just as soon make the back end Linux.
That was straight from the comics. I was wondering if they were going to "modernize" his origin and have him be "born" in a Middle Eastern conflict like Iron Man or use the story from the comics. Kinda cool that they went with the comic version. Sure it's a bit unbelievable. So is serum that instantly makes a 99 pound weakling into an Olympian gymnast/martial artist, or a shield that bounces off walls to return to its owner.
Exactly. As far as I'm concerned the jury is still out on this one. As soon as I start seeing something that isn't just repost of something I've already seen on Facebook from the same user, I'll be more convinced. Right now my Google+ home page looks like pared down version of the Facebook main page. There's nothing wrong with the service, and several things I like a bit better, but until the people are there and posting stuff that isn't mirrored on FB it's not really doing much for me.
Meanwhile when I was looking for an iPad I was essentially told to be waiting at the store first thing in the morning for the truck or order online. They're literally selling them faster than they can ship them at the three Apple stores I went to. In a way I'm happy about that, after more though I paid half as much for Nook, and it's more than adequate for the main use case I was interested in (Web and e-mail capable e-reader).
You know what would be better? if Microsoft would make it possible to easily integrate with AD. No shit easy AD integration would be be better. I'd love it on my Linux boxes too. You've built your house on top of an uninhabited mountain and now you're complaining that there are no stores nearby. I'm quite sure the Samba guys and and the OpenLDAP guys (both of which Macs support) would love to help you out with easy AD support on both Linux and Macs.
Enterprise IT is different. Computers stay in use until they're depreciated or until they're nonviable.
My four year old Macbook is still viable and in use. Apple hardware tends to be viable for a good long while. Not forever, Leopard finally EOLed the PowerPC generation hardware, and Lion is apparently now EOLing the first generation of Intel processors, but in general it last s a good long while and will run everything released till it EOLs. Unlike Windows upgrades (Windows 7 excepted here, it really is more efficient than Vista, and not much more resource hungry than XPSP3) , new version of MacOS tend to make old Macs run better even. Even on the consumer electronics level, my Dad is using my wife's old iPhone 3G quite happily. Of course Apple would prefer you buy a new computer, phone, and tablet every time they release one, Dell would prefer you buy everything they sell too. It's hardly required though.
IT departments also don't like variation and work hard to buy literally one model of computer for as absolutely long as possible, again, skipping generations of machines until latching on to the next long-term purchase model.
One of the biggest weaknesses people love to cite on Apple hardware for power users is their refresh cycle. A particular line is usually refreshed every 18-24 months. So, for instance, the Air line was just refreshed. That means that for the next year or more, the four options for "MacBook Air" are going to stay more or less the same. It's a pain in the ass when you want a new laptop and you know they're about to do a refresh so you either have to wait or buy hardware that'll be "old" in a couple months when they do a refresh; but it ought to be great for IT according to your theory.
Also, one of the reasons that IT departments do what you say they do is to keep images consistent. Drivers and software support must be maintained by keeping hardware the same. MacOS doesn't have that problem because all the drivers you need are loadable kernel modules that are on every install. I could clone my MacBook to an image file, and put that image on a Mac Pro's drive. The Mac Pro will boot and perform normally. Linux is similar by the way. Most of the distro vendors compile the vast majority of drivers the system is likely to need as loadable modules. Unless you've got some really strange hardware, you can generally image a Linux system, use the image on a completely different system, and be fine.
Apple and Corporate IT don't get along, and for a lot of very good reason (and some bad ones), some of which the article points out. Your reasons though are completely bunk. If anything Apple products are particularly suited to Enterprise IT by the standards you list here. Apple makes it money on consumers, and isn't like to change its policies to accommodate corporate IT. So the irony is that your premise is right, but your reasons aren't.
I have heard a rumor that Red Hat is planning to do something to make it harder for Oracle to clone them. I don't know any details, and I'm not sure how you'd go about doing that with an Open Source OS; but the person who mentioned it was directly tied to Red Hat. If they succeed it will make life harder for Cent and Scientific, which will really suck. Red Hat feels (assuming this person is correct), that Oracle is backing them into a corner with the way they sell OEL, and I can't say I'd blame them.
Yes, that is becasue, although the students are not employees of the government, when the school puts them on the intercom at a school sponsored event, they are representatives of the school. If the student offered a prayer among the people s/he was sitting with at the game, that would be fine. If a dozen strategically placed students did so all over the stands, that would be bloody uncomfortable in my eyes, but fine. Once they're doing it over the PA with school approval, it's a school sponsored prayer. Same with the altar call at graduation.
Like most rights enumerated in the Constitution the freedom of religious practice right is easy to say, but difficult to completely define. The courts use a test that roughly breaks down to two points: You can express your religion any way you like, but while you represent the state you must do so inclusively or not at all. Representing the state does not necessarily mean you're an employee. Another option that exists in these cases is inclusion. Schools don't tend to like that one much becasue it might mean that they have to give a floor to Pagans, Pastafarians, or Satanists.
1) There is no systematic repression of religious expression. Examples of it exist, but it's not systematic.
2) The references to Jim Crow and the Nazis was a response to the poster who responded to me, not a response to you. He said "Yet, despite all that, these guys managed to do what they did.", I said, "yes, and despite many other things besides, many of which were also bad and should have been done away with." It's not Godwin by the way, I didn't say anyone was a Nazi, I brought up the historical fact that one of the most famous men (and several of his lieutenants) we're talking about here (someone I admire by the way, I posted his praises in another recent NASA article) came of age under a manifestly bad system. Given that this is within the historical context of the discussion it's a perfectly valid argument.
You had two essential points:
1) that there is systematic repression of religious expression in schools, emblemized by organizations like the ACLU. This is not true. There is at worst spotty repression of religious expression in schools, and it is, if anything, fought by the ACLU and similar organization. There is a requirement to avoid religious coercion in schools, for which we can thank the ACLU among others.
2) That said systematic repression is the cause for the failure of American science education. This is probably also untrue, but really far to difficult to test. There have been numerous and varied changes to society and education the 70-80 years since the Apollo scientist were generally in school. Trying to isolate any one of them and say "this is at fault" is like trying to isolate the butterfly whose wings cause hurricane Katrina.
When I said there was no repression of religious expression in schools, I suppose I should have said that the ACLU and similar religious freedom organization don't advocate such repression. It does exist, largely becasue school systems overreact to legitimate attempts to minimize religious coercion in schools. The ACLU fights such repression as much as it fights the coercion. The OPs implication was that the ACLU is attempting to repress religious expression in schools. It's not true.
As to the "bogeymen" being present in the schools that these scientists grew up in, that's not an excuse to keep doing it. Jim Crow laws existed in the towns many of those men grew up in, should we continue those? Wernher Von Braun came of age under the Nazis, does that mean that we should have left them alone, becasue they produce awesome rocket scientists? Also worth pointing out is that those men were given the best science education that was available at the time. The fact is that evolution was much less important to a sound biological education at the time. Genetics and biochemistry were the realms of the most cutting edge researchers, but a foundation in biology did not require an understanding much beyond Mendel's peas. A "foundation" in modern biology requires more up to date information on genetics and evolution, because an understanding of those topic is required to understand most current biological theories.
Lots of stuff gets stopped. Orders of magnitude more stuff gets stopped than actually gets through. No one cares about that. It's what we expect, shit is going on out int he Internet, we stop it from getting to our network. It's only when we fail that it's a story. Think about how crime statistics are reported: There were around 500 murders in New York City last year. That sounds horrible. What are the cops doing? Of course that means that approximately 8.2 million people (plus or minus tourists and short term residents) weren't murdered in New York City last year. Sounds a lot better than way, but no one says it like that.
The situation with hacking is both better and worse that you imagine from looking at these recent high profile events. Worse becasue for every one of these stories you see there are probably a hundred more minor and far less publicized (or downright buried) events. Better, because in actual fact the vast majority of the attempts fail. I wouldn't even care to count the number "hacking attempts" I get just on my home network everyday, let alone the networks of anyone that actually matters or has resources.
There's no repression of religious expression at schools. Indeed the very ACLU you pan has on numerous occasions defended the rights of students to express their religious beliefs in school: Here's one, here's another. A simple Google search reveals dozens of similar stories. What the ACLU objects to, along with most religious freedom advocates, is the coercive expression of religion in schools. A teacher has no right to lead students in a prayer that some present may not believe in. He or she is representative of the authority of the school and in turn the government, they should not give the impression of coercing students into prayer. Similarly, events like graduations and pep rallies are for everyone, turning them into religious events is neither fair nor constitutional. As a side note, that same teacher would be fine leading a prayer in an FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) meeting, as participation in such a thing implies a certain level of acceptance.
Long story short, religious expression in schools is fine. Students can wear all the religious jewelry they want, wear the goofy t-shirts they want, talk about God in the hallways and the lunchroom, even have clubs that focus on one religion or another. The caveat to that is that it has to be fair: If Bob can wear a cross, I can wear a pentacle; if Sue can can start a Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter, Sarah can start a Torah study group. It also should not be a part of official school events like classes, assembles, or graduations. At that point it is infringing on the rights of others.
That's different though, see. It's perfectly reasonable and rational to think that science is amazing and capable when it comes to developing technology to take us into orbit or interconnect the globe in a web of communication; but completely wrong about all that biology and biochem stuff. I mean clearly the fact that we can measure time and distance with sufficient accuracy to hit a missile in low earth orbit moving at many times the speed of sound with another missile is completely coherent with the idea that we can't accurately measure the rate of decay for carbon. The fact that we can sequence and even modify genes in experimental medical procedures is obviously irrelevant to the fact that those gene sequences show us clear evidence of evolution.
You see I like technology but science challenges my beliefs, so I experience no cognitive dissonance in using one while dissing the other. They're unrelated disciplines really.
You're right of course, and I'm not sure why OP worded that the way he did. The real problem is that that there is little to nothing that the Federal government can do about the lack of competition in wired markets. The big 4 (3?) wireless carriers are national (really international, but for purposes of this discussion it's irrelevant) companies that touch the lives and pocket books of Americans everywhere. If you're in Portland, Maine you have essentially four choices for wireless; if you're in LA, California you have the same four choices. Guess what your choices are in Anchorage or Miami? Yep, same guys. Given that these guys have a national oligopoly, their behavior and capabilities are naturally of concern to the national government.
By contrast, wired communications is managed in a distinctly local way. I might only be able to get Comcast where I live, but if I move across the state I might only be able to get Cox. You may not, as an individual, have lots of choices for broadband, but there are lots of choices. It's just that combination of your local government and history have prevented you from seeing more than a small selection. Local governments managed wired communications, the federal government (to the extent anyone does) manages wireless communications.
Or you could pay $25 for a USB to RS232 converter? They weigh essentially nothing, and work fine in all major OSes (you have to be a tiny bit careful in picking them for Linux/Mac, but plenty work on everything).
I'm assuming that they keep track based on the fact that I use their wifi to buy the books. The Nook seems to know that it's in a B&N and the wifi seems to know you're using a Nook. I don't think I've ever used the "read in store option", simply becasue it's easier to flip through the physical books while I'm there. I should probably ask someone at the store, they probably know.
The tax advantage is rather modest, and usually eaten up by shipping on online purchases (though Amazon has unusually good shipping terms and can avoid this to some extent). The big advantage is logistics and supply chain. Amazon maintains a dozen or so Warehouses, Borders maintains hundreds of stores. Amazon, in total, probably employes fewer people than Borders employs in a particularly large state like New York or Texas. When you go to borders and they don't have you want, you go home and order from Amazon. When you go to Amazon and they what you want is on back order, you think, "oh well, I was already waiting two days, what's another day or two?"
The tax advantage is there, of course, and it helps too; but compared to the logistics, supply chain, and economy of scale advantages, taxes are almost lost in the noise.
It is simply very difficult to shop for books online unless you already know what you want. For technical books and books from an author I know and like, Amazon is fine. For random "Hmm, I feel like reading something new" times, it's much nicer to wander around inside a store. I'll pay the extra 20% to be able to have shelves. real books that you can flip through a read a few lines, and a friendly person that you can ask about what's new and what they're read recently. Yes, of course they're trying to sell you something, but I went in to buy something... I'd just as it be something that another human being actually liked.
What I like about my Nook is that I can treat Barnes and Noble as a showroom. Go in, wander about, flip through books, talk to people, then buy on the Nook and keep everything in a small package. (I just hope that they keep track of where I bought the book, I'd hate to have my "showroom" close becasue no one buys books there anymore.)
Not to mention being extremely hackable and able to run stock Android. As an absolute last resort if B&N fails (probably not likely, but possible) you could just put stock Android on it and grab Nook and Kindle readers. The Nook reader to keep your old stuff (most of it isn't DRMed, and even if it is they'll probably be required to keep the key servers up), and the Kindle reader to buy new stuff. I'd still be sad if B&N died though. That would leave only BAM around here, and I've never like their stores. Local places are long dead here, and we never had a Borders.
It is circumstantial evidence to be sure, but a sufficient amount of circumstantial evidence can build a case or can provide a level of verification to stronger evidence. Generally the cops don't pick up one piece of incriminating evidence, say "Whew, glad that's over" and go home. Let's imagine a completely contrived scenario where a man is caught on tape robbing a bank. He claims it was his brother, who does look a lot like him. If his phone were at the bank at the time of the robbery, his brother's fingerprints weren't on the device, and an e-mail with personal information was sent very shortly after the robbery, it certainly helps the DA build a case.
But they're not any slower for doing equivalent things. You can have an old style phone that you just dial if you want to, but you want to have a smart phone. You can have a terminal program instead of a graphical file browser, but you want to have a graphical file browser. You could make your modern PC respond way faster by only using a single program at a time, but you want to have lots of stuff open so you can conveniently switch tasks. You're choosing to do thing the slightly slower way becasue they are often the more convenient way. Oh by the way, while some of these things do add wait times in at some level, many of them also save immeasurable time overall.
Which is going to cost you more time over the course of a year: waiting 10-15 seconds for your PVR to boot on the very rare occasion that you need to reboot it? Or dealing with tapes from the VCR? You gotta find the tape with the show you want, fast forward or rewind it to the part of the tape that hold the particular show you want to watch, all of that took time (often a lot of time for the queuing part) that you're ignoring becasue a VCR turned on instantly and responded instantly to an eject command.
Which will take up more time overall: Word taking a few extra seconds to load? Or having to load Word every time you need it becasue you lack the resources to keep it open and backgrounded all the time?
Which will take you more time: Having to click the phone app to dial the cell phone, or having to hunt down a computer when you want to check something really quick on the Internet?
Oh Gods, the original Civilization on a 486DX:-) It would start up fine, the first few rounds would be all nice and quick... then as the NPCs built their empires and units and such the time between rounds would get steadily longer... and longer... and... Well you get the idea.
My receiver/PVR stores perfect high definition copies of about 60 hours worth of TV for me and allows me to fast forward, pause, or even rewind live TV. By contrast my old VCR could store maybe 6 hours on a tape, if I recorded poor quality, was limited to standard def, required me to remember to change tapes out to avoid overwriting, couldn't do squat with live TV, wouldn't record one thing while I watch another, couldn't skip between programs without a manual rewind/FF (talk about waiting on technology), and the tapes were degraded every time I used them (either to watch or to record). I'm willing to accept a three second boot delay.
A cassette player vs a DVD has most of the same disadvantages (lower quality, degrading media, etc). Also DVD players are not much slower to boot or eject than VCRs (had you used Blue Ray you might have had a small point, but again, huge jumps in quality are worth a few seconds)
The fact that you *can* lock your mobile phone (you don't have to) is a feature, not a problem. If you want to just open up a phone and start dialing like an "old phone", get an old style flip phone. They still make them. The reason you have to open the phone app to dial is that you chose to get a smart or feature phone. In order to accommodate the potentially dozens or hundreds of other apps your phone has on it you have to click the phone app to dial. Your choice: convenience of being able to pull out your phone and instantly start dialing? or convenience of having a small general purpose computer in your pocket?
OK, I'll compare the responsiveness of a modern computer to an Amiga, only I want to be able to run a web browser with (counts quickly) 25 tabs open, while Skype, an instant messenger, and my e-mail client are all sitting open waiting for people to contact me, a PDF viewer is showing the Red Hat cert I just opened up to apply for a job, a word processor is open with my resume (for the same reason), and just for kicks I want to be playing Mahjong in another backgrounded window. Of course, I want all of this to be happening on a screen with sufficient resolution that I can keep track of all those things easily, preferably dual monitors at 1600x1200 or better. Of course your Amiga can't do half that and trying to do the other half all at once would probably slow it to a crawl. But you're right, single program responsiveness is much more important. Of course if you just open one program on your modern PC it'll probably fly like an eagle.
You almost have a point with the file access stuff... or you would if not for the fact that every modern operating system comes with a terminal of some sort that allows you to deal with large directories and such exactly like you did in the old days. You can even keyboard shortcut that shit so that it doesn't require clicking around to get to it. Plus with a modern terminal program in a windowed environment you can have all that stuff I was talking about before open, while using PowerShell or Gnome-Terminal, and get the full benefits of things like copy/cut/paste, hyperlinking, multiple open terminals, and GUI tools as backups in case you can't remember some syntax.
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You could just grab the installers from the app store on a Lion client and burn them to a CD, or stick them on an internal server. For most places I've worked that would fall within the bounds of acceptable. Then create one master "Mac Sever" image file from a hardened vanilla setup, and just clone the rest of the batch with a fully patched and updated OS. The you can config the specific services needed on the individual systems that will provide them.
I think it's likely to be relegated to calendar server duty, and I'm going to move mail, web, and FTP to some variety of Linux.
I'm confused as to why based on this article. It sounds to me as if everything is still there, but some of it has to be command line configured like it would in Linux. I generally think that for servers command line and text file configuration are much preferred anyway, and it's the way you'd have to do it in Linux. I was reading the whole article trying to find out what the problems are. The installation issues sounded mildly annoying, but usually with a new server OS deployment I'm going to build one then image it anyway, so not a huge deal. There's still a lot more GUI tools than you typically get with a Linux server if that's your thing, and the group policy capabilities sound like a big step in the right direct.
If anything, assuming that your IT department is competent, this article seems to be complaining from the wrong point of view. It sounds like Lion Server might kinda suck for a SoHo type setup where the users and the admins are the same people, no one is really an expert, and there are minimal resources for things like imaging and deployment; but for an enterprise IT shop these changes shouldn't have much impact. I won't be rushing out to buy it, but to be honest I've never used Mac servers. I like them as clients, but I'd just as soon make the back end Linux.
That was straight from the comics. I was wondering if they were going to "modernize" his origin and have him be "born" in a Middle Eastern conflict like Iron Man or use the story from the comics. Kinda cool that they went with the comic version. Sure it's a bit unbelievable. So is serum that instantly makes a 99 pound weakling into an Olympian gymnast/martial artist, or a shield that bounces off walls to return to its owner.
Exactly. As far as I'm concerned the jury is still out on this one. As soon as I start seeing something that isn't just repost of something I've already seen on Facebook from the same user, I'll be more convinced. Right now my Google+ home page looks like pared down version of the Facebook main page. There's nothing wrong with the service, and several things I like a bit better, but until the people are there and posting stuff that isn't mirrored on FB it's not really doing much for me.
Meanwhile when I was looking for an iPad I was essentially told to be waiting at the store first thing in the morning for the truck or order online. They're literally selling them faster than they can ship them at the three Apple stores I went to. In a way I'm happy about that, after more though I paid half as much for Nook, and it's more than adequate for the main use case I was interested in (Web and e-mail capable e-reader).
You know what would be better? if Microsoft would make it possible to easily integrate with AD. No shit easy AD integration would be be better. I'd love it on my Linux boxes too. You've built your house on top of an uninhabited mountain and now you're complaining that there are no stores nearby. I'm quite sure the Samba guys and and the OpenLDAP guys (both of which Macs support) would love to help you out with easy AD support on both Linux and Macs.
I find your comment ironic:
Enterprise IT is different. Computers stay in use until they're depreciated or until they're nonviable.
My four year old Macbook is still viable and in use. Apple hardware tends to be viable for a good long while. Not forever, Leopard finally EOLed the PowerPC generation hardware, and Lion is apparently now EOLing the first generation of Intel processors, but in general it last s a good long while and will run everything released till it EOLs. Unlike Windows upgrades (Windows 7 excepted here, it really is more efficient than Vista, and not much more resource hungry than XPSP3) , new version of MacOS tend to make old Macs run better even. Even on the consumer electronics level, my Dad is using my wife's old iPhone 3G quite happily. Of course Apple would prefer you buy a new computer, phone, and tablet every time they release one, Dell would prefer you buy everything they sell too. It's hardly required though.
IT departments also don't like variation and work hard to buy literally one model of computer for as absolutely long as possible, again, skipping generations of machines until latching on to the next long-term purchase model.
One of the biggest weaknesses people love to cite on Apple hardware for power users is their refresh cycle. A particular line is usually refreshed every 18-24 months. So, for instance, the Air line was just refreshed. That means that for the next year or more, the four options for "MacBook Air" are going to stay more or less the same. It's a pain in the ass when you want a new laptop and you know they're about to do a refresh so you either have to wait or buy hardware that'll be "old" in a couple months when they do a refresh; but it ought to be great for IT according to your theory.
Also, one of the reasons that IT departments do what you say they do is to keep images consistent. Drivers and software support must be maintained by keeping hardware the same. MacOS doesn't have that problem because all the drivers you need are loadable kernel modules that are on every install. I could clone my MacBook to an image file, and put that image on a Mac Pro's drive. The Mac Pro will boot and perform normally. Linux is similar by the way. Most of the distro vendors compile the vast majority of drivers the system is likely to need as loadable modules. Unless you've got some really strange hardware, you can generally image a Linux system, use the image on a completely different system, and be fine.
Apple and Corporate IT don't get along, and for a lot of very good reason (and some bad ones), some of which the article points out. Your reasons though are completely bunk. If anything Apple products are particularly suited to Enterprise IT by the standards you list here. Apple makes it money on consumers, and isn't like to change its policies to accommodate corporate IT. So the irony is that your premise is right, but your reasons aren't.
I have heard a rumor that Red Hat is planning to do something to make it harder for Oracle to clone them. I don't know any details, and I'm not sure how you'd go about doing that with an Open Source OS; but the person who mentioned it was directly tied to Red Hat. If they succeed it will make life harder for Cent and Scientific, which will really suck. Red Hat feels (assuming this person is correct), that Oracle is backing them into a corner with the way they sell OEL, and I can't say I'd blame them.
Yes, that is becasue, although the students are not employees of the government, when the school puts them on the intercom at a school sponsored event, they are representatives of the school. If the student offered a prayer among the people s/he was sitting with at the game, that would be fine. If a dozen strategically placed students did so all over the stands, that would be bloody uncomfortable in my eyes, but fine. Once they're doing it over the PA with school approval, it's a school sponsored prayer. Same with the altar call at graduation.
Like most rights enumerated in the Constitution the freedom of religious practice right is easy to say, but difficult to completely define. The courts use a test that roughly breaks down to two points: You can express your religion any way you like, but while you represent the state you must do so inclusively or not at all. Representing the state does not necessarily mean you're an employee. Another option that exists in these cases is inclusion. Schools don't tend to like that one much becasue it might mean that they have to give a floor to Pagans, Pastafarians, or Satanists.
1) There is no systematic repression of religious expression. Examples of it exist, but it's not systematic.
2) The references to Jim Crow and the Nazis was a response to the poster who responded to me, not a response to you. He said "Yet, despite all that, these guys managed to do what they did.", I said, "yes, and despite many other things besides, many of which were also bad and should have been done away with." It's not Godwin by the way, I didn't say anyone was a Nazi, I brought up the historical fact that one of the most famous men (and several of his lieutenants) we're talking about here (someone I admire by the way, I posted his praises in another recent NASA article) came of age under a manifestly bad system. Given that this is within the historical context of the discussion it's a perfectly valid argument.
You had two essential points:
1) that there is systematic repression of religious expression in schools, emblemized by organizations like the ACLU. This is not true. There is at worst spotty repression of religious expression in schools, and it is, if anything, fought by the ACLU and similar organization. There is a requirement to avoid religious coercion in schools, for which we can thank the ACLU among others.
2) That said systematic repression is the cause for the failure of American science education. This is probably also untrue, but really far to difficult to test. There have been numerous and varied changes to society and education the 70-80 years since the Apollo scientist were generally in school. Trying to isolate any one of them and say "this is at fault" is like trying to isolate the butterfly whose wings cause hurricane Katrina.
When I said there was no repression of religious expression in schools, I suppose I should have said that the ACLU and similar religious freedom organization don't advocate such repression. It does exist, largely becasue school systems overreact to legitimate attempts to minimize religious coercion in schools. The ACLU fights such repression as much as it fights the coercion. The OPs implication was that the ACLU is attempting to repress religious expression in schools. It's not true.
As to the "bogeymen" being present in the schools that these scientists grew up in, that's not an excuse to keep doing it. Jim Crow laws existed in the towns many of those men grew up in, should we continue those? Wernher Von Braun came of age under the Nazis, does that mean that we should have left them alone, becasue they produce awesome rocket scientists? Also worth pointing out is that those men were given the best science education that was available at the time. The fact is that evolution was much less important to a sound biological education at the time. Genetics and biochemistry were the realms of the most cutting edge researchers, but a foundation in biology did not require an understanding much beyond Mendel's peas. A "foundation" in modern biology requires more up to date information on genetics and evolution, because an understanding of those topic is required to understand most current biological theories.
You read good. I was talking about wired access when I said that:
The real problem is that that there is little to nothing that the Federal government can do about the lack of competition in wired markets.
Thanks for playing
Lots of stuff gets stopped. Orders of magnitude more stuff gets stopped than actually gets through. No one cares about that. It's what we expect, shit is going on out int he Internet, we stop it from getting to our network. It's only when we fail that it's a story. Think about how crime statistics are reported: There were around 500 murders in New York City last year. That sounds horrible. What are the cops doing? Of course that means that approximately 8.2 million people (plus or minus tourists and short term residents) weren't murdered in New York City last year. Sounds a lot better than way, but no one says it like that.
The situation with hacking is both better and worse that you imagine from looking at these recent high profile events. Worse becasue for every one of these stories you see there are probably a hundred more minor and far less publicized (or downright buried) events. Better, because in actual fact the vast majority of the attempts fail. I wouldn't even care to count the number "hacking attempts" I get just on my home network everyday, let alone the networks of anyone that actually matters or has resources.
There's no repression of religious expression at schools. Indeed the very ACLU you pan has on numerous occasions defended the rights of students to express their religious beliefs in school: Here's one, here's another. A simple Google search reveals dozens of similar stories. What the ACLU objects to, along with most religious freedom advocates, is the coercive expression of religion in schools. A teacher has no right to lead students in a prayer that some present may not believe in. He or she is representative of the authority of the school and in turn the government, they should not give the impression of coercing students into prayer. Similarly, events like graduations and pep rallies are for everyone, turning them into religious events is neither fair nor constitutional. As a side note, that same teacher would be fine leading a prayer in an FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) meeting, as participation in such a thing implies a certain level of acceptance.
Long story short, religious expression in schools is fine. Students can wear all the religious jewelry they want, wear the goofy t-shirts they want, talk about God in the hallways and the lunchroom, even have clubs that focus on one religion or another. The caveat to that is that it has to be fair: If Bob can wear a cross, I can wear a pentacle; if Sue can can start a Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter, Sarah can start a Torah study group. It also should not be a part of official school events like classes, assembles, or graduations. At that point it is infringing on the rights of others.
That's different though, see. It's perfectly reasonable and rational to think that science is amazing and capable when it comes to developing technology to take us into orbit or interconnect the globe in a web of communication; but completely wrong about all that biology and biochem stuff. I mean clearly the fact that we can measure time and distance with sufficient accuracy to hit a missile in low earth orbit moving at many times the speed of sound with another missile is completely coherent with the idea that we can't accurately measure the rate of decay for carbon. The fact that we can sequence and even modify genes in experimental medical procedures is obviously irrelevant to the fact that those gene sequences show us clear evidence of evolution.
You see I like technology but science challenges my beliefs, so I experience no cognitive dissonance in using one while dissing the other. They're unrelated disciplines really.
You're right of course, and I'm not sure why OP worded that the way he did. The real problem is that that there is little to nothing that the Federal government can do about the lack of competition in wired markets. The big 4 (3?) wireless carriers are national (really international, but for purposes of this discussion it's irrelevant) companies that touch the lives and pocket books of Americans everywhere. If you're in Portland, Maine you have essentially four choices for wireless; if you're in LA, California you have the same four choices. Guess what your choices are in Anchorage or Miami? Yep, same guys. Given that these guys have a national oligopoly, their behavior and capabilities are naturally of concern to the national government.
By contrast, wired communications is managed in a distinctly local way. I might only be able to get Comcast where I live, but if I move across the state I might only be able to get Cox. You may not, as an individual, have lots of choices for broadband, but there are lots of choices. It's just that combination of your local government and history have prevented you from seeing more than a small selection. Local governments managed wired communications, the federal government (to the extent anyone does) manages wireless communications.
Or you could pay $25 for a USB to RS232 converter? They weigh essentially nothing, and work fine in all major OSes (you have to be a tiny bit careful in picking them for Linux/Mac, but plenty work on everything).
I'm assuming that they keep track based on the fact that I use their wifi to buy the books. The Nook seems to know that it's in a B&N and the wifi seems to know you're using a Nook. I don't think I've ever used the "read in store option", simply becasue it's easier to flip through the physical books while I'm there. I should probably ask someone at the store, they probably know.
The tax advantage is rather modest, and usually eaten up by shipping on online purchases (though Amazon has unusually good shipping terms and can avoid this to some extent). The big advantage is logistics and supply chain. Amazon maintains a dozen or so Warehouses, Borders maintains hundreds of stores. Amazon, in total, probably employes fewer people than Borders employs in a particularly large state like New York or Texas. When you go to borders and they don't have you want, you go home and order from Amazon. When you go to Amazon and they what you want is on back order, you think, "oh well, I was already waiting two days, what's another day or two?"
The tax advantage is there, of course, and it helps too; but compared to the logistics, supply chain, and economy of scale advantages, taxes are almost lost in the noise.
It is simply very difficult to shop for books online unless you already know what you want. For technical books and books from an author I know and like, Amazon is fine. For random "Hmm, I feel like reading something new" times, it's much nicer to wander around inside a store. I'll pay the extra 20% to be able to have shelves. real books that you can flip through a read a few lines, and a friendly person that you can ask about what's new and what they're read recently. Yes, of course they're trying to sell you something, but I went in to buy something... I'd just as it be something that another human being actually liked.
What I like about my Nook is that I can treat Barnes and Noble as a showroom. Go in, wander about, flip through books, talk to people, then buy on the Nook and keep everything in a small package. (I just hope that they keep track of where I bought the book, I'd hate to have my "showroom" close becasue no one buys books there anymore.)
Not to mention being extremely hackable and able to run stock Android. As an absolute last resort if B&N fails (probably not likely, but possible) you could just put stock Android on it and grab Nook and Kindle readers. The Nook reader to keep your old stuff (most of it isn't DRMed, and even if it is they'll probably be required to keep the key servers up), and the Kindle reader to buy new stuff. I'd still be sad if B&N died though. That would leave only BAM around here, and I've never like their stores. Local places are long dead here, and we never had a Borders.
It is circumstantial evidence to be sure, but a sufficient amount of circumstantial evidence can build a case or can provide a level of verification to stronger evidence. Generally the cops don't pick up one piece of incriminating evidence, say "Whew, glad that's over" and go home. Let's imagine a completely contrived scenario where a man is caught on tape robbing a bank. He claims it was his brother, who does look a lot like him. If his phone were at the bank at the time of the robbery, his brother's fingerprints weren't on the device, and an e-mail with personal information was sent very shortly after the robbery, it certainly helps the DA build a case.
But they're not any slower for doing equivalent things. You can have an old style phone that you just dial if you want to, but you want to have a smart phone. You can have a terminal program instead of a graphical file browser, but you want to have a graphical file browser. You could make your modern PC respond way faster by only using a single program at a time, but you want to have lots of stuff open so you can conveniently switch tasks. You're choosing to do thing the slightly slower way becasue they are often the more convenient way. Oh by the way, while some of these things do add wait times in at some level, many of them also save immeasurable time overall.
Which is going to cost you more time over the course of a year: waiting 10-15 seconds for your PVR to boot on the very rare occasion that you need to reboot it? Or dealing with tapes from the VCR? You gotta find the tape with the show you want, fast forward or rewind it to the part of the tape that hold the particular show you want to watch, all of that took time (often a lot of time for the queuing part) that you're ignoring becasue a VCR turned on instantly and responded instantly to an eject command.
Which will take up more time overall: Word taking a few extra seconds to load? Or having to load Word every time you need it becasue you lack the resources to keep it open and backgrounded all the time?
Which will take you more time: Having to click the phone app to dial the cell phone, or having to hunt down a computer when you want to check something really quick on the Internet?
Oh Gods, the original Civilization on a 486DX :-) It would start up fine, the first few rounds would be all nice and quick... then as the NPCs built their empires and units and such the time between rounds would get steadily longer... and longer... and... Well you get the idea.
My receiver/PVR stores perfect high definition copies of about 60 hours worth of TV for me and allows me to fast forward, pause, or even rewind live TV. By contrast my old VCR could store maybe 6 hours on a tape, if I recorded poor quality, was limited to standard def, required me to remember to change tapes out to avoid overwriting, couldn't do squat with live TV, wouldn't record one thing while I watch another, couldn't skip between programs without a manual rewind/FF (talk about waiting on technology), and the tapes were degraded every time I used them (either to watch or to record). I'm willing to accept a three second boot delay.
A cassette player vs a DVD has most of the same disadvantages (lower quality, degrading media, etc). Also DVD players are not much slower to boot or eject than VCRs (had you used Blue Ray you might have had a small point, but again, huge jumps in quality are worth a few seconds)
The fact that you *can* lock your mobile phone (you don't have to) is a feature, not a problem. If you want to just open up a phone and start dialing like an "old phone", get an old style flip phone. They still make them. The reason you have to open the phone app to dial is that you chose to get a smart or feature phone. In order to accommodate the potentially dozens or hundreds of other apps your phone has on it you have to click the phone app to dial. Your choice: convenience of being able to pull out your phone and instantly start dialing? or convenience of having a small general purpose computer in your pocket?
OK, I'll compare the responsiveness of a modern computer to an Amiga, only I want to be able to run a web browser with (counts quickly) 25 tabs open, while Skype, an instant messenger, and my e-mail client are all sitting open waiting for people to contact me, a PDF viewer is showing the Red Hat cert I just opened up to apply for a job, a word processor is open with my resume (for the same reason), and just for kicks I want to be playing Mahjong in another backgrounded window. Of course, I want all of this to be happening on a screen with sufficient resolution that I can keep track of all those things easily, preferably dual monitors at 1600x1200 or better. Of course your Amiga can't do half that and trying to do the other half all at once would probably slow it to a crawl. But you're right, single program responsiveness is much more important. Of course if you just open one program on your modern PC it'll probably fly like an eagle.
You almost have a point with the file access stuff... or you would if not for the fact that every modern operating system comes with a terminal of some sort that allows you to deal with large directories and such exactly like you did in the old days. You can even keyboard shortcut that shit so that it doesn't require clicking around to get to it. Plus with a modern terminal program in a windowed environment you can have all that stuff I was talking about before open, while using PowerShell or Gnome-Terminal, and get the full benefits of things like copy/cut/paste, hyperlinking, multiple open terminals, and GUI tools as backups in case you can't remember some syntax.