It wasn't really "Safe mode for games", it was a safe-mode like boot mode that would load a minimum of drivers and background programs to optimize for gaming. Basically load DirectX, video, sound and network drivers to leave as many resources as possible available for the game itself.
The bitch, in my opinion, is that the guy who knows Perl::CGI and Perl::Mason can probably learn Ruby on Rails and have a better understanding of the underlying concepts (having been doing this sort of thing for years), but most companies would rather higher the guy who read the Ruby on Rails book. He has the "right skill set" (meaning he has a vague understanding of the language we're working with right now). The other guy has a conceptual grasp of the whole pie, and could easily learn the specific skill, but his lack of experience with "whatever we happen to be using at the moment" makes him somehow unsuitable.
Yeah, I can't think of too many other games that continue to sell well almost a decade after release as Diablo II does. It's not a cash cow anymore, but it's still on the shelves at Best Buy which is WAY more than any competitor can claim on a similar aged game. You can also still purchase Starcraft without much effort. That's serious longevity in titles. My only wish, much though I enjoy WoW, is that they'd have thought to continue SC and Diablo earlier
1) The reviewers native language is German (or so one can surmise from the fact that he lives and studies in Germany), give him a break, this was pretty readable for a non-native speaker.
2) The book is not for webmasters, clearly. It's a business strategy guide to Web 2.0 technology, not a programmer/admin guide. it is therefore written from a business perspective.
I'm learning Obj-C right now. The class syntax is certainly different, but I kind of like it. Makes a lot of sense in its own way.
Re:easy way to fill a book
on
Head First C#
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· Score: 1
The Deitels write textbooks, not language manuals (not that you arene't right about the cranking out book with big copy paste jobs, but that's not the point). They aren't writing books for people who already know how to program, but need to learn $language, they're writing books for an intro CS course teaching basic programming. For what they're intended to do, they're not bad. My last uni used their C++ as a primer and most people seemed to like it. As a grad student I didn't take any intro courses but I bought a copy for reference and it seemed decent enough.
Re:easy way to fill a book
on
Head First C#
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· Score: 1
For C++ GUI programming you have to learn the libraries that your OS uses. You have essentially two choices: If you want to learn to do "graphics" grab a book on DirectX or OpenGL. If you just want to learn how to stick a basic GUI onto your CLI programs (text boxes, simple 2-d images, etc) get a book on Visual Studios (Win), X-Code (Mac), or one of the Linux IDEs to learn how to use their various interface builders. You can do a surprising amount in what basically works out to a "WYSWYG" interface design tool. You ain't gonna design Quake 4 in something like this, but you can make clickly widgets and text boxes and all the sorts of things you're likely to need for say, a database front end, or a calculator app. I learned to do a graphics front end for a basic data-entry, compute, display data type program in a day or two.
Ok, now you're being dishonest. I'm a loving Linux kinda guy, I have an old laptop running a file server over ndiswrapper'ed wireless driver FFS (yeah it's not very fast, but I'm not sending large amount of data back and forth and it's easier than running cable to my back office). Installing Windows is rarely if ever that difficult unless you are trying to install Windows 98 on a new Core2 Duo machine, and let me tell ya that installing old version of Linux on new hardware is no picnic either.
I have Never Ever had install storage drivers on a workstation, laptop, or desktop class machine while installing Windows XP. I've done it on some pretty new hardware too (Including a box that I DID have to install storage drivers to get SuSE 9.0 on, which is a roughly concurrent OS). Server class hardware is a different matter, but hardware RAID cards are often fidgety in any OS install.
Nearly every Video card I've every worked with is capable of showing XP at install with a much higher resolution than 800x600. Usually you only need to install the video drivers to get 3D acceleration working. This is more or less the same as Linux, which can usually display X in some way or fashion at install, but need proprietary drivers to use the fancy features of a card.
Network cards are far MORE likely to work out of the box on a Windows install than a Linux install. Especially wireless networks cards. Linux's support for WiFi is notoriously poor. This is not really the fault of the Linux community or the distro vendors of course, but it doesn't change the fact that it's a bitch and a half to get wireless going on most Linux distros for all but a handful of cards.
I use Linux extensively as both a server and desktop OS, I also use MacOS and Windows (though I avoid Windows very much, and we're considering switching to Macs for our admin staff). Misrepresenting Linux's warts or making Windows sound worse than it is doesn't accomplish anything. Especially here where people know better. I'd almost get the impression that the last time you install Windows was a Win98 box and you're assuming nothing has improved in ten years.
I don't know about you, but personally I've never once bothered to see the actual paper trail of an election and like many others simply opted to trust whatever the news told me the result was.
It's not so much that you will check the paper trail (though you could if you wanted), it's that the other side(s) can. If the Democrat Joe Snobbypant goes into the election with a 10 point advantage in the polls, and his opponent, the honorable Bob Crabbypanys, wins by half a percent, you can bet Joe is looking for a hand count. The reverse is also true. There are a finite number of people running in any given election and most of them have the influence to both ask for and get a look at the paper trail if things seem suspicious. Not to mention the money to get a qualified accountant to do the looking.
Honestly the data plan is quite reasonable. I Pay $20 for unlimited data and 200 TMs. That's the part that makes no damned sense though. I download more text in one web pages then I'll receive all year in TMs, yet I can do the former all day and the latter cost me extra. According to the FA, the new iPhone's will charge $5 on top of the data plan for TMs. That's insane. It makes no logical sense.
You might have missed it, but during the previous (nearly) eight years of a "conservative" in the White House, six of it with the backing of a "conservative" Congress, Government spending has skyrocketed. Worse, they're not even bothering to pay for it, just borrowing the money. It's all well and good to spout the "official" conservative line about fiscal restraint and small government, but the facts show a different picture. They clearly do want to control what happens in my bedroom though! You got that part right.
Out of curiosity, what don't you like about the f-lock? I use a "Natural Wireless Multimedia" and I like it fairly well. It's got the proper arrow key arrangement but the "home-end" keys are weird (don't like that part). It's got the f-lock, and I've found it pretty usable. It's nice to be able to turn the function keys on when needed or use the built in shortcuts when not.
That's my least favorite part of the MacBook Pro keyboard, F keys are only F keys when I hit the damned "fn" button. I can't find any way to lock them.
I knew a guy who used to carry around an M with a USB adapter for his Macbook. Thing probably weighed twice as much as the computer. I think he only did it for the comments he'd get:-)
It's trivial to install the OS, just have to make sure that you use the Disk partitioning tool on the install DVD to set up the HDD before you try to install. If you're using Leopard it's even easier. Make a Time Machine Backup before you rip the old drive out and the Leopard installer will actually put your whole system back on EXACTLY the way it was (except with more free space). It literally took me 2 hours from pulling out the first screw on my MBP to having my desktop sitting there as if I'd never touched anything. It probably would have been even faster except my Time Machine backup disk was USB and the data transfer took a while.
Actually, I'm willing to forgive it because it doesn't affect me. I just bought a MacBook. I like it. I had three options: for $1100 I could have a 2.1 Ghz Core Duo, 1 GB of RAM, 120GB HDD, and a CD Burner. For $1300 I could upgrade to a 2.4 Ghz Core Duo CPU, double the RAM, add 40 GB to the HDD, and get a DVD burner. For $1500 I could get a 250 GB HDD and a black case (otherwise it was identical to the $1300 version). I did the math real quick and decided that the $200 for the middle option was a good deal, but the extra $200 more for 90GB more HDD was not (Oh, and a black case... can't forget that). I now own a laptop whose features compare favorably with similar Dell offerings; had I spent the extra I'd have been either foolish or not done my research. If Apple can convince people to part with an extra $200 for a case color, I say power to 'em. I'm just not one of those people. I may even drop $100 for a 250GB HDD and upgrade the silly thing if it becomes a problem... but right now I'm not even filling half the drive.
Apple's gear is perfectly reasonable if you pay attention to what you are actually buying; but just like anyone else they'll charge premiums when they think they can get away with it.
I used to think I liked my Treo. I got it almost 4 years ago now, and for the time it was a nice smart phone. Being able to check my mail and browse the web from a phone was convenient. The fact that it wasn't the most stable platform, or the fact that it really wasn't all that usable as an actual phone was something that I could forgive under the circumstances. It was an early model and I got over the problems as a first adopter should. Then, less than a year ago we bought my wife a Treo. Other than the fact that it a bit slimmer, I can find no discernible improvements from my much older Treo. On the other hand, it eats batteries at least twice as fast so something must be different. The Blazer browser still sucks every bit as badly. The Java implementation is still useless. It doesn't crash quite as often, so I guess that's something.
A few months ago I bought an iPhone to replace my now aging Treo. Damn. Even without the ability to install software yet, it's like a whole different world. I USE my web browser. I don't mind answering the phone. It has never crashed on me. The $400 hurt, but it's SOO much nicer. So much nicer in fact that when the 3G comes we're buying one for me (I'm not under contract and my wife is, lucky me) and my wife is taking mine. It's totally worth tossing her year old Treo for, my only regret is buying the second Treo in the first place.
The hole here is people who honestly and truly believe that evidence from a 3000 year old book (often poorly translated and frequently edited by various Powers that Be) trump evidence gathered by observation. These people take a conclusion: "The Bible is right", and go out to find evidence to support the conclusion. Totally the opposite of the scientific method but enough to be convincing to other people already predisposed to believing the original premise.
The point is that to a Biblical literalist there is no difference between science and religion. If a current scientific model contradicts what they believe happened according to the Bible, then the science is a) in conflict with their religion, and b) wrong. Not just wrong in a "Gee, I think this is guy is wrong, but I'll just ignore him and do my own thing" sort of way. Wrong in a "This man and the entire establishment that created him are evil, and must be fought at every turn" sort of way.
Compromise of the type you talk about here is reasonable, perhaps even sensible. It won't work. You can't separate religion from science in the minds of people who really believe in creationism. That's the essential problem, you can't separate anything from religion in their minds. The Bible is not a book of tales intended to teach moral lessons and instruct people in how to behave in order to receive God's blessing. It's a 100% factually accurate text handed to mankind literally by God, and it is THE authority on matter as diverse as moral judgment, scientific fact and historical events. It even tells the future! Whoo hoo.
On a side note, I swear if the Lafayette School Board makes these "supplements" available in there schools I will make it my mission to visit every biology class in the Parish to point out how every point is stupid. Except of course that it's probably illegal for me to do that.
Dude, I'm almost exactly 6 ft tall. I know for a fact that there are (uncommon) people in Japan taller than I am. I can get a 34 inch waist if I have virtually no body fat, but otherwise my hips/pelvis are just too big. I need to lose a few pound for sure (I'm currently running a 38-40 inch waist depending on the pants brand), but I haven't been a 32in waist since high school, and I don't think I could be again no matter what I did.
(As a side note I'm in decent shape, not a total lard ass. I jog 30-45 minutes at a 6-7 mph pace 4-5 days a week. I can certainly lose a few pounds but I'm not just screaming "32 inches is IMPOSSIBLE" out of my ass here.)
Common sense isn't very common, but it is sensible. For the most part, common sense means logic applied at an everyday level. The problem is that logic applied at the everyday level is not always sensible because we often lack the evidence to make a reasonable conclusion. The obvious example of this is policy like "no child left behind". It may seem quite logical to a person with limited experience in schooling children to assume that trying to push the the worst performing students is more important than trying to push the best performing students. After all, the worst performing students are failing to meet the minimum standard, and the best performing students are not. It makes sense to oil the squeaky wheel after all. The smart kids can take care of themselves. Except that is clearly not the case from inside of the educational system. Smart kids may be easily able to maintain the minimum with very little attention, but they are never going to reach their potential. If our best and brightest fail to meet their potential, we lose in the long run even if we do bring more of our students up to a minimal acceptable level.
To personalize it let's look at an issue in which both sides claim to have common sense on their sides. Gun control:
Typical Gun Control Position Common Sense: It's common sense that we limit ownership of guns after all. In my personal experience most people don't know how to use them properly and are more likely to hurt themselves than an attacker. Making guns available easily and their unlicensed possession anything other than a crime simply encourages criminals to have them. Plus they are a danger in houses with small children. There is just no good reason for people to own some guns. Hunting rifles and maybe shotguns, sure, but assault rifles and handguns?
Typical Non-Gun Control Position Common Sense: It's common sense that we allow unrestricted access to firearms. Most of the people I know are comfortable with their weapons and have been using them for years. If we make guns illegal, then only criminals will have guns. Taking away my ability to defend myself makes much less sense than trying to keep criminals from getting guns that they are clearly going to get their hands on anyway. My kids know better than to mess with the guns. I've been teaching them to respect (and use) weapons since they were old enough to talk and walk.
Both of these position are perfectly valid from the point of view of the person stating them. They're common sense based on logic and the evidence that the person in question sees day to day. Common sense is not always common, and even when it seems sensible to you, or you and your friends, it may not always seems so to an outsider.
Just tried this on my brand new MacBook (more or less fresh out of the box, less than a week old. I haven't enabled any services, but have upgraded to 10.5.3). Worked like a champ, whoami returns "root". This defintely does work "out of the box".
Well yes, but they were still terrorists at the time of the negotiation. That's the GP's point. Sometimes when you negotiate with terrorist you convince them to stop being terrorists. Or work out a compromise where they stop being terrorists in exchange for some portion of their original demands.
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It wasn't really "Safe mode for games", it was a safe-mode like boot mode that would load a minimum of drivers and background programs to optimize for gaming. Basically load DirectX, video, sound and network drivers to leave as many resources as possible available for the game itself.
The bitch, in my opinion, is that the guy who knows Perl::CGI and Perl::Mason can probably learn Ruby on Rails and have a better understanding of the underlying concepts (having been doing this sort of thing for years), but most companies would rather higher the guy who read the Ruby on Rails book. He has the "right skill set" (meaning he has a vague understanding of the language we're working with right now). The other guy has a conceptual grasp of the whole pie, and could easily learn the specific skill, but his lack of experience with "whatever we happen to be using at the moment" makes him somehow unsuitable.
Yeah, I can't think of too many other games that continue to sell well almost a decade after release as Diablo II does. It's not a cash cow anymore, but it's still on the shelves at Best Buy which is WAY more than any competitor can claim on a similar aged game. You can also still purchase Starcraft without much effort. That's serious longevity in titles. My only wish, much though I enjoy WoW, is that they'd have thought to continue SC and Diablo earlier
1) The reviewers native language is German (or so one can surmise from the fact that he lives and studies in Germany), give him a break, this was pretty readable for a non-native speaker.
2) The book is not for webmasters, clearly. It's a business strategy guide to Web 2.0 technology, not a programmer/admin guide. it is therefore written from a business perspective.
I'm learning Obj-C right now. The class syntax is certainly different, but I kind of like it. Makes a lot of sense in its own way.
The Deitels write textbooks, not language manuals (not that you arene't right about the cranking out book with big copy paste jobs, but that's not the point). They aren't writing books for people who already know how to program, but need to learn $language, they're writing books for an intro CS course teaching basic programming. For what they're intended to do, they're not bad. My last uni used their C++ as a primer and most people seemed to like it. As a grad student I didn't take any intro courses but I bought a copy for reference and it seemed decent enough.
For C++ GUI programming you have to learn the libraries that your OS uses. You have essentially two choices: If you want to learn to do "graphics" grab a book on DirectX or OpenGL. If you just want to learn how to stick a basic GUI onto your CLI programs (text boxes, simple 2-d images, etc) get a book on Visual Studios (Win), X-Code (Mac), or one of the Linux IDEs to learn how to use their various interface builders. You can do a surprising amount in what basically works out to a "WYSWYG" interface design tool. You ain't gonna design Quake 4 in something like this, but you can make clickly widgets and text boxes and all the sorts of things you're likely to need for say, a database front end, or a calculator app. I learned to do a graphics front end for a basic data-entry, compute, display data type program in a day or two.
Ok, now you're being dishonest. I'm a loving Linux kinda guy, I have an old laptop running a file server over ndiswrapper'ed wireless driver FFS (yeah it's not very fast, but I'm not sending large amount of data back and forth and it's easier than running cable to my back office). Installing Windows is rarely if ever that difficult unless you are trying to install Windows 98 on a new Core2 Duo machine, and let me tell ya that installing old version of Linux on new hardware is no picnic either.
I have Never Ever had install storage drivers on a workstation, laptop, or desktop class machine while installing Windows XP. I've done it on some pretty new hardware too (Including a box that I DID have to install storage drivers to get SuSE 9.0 on, which is a roughly concurrent OS). Server class hardware is a different matter, but hardware RAID cards are often fidgety in any OS install.
Nearly every Video card I've every worked with is capable of showing XP at install with a much higher resolution than 800x600. Usually you only need to install the video drivers to get 3D acceleration working. This is more or less the same as Linux, which can usually display X in some way or fashion at install, but need proprietary drivers to use the fancy features of a card.
Network cards are far MORE likely to work out of the box on a Windows install than a Linux install. Especially wireless networks cards. Linux's support for WiFi is notoriously poor. This is not really the fault of the Linux community or the distro vendors of course, but it doesn't change the fact that it's a bitch and a half to get wireless going on most Linux distros for all but a handful of cards.
I use Linux extensively as both a server and desktop OS, I also use MacOS and Windows (though I avoid Windows very much, and we're considering switching to Macs for our admin staff). Misrepresenting Linux's warts or making Windows sound worse than it is doesn't accomplish anything. Especially here where people know better. I'd almost get the impression that the last time you install Windows was a Win98 box and you're assuming nothing has improved in ten years.
I don't know about you, but personally I've never once bothered to see the actual paper trail of an election and like many others simply opted to trust whatever the news told me the result was.
It's not so much that you will check the paper trail (though you could if you wanted), it's that the other side(s) can. If the Democrat Joe Snobbypant goes into the election with a 10 point advantage in the polls, and his opponent, the honorable Bob Crabbypanys, wins by half a percent, you can bet Joe is looking for a hand count. The reverse is also true. There are a finite number of people running in any given election and most of them have the influence to both ask for and get a look at the paper trail if things seem suspicious. Not to mention the money to get a qualified accountant to do the looking.
Any mention of Darklands? I loved that game.
Honestly the data plan is quite reasonable. I Pay $20 for unlimited data and 200 TMs. That's the part that makes no damned sense though. I download more text in one web pages then I'll receive all year in TMs, yet I can do the former all day and the latter cost me extra. According to the FA, the new iPhone's will charge $5 on top of the data plan for TMs. That's insane. It makes no logical sense.
You might have missed it, but during the previous (nearly) eight years of a "conservative" in the White House, six of it with the backing of a "conservative" Congress, Government spending has skyrocketed. Worse, they're not even bothering to pay for it, just borrowing the money. It's all well and good to spout the "official" conservative line about fiscal restraint and small government, but the facts show a different picture. They clearly do want to control what happens in my bedroom though! You got that part right.
Out of curiosity, what don't you like about the f-lock? I use a "Natural Wireless Multimedia" and I like it fairly well. It's got the proper arrow key arrangement but the "home-end" keys are weird (don't like that part). It's got the f-lock, and I've found it pretty usable. It's nice to be able to turn the function keys on when needed or use the built in shortcuts when not.
That's my least favorite part of the MacBook Pro keyboard, F keys are only F keys when I hit the damned "fn" button. I can't find any way to lock them.
I knew a guy who used to carry around an M with a USB adapter for his Macbook. Thing probably weighed twice as much as the computer. I think he only did it for the comments he'd get :-)
It's trivial to install the OS, just have to make sure that you use the Disk partitioning tool on the install DVD to set up the HDD before you try to install. If you're using Leopard it's even easier. Make a Time Machine Backup before you rip the old drive out and the Leopard installer will actually put your whole system back on EXACTLY the way it was (except with more free space). It literally took me 2 hours from pulling out the first screw on my MBP to having my desktop sitting there as if I'd never touched anything. It probably would have been even faster except my Time Machine backup disk was USB and the data transfer took a while.
Actually, I'm willing to forgive it because it doesn't affect me. I just bought a MacBook. I like it. I had three options: for $1100 I could have a 2.1 Ghz Core Duo, 1 GB of RAM, 120GB HDD, and a CD Burner. For $1300 I could upgrade to a 2.4 Ghz Core Duo CPU, double the RAM, add 40 GB to the HDD, and get a DVD burner. For $1500 I could get a 250 GB HDD and a black case (otherwise it was identical to the $1300 version). I did the math real quick and decided that the $200 for the middle option was a good deal, but the extra $200 more for 90GB more HDD was not (Oh, and a black case... can't forget that). I now own a laptop whose features compare favorably with similar Dell offerings; had I spent the extra I'd have been either foolish or not done my research. If Apple can convince people to part with an extra $200 for a case color, I say power to 'em. I'm just not one of those people. I may even drop $100 for a 250GB HDD and upgrade the silly thing if it becomes a problem... but right now I'm not even filling half the drive.
Apple's gear is perfectly reasonable if you pay attention to what you are actually buying; but just like anyone else they'll charge premiums when they think they can get away with it.
I used to think I liked my Treo. I got it almost 4 years ago now, and for the time it was a nice smart phone. Being able to check my mail and browse the web from a phone was convenient. The fact that it wasn't the most stable platform, or the fact that it really wasn't all that usable as an actual phone was something that I could forgive under the circumstances. It was an early model and I got over the problems as a first adopter should. Then, less than a year ago we bought my wife a Treo. Other than the fact that it a bit slimmer, I can find no discernible improvements from my much older Treo. On the other hand, it eats batteries at least twice as fast so something must be different. The Blazer browser still sucks every bit as badly. The Java implementation is still useless. It doesn't crash quite as often, so I guess that's something.
A few months ago I bought an iPhone to replace my now aging Treo. Damn. Even without the ability to install software yet, it's like a whole different world. I USE my web browser. I don't mind answering the phone. It has never crashed on me. The $400 hurt, but it's SOO much nicer. So much nicer in fact that when the 3G comes we're buying one for me (I'm not under contract and my wife is, lucky me) and my wife is taking mine. It's totally worth tossing her year old Treo for, my only regret is buying the second Treo in the first place.
It's totally worth trying, I just don't have any confidence that it will work. I'd love to be proven wrong though.
The hole here is people who honestly and truly believe that evidence from a 3000 year old book (often poorly translated and frequently edited by various Powers that Be) trump evidence gathered by observation. These people take a conclusion: "The Bible is right", and go out to find evidence to support the conclusion. Totally the opposite of the scientific method but enough to be convincing to other people already predisposed to believing the original premise.
The point is that to a Biblical literalist there is no difference between science and religion. If a current scientific model contradicts what they believe happened according to the Bible, then the science is a) in conflict with their religion, and b) wrong. Not just wrong in a "Gee, I think this is guy is wrong, but I'll just ignore him and do my own thing" sort of way. Wrong in a "This man and the entire establishment that created him are evil, and must be fought at every turn" sort of way.
Compromise of the type you talk about here is reasonable, perhaps even sensible. It won't work. You can't separate religion from science in the minds of people who really believe in creationism. That's the essential problem, you can't separate anything from religion in their minds. The Bible is not a book of tales intended to teach moral lessons and instruct people in how to behave in order to receive God's blessing. It's a 100% factually accurate text handed to mankind literally by God, and it is THE authority on matter as diverse as moral judgment, scientific fact and historical events. It even tells the future! Whoo hoo.
On a side note, I swear if the Lafayette School Board makes these "supplements" available in there schools I will make it my mission to visit every biology class in the Parish to point out how every point is stupid. Except of course that it's probably illegal for me to do that.
I'm from Louisiana too. Doesn't make him wrong.
(Yes, I'm aware that this was a poor attempt at a joke)
Dude, I'm almost exactly 6 ft tall. I know for a fact that there are (uncommon) people in Japan taller than I am. I can get a 34 inch waist if I have virtually no body fat, but otherwise my hips/pelvis are just too big. I need to lose a few pound for sure (I'm currently running a 38-40 inch waist depending on the pants brand), but I haven't been a 32in waist since high school, and I don't think I could be again no matter what I did.
(As a side note I'm in decent shape, not a total lard ass. I jog 30-45 minutes at a 6-7 mph pace 4-5 days a week. I can certainly lose a few pounds but I'm not just screaming "32 inches is IMPOSSIBLE" out of my ass here.)
To personalize it let's look at an issue in which both sides claim to have common sense on their sides. Gun control:
Typical Gun Control Position Common Sense: It's common sense that we limit ownership of guns after all. In my personal experience most people don't know how to use them properly and are more likely to hurt themselves than an attacker. Making guns available easily and their unlicensed possession anything other than a crime simply encourages criminals to have them. Plus they are a danger in houses with small children. There is just no good reason for people to own some guns. Hunting rifles and maybe shotguns, sure, but assault rifles and handguns?
Typical Non-Gun Control Position Common Sense: It's common sense that we allow unrestricted access to firearms. Most of the people I know are comfortable with their weapons and have been using them for years. If we make guns illegal, then only criminals will have guns. Taking away my ability to defend myself makes much less sense than trying to keep criminals from getting guns that they are clearly going to get their hands on anyway. My kids know better than to mess with the guns. I've been teaching them to respect (and use) weapons since they were old enough to talk and walk.
Both of these position are perfectly valid from the point of view of the person stating them. They're common sense based on logic and the evidence that the person in question sees day to day. Common sense is not always common, and even when it seems sensible to you, or you and your friends, it may not always seems so to an outsider.
Just tried this on my brand new MacBook (more or less fresh out of the box, less than a week old. I haven't enabled any services, but have upgraded to 10.5.3). Worked like a champ, whoami returns "root". This defintely does work "out of the box".
Optical tracking has been around forever. I work in a VR lab, there is no way Sony has a patent on the idea.
Well yes, but they were still terrorists at the time of the negotiation. That's the GP's point. Sometimes when you negotiate with terrorist you convince them to stop being terrorists. Or work out a compromise where they stop being terrorists in exchange for some portion of their original demands.