You're right, and in fact the LCBO has a very good selection of liquor offered at good prices due to its consolidated buying power. So its not all bad. I do find it a bit creepy that they are tending towards the upscale in design, but I guess it makes people feel good about being boozehounds, and is a profit centre.
Of course, other Canadian provinces do allow private stores to sell liquor.
Sigh.. this has been covered so many times, but your response doesn't include the fact that when you compare the tax structures Canadians really don't really pay that much more and sometimes less (depending which state/province you compare), the health system costs less of the GNP than in the US and lets people who get sick not lose everything, but you did indeed mention that most countries consider it a good thing to take care of the basic needs of its citizens so they can get on with other things.
It's really not that big a deal to just take of the problem when you consider how nice it makes it to walk around with a social conscience, but it's a great distraction to throw up if you have other agendas.
As for the liquor stores.. that is something I occasionally find over the top too, but everything needs constant tuning, no one is saying otherwise.
I was surprised when power wasn't picked up as the next big thing to encourage after the Internet boom.
More than just a source of power, you need efficient power cycles, where energy is not being wasted and material is efficiently recycled. The Rocky Mountain Institute (http://www.rmi.org/) are big into this kind of thing, as are various European countries.:)
As nerds grow older, they need more meaning in tech fetishism, as well as realizing they have to leave next generations something more than trippy 3d games.
You're correct, and the reason its cheaper in Canada is its been permitted here much longer so more of an industry has formed. But I have read many US articles casting suspician on Canadian outfits. Such is "free trade."
No, it's not a monopoly, its the power to dominate, which sucks just as much. Bully in the schoolyard, etc.
The one with overwhelming power is almost always going to bruise, intentionally or not. Microsoft, US foreign policy, you name it.
In this case, just like the bully in the schoolyard, we can choose to ignore it and it will go away. Really I don't care about big record labels any more, and people can fight over the scraps for all I care while I seek independant music and sane, modern distribution methods.
What do you want these next generation features for? Mainly features like access control, security, robustness, and above all organizing and sharing data.
Why not go higher level, use a reliable and simple underpinning such as ext3fs, with something like WebDAV (Distributed Authoring and Versioning) on top of it? Like SubVersion, it is based on HTTP, with specification for versioning and rich access controls.
Or maybe even go to the level of a Java JSR, so you could have a cross platform API for accessing files so it really doesn't matter what the back end is, KaZAA, Google or a DataSette, as long as your programs have a high level view of the information.
You might even end up with something liek the original TB-L Web, with everyone running their own Web server.
Of course, excluded from the above is performance, which would be ok for office type apps but not something that requires direct disk access, but perhaps the simpler file system would be most suitable for that.
Of course, I'm just rambling here, so would be happy to hear more developed responses to this suggestion...
Different "brands" and "manufacturers" could have different policies about warranty, better manuals, different quality of support, environmental record, and so on.. but if it "saves" you cash (on the spot), people will spend incredible time and energy trying to get it to work, and trying to contact support. Maybe this money/efficiency fascination has its downside.
"As Judge, jury and executioner, Joe Dredd is empowered to dispense instant justice. When it comes to crushing crime, Judge Dredd invented zero tolerance"
You will never find 100% of the problems. There is no One Right Way to do things. That graph is.. a graph (eg math is rarely representative of Real Reality (tm), especially in the subjective realm). As the usability experts I work with explain it, and is mentioned in passing on that page (though the big misleading graph dominates) it is a matter of diminishing returns.
Of course, you might also end up with 5 "duds" as usability subjects, and might not get some real insight until your 100th user. Unlikely, but possible.
In addition to all the other great points people are making, it's clear that Microsoft is doing this as part of a FUD campaign. People will mistake this for open source. Clearly, it's not, since free software and open source licenses are generally about making sure that anyone has access to the source code and use of the software, not just a select few under terms that makes sure it stays that way.
I would HAVE to own a car, and have to worry about how I am getting home when I am drunk because your public transportation system is not as good as NYC's, especially late at night.
I won't argue that NYC is an amazing metropolis, but take it from me and most of the people I know, you can get by just fine living in downtown Toronto without a car. The major buses are 24 hour and you can walk safely at night, and taxis are surprisingly plentiful.
I have to generally agree with you, it's not like it would be a big deal for the author to save it in a format that would be accessible to anyone.
But the author doesn't get open source at all anyway, glossing over the meaning of the license program and just focusing on popularity. The author would put Apache in the same class as the demo version of ACDSee with that point of view.
I have to agree. I wonder if they'll post a story about me eating a bag of potato chips. Oops, I dropped one! Better get a page or two in about that.
I've been building my own PCs for the past 20 years. Along with my own, I help friends and have easily build more than 100 systems, plus about as many upgrades. I used to ritually buy a bottle on the way home from the parts store and get smashed while assembling. I've put cards in backwards, splashed solder, forced all kinds of parts the wrong way, worked way past midnight, rarely think about grounding myself, and only ever ruined one thing, a CPU I was trying to rig for a dual setup.
PC assembly is meant for amateurs, so I don't know how this guy managed to do the damage he did, but maybe his next system should come pre-assembled.
Maybe Moore &c should permit "remixing" the work. That way people could do things like remove very contentious content and put in up to date content. Remixing music has been around for a while, its time movies were available for this purpose too.
IBM and HP are also strong Open Source contributors, and they also make hardware.
A better excuse is that Apple designs good stuf, even if like most people they steal their best ideas. But I think that aside from their geeks, who they need to keep on board, this is purely a marketing decision.
One of the reasons we are not hated by the world is we are not so intolerant and in fact appreciate different cultures. Partially because we support diverse culture within our country(admittedly officially only two, but there are historical reasons for that and its a start).
I certainly enjoy visiting Quebec and having French friends for a bit of diversity. So with your shallow comments I'd just as soon you stay out of the country.
The whole anti French thing is more than a bit tired and really counter productive.
Canada and the music industry
on
P2P Bits
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Reader Brill Pappin points out that Canadians aren't afraid of the music industry.
Not really true, there's just a bit of confusion going on now. The courts are sorting it out for us and will let us know if we should be afraid or not real soon.
There was a photo of the Culture minister wearing a t-shirt that said "I support canadianmusic.com." Of course, it really should have said "I support thecanadianmusicindustry.com." Two entirely different things.
Actually I think this is just another defensive patent. The idea is that large companies can all have huge portfolios of patents, so if one sues the other, the other can always sue back on something else. This way, the companies can keep doing what they're doing, the lawyers get rich, everyone's happy. Well, except the smaller developers, who are completely at the mercy of the large companies.
They're not very big if you have a 1400x1050 12.1" screen. This whole "bitmap" thing is for the 90s, I just hope the free sofware projects have their icons in vector format or we're going to have to repeat this whole disaster in a year or two.
Bank screwed up. Person harmed. This isn't a way of judging the person's previous record, it's a one time examination of a bank screwing up.
Maybe it's just my rant lately against the beaurocratic nightmare we've created that rewards smarmy, manipulative behavior, but in any case I certainly don't advocate taking a statistical view in the way individuals are treated whenever it can be avoided. Possibly because I'm not personally a bank and know that money is not a really great system overall.
Regardless of what *might* have happened, the bank screwed up and it is one more straw on the camel's back. The fact is institutions screw up all the time, and it is a more human oriented position to give the benefit of the doubt to the person rather than the organization. After all, finance is just one tiny aspect of our existance, unless you only value money and somehow can't see the rest of the factors that keep society healthy, including people who might not be the best fiscally but might be vital parts of their community otherwise.
And no, I'm not personally a "deadbeat," but I've met plenty of great people who weren't great at paying their bills or just had unforeseen circumstances hit them at the wrong time. I'm in their court, even if they're not always right.
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You're right, and in fact the LCBO has a very good selection of liquor offered at good prices due to its consolidated buying power. So its not all bad. I do find it a bit creepy that they are tending towards the upscale in design, but I guess it makes people feel good about being boozehounds, and is a profit centre.
Of course, other Canadian provinces do allow private stores to sell liquor.
Sigh.. this has been covered so many times, but your response doesn't include the fact that when you compare the tax structures Canadians really don't really pay that much more and sometimes less (depending which state/province you compare), the health system costs less of the GNP than in the US and lets people who get sick not lose everything, but you did indeed mention that most countries consider it a good thing to take care of the basic needs of its citizens so they can get on with other things.
It's really not that big a deal to just take of the problem when you consider how nice it makes it to walk around with a social conscience, but it's a great distraction to throw up if you have other agendas.
As for the liquor stores.. that is something I occasionally find over the top too, but everything needs constant tuning, no one is saying otherwise.
I was surprised when power wasn't picked up as the next big thing to encourage after the Internet boom.
:)
More than just a source of power, you need efficient power cycles, where energy is not being wasted and material is efficiently recycled. The Rocky Mountain Institute (http://www.rmi.org/) are big into this kind of thing, as are various European countries.
As nerds grow older, they need more meaning in tech fetishism, as well as realizing they have to leave next generations something more than trippy 3d games.
You're correct, and the reason its cheaper in Canada is its been permitted here much longer so more of an industry has formed. But I have read many US articles casting suspician on Canadian outfits. Such is "free trade."
No, it's not a monopoly, its the power to dominate, which sucks just as much. Bully in the schoolyard, etc.
The one with overwhelming power is almost always going to bruise, intentionally or not. Microsoft, US foreign policy, you name it.
In this case, just like the bully in the schoolyard, we can choose to ignore it and it will go away. Really I don't care about big record labels any more, and people can fight over the scraps for all I care while I seek independant music and sane, modern distribution methods.
By "Java JSR" I mean the Content Management JSR, which might be at about the right high level between "simple" filesystem and metadatabase
http://www.day.com/en/product/jsr_170.main.html
What do you want these next generation features for? Mainly features like access control, security, robustness, and above all organizing and sharing data.
Why not go higher level, use a reliable and simple underpinning such as ext3fs, with something like WebDAV (Distributed Authoring and Versioning) on top of it? Like SubVersion, it is based on HTTP, with specification for versioning and rich access controls.
Or maybe even go to the level of a Java JSR, so you could have a cross platform API for accessing files so it really doesn't matter what the back end is, KaZAA, Google or a DataSette, as long as your programs have a high level view of the information.
You might even end up with something liek the original TB-L Web, with everyone running their own Web server.
Of course, excluded from the above is performance, which would be ok for office type apps but not something that requires direct disk access, but perhaps the simpler file system would be most suitable for that.
Of course, I'm just rambling here, so would be happy to hear more developed responses to this suggestion...
Different "brands" and "manufacturers" could have different policies about warranty, better manuals, different quality of support, environmental record, and so on.. but if it "saves" you cash (on the spot), people will spend incredible time and energy trying to get it to work, and trying to contact support. Maybe this money/efficiency fascination has its downside.
I vote for Judge Dredd.
"As Judge, jury and executioner, Joe Dredd is empowered to dispense instant justice. When it comes to crushing crime, Judge Dredd invented zero tolerance"
Sounds about right, with a simple s/crime/idiocy/
You will never find 100% of the problems. There is no One Right Way to do things. That graph is .. a graph (eg math is rarely representative of Real Reality (tm), especially in the subjective realm). As the usability experts I work with explain it, and is mentioned in passing on that page (though the big misleading graph dominates) it is a matter of diminishing returns.
Of course, you might also end up with 5 "duds" as usability subjects, and might not get some real insight until your 100th user. Unlikely, but possible.
In addition to all the other great points people are making, it's clear that Microsoft is doing this as part of a FUD campaign. People will mistake this for open source. Clearly, it's not, since free software and open source licenses are generally about making sure that anyone has access to the source code and use of the software, not just a select few under terms that makes sure it stays that way.
I would HAVE to own a car, and have to worry about how I am getting home when I am drunk because your public transportation system is not as good as NYC's, especially late at night.
I won't argue that NYC is an amazing metropolis, but take it from me and most of the people I know, you can get by just fine living in downtown Toronto without a car. The major buses are 24 hour and you can walk safely at night, and taxis are surprisingly plentiful.
Yes Mr. Gates, not many are likely to get rich rich rich developing open source software, but there are other reasons for living.
I have to generally agree with you, it's not like it would be a big deal for the author to save it in a format that would be accessible to anyone.
But the author doesn't get open source at all anyway, glossing over the meaning of the license program and just focusing on popularity. The author would put Apache in the same class as the demo version of ACDSee with that point of view.
I said WAY PAST midnight, you anonymous coward you.
I have to agree. I wonder if they'll post a story about me eating a bag of potato chips. Oops, I dropped one! Better get a page or two in about that.
I've been building my own PCs for the past 20 years. Along with my own, I help friends and have easily build more than 100 systems, plus about as many upgrades. I used to ritually buy a bottle on the way home from the parts store and get smashed while assembling. I've put cards in backwards, splashed solder, forced all kinds of parts the wrong way, worked way past midnight, rarely think about grounding myself, and only ever ruined one thing, a CPU I was trying to rig for a dual setup.
PC assembly is meant for amateurs, so I don't know how this guy managed to do the damage he did, but maybe his next system should come pre-assembled.
Maybe Moore &c should permit "remixing" the work. That way people could do things like remove very contentious content and put in up to date content. Remixing music has been around for a while, its time movies were available for this purpose too.
IBM and HP are also strong Open Source contributors, and they also make hardware.
A better excuse is that Apple designs good stuf, even if like most people they steal their best ideas. But I think that aside from their geeks, who they need to keep on board, this is purely a marketing decision.
One of the reasons we are not hated by the world is we are not so intolerant and in fact appreciate different cultures. Partially because we support diverse culture within our country(admittedly officially only two, but there are historical reasons for that and its a start).
I certainly enjoy visiting Quebec and having French friends for a bit of diversity. So with your shallow comments I'd just as soon you stay out of the country.
The whole anti French thing is more than a bit tired and really counter productive.
Reader Brill Pappin points out that Canadians aren't afraid of the music industry.
Not really true, there's just a bit of confusion going on now. The courts are sorting it out for us and will let us know if we should be afraid or not real soon.
There was a photo of the Culture minister wearing a t-shirt that said "I support canadianmusic.com." Of course, it really should have said "I support thecanadianmusicindustry.com." Two entirely different things.
Actually I think this is just another defensive patent. The idea is that large companies can all have huge portfolios of patents, so if one sues the other, the other can always sue back on something else. This way, the companies can keep doing what they're doing, the lawyers get rich, everyone's happy. Well, except the smaller developers, who are completely at the mercy of the large companies.
They're not very big if you have a 1400x1050 12.1" screen. This whole "bitmap" thing is for the 90s, I just hope the free sofware projects have their icons in vector format or we're going to have to repeat this whole disaster in a year or two.
Plus they are diluting the cachet of sanitation engineers.
Bank screwed up. Person harmed. This isn't a way of judging the person's previous record, it's a one time examination of a bank screwing up.
:)
Maybe it's just my rant lately against the beaurocratic nightmare we've created that rewards smarmy, manipulative behavior, but in any case I certainly don't advocate taking a statistical view in the way individuals are treated whenever it can be avoided. Possibly because I'm not personally a bank and know that money is not a really great system overall.
Anyway, have a nice day.
Regardless of what *might* have happened, the bank screwed up and it is one more straw on the camel's back. The fact is institutions screw up all the time, and it is a more human oriented position to give the benefit of the doubt to the person rather than the organization. After all, finance is just one tiny aspect of our existance, unless you only value money and somehow can't see the rest of the factors that keep society healthy, including people who might not be the best fiscally but might be vital parts of their community otherwise.
And no, I'm not personally a "deadbeat," but I've met plenty of great people who weren't great at paying their bills or just had unforeseen circumstances hit them at the wrong time. I'm in their court, even if they're not always right.