I think they get a cut because they need to fund social programs for the poor, pay for welfare and social security, which is about what 80-95% of your paycheck goes to pay for. No really it's true go look up how income tax is split up almost all of your income tax goes to social programs and helping the poor (SS, medicare included). Sales tax, tariffs and cooperate taxes pay for the military along with school funding. Gas and transportation taxes pay for, well, maintaining the transportation infrastructure.
I'm still convinced it's a generational thing. Most people joining the workforce in the last 24 months grew up in their parent's 1980's Fords, GMs and Chryslers, which for all intents and purposes, were complete and utter crap. Their parents then replaced those steaming piles of junk with honda civics and accords (and toyota equivalents) which they then gave to their children, who drove (and crashed) them through high school and college. Ok, you've graduated from college and now make > $30,000 a year. What do you look at first, the piece of crap (subjectively) Ford, GM Chrysler your parents couldn't hardly give away in 1992, or a newer version of the dead-reliable honda civic that your family has owned for the last 12 years and maybe changed the oil on four or five times? Most of my office is in their late 20's - early 30's and in the last three years out of all the cars bought, the only two american cars that were purchased were a ford F150 with all the bells and whistles, to replace his previous F150, and a dodge challenger with all the bells and whistles, both of them being over 40 and being senior management. Everyone else bought Hondas or Toyotas, with a sprinkling of Kias. Most of them still have their honda civic/similar from highschool that they keep around simply because it won't die.
In short, the US auto industry is dead because they made cars so awful twenty years ago, people entering the car market now won't even consider them. It doesn't matter how good, or green American cars are, people know Hondas and Toyotas are a safe bet (they've been driving the same one for 12 years that's hard to argue with) and in a pinch, can usually sell them for at least half what they paid for them no matter how old they are as long as they have less than 80,000 miles on them. Even before GM announced closing Saturn, Saturns lost their value about as fast as a Porsche, that is, 90% in three years. The only American car I'd buy is a Ford Focus or one of their Trucks.
People are much more likely to put down $5-15 on a game they may not be sure they will spend more than 20 hours on (see also, Plants Vs. Zombies, Defense Grid, etc)
Also, many games are built upon a basic concept, usually which you can only get 5 hours of genuine playtime out of. The remaining 15 hours are usually BS, which is why so many games these days are crap. That might also be the reason why people want to buy games used; once you play through the first five hours, you've gotten all the fun you're going to have out of it. The remaining 15 hours are only there to justify the initial purchaser's $45 premium over what you paid for it used. There's a precious few games that have good/original content beyond the 5 hour mark, and they sell for much more used than most games as a result.
Where's the flag for "sensationalist story"? Obviously they will take a patient with life threatening injuries. I have no problem with they rejecting a patient coming in an ambulance who only has a sprained ankle or a mild case of the flu. Rejecting a patient with a gunshot wound or who has flatlined based on paperwork is different.
I know I'm quoting your quote, but "I went from paying $14 to The Wall Street Journal to paying $10 to Amazon. Now the splits there, and I think this is relatively well known, are very, very much in favor of Amazon." - I'm reasonably sure the profit based on digital distribution is equal or higher than printing on paper and then distributing it. You never end up with unsold copies at the end of the day.
Partially true. Most people know Scotland and Ireland are real countries and refer to them as such. Many people aren't aware Wales is more than "western England" or think it's an autonomous county/district. And then the Isle of Man is another, separate country. I think Jersey (another island) is it's own country, just off the coast of France near the channel.
Your MPG isn't going to be affected significantly by the weight of the rims/tires - that's like driving with a passenger. Your acceleration will be hurt slightly due to the changed ratio but your mileage should actually go UP slightly. If you break an axle on your daily driver You're Doing It Wrong. The forces placed on an axle with a 20" rim on it vs a 15" rim is far less than the design spec of surviving a panic stop. Unless you're rock cimbing in the outback of Moab, UT this shouldn't be a problem, and even then you'd pick a proper vehicle for the job like a jeep (rentals available within 5 miles of the trailhead) and leave the toy behind.
For the price difference between the CRV and a H2 you could completely replace the drive train/suspension with one far superior to the H2's and still have money left over to pay for the gas for it for a year (what else could you buy for the for the $20,000 price difference? The downpayment on a condo closer to your office, for starters).
Your MPG isn't going to be affected significantly by the weight of the rims/tires - that's like driving with a passenger. Your acceleration will be hurt slightly due to the changed ratio but your mileage should actually go UP slightly. If you break an axle on your daily driver You're Doing It Wrong. The forces placed on an axle with a 20" rim on it vs a 15" rim is far less than the design spec of surviving a panic stop. Unless you're rock cimbing in the outback of Moab, UT this shouldn't be a problem, and even then you'd pick a proper vehicle for the job like a jeep (rentals available within 5 miles of the trailhead) and leave the toy behind.
For the price difference between the CRV and a H2 you could completely replace the drive train/suspension with one far superior to the H2's and still have money left over to pay for the gas for it for a year (what else could you buy for the $20,000 price difference? The downpayment on a condo closer to your office, for starters).
It causes people to run stop signs/lights more often but usually this is late at night so the effects are minimized. I still wouldn't reccomend driving under the influence but yes it's less inhibiting of your driving ability in that you're going to stare off into space at a 4 way stop (or red light turning green) than it is going to inhibit your ability to navigate the winding country road (or curved highway) home in the rain. Most drinking related accidents involve corners or turns, most pot related accidents involve taking too long at an intersection or not stopping at one.
Have you seen Toyota's Megacruiser? It's a Hummer, but made by Toyota, with "eurostyle" grill and headlights. Almost exactly the same dimensions, within a few mm of the H1. They only made them for 7 years (till 2002), but I suspect if North Korea keeps their shit up, Toyota could put them back on the assembly line in six to eight months no problem. The only complicated part of a H1 is that ridiculous (HEAVY! wtf) drivetrain inside the hubs, but is easy to copy.
Dunno what was wrong with the old CJ-2, cost $400 (at the time) to produce, weighed about 1000 lbs and would carry four men over most battlefield terrain at 35-60mph with almost zero maintenance. Compared to these modern monsters they were the epitome of efficiency.
A Honda CRV has 7.2 inches of ground clearance, that's nothing to sneeze at. The H2 and H3 largely get their ground clearance from their large rim/tire combination. Slap some 20's (up from the stock 15" rims) and a slightly higher profile tire and you have more ground clearance than a Hummer... getting 25mpg city to boot!
Throw some 15" rims and traditionally proportioned tires on a Hummer and it has pretty average ground clearance.
I think it was only recently (in the last 7 years) that England finally paid off their debt to us, greatly aided by inflation (my parents now pay monthly on their 30 year mortgage for an entire house what I pay currently for a small apartment)
You can also disable those keys in hardware, on practically any keyboard ever. Wedge anything from a pen cap to a screwdriver under one edge of the offending key and pry it off. My 108-key keyboard is now a 101 (well actually 100 - its missing the caps lock key)-key keyboard.
My previous bank (wash mutual) had a blackberry app, my current bank allows me to check my balance & activity through SMS what stone age are you living in that you need a computer to check your balance:) get with the times man!
I have the *opposite* problem(!) One of my mission critical websites only has a login that works for IE6. Thus I used FF3 everywhere else, but once I day I load up IE6 to check status on some stuff.
The longest they can detain you in the US is 72 hours without charge, one reason why Guantanamo bay prison isn't located on US soil. Even if they charge you they have to bring you to trial in a speedy manner. Unless you've pissed off the judge by not paying fines in > 2 counties and you can post bail, you should be out in less than a week.
Yes. I can imagine a deep space probe being sent to alpha centauri using this to calculate current speed and position (~5 light years away). In another 50 years we're going to get bored of what's immediately within human grasp and at some point in our lifetime the Voyager units will either burn out or the signal will be too weak to continue. Maybe 10 or 100 lightyears away you would need more than those four reference points, but the likelyhood of that happening in our lifetime is slim to none.
I'm assuming you mean for aliens and immigrants. The US can't refuse you entry if you're a US citizen unless they revoke your citizenship (at which point you're no longer a citizen). The only way I know of (off the top of my head) for the state to forcibly remove your citizen status is to convict you of a Felony, otherwise you'd have to willingly surrender it.
Whats the maximum duration they can imprison you for? Is this common in eastern European countries as well? I have fantasies of taking my severance pay, flying to Europe and backpacking till I run out of money, and then get deported back to the US. From what it sounds like Switzerland is the best country to be imprisoned in for having your visa expire (having read Catch Me If You Can).
See my reply to the other reply on this subject. That's pretty much what I was getting at. In the near term (2-4 years) continuing with Microsoft is going to be a lot cheaper than a transition to open source. No doubt it'll probably switch over to open source down the road, but there's no reason to drag this guy through the coals/throw him under the bus for making a decision most responsible Admins would do. You don't pick operating systems like you do plumbers. You can switch plumbers later - you're stuck with your upgrade path for years.
The IT we have are under staffed and over extended. There is a cost to retraining people to new products. There is a cost to replacing an existing product with something new. There is a cost to the amount of new help IT would have to provide. While you transition from one product to another, you have to support and know both. In most of these examples the product may be free but the time to do it has a huge price. More so when it currently works, users already know it, and you have bigger issues to deal with.
This is pretty much what I'm guessing the IT admin determined, and although he didn't document it, is what his decision was based off of. If you're a 10, 20 or maybe even 50 man shop, you can probably transition on 60 days if you're truly determined. Supporting both for 12 months is just not worth the logistics unless your boss' boss tells you open source is the only way to go. There's just too much else to do, so you sign the Microsoft software contract, which was already budgeted for, and move on. Because 100% open source apps aren't directly drop in replacements yet. Or at least I wouldn't risk my job over it. The fact that this was sensationalized is just another slow media day and I think the Linux Zealots should cut this guy some slack.
For as much as I would love to make the jump, I have nothing driving me to do it and only resistance preventing me from doing it.
"no serious alternatives" is purchase order speak for "too lazy to look, what we have works" or "renewing contract the easy way". Many times its easier to continue with the software you have, rather than force a regime change, especially when the Microsoft Software is already factored into the annual budget. It's hard to blame them in this case.
Slashdot Mirror
Depends on the game. Mirrors edge is def front loaded. Games you describe are even worse. I think in most cases you're right though.
I think they get a cut because they need to fund social programs for the poor, pay for welfare and social security, which is about what 80-95% of your paycheck goes to pay for. No really it's true go look up how income tax is split up almost all of your income tax goes to social programs and helping the poor (SS, medicare included). Sales tax, tariffs and cooperate taxes pay for the military along with school funding. Gas and transportation taxes pay for, well, maintaining the transportation infrastructure.
Whats wrong with offline mode. Thats all you can use at major lans like QuakeCon and I'm able to play all my steam games there no problem.
I'm still convinced it's a generational thing. Most people joining the workforce in the last 24 months grew up in their parent's 1980's Fords, GMs and Chryslers, which for all intents and purposes, were complete and utter crap. Their parents then replaced those steaming piles of junk with honda civics and accords (and toyota equivalents) which they then gave to their children, who drove (and crashed) them through high school and college. Ok, you've graduated from college and now make > $30,000 a year. What do you look at first, the piece of crap (subjectively) Ford, GM Chrysler your parents couldn't hardly give away in 1992, or a newer version of the dead-reliable honda civic that your family has owned for the last 12 years and maybe changed the oil on four or five times? Most of my office is in their late 20's - early 30's and in the last three years out of all the cars bought, the only two american cars that were purchased were a ford F150 with all the bells and whistles, to replace his previous F150, and a dodge challenger with all the bells and whistles, both of them being over 40 and being senior management. Everyone else bought Hondas or Toyotas, with a sprinkling of Kias. Most of them still have their honda civic/similar from highschool that they keep around simply because it won't die.
In short, the US auto industry is dead because they made cars so awful twenty years ago, people entering the car market now won't even consider them. It doesn't matter how good, or green American cars are, people know Hondas and Toyotas are a safe bet (they've been driving the same one for 12 years that's hard to argue with) and in a pinch, can usually sell them for at least half what they paid for them no matter how old they are as long as they have less than 80,000 miles on them. Even before GM announced closing Saturn, Saturns lost their value about as fast as a Porsche, that is, 90% in three years. The only American car I'd buy is a Ford Focus or one of their Trucks.
Also, many games are built upon a basic concept, usually which you can only get 5 hours of genuine playtime out of. The remaining 15 hours are usually BS, which is why so many games these days are crap. That might also be the reason why people want to buy games used; once you play through the first five hours, you've gotten all the fun you're going to have out of it. The remaining 15 hours are only there to justify the initial purchaser's $45 premium over what you paid for it used. There's a precious few games that have good/original content beyond the 5 hour mark, and they sell for much more used than most games as a result.
Where's the flag for "sensationalist story"? Obviously they will take a patient with life threatening injuries. I have no problem with they rejecting a patient coming in an ambulance who only has a sprained ankle or a mild case of the flu. Rejecting a patient with a gunshot wound or who has flatlined based on paperwork is different.
I know I'm quoting your quote, but "I went from paying $14 to The Wall Street Journal to paying $10 to Amazon. Now the splits there, and I think this is relatively well known, are very, very much in favor of Amazon." - I'm reasonably sure the profit based on digital distribution is equal or higher than printing on paper and then distributing it. You never end up with unsold copies at the end of the day.
Partially true. Most people know Scotland and Ireland are real countries and refer to them as such. Many people aren't aware Wales is more than "western England" or think it's an autonomous county/district. And then the Isle of Man is another, separate country. I think Jersey (another island) is it's own country, just off the coast of France near the channel.
Your MPG isn't going to be affected significantly by the weight of the rims/tires - that's like driving with a passenger. Your acceleration will be hurt slightly due to the changed ratio but your mileage should actually go UP slightly. If you break an axle on your daily driver You're Doing It Wrong. The forces placed on an axle with a 20" rim on it vs a 15" rim is far less than the design spec of surviving a panic stop. Unless you're rock cimbing in the outback of Moab, UT this shouldn't be a problem, and even then you'd pick a proper vehicle for the job like a jeep (rentals available within 5 miles of the trailhead) and leave the toy behind.
For the price difference between the CRV and a H2 you could completely replace the drive train/suspension with one far superior to the H2's and still have money left over to pay for the gas for it for a year (what else could you buy for the for the $20,000 price difference? The downpayment on a condo closer to your office, for starters).
Your MPG isn't going to be affected significantly by the weight of the rims/tires - that's like driving with a passenger. Your acceleration will be hurt slightly due to the changed ratio but your mileage should actually go UP slightly. If you break an axle on your daily driver You're Doing It Wrong. The forces placed on an axle with a 20" rim on it vs a 15" rim is far less than the design spec of surviving a panic stop. Unless you're rock cimbing in the outback of Moab, UT this shouldn't be a problem, and even then you'd pick a proper vehicle for the job like a jeep (rentals available within 5 miles of the trailhead) and leave the toy behind.
For the price difference between the CRV and a H2 you could completely replace the drive train/suspension with one far superior to the H2's and still have money left over to pay for the gas for it for a year (what else could you buy for the $20,000 price difference? The downpayment on a condo closer to your office, for starters).
It causes people to run stop signs/lights more often but usually this is late at night so the effects are minimized. I still wouldn't reccomend driving under the influence but yes it's less inhibiting of your driving ability in that you're going to stare off into space at a 4 way stop (or red light turning green) than it is going to inhibit your ability to navigate the winding country road (or curved highway) home in the rain. Most drinking related accidents involve corners or turns, most pot related accidents involve taking too long at an intersection or not stopping at one.
Probably about where it is on an H2 or H3. Are you supporting my point or attacking it; I can't tell.
Have you seen Toyota's Megacruiser? It's a Hummer, but made by Toyota, with "eurostyle" grill and headlights. Almost exactly the same dimensions, within a few mm of the H1. They only made them for 7 years (till 2002), but I suspect if North Korea keeps their shit up, Toyota could put them back on the assembly line in six to eight months no problem. The only complicated part of a H1 is that ridiculous (HEAVY! wtf) drivetrain inside the hubs, but is easy to copy.
Toyota/Japan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Mega_Cruiser
Russian Hummer clone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAZ-2975
Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese, Belgian, Moroccan, Venezuelian, Dominican Republic Clone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VAMTAC
Danish, Swiss, German Clone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOWAG_Eagle
Hell the poor Greeks even export a variant to god knows who: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELBO
Dunno what was wrong with the old CJ-2, cost $400 (at the time) to produce, weighed about 1000 lbs and would carry four men over most battlefield terrain at 35-60mph with almost zero maintenance. Compared to these modern monsters they were the epitome of efficiency.
A Honda CRV has 7.2 inches of ground clearance, that's nothing to sneeze at. The H2 and H3 largely get their ground clearance from their large rim/tire combination. Slap some 20's (up from the stock 15" rims) and a slightly higher profile tire and you have more ground clearance than a Hummer... getting 25mpg city to boot!
Throw some 15" rims and traditionally proportioned tires on a Hummer and it has pretty average ground clearance.
I think it was only recently (in the last 7 years) that England finally paid off their debt to us, greatly aided by inflation (my parents now pay monthly on their 30 year mortgage for an entire house what I pay currently for a small apartment)
You can also disable those keys in hardware, on practically any keyboard ever. Wedge anything from a pen cap to a screwdriver under one edge of the offending key and pry it off. My 108-key keyboard is now a 101 (well actually 100 - its missing the caps lock key)-key keyboard.
My previous bank (wash mutual) had a blackberry app, my current bank allows me to check my balance & activity through SMS what stone age are you living in that you need a computer to check your balance :) get with the times man!
I have the *opposite* problem(!) One of my mission critical websites only has a login that works for IE6. Thus I used FF3 everywhere else, but once I day I load up IE6 to check status on some stuff.
The longest they can detain you in the US is 72 hours without charge, one reason why Guantanamo bay prison isn't located on US soil. Even if they charge you they have to bring you to trial in a speedy manner. Unless you've pissed off the judge by not paying fines in > 2 counties and you can post bail, you should be out in less than a week.
Yes. I can imagine a deep space probe being sent to alpha centauri using this to calculate current speed and position (~5 light years away). In another 50 years we're going to get bored of what's immediately within human grasp and at some point in our lifetime the Voyager units will either burn out or the signal will be too weak to continue. Maybe 10 or 100 lightyears away you would need more than those four reference points, but the likelyhood of that happening in our lifetime is slim to none.
I'm assuming you mean for aliens and immigrants. The US can't refuse you entry if you're a US citizen unless they revoke your citizenship (at which point you're no longer a citizen). The only way I know of (off the top of my head) for the state to forcibly remove your citizen status is to convict you of a Felony, otherwise you'd have to willingly surrender it.
Whats the maximum duration they can imprison you for? Is this common in eastern European countries as well? I have fantasies of taking my severance pay, flying to Europe and backpacking till I run out of money, and then get deported back to the US. From what it sounds like Switzerland is the best country to be imprisoned in for having your visa expire (having read Catch Me If You Can).
See my reply to the other reply on this subject. That's pretty much what I was getting at. In the near term (2-4 years) continuing with Microsoft is going to be a lot cheaper than a transition to open source. No doubt it'll probably switch over to open source down the road, but there's no reason to drag this guy through the coals/throw him under the bus for making a decision most responsible Admins would do. You don't pick operating systems like you do plumbers. You can switch plumbers later - you're stuck with your upgrade path for years.
This is pretty much what I'm guessing the IT admin determined, and although he didn't document it, is what his decision was based off of. If you're a 10, 20 or maybe even 50 man shop, you can probably transition on 60 days if you're truly determined. Supporting both for 12 months is just not worth the logistics unless your boss' boss tells you open source is the only way to go. There's just too much else to do, so you sign the Microsoft software contract, which was already budgeted for, and move on. Because 100% open source apps aren't directly drop in replacements yet. Or at least I wouldn't risk my job over it. The fact that this was sensationalized is just another slow media day and I think the Linux Zealots should cut this guy some slack.
Yup.
"no serious alternatives" is purchase order speak for "too lazy to look, what we have works" or "renewing contract the easy way". Many times its easier to continue with the software you have, rather than force a regime change, especially when the Microsoft Software is already factored into the annual budget. It's hard to blame them in this case.