>>>a lot of Americans are still grumbling at local broadcasters and the FCC because over-the-air TV was working JUST FINE until June 2009, when ALL OF A SUDDEN the rabbit ears weren't enough. >>>
And the broadcasters/FCC deserves it. Not one single time did they tell customers they need to upgrade from settop to rooftop antennas, if they want to continue receiving the same number of channels. That was a major mistake.
I suspect Netscape ISP is still using the old V4 addresses. No more downloading of TV shows I missed (like Judge Napolitano's Freedom Watch, Conan O'brien, Rachel Maddow, et cetera). Oh well. I'll cancel the netscape and get VirginMobile's wireless deal..... although it is 5 times more expensive.
I found Ubuntu Linux to be very difficult to learn, mainly because every time you need to fix something (example: change to supervisor mode to install flash), it involves opening the CLI.
Which would be fine if I knew the commands, but I did not. And saying "go learn them on this website" works for an engineer like me, but would be met with a blank stare by 99.9% of users. That fatal flaw is something Apple learned in 1984 and Microsoft sometime around 1995:
Things should be made simple enough that all you need is a mouse. The CLI should not be needed.
Yes *I* liked Parasite Eve also, but I know a lot of gamers did not, because it was a completely linear RPG with no sidequests. At the time not having sidequests was considered a bad RPG design. That's why PE2 changed direction.
>>>Fascism is a political philosophy in which the state is the primary component. In a fascist system, there are no true property rights and business owners can lose everything, if they are proscribed by a powerful individual.
>>>radio and TV have their scaly antedeluvian asses planted right in the middle of a huge swath of sweet, sweet RF spectrum with good propagation characteristics they had better start showing some serious worth, >>>
AM Radio is not located in a sweet spot. In fact their location is pretty crappy (noisy; hard to receive; requires a HUGE transmitter antenna).
Free TV provides LOTS of worth including free dramas, sitcoms, movies, kiddie shows, worldwide news reports (EuroTV, NHK, etc), and weather/emergency information.
It's the FM Radio that is in the worst shape. They offer music, but people are now getting music from the internet so FM has lost its purpose.
I'm using the Second Beta release, and I've not noticed any problems with the browser, or email, or newsgroups, or composer. Opera 11 is also stable. May be time for a switch? (Just a thought.)
>>>£9.99 down, £18/month for a new Samsung netbook with 3G dataplan.
That's ~$30 per month. Not as cheap as my $15/month internet line. So: Is a similar plan available in the US? And you're right the UK Government is probably just looking for good karma to say "We did something," and get reelected.
Remember we're talking about computer illiterates here. The Linux distro needs to be ridiculously easy to use. Like Puppy - just click "browse the web" and you're there. Or maybe the Ubuntu Netbook install.
>>>£98 ($156.01) for a refurbished PC, with subsidized Internet connections available for as little as £9 ($14.33) a month
What a coincidence. That's how much my Windows 7 PC cost, and likewise my internet connection is just $15 a month. Why does the UK government think it needs to subsidize the price, when it's already AT that low point?
Same reason they delay DVD releases. The production companies are giving theater owners a chance to profit off the movies, otherwise people would just buy the DVD.
Likewise production companies were giving radio owners a chance to profit off new songs for approximately one month..... and now they've just taken that away because people will buy AACs instead of hearing their songs on the radio. Music Radio stations will probably be pissed (unless they go bankrupt first). Radio is in sad shape.
Most songs get a 3 hour radio rotation anyway. Or posted to youtube, so I can just listen for free. Later on I'll buy the "greatest hits" CD at a much cheaper rate (~60 cents per song) and lossless quality.
>>>The idea of having to listen to more Yuna is just... not appealing.
But Rikku... in a bikini. Good enough reason to lay-down $5 (used) to get the game. And the volleyball beachbum named Tidus(?), thankfully, is not seen much. And the various missions are random, so there's lots of freedom for the player to explore and enjoy..... kinda like the old 8 and 16 bit RPGs of the past.
Somebody else said: >>>Many people said 'X 2' instead of '10 2' because it was awkward.
I always say "10 dash 2". No more awkward than saying "Mac OS 10 dot 6"
>>>FF has deviated from its original intent into a cashcow.
Um.
Wrong. The original intent of Final Fantasy was to create some quick cash for a company that was almost bankrupt. Squaresoft just got lucky that FF-1 was so popular and saved their bacon, else they would have disappeared circa 1988.
>>>They were masterful with the PS2 (I still think Kingdom Hearts 2 was the best game ever released for that platform), but these days, they seem to make a bunch of shovelware low-budget titles and to completely mishandle their big-budget ones. T
I've seen this sentence before..... about 5-6 years ago: "They were masterful with the PS1 (I still think FF7 was the best game ever released for that platform), but these days, they seem to make a bunch of shovelware low-budget titles and to completely mishandle their big-budget ones." People are always looking to the past and thinking it's better than the present, while forgetting some of the crap Square created (Parasite Eve 1/2, FF8 or 9, FF Battles, FF Racing or whatever the heck it was called).
FF10 was pretty hated too for its lack of sidequests, and I remember FF10-2 was called a cheap cash-in cow. FF11 was almost universally hated. Part 12 is probably the only one that didn't get vitriole.
NES - Final Fantasies 1/2/3 Super Nintendo - FF 4/5/6 Playstation - FF 7/8/9 PS2 - FF10/11/12 (10 was a two parter) PS3 - FF13/14. Maybe they'll have time for a FF15 but it's doubtful.
>>>the number one thingabout XIII that is really awful is it's absurdly linear gameplay
FF10 was very linear too. It had to be because it was basically a movie that you played, and they steered you along that specific plotline. Anyway that linearity didn't bother me because the story more than made-up for it. (And the later sequel which had tons of free movement.)
>>>If you look at the text of the fourth amendment, it requires probable cause, not a warrant,
False. "no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation" It's a three-step process and you can NOT skip any of the steps:
1 Visit court and swear an oath/affirmation you, the cop, believe Person A has Contraband B. 2 Court gives (or denies) warrant based upon your probable cause (you saw Person A carrying B). 3 You use warrant to search person or place.
You can not skip steps 1 and 2 and jump directly into 3. That defeats the whole purpose of requiring a third party (judge) and requiring a warrant, to ensure cops don't abuse their power. READ the text of the law and that is quite clear.
But that's too easy. Remember they arrested Professor Gates even though he had done nothing wrong (telling cops he's sick of being mistreated because of his skin color, is Protected speech). So since Gates was arrested, does that mean the cops get to search the Professors' phone, find nudie pics, illegal MP3s, or whatever, and charge him? In California "yes" but it shouldn't be that way.
A cop should not be able to arrest a person whenever they feel like it ("resisting") and then do a hunt through a person's papers, cellphone, and effects to hang them with something. And if they do, since it's done without warrant, any contraband should be thrown-out as illegally-obtained, warrantless evidence.
That's what I do. My phone is just a phone and I don't have anything stored on it, mainly because of fear that I might lose the phone & sensitive information. And now: Because of fear of search by police or Homeland Gestapo or the Airport SA.
I was already stopped once because Homeland Insecurity wanted to search my car w/o a warrant. Made me stand in the hot Texas sun over an hour before finally letting me go. The last thing I need is for these Stazi to peruse my phone, and charge me with something stupid, like transporting nudie pics over state borders, or having illegal MP3s, or whatever.
What part of this Supreme Law do they not understand? "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers[data], and effects[cellphones], against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things [phones] to be seized." It was adopted as a response to the abuse of the British Writ of Assistance, which is a type of general search warrant, during the 1760s and 70s and their use forbidden in 1776 when the Colonies declared themselves independent States.
Cellphones should not be searchable until a police officer stands before a judge and obtains a warrant, and swears an oath that he, the officer, is telling the truth (and punishable with Perjury if not).
I'm getting paid more than anybody else in my family, and they are all older than me.
Does that mean I should get less just because they have "seniority"? NOPE. Pay is based upon supply-and-demand just like anything else, and if the demand is high and the number of people knowing Skill A is low, naturally the pay will be higher for those workers. Age is irrelevant.
Wow. Way to completely and totally miss my point. Which was: The senior guy doesn't have the Skill A needed - that's why he's being paid less than the new guy. Senior guy is less valuable.
I'm getting paid more than anybody else in my family, and they are all older than me.
Does that mean I should get less just because they have "seniority"? NOPE. Pay is based upon supply-and-demand just like anything else, and if the demand is high and the number of people knowing Skill A is low, naturally the pay will be higher for those workers. Age is irrelevant.
Bob Yannes also deserves credit for SID, yes, but Jay Miner created those high-color chips in 1977 and 1985 when PCs were still doing just 2 or 16 colors. He had enough vision to realize more colors would be better. And of course he created the overall beauty that was the Amiga (68000 + independent processors == preemptive multiprocessing).
To say "Jay Miner didnt have squat" is piss poor on your part. You are insulting a man who doesn't deserve to be insulted. I wouldn't be surprised if you did the same to your fellow coworkers: "Of Joe isn't that great an engineer. He doesn't do squat."
If I had a family, and for some reason the 90mpg Lupo was not enough to carry the wife plus kid plus supplies to Disneyland, I would simply take two cars to the hotel. You don't have to all ride in the same car, and the gasoline saved would be greater than taking a ~25mpg SUV to work every single day.
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>>>a lot of Americans are still grumbling at local broadcasters and the FCC because over-the-air TV was working JUST FINE until June 2009, when ALL OF A SUDDEN the rabbit ears weren't enough.
>>>
And the broadcasters/FCC deserves it. Not one single time did they tell customers they need to upgrade from settop to rooftop antennas, if they want to continue receiving the same number of channels. That was a major mistake.
I suspect Netscape ISP is still using the old V4 addresses. No more downloading of TV shows I missed (like Judge Napolitano's Freedom Watch, Conan O'brien, Rachel Maddow, et cetera). Oh well. I'll cancel the netscape and get VirginMobile's wireless deal..... although it is 5 times more expensive.
I found Ubuntu Linux to be very difficult to learn, mainly because every time you need to fix something (example: change to supervisor mode to install flash), it involves opening the CLI.
Which would be fine if I knew the commands, but I did not. And saying "go learn them on this website" works for an engineer like me, but would be met with a blank stare by 99.9% of users. That fatal flaw is something Apple learned in 1984 and Microsoft sometime around 1995:
Things should be made simple enough that all you need is a mouse.
The CLI should not be needed.
Yes *I* liked Parasite Eve also, but I know a lot of gamers did not, because it was a completely linear RPG with no sidequests. At the time not having sidequests was considered a bad RPG design. That's why PE2 changed direction.
>>>Fascism is a political philosophy in which the state is the primary component. In a fascist system, there are no true property rights and business owners can lose everything, if they are proscribed by a powerful individual.
So it's China.
>>>radio and TV have their scaly antedeluvian asses planted right in the middle of a huge swath of sweet, sweet RF spectrum with good propagation characteristics they had better start showing some serious worth,
>>>
AM Radio is not located in a sweet spot. In fact their location is pretty crappy (noisy; hard to receive; requires a HUGE transmitter antenna).
Free TV provides LOTS of worth including free dramas, sitcoms, movies, kiddie shows, worldwide news reports (EuroTV, NHK, etc), and weather/emergency information.
It's the FM Radio that is in the worst shape. They offer music, but people are now getting music from the internet so FM has lost its purpose.
I'm using the Second Beta release, and I've not noticed any problems with the browser, or email, or newsgroups, or composer. Opera 11 is also stable. May be time for a switch? (Just a thought.)
>>>£9.99 down, £18/month for a new Samsung netbook with 3G dataplan.
That's ~$30 per month. Not as cheap as my $15/month internet line. So: Is a similar plan available in the US? And you're right the UK Government is probably just looking for good karma to say "We did something," and get reelected.
Remember we're talking about computer illiterates here. The Linux distro needs to be ridiculously easy to use. Like Puppy - just click "browse the web" and you're there. Or maybe the Ubuntu Netbook install.
>>>£98 ($156.01) for a refurbished PC, with subsidized Internet connections available for as little as £9 ($14.33) a month
What a coincidence. That's how much my Windows 7 PC cost, and likewise my internet connection is just $15 a month. Why does the UK government think it needs to subsidize the price, when it's already AT that low point?
>>>why was a delayed release ever a good idea?
Same reason they delay DVD releases. The production companies are giving theater owners a chance to profit off the movies, otherwise people would just buy the DVD.
Likewise production companies were giving radio owners a chance to profit off new songs for approximately one month..... and now they've just taken that away because people will buy AACs instead of hearing their songs on the radio. Music Radio stations will probably be pissed (unless they go bankrupt first). Radio is in sad shape.
Most songs get a 3 hour radio rotation anyway. Or posted to youtube, so I can just listen for free.
Later on I'll buy the "greatest hits" CD at a much cheaper rate (~60 cents per song) and lossless quality.
>>>The idea of having to listen to more Yuna is just... not appealing.
But Rikku... in a bikini. Good enough reason to lay-down $5 (used) to get the game. And the volleyball beachbum named Tidus(?), thankfully, is not seen much. And the various missions are random, so there's lots of freedom for the player to explore and enjoy..... kinda like the old 8 and 16 bit RPGs of the past.
Somebody else said:
>>>Many people said 'X 2' instead of '10 2' because it was awkward.
I always say "10 dash 2". No more awkward than saying "Mac OS 10 dot 6"
>>>FF has deviated from its original intent into a cashcow.
Um.
Wrong. The original intent of Final Fantasy was to create some quick cash for a company that was almost bankrupt. Squaresoft just got lucky that FF-1 was so popular and saved their bacon, else they would have disappeared circa 1988.
>>>They were masterful with the PS2 (I still think Kingdom Hearts 2 was the best game ever released for that platform), but these days, they seem to make a bunch of shovelware low-budget titles and to completely mishandle their big-budget ones. T
I've seen this sentence before..... about 5-6 years ago:
"They were masterful with the PS1 (I still think FF7 was the best game ever released for that platform), but these days, they seem to make a bunch of shovelware low-budget titles and to completely mishandle their big-budget ones." People are always looking to the past and thinking it's better than the present, while forgetting some of the crap Square created (Parasite Eve 1/2, FF8 or 9, FF Battles, FF Racing or whatever the heck it was called).
FF10 was pretty hated too for its lack of sidequests, and I remember FF10-2 was called a cheap cash-in cow. FF11 was almost universally hated. Part 12 is probably the only one that didn't get vitriole.
NES - Final Fantasies 1/2/3
Super Nintendo - FF 4/5/6
Playstation - FF 7/8/9
PS2 - FF10/11/12 (10 was a two parter)
PS3 - FF13/14. Maybe they'll have time for a FF15 but it's doubtful.
>>>the number one thingabout XIII that is really awful is it's absurdly linear gameplay
FF10 was very linear too. It had to be because it was basically a movie that you played, and they steered you along that specific plotline. Anyway that linearity didn't bother me because the story more than made-up for it. (And the later sequel which had tons of free movement.)
>>>If you look at the text of the fourth amendment, it requires probable cause, not a warrant,
False. "no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation" It's a three-step process and you can NOT skip any of the steps:
1 Visit court and swear an oath/affirmation you, the cop, believe Person A has Contraband B.
2 Court gives (or denies) warrant based upon your probable cause (you saw Person A carrying B).
3 You use warrant to search person or place.
You can not skip steps 1 and 2 and jump directly into 3. That defeats the whole purpose of requiring a third party (judge) and requiring a warrant, to ensure cops don't abuse their power. READ the text of the law and that is quite clear.
>>>Americans have problems in their aquaintance with the truth.
I did not lie in my original post, as you are implying.
But that's too easy. Remember they arrested Professor Gates even though he had done nothing wrong (telling cops he's sick of being mistreated because of his skin color, is Protected speech). So since Gates was arrested, does that mean the cops get to search the Professors' phone, find nudie pics, illegal MP3s, or whatever, and charge him? In California "yes" but it shouldn't be that way.
A cop should not be able to arrest a person whenever they feel like it ("resisting") and then do a hunt through a person's papers, cellphone, and effects to hang them with something. And if they do, since it's done without warrant, any contraband should be thrown-out as illegally-obtained, warrantless evidence.
That's what I do. My phone is just a phone and I don't have anything stored on it, mainly because of fear that I might lose the phone & sensitive information. And now: Because of fear of search by police or Homeland Gestapo or the Airport SA.
I was already stopped once because Homeland Insecurity wanted to search my car w/o a warrant. Made me stand in the hot Texas sun over an hour before finally letting me go. The last thing I need is for these Stazi to peruse my phone, and charge me with something stupid, like transporting nudie pics over state borders, or having illegal MP3s, or whatever.
What part of this Supreme Law do they not understand? "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers[data], and effects[cellphones], against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things [phones] to be seized." It was adopted as a response to the abuse of the British Writ of Assistance, which is a type of general search warrant, during the 1760s and 70s and their use forbidden in 1776 when the Colonies declared themselves independent States.
Cellphones should not be searchable until a police officer stands before a judge and obtains a warrant, and swears an oath that he, the officer, is telling the truth (and punishable with Perjury if not).
I'm getting paid more than anybody else in my family, and they are all older than me.
Does that mean I should get less just because they have "seniority"? NOPE. Pay is based upon supply-and-demand just like anything else, and if the demand is high and the number of people knowing Skill A is low, naturally the pay will be higher for those workers. Age is irrelevant.
Wow. Way to completely and totally miss my point. Which was: The senior guy doesn't have the Skill A needed - that's why he's being paid less than the new guy. Senior guy is less valuable.
I'm getting paid more than anybody else in my family, and they are all older than me.
Does that mean I should get less just because they have "seniority"? NOPE. Pay is based upon supply-and-demand just like anything else, and if the demand is high and the number of people knowing Skill A is low, naturally the pay will be higher for those workers. Age is irrelevant.
Bob Yannes also deserves credit for SID, yes, but Jay Miner created those high-color chips in 1977 and 1985 when PCs were still doing just 2 or 16 colors. He had enough vision to realize more colors would be better. And of course he created the overall beauty that was the Amiga (68000 + independent processors == preemptive multiprocessing).
To say "Jay Miner didnt have squat" is piss poor on your part. You are insulting a man who doesn't deserve to be insulted. I wouldn't be surprised if you did the same to your fellow coworkers: "Of Joe isn't that great an engineer. He doesn't do squat."
If I had a family, and for some reason the 90mpg Lupo was not enough to carry the wife plus kid plus supplies to Disneyland, I would simply take two cars to the hotel. You don't have to all ride in the same car, and the gasoline saved would be greater than taking a ~25mpg SUV to work every single day.