As soon as I heard about Exposé, I knew I was going to get Panther... even though I already had Jaguar. I've now bought five separate versions of OS X (Public Beta, 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3), and I'm tired of paying for these menial upgrades. Unless there is something truly, ridiculously amazing about "Tiger" I'm not going to pay for it. I'll wait for "Lion" or "Ocelot" or "Leopard" or whatever comes next.
Herein we see the old Zip/SyQuest debate playing out once again.
Neglecting DVD-RAM, DVD-R came out first. It has the expanded user base that corresponds with that noteworthy accomplishment. Also, because it's been out longer, it is currently cheaper than DVD+R. The DVD+R format may have certain advantages over -R, but as several people here have mentioned "+R/W is better, but I have a -R drive in my own machine."
-R will win out... for at least a while longer. I give it two years, minimum.
Pure water (H2O) is non-conductive. However, as it serves well as the "universal solvent," it usually doesn't stay pure for long. It is the impurities dissolved in all water that makes it conductive.
This is why they can use high-pressured D.I. water hoses to clean power-line insulators without worrying about electrocution or surges.
Perhaps it's just my jaded and cynical view of recent movies, but it seems that this new San Francisco-based studio wouldn't really have to do a great deal to rival Hollywood as a great movie producing town. Sure, Hollywood has the name, and has a long and glorious history, but the really good, honestly-worth-seeing films of the last few years have come out of other countries, not Hollywood. LOTR is just one example one that immediately pops to mind. Star Wars of course was done in England (and Marin, CA, of course). Lest anyone forget, The Matrix was an Aussie production. A personaly favorite of mine, The Boondock Saints was East-Coast, USA made. My list here is short for the point of brevity, not due to a lack of examples.
The last really good Hollywood production I saw was The Score. Hollywood may have a name synnonymous with movie making, but ? at least recently ? not so synnonymous with good movie making.
A friend of mine works at Cisco, developing internet telephony. One of their most pressing concerns is how they can possibly market this to investors and companies. Consumers, they know, will love it, as soon as they can get the quality to better than that of a land-line phone call. Companies won't invest in it, though, until there is some "foolproof" method of charging for it, and actually getting people to pay for it.
Currently, the phone company is the one I really don't want to piss off. Don't pay your bill? Fine, they shut your phone off. Then you can't call the gas company to turn your gas back on, the electric company to turn the lights back on, or the water department to turn the water back on. You can't even call the phone company to turn the phone back on! But imagine if phone service was an internet commodity that was billed like mp3.com or such music services. Don't pay your bill? Okay, just switch to a different service, keep the same internet phone number (or DHCP) and keep right on living life for free.
I wonder if these will be better than my metallic Tleilaxu eyes. They give me decent sight, but my friends say I look creepy with pitted aluminum spheres in my eye-sockets.
The problem with this strategy is that (in my experience) the delivery people who work for UPS are incredibly irresponsible.
If something requires a signature in their little electronic clipboard, the'll ring the bell once, maybe twice, then leave a little note, take it back to their truck, and go along their route. But if it does not require a signature, (though they'll always ask for one if they actually see a person), they just leave it there on the porch. Doesn't matter what it is, they just leave it there, not even waiting for someone to answer the door.
I have seen this behavior exhibited in both northern (Silicon Valley) and southern (Los Angeles) California. If things are better in other parts of the country, lucky you!
As far as I have seen, UPS is the most irresponsible company. Far worse than any of the "evil empires" in the world. Before their strike a few years back, 1 out of every 3 packages shipped went through UPS. I, however, will never use their services, either for sending or receiving, if I can avoid it.
I managed to sit through almost 37 minutes of this "ceremony," watching the streaming web-cast. I enjoy intelligent people making fools of themselves on stage as much as the next guy, but this was just too much... or maybe too little. I had to turn it off... didn't even get to any of the actual awards, just to the beginning of the first act of the mini-opera, "Marriage Complex."
The vast majority of the world's titanium reserves are in Russia (or former soviet satellite countries). Rather than provide a steady stream of titanium into the world market, they usually release only small amounts (equivalent to every other world producer), then every few years they will hold the equivalent of a "blow-out sale" on titanium. The prices worldwide go through the basement as Russia floods the market, and you get people like Frank Gehry building entire museums out of the stuff (see: Guggenheim-Bilbao). This current titanium trend is probably related to a recent flood of supply from Russia.
I know a guy who owns one of these chairs in his home. He seems to think it's great. Sure, it looks cool... it's a status symbol, and it's comfortable to sit in for a few minutes, I guess.
I on the other hand have a very simple high-back executive-style chair that I picked up at a office-supply warehouse store. I chose not to get the leather to save $50, and because where I have it gets rediculously hot. The ordinary, non-hi-tech fabric covering is very comfortable... the look is stylish, in a classic sense. It has height, arm rest, back-tilt, and seat-tilt adjustment, and neck/upper back support as well as proper lumbar support. And this only cost me $180.
Why do people assume that more expensive necessarily means better? You don't assume that about computer parts, right? You evaluate the products of their own merit, and buy the one that's right for your needs. It may the cheap one, it may be the expensive one... Since when did you chair become a status symbol?
Everyone I know liked the show "up until the movie."
Sadly, X-Files has suffered the same fate as our beloved "Babylon 5". Chris Carter originally intended that the movie would be the end of the show... permanently. It would answer most, if not all of the questions. It was to be a five year run, then a movie.
Unfortunately, Fox (the network, not the character) found that it was just too big a money-maker (and ratings-hog) to let go of. And so, although the end of Season 5 seemed ideally positioned to fulfill the original plan, 'twas not to be.
If you all remember, Straczynski (sp?) had written a movie followed by a five year story line. Season 4 of B5 however, had very poor ratings, and as such the network honchos decided to cut the series short. Stracynski compressed Seasons 4 & 5 into the fourth season to finish the storyline. Low and behold, the ratings went through the roof! (No wonder... so much action in so little time). The network kept the original contract, and Stracynski had to write more story to put into the fifth season... and it sucked (comparitively speaking). ----------
Ummm... am I the only one here who has heard of the fourth movie being called "Indiana Jones and the Sons of Darkness"?
I read a proposed script for it online, somewhere... It was really good. In this one, he went after the Ark... not the same one as before, but Noah's Ark. It was supposed to take place in the mid to late 1950s, which would match Indy's aging to that of Harrison Ford, and his nemesis would be a Communist megalomaniac, rather than Nazis.
I used to be a student of architecture at the USC. They have a (I think) rediculous policy that any submitted work becomes the property of the School of Architecture, possibly the property of the University. This includes drawings, physical models, 3-D animations, movies, pictures, even a student's portfolio (which, in architecture, is your life). For one class, a group of us built a collaborative model, costing the group well over $800. This model then became the "property" of the university/school, and we haven't seen it since. Since 16 of us paid for this, and 8 people worked on it, I'd at least like to see where my 50 bucks and 80 man-hours went!
It is unfortunate that the GPL only covers software.
Talking to one of the attorneys in their promotions department, I found it interesting that no one bothered to find fault in Yahoo! Adult Entertainment until the Los Angeles Times (a thoroughly useless periodical, I must add) finally found out about it... then they got tele-slashdotted (inundated with phone calls, emails), and dropped the entire department a week later. Now they've announced massive lay-offs... coincidence?
All this just goes to show that humans are stupid and unobservant. ----------
I submit to you my stories of my best and worst teachers in high school (9th thru 12th grades).
My best teacher was by far my choir director, Jack Lindsay. For four years he taught us music, and how to make it, but much more than that. My junior and senior years, as a part of the school's premiere touring performance choir, I learned more about life than in the previous ten years of my life. Now, perhaps this is coincidental, but I don't think it is entirely. Mr. L gave us not only the desire to learn music, but fueled the desire to learn from and do well in our other classes as well. With a six- to seven-period per day schedule in which two were dedicated to this choir, there was ample chance for members to slack off in their other classes, especially with the number of performances we did for private parties, elementary schools, public functions... etc. (in the two 3-week periods preceeding Christmas those two years, we gave over 170 private performances, often missing other classes to do so). However, every one of the students maintained a high GPA, ranging from 3.2 to 4.0 (some students technically had higher grade point averages due to inflation from honors and Advanced Placement courses, but this seems to be the best way to show "true" progress). Many students actually had better grades coming out of the choir than they did going in. But more than grades, Mr. L exposed his students to culture, the arts, professionalism, and even international travel. My junior year, we spent two weeks touring South America (being from California ourselves). My senior year, we toured through eastern Europe for two weeks. We sang and performed and entertained, and learned a great deal about life and each other. (okay, sappy, but true.)
My worst teacher was either my freshman science teacher or my junior-year biology teacher. My freshman science teacher, however, cannot be held totally to blame for my bad memories of that class, for the class itself, by design, was a waste of time and thoroughly pointless. My biology teacher had a knack and tendency to belittle and condescend to her students, most of whom were freshmen and sophomores. These are often the most frustrating and difficult times in young adolescent's lives, and she made them worse, as far as I could tell. Nothing she did was pro-active towards the furthering of students' lives, except for the instruction of basic biology.
Okay, enough ranting... I believe I have gotten my point across. Oh, and for those who are wondering, I was quite good in all science classes, as well as liberal arts classes -- these are not just sour grapes. ----------
I have become so ambivalent with regards to Microsoft. Personally, as a Mac user, Netscape sucks for various reasons. I have heard it described (and I agree with this) by other "M$" haters that IE5 for Mac is the best browser available on any platform. I can't really disagree.
And with the exception of a couple of truly infuriating bugs, the Office suite is the best set out there, IMHO. ----------
Might I also recommend Anthem by Ayn Rand. It's very short, and scratches the surface of the world of Objectivism, in language that is simple enough for ten-year-old, but sophisticated enough for even the snootiest of literary critics.
Another great one along this topic is of course Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
If you don't like the candidate who are running and choose not to vote, you are as directly responsible for putting the winner into the White House as if you did vote. Especially if you don't like who wins. Difference? You do not have the right to complain.
You did not take a role in the governmental process. Your vote is more than your voice, it is a permission slip to gripe. If you vote, and your choice of candidate doesn't win, it isn't your fault. You tried in the way you can to effect change, and now you can complain about anything that goes wrong because you can say "I told you so."
I'm not going to try to convince you to vote for any particular candidate. That is wrong. Pure and simple. You have to make up your own mind. You have to take a stance and stick to it. You have to make the effort.
Don't like the political system that gives you an option on what happens? Move. Pack up all your belongings and move to Hungary, where socialism still exists. Oh, wait... you don't want to move because you like the economy? You like making more in a day than most people world wide make in a month, or a year? You like the idea that if you don't like your country's leader you can remove him from office without having to kill him?
The thing that bothers me the most about the apathetic, lazy BS-artists who complain about the American political system, is that they forget that this country was not created by guns. Almost every other country on Earth was created by violence, especially those who were around before the 19th century. The United States split from England by use of violence, yes, and it was a very narrow victory. But then, we put down the guns and the brains took over. 55 men came together and drafted the first complete written governmental organization civilized man had ever known. They didn't trust a single leader, so they incorporated checks and balances in the legislature and judiciary. They didn't know everything, especially the future, so they wrote in the ability to change the governmental policies in the future without overthrowing the government. And most importantly to this discussion, they didn't want military leaders to by default take over the leadership of the country, nor megalomaniacal fanatics with "mandates from heaven" to do so either. So they empowered the people with the power of the vote.
There is a catch to all of this though. YOU HAVE TO VOTE FOR THE SYSTEM TO WORK. Complaining about a broken system but not voting is useless and hypocritical. The system is broken because people don't vote. Want the system to work again? Vote.
and the fact that we have no money to spend on licensing
... or anything else for that matter. I am amazed at how many people forget to read the postings! Forget other hardware, we didn't ask about other hardware (I say "we" because I am a member of this fraternity). What do you suggest we do with what we've got?
So many disillusioned Gen-Xers complain almost non-stop that they refuse to vote because the "system" doesn't work. They believe, in their naivite, that their non-voting is protest agaisnt said system.
Umm... I hate to break it to you, but that's exactly the opposite of truth and fact. The system ONLY works if people vote. Why doesn't the "system" work? Because people don't vote. The entire concept of "government of the people, by the people, and for the people" only works with a well-educated, involved populace who take an active participatory role in the governmental process. Boiled down, that means simply this: VOTE.
No, one vote often does not make a difference. That's not the point. Our governmental system would REALLY be a mess if it relied on unanimity. The point is that not only do YOU have to vote, others have to vote as well. Mass numbers is the ticket. So get out and vote, and having done so, convince everyone you know who can vote to do so.
The really sad part is that most idealistic young people, the ones who complain their views aren't heeded, don't bother to voice their views in ways that are effective (i.e.: voting, letters to congressmen, letters to editors, etc.). It is not until people become older, have more to be personally concerned with - more jaded, perhaps - that they take the time and effort to vote. And so the entire populace is represented by the voices of the old and jaded. This disillusions the younger would-be voters even more... continuing in a vicious circle.
Money is a powerful voice as well. I'm not saying not to boycott RIAA products. That will have some effect. But again, if only one person does it, it won't make that much of a difference. Do both, or anything else constructive towards the changes you want made.
The bottom line is this: Don't like the system? Change it! You have a voice, both in the polls and on the soapbox. Vote, and convince more people to vote, and the democratic system will work again.
There has (apparently) been a long-standing correlation between Magneto/Xavier and M.L.King, Jr./Malcolm X. Xavier is obviously Rev. King, being a voice of passive resistance and harmonious coexistance. Malcolm X/Magneto, on the other hand, advocate that the two sub-species (Homo sapiens sapiens and Homo superior) can only exist without coexistance; each would rather live among their own kind. This brings to mind segregation of blacks and whites through the 1950s, and that "separate cannot be equal", but I digress.
All-in-all, I would have to say that Brian Singer did a remarkable job considering the varied audiences he had to please. Character development is limited, but theoretically unnecessary due to the pre-education of the audience throught the comics over the last 34+ years. Plus, there is plenty of time for character development (and introduction) in the obligatory sequels.
Finally, no it's not the greatest movie of all time, but then, does anyone honestly expect that from an action flick? All I can say, is that if Singer can do this faithful a job with X-Men, I hope Peter Jackson can do as well, if not better with his highly anticipated Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The RIAA is highly opposed to the MP3 file format, and against programs/databases like Napster because these alternative forms of music recording technology cost them great amounts of income. Now, the RIAA reports that, in fact, they made an additional $1.4 billion (losing a negative amount is, in essence, gaining the opposite of that amount), which they are attributing to these same organizations and technologies that they are protesting.
Do I have that about right? Am I missing somethig vital? Either a reporter should be shot for not understanding basic 4th/5th-grade math, or the RIAA owes a REALLY big apology/butt-kissing to those who did them such a huge favor.
Some of my favorites: Red Planet - Robert Heinlein The Wizard in the Glass series - Stephen King. I think that's what the series is called.
Of course, you can never go wrong with Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, all five of them. His others, revolving around Dirk Gently - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul - are pretty good too.
For Fantasy, I highly recommend Stephen King's Eyes of the Dragon, and just about anything from Piers Anthony.
Slashdot Mirror
As soon as I heard about Exposé, I knew I was going to get Panther... even though I already had Jaguar. I've now bought five separate versions of OS X (Public Beta, 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3), and I'm tired of paying for these menial upgrades. Unless there is something truly, ridiculously amazing about "Tiger" I'm not going to pay for it. I'll wait for "Lion" or "Ocelot" or "Leopard" or whatever comes next.
And, yes, I'm just making those names up.
Herein we see the old Zip/SyQuest debate playing out once again.
Neglecting DVD-RAM, DVD-R came out first. It has the expanded user base that corresponds with that noteworthy accomplishment. Also, because it's been out longer, it is currently cheaper than DVD+R. The DVD+R format may have certain advantages over -R, but as several people here have mentioned "+R/W is better, but I have a -R drive in my own machine."
-R will win out... for at least a while longer. I give it two years, minimum.
Actually... water does not conduct electricity.
Pure water (H2O) is non-conductive. However, as it serves well as the "universal solvent," it usually doesn't stay pure for long. It is the impurities dissolved in all water that makes it conductive.
This is why they can use high-pressured D.I. water hoses to clean power-line insulators without worrying about electrocution or surges.
Perhaps it's just my jaded and cynical view of recent movies, but it seems that this new San Francisco-based studio wouldn't really have to do a great deal to rival Hollywood as a great movie producing town. Sure, Hollywood has the name, and has a long and glorious history, but the really good, honestly-worth-seeing films of the last few years have come out of other countries, not Hollywood. LOTR is just one example one that immediately pops to mind. Star Wars of course was done in England (and Marin, CA, of course). Lest anyone forget, The Matrix was an Aussie production. A personaly favorite of mine, The Boondock Saints was East-Coast, USA made. My list here is short for the point of brevity, not due to a lack of examples.
The last really good Hollywood production I saw was The Score. Hollywood may have a name synnonymous with movie making, but ? at least recently ? not so synnonymous with good movie making.
A friend of mine works at Cisco, developing internet telephony. One of their most pressing concerns is how they can possibly market this to investors and companies. Consumers, they know, will love it, as soon as they can get the quality to better than that of a land-line phone call. Companies won't invest in it, though, until there is some "foolproof" method of charging for it, and actually getting people to pay for it.
Currently, the phone company is the one I really don't want to piss off. Don't pay your bill? Fine, they shut your phone off. Then you can't call the gas company to turn your gas back on, the electric company to turn the lights back on, or the water department to turn the water back on. You can't even call the phone company to turn the phone back on! But imagine if phone service was an internet commodity that was billed like mp3.com or such music services. Don't pay your bill? Okay, just switch to a different service, keep the same internet phone number (or DHCP) and keep right on living life for free.
I wonder if these will be better than my metallic Tleilaxu eyes. They give me decent sight, but my friends say I look creepy with pitted aluminum spheres in my eye-sockets.
So, would these cars still be rated in "horsepower" or in "mulepower"?
The problem with this strategy is that (in my experience) the delivery people who work for UPS are incredibly irresponsible.
If something requires a signature in their little electronic clipboard, the'll ring the bell once, maybe twice, then leave a little note, take it back to their truck, and go along their route. But if it does not require a signature, (though they'll always ask for one if they actually see a person), they just leave it there on the porch. Doesn't matter what it is, they just leave it there, not even waiting for someone to answer the door.
I have seen this behavior exhibited in both northern (Silicon Valley) and southern (Los Angeles) California. If things are better in other parts of the country, lucky you!
As far as I have seen, UPS is the most irresponsible company. Far worse than any of the "evil empires" in the world. Before their strike a few years back, 1 out of every 3 packages shipped went through UPS. I, however, will never use their services, either for sending or receiving, if I can avoid it.
I managed to sit through almost 37 minutes of this "ceremony," watching the streaming web-cast. I enjoy intelligent people making fools of themselves on stage as much as the next guy, but this was just too much... or maybe too little. I had to turn it off... didn't even get to any of the actual awards, just to the beginning of the first act of the mini-opera, "Marriage Complex."
The vast majority of the world's titanium reserves are in Russia (or former soviet satellite countries). Rather than provide a steady stream of titanium into the world market, they usually release only small amounts (equivalent to every other world producer), then every few years they will hold the equivalent of a "blow-out sale" on titanium. The prices worldwide go through the basement as Russia floods the market, and you get people like Frank Gehry building entire museums out of the stuff (see: Guggenheim-Bilbao). This current titanium trend is probably related to a recent flood of supply from Russia.
I on the other hand have a very simple high-back executive-style chair that I picked up at a office-supply warehouse store. I chose not to get the leather to save $50, and because where I have it gets rediculously hot. The ordinary, non-hi-tech fabric covering is very comfortable... the look is stylish, in a classic sense. It has height, arm rest, back-tilt, and seat-tilt adjustment, and neck/upper back support as well as proper lumbar support. And this only cost me $180.
Why do people assume that more expensive necessarily means better? You don't assume that about computer parts, right? You evaluate the products of their own merit, and buy the one that's right for your needs. It may the cheap one, it may be the expensive one... Since when did you chair become a status symbol?
Everyone I know liked the show "up until the movie."
Sadly, X-Files has suffered the same fate as our beloved "Babylon 5". Chris Carter originally intended that the movie would be the end of the show... permanently. It would answer most, if not all of the questions. It was to be a five year run, then a movie.
Unfortunately, Fox (the network, not the character) found that it was just too big a money-maker (and ratings-hog) to let go of. And so, although the end of Season 5 seemed ideally positioned to fulfill the original plan, 'twas not to be.
If you all remember, Straczynski (sp?) had written a movie followed by a five year story line. Season 4 of B5 however, had very poor ratings, and as such the network honchos decided to cut the series short. Stracynski compressed Seasons 4 & 5 into the fourth season to finish the storyline. Low and behold, the ratings went through the roof! (No wonder... so much action in so little time). The network kept the original contract, and Stracynski had to write more story to put into the fifth season... and it sucked (comparitively speaking).
----------
Ummm... am I the only one here who has heard of the fourth movie being called "Indiana Jones and the Sons of Darkness"?
I read a proposed script for it online, somewhere... It was really good. In this one, he went after the Ark... not the same one as before, but Noah's Ark. It was supposed to take place in the mid to late 1950s, which would match Indy's aging to that of Harrison Ford, and his nemesis would be a Communist megalomaniac, rather than Nazis.
----------
I used to be a student of architecture at the USC. They have a (I think) rediculous policy that any submitted work becomes the property of the School of Architecture, possibly the property of the University. This includes drawings, physical models, 3-D animations, movies, pictures, even a student's portfolio (which, in architecture, is your life). For one class, a group of us built a collaborative model, costing the group well over $800. This model then became the "property" of the university/school, and we haven't seen it since. Since 16 of us paid for this, and 8 people worked on it, I'd at least like to see where my 50 bucks and 80 man-hours went!
It is unfortunate that the GPL only covers software.
----------
70-90 hours per week?
And the world thinks of us Americans as lazy?
----------
Talking to one of the attorneys in their promotions department, I found it interesting that no one bothered to find fault in Yahoo! Adult Entertainment until the Los Angeles Times (a thoroughly useless periodical, I must add) finally found out about it... then they got tele-slashdotted (inundated with phone calls, emails), and dropped the entire department a week later. Now they've announced massive lay-offs... coincidence?
All this just goes to show that humans are stupid and unobservant.
----------
I submit to you my stories of my best and worst teachers in high school (9th thru 12th grades). My best teacher was by far my choir director, Jack Lindsay. For four years he taught us music, and how to make it, but much more than that. My junior and senior years, as a part of the school's premiere touring performance choir, I learned more about life than in the previous ten years of my life. Now, perhaps this is coincidental, but I don't think it is entirely. Mr. L gave us not only the desire to learn music, but fueled the desire to learn from and do well in our other classes as well. With a six- to seven-period per day schedule in which two were dedicated to this choir, there was ample chance for members to slack off in their other classes, especially with the number of performances we did for private parties, elementary schools, public functions... etc. (in the two 3-week periods preceeding Christmas those two years, we gave over 170 private performances, often missing other classes to do so). However, every one of the students maintained a high GPA, ranging from 3.2 to 4.0 (some students technically had higher grade point averages due to inflation from honors and Advanced Placement courses, but this seems to be the best way to show "true" progress). Many students actually had better grades coming out of the choir than they did going in. But more than grades, Mr. L exposed his students to culture, the arts, professionalism, and even international travel. My junior year, we spent two weeks touring South America (being from California ourselves). My senior year, we toured through eastern Europe for two weeks. We sang and performed and entertained, and learned a great deal about life and each other. (okay, sappy, but true.) My worst teacher was either my freshman science teacher or my junior-year biology teacher. My freshman science teacher, however, cannot be held totally to blame for my bad memories of that class, for the class itself, by design, was a waste of time and thoroughly pointless. My biology teacher had a knack and tendency to belittle and condescend to her students, most of whom were freshmen and sophomores. These are often the most frustrating and difficult times in young adolescent's lives, and she made them worse, as far as I could tell. Nothing she did was pro-active towards the furthering of students' lives, except for the instruction of basic biology. Okay, enough ranting... I believe I have gotten my point across. Oh, and for those who are wondering, I was quite good in all science classes, as well as liberal arts classes -- these are not just sour grapes.
----------
I have become so ambivalent with regards to Microsoft. Personally, as a Mac user, Netscape sucks for various reasons. I have heard it described (and I agree with this) by other "M$" haters that IE5 for Mac is the best browser available on any platform. I can't really disagree.
And with the exception of a couple of truly infuriating bugs, the Office suite is the best set out there, IMHO.
----------
Might I also recommend Anthem by Ayn Rand. It's very short, and scratches the surface of the world of Objectivism, in language that is simple enough for ten-year-old, but sophisticated enough for even the snootiest of literary critics.
Another great one along this topic is of course Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
----------
Wake up call!
If you don't like the candidate who are running and choose not to vote, you are as directly responsible for putting the winner into the White House as if you did vote. Especially if you don't like who wins. Difference? You do not have the right to complain.
You did not take a role in the governmental process. Your vote is more than your voice, it is a permission slip to gripe. If you vote, and your choice of candidate doesn't win, it isn't your fault. You tried in the way you can to effect change, and now you can complain about anything that goes wrong because you can say "I told you so."
I'm not going to try to convince you to vote for any particular candidate. That is wrong. Pure and simple. You have to make up your own mind. You have to take a stance and stick to it. You have to make the effort.
Don't like the political system that gives you an option on what happens? Move. Pack up all your belongings and move to Hungary, where socialism still exists. Oh, wait... you don't want to move because you like the economy? You like making more in a day than most people world wide make in a month, or a year? You like the idea that if you don't like your country's leader you can remove him from office without having to kill him?
The thing that bothers me the most about the apathetic, lazy BS-artists who complain about the American political system, is that they forget that this country was not created by guns. Almost every other country on Earth was created by violence, especially those who were around before the 19th century. The United States split from England by use of violence, yes, and it was a very narrow victory. But then, we put down the guns and the brains took over. 55 men came together and drafted the first complete written governmental organization civilized man had ever known. They didn't trust a single leader, so they incorporated checks and balances in the legislature and judiciary. They didn't know everything, especially the future, so they wrote in the ability to change the governmental policies in the future without overthrowing the government. And most importantly to this discussion, they didn't want military leaders to by default take over the leadership of the country, nor megalomaniacal fanatics with "mandates from heaven" to do so either. So they empowered the people with the power of the vote.
There is a catch to all of this though. YOU HAVE TO VOTE FOR THE SYSTEM TO WORK. Complaining about a broken system but not voting is useless and hypocritical. The system is broken because people don't vote. Want the system to work again? Vote.
You have three days.
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and the fact that we have no money to spend on licensing
... or anything else for that matter. I am amazed at how many people forget to read the postings! Forget other hardware, we didn't ask about other hardware (I say "we" because I am a member of this fraternity). What do you suggest we do with what we've got?
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So many disillusioned Gen-Xers complain almost non-stop that they refuse to vote because the "system" doesn't work. They believe, in their naivite, that their non-voting is protest agaisnt said system.
Umm... I hate to break it to you, but that's exactly the opposite of truth and fact. The system ONLY works if people vote. Why doesn't the "system" work? Because people don't vote. The entire concept of "government of the people, by the people, and for the people" only works with a well-educated, involved populace who take an active participatory role in the governmental process. Boiled down, that means simply this: VOTE.
No, one vote often does not make a difference. That's not the point. Our governmental system would REALLY be a mess if it relied on unanimity. The point is that not only do YOU have to vote, others have to vote as well. Mass numbers is the ticket. So get out and vote, and having done so, convince everyone you know who can vote to do so.
The really sad part is that most idealistic young people, the ones who complain their views aren't heeded, don't bother to voice their views in ways that are effective (i.e.: voting, letters to congressmen, letters to editors, etc.). It is not until people become older, have more to be personally concerned with - more jaded, perhaps - that they take the time and effort to vote. And so the entire populace is represented by the voices of the old and jaded. This disillusions the younger would-be voters even more... continuing in a vicious circle.
Money is a powerful voice as well. I'm not saying not to boycott RIAA products. That will have some effect. But again, if only one person does it, it won't make that much of a difference. Do both, or anything else constructive towards the changes you want made.
The bottom line is this: Don't like the system? Change it! You have a voice, both in the polls and on the soapbox. Vote, and convince more people to vote, and the democratic system will work again.
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There has (apparently) been a long-standing correlation between Magneto/Xavier and M.L.King, Jr./Malcolm X. Xavier is obviously Rev. King, being a voice of passive resistance and harmonious coexistance. Malcolm X/Magneto, on the other hand, advocate that the two sub-species (Homo sapiens sapiens and Homo superior) can only exist without coexistance; each would rather live among their own kind. This brings to mind segregation of blacks and whites through the 1950s, and that "separate cannot be equal", but I digress.
All-in-all, I would have to say that Brian Singer did a remarkable job considering the varied audiences he had to please. Character development is limited, but theoretically unnecessary due to the pre-education of the audience throught the comics over the last 34+ years. Plus, there is plenty of time for character development (and introduction) in the obligatory sequels.
Finally, no it's not the greatest movie of all time, but then, does anyone honestly expect that from an action flick? All I can say, is that if Singer can do this faithful a job with X-Men, I hope Peter Jackson can do as well, if not better with his highly anticipated Lord of the Rings trilogy.
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The RIAA is highly opposed to the MP3 file format, and against programs/databases like Napster because these alternative forms of music recording technology cost them great amounts of income. Now, the RIAA reports that, in fact, they made an additional $1.4 billion (losing a negative amount is, in essence, gaining the opposite of that amount), which they are attributing to these same organizations and technologies that they are protesting.
Do I have that about right? Am I missing somethig vital? Either a reporter should be shot for not understanding basic 4th/5th-grade math, or the RIAA owes a REALLY big apology/butt-kissing to those who did them such a huge favor.
Some of my favorites:
Red Planet - Robert Heinlein
The Wizard in the Glass series - Stephen King. I think that's what the series is called.
Of course, you can never go wrong with Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, all five of them. His others, revolving around Dirk Gently - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul - are pretty good too.
For Fantasy, I highly recommend Stephen King's Eyes of the Dragon, and just about anything from Piers Anthony.