"all it took was a few airplanes slamming into the side of some buildings to cause radical shifts in our way of life, our economy, etc."
I've got 2 issues with your statement:
1- I'm not sure there have been *major shifts* in your way of life and your economy. What are you thinking about ?
2- What changes there have been, I'm not sure where due to the planes crashing. The housing bubble was there for the pricking, it was bound to burst at some point; the banking system had been running amok on the path of max.rewards for its workers and owners regardless of risk or sense for a while (glass-steagall repeal ?); I remember back when I was in college (and that's 20 yrs back), my econ prof telling us the US Auto industry had insolvable pensions liabilities that would require a bankruptcy and/or bailouts.
And a more general issue: that comment is very US-centric.
There are other predictions that are easy to make:
- A major political party embracing bigotry and idiocy can only lead to strife. Usually the bigots/idiots have to start from scratch, which makes success harder. But if they succeeded, their lies and idiocies can't sustain them in power, and they need to resort to external and internal violence. We're seeing a bit of that already.
- Economic upheaval can lead to regime change. that's what caused the French revolution. At some point, the low and middle class will realize they are being fleeced by the corrupt and the mega-rich (and that both are often the same), and will react.
- Dependency on foreign oil and money can only make a state economically weaker and politically more quixotic.
At some point, that could be said of cars, running water, telephone, electricity, sewers, public schools, TV, radio... Something being new does not automatically mean it's superfluous ?
First, mobile or not is secondary, the question is whether people are connected to the Internet or not. Mobile is generally the best way to do it (cheaper infrastructure, cheaper terminals, no needs for reliable/permanent mains power...), so let's accept mobile is best, though this might be untrue in some circumstances (cities, st world countries...) where fixed would be OK too.
Second, broadband or trickle-band is moot: the question is whether people have access to Internet or not, not whether that access is fast or slow. It's amazing what you can do on a slow internet connection, when you really need to. Checking produce prices, matching sellers and buyers, transport pooling... doesn't require an awful lot of bandwidth. Only video does require a lot of bandwidth, and this is rather luxury. Even good sound doesn't need broadband.
Finally, pipes are nice, but it's what travels through them that's really key. I'm not sure FaceBook and YouTube are *that* vital.
"the API is quite different, with no obvious upsides". Or not:
obvious upsides to dropping some backward compatibility: - less OS bloat - faster OS - more battery life - fewer security holes - no significant loss of features aside from backward compatibility itself
If you keep the little box "install from other sources" unchecked, then Android has a walled garden. You get the choice of a walled garden or not, which is fine, most people shouldn't be allowed to DL random stuff. Too bad the walls are not that good, BTW ^^
steam is far from being the anti MS. they both, like apple, want to lock their users into never really owning content, having to go though them to do anything with what they bought... Apple is wildly successful at it, Steam quite successfful, and MS not yet in the consumer space.
We should amend that to "Linux was speaking honestly *and rightly*". The windows idea is dumb, and mormonism is a sect-type cult.
I only disagree in that mormonism is not batshit crazy: it fulfilled its intended purpose. The guy wanted to lay lots of women, and found that selling himself as a prophet *and* having god tell him to be promiscuous, worked. Better than the catholic prophet, IIRC.
On the one hand, having a open software standard bearer talk politics doesn't help The Cause. On the other hand, this hypocritical mor(m)on has it coming.
Indeed. Only that won't change because Google decide overnight to change the filters they support. What is changing is the trust we can have in online providers not swiping the carpet from under our feet overnight. See my.sig.
Many people still use the old formats, if only because they already have lots of documents in those formats. Also because there's not much reason to change, and there are always outliers that won't handle the new formats well.
Try to use a non-admin account for your daily stuff. An escalated admin account when you do need to install stuff is just 2 clicks away (start -> change user)
I've had my computer-illiterate parents on a non-admin account for 20 years now, they still haven't gotten a virus. And yes, they're still computer-illiterate ^^
People pay 100s, 1,000s or more times for clothes than the actual manufacturing cost. Because clothes also have a social value, by making you look good, advertising that you know how to dress well and fashionably, and, above all, conveying that you have money to throw away on overpriced bits of cloths.
Same for computing devices really. There's one company I'm thinking of... ^^
1- SSDs are supposed to be more reliable. Bunk. All real data I've seen points to higher to much higher (2-3x) return rates on SSDs, so their resilience to one event (bumps) does not make up for sensitivity to other things (BIOS issues, cell defects...) 2- All tests emphasize the SSD's best case, forgetting that we spend very little actual time booting, launching apps... A boot once a week at most in my case, the rest is sleep or hibernation. No app launching either, my apps stay open. How much are a couple handful of seconds once a day worth to you ? 3- Storage space is handy. I got an SSD for a laptop, dumped it quickly because I'd rather have some content to watch while on trips. Since I had that SSD laying around, I used it for my new desktop, except now I'm having to fight to fit OS+Apps+Games on 128GB = 90 GB available. I'm wishing I had a HD instead every day.
All in all, SSDs, at any price, don't make much sense to me, except for the "wow, this machine boots fast !" gimmick. Gimmick.
The mobile phone situation in North America boggles the mind. I'm on an "unlimited" contract (voice, texts, data though throttled after 3GB) for $20/month. that includes free international calls to 100 countries, and 10 countries' mobiles.
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"all it took was a few airplanes slamming into the side of some buildings to cause radical shifts in our way of life, our economy, etc."
I've got 2 issues with your statement:
1- I'm not sure there have been *major shifts* in your way of life and your economy. What are you thinking about ?
2- What changes there have been, I'm not sure where due to the planes crashing. The housing bubble was there for the pricking, it was bound to burst at some point; the banking system had been running amok on the path of max.rewards for its workers and owners regardless of risk or sense for a while (glass-steagall repeal ?); I remember back when I was in college (and that's 20 yrs back), my econ prof telling us the US Auto industry had insolvable pensions liabilities that would require a bankruptcy and/or bailouts.
And a more general issue: that comment is very US-centric.
There are other predictions that are easy to make:
- A major political party embracing bigotry and idiocy can only lead to strife. Usually the bigots/idiots have to start from scratch, which makes success harder. But if they succeeded, their lies and idiocies can't sustain them in power, and they need to resort to external and internal violence. We're seeing a bit of that already.
- Economic upheaval can lead to regime change. that's what caused the French revolution. At some point, the low and middle class will realize they are being fleeced by the corrupt and the mega-rich (and that both are often the same), and will react.
- Dependency on foreign oil and money can only make a state economically weaker and politically more quixotic.
At some point, that could be said of cars, running water, telephone, electricity, sewers, public schools, TV, radio... Something being new does not automatically mean it's superfluous ?
First, mobile or not is secondary, the question is whether people are connected to the Internet or not. Mobile is generally the best way to do it (cheaper infrastructure, cheaper terminals, no needs for reliable/permanent mains power...), so let's accept mobile is best, though this might be untrue in some circumstances (cities, st world countries...) where fixed would be OK too.
Second, broadband or trickle-band is moot: the question is whether people have access to Internet or not, not whether that access is fast or slow. It's amazing what you can do on a slow internet connection, when you really need to. Checking produce prices, matching sellers and buyers, transport pooling... doesn't require an awful lot of bandwidth. Only video does require a lot of bandwidth, and this is rather luxury. Even good sound doesn't need broadband.
Finally, pipes are nice, but it's what travels through them that's really key. I'm not sure FaceBook and YouTube are *that* vital.
thanks, I wasn't aware of all that.
And like all rock stars, it's "issue of the day" bandwagon for him. Where was he when MCraft got certified for Apple's AppStore ?
"the API is quite different, with no obvious upsides". Or not:
obvious upsides to dropping some backward compatibility:
- less OS bloat
- faster OS
- more battery life
- fewer security holes
- no significant loss of features aside from backward compatibility itself
If you keep the little box "install from other sources" unchecked, then Android has a walled garden. You get the choice of a walled garden or not, which is fine, most people shouldn't be allowed to DL random stuff. Too bad the walls are not that good, BTW ^^
you explain to them that RT != x86. It's in the name, so the bran dis not "the same"(sic).
steam is far from being the anti MS. they both, like apple, want to lock their users into never really owning content, having to go though them to do anything with what they bought... Apple is wildly successful at it, Steam quite successfful, and MS not yet in the consumer space.
We should amend that to "Linux was speaking honestly *and rightly*". The windows idea is dumb, and mormonism is a sect-type cult.
I only disagree in that mormonism is not batshit crazy: it fulfilled its intended purpose. The guy wanted to lay lots of women, and found that selling himself as a prophet *and* having god tell him to be promiscuous, worked. Better than the catholic prophet, IIRC.
On the one hand, having a open software standard bearer talk politics doesn't help The Cause. On the other hand, this hypocritical mor(m)on has it coming.
Indeed. Only that won't change because Google decide overnight to change the filters they support. What is changing is the trust we can have in online providers not swiping the carpet from under our feet overnight. See my .sig.
Many people still use the old formats, if only because they already have lots of documents in those formats. Also because there's not much reason to change, and there are always outliers that won't handle the new formats well.
You're right, sorry.
Maybe I overshot. I'm sure I gave them an old Win'98 computer, not sure before that. It sure seems 20 yrs ^^
Try to use a non-admin account for your daily stuff. An escalated admin account when you do need to install stuff is just 2 clicks away (start -> change user)
I've had my computer-illiterate parents on a non-admin account for 20 years now, they still haven't gotten a virus. And yes, they're still computer-illiterate ^^
Actually, not me. I find it fascinating, because it seems so wrong in almost every possible way.
I'm actually anxious to know if they fix it on appeal, and how fast, and with what consequences in the mean time.
were you afraid the plastic back of the GS3 would shatter too ? I'm fairly sure it wouldn't ^^
Ad hominems are usually a strong indication that the actual message is well worth paying attention to.
People pay 100s, 1,000s or more times for clothes than the actual manufacturing cost. Because clothes also have a social value, by making you look good, advertising that you know how to dress well and fashionably, and, above all, conveying that you have money to throw away on overpriced bits of cloths.
Same for computing devices really. There's one company I'm thinking of... ^^
1- SSDs are supposed to be more reliable. Bunk. All real data I've seen points to higher to much higher (2-3x) return rates on SSDs, so their resilience to one event (bumps) does not make up for sensitivity to other things (BIOS issues, cell defects...)
2- All tests emphasize the SSD's best case, forgetting that we spend very little actual time booting, launching apps... A boot once a week at most in my case, the rest is sleep or hibernation. No app launching either, my apps stay open. How much are a couple handful of seconds once a day worth to you ?
3- Storage space is handy. I got an SSD for a laptop, dumped it quickly because I'd rather have some content to watch while on trips. Since I had that SSD laying around, I used it for my new desktop, except now I'm having to fight to fit OS+Apps+Games on 128GB = 90 GB available. I'm wishing I had a HD instead every day.
All in all, SSDs, at any price, don't make much sense to me, except for the "wow, this machine boots fast !" gimmick. Gimmick.
The mobile phone situation in North America boggles the mind. I'm on an "unlimited" contract (voice, texts, data though throttled after 3GB) for $20/month. that includes free international calls to 100 countries, and 10 countries' mobiles.
Young people don't pay for what they break ^^
My brother did the "phone in the washer" thing with a Windows 7 Samsung. The thing still works, except the USB port's data connection.
Actually i think I saw a study that said it wasn't keys that scratched the screen in pockets, but sand.
I do agree that protection plans are way to expensive. Don't buy something you can't afford to replace.
Oliver North called, looking for Blue Toad's address to gift them a barely-used sword to fall on.