"In that respect our government is proportional, every district choses a law maker. "
In other words, it's not proportional at all, because the votes don't match the seats. 10% of the country could vote for a third party, and that party could get no seats, meaning that 26 million people are denied representation, and their votes count for nothing. To say this is proportional is just silly.
Thats funny in the last election I saw at least five candidates on my states ballot (Bush, Gore, Nader, Brown, (and then the socialist party)). I voted third party. When more people do it in congressional elections things will change, its in the peoples hands.
No, you are idealistic and not looking at a wide enough range of democratic systems. In context, it is clear the US system does not (and can not) work. You need a proportional democracy for third parties, because the game is inherently rigged against them in a system where only parties that could get a majority in an electorate somewhere can get anywhere.
You can put third partys on the ballot, but that doesn't mean it's possible for them to get seats, due to way the system inherently works. That makes it a token exercise with the head in the sand. An electorical reform to a proper system is needed. I've seen it happen in another country, it's the best thing that can happen. Suddenly, there is no more childish left-right simplification, because there are more than two points of reference - more than two parties, and politics becomes a lot fairer, because people's votes aren't tossed aside by a system that cannot give their party seats that match the votes they get.
The US system is so antiquidated that it is quite broken by modern standards. Extra names on the ballot do not chage that, an upgrade to a proportional system does.
A friend of mine rally got into that book. He became more manipulative, used flattery as a means to an end, etc. I really didn't like the change.
I haven't read it, but I'm wondering - how much of the book is actually about making you a better person, as opposed to a person more able to get their way by hook or by crook?
It seemed like the later to me, but a study consisting of one person is meaningless:-)
The general rule is that patents protect ideas, copyright protects expressions or implementations.
I know this is stupidly idealistic, but according to the patent office, ideas are explicity not patentable, only specific mechanisms/implementations. That the patent office regularly rubberstamps patents on things which are really no more than ideas is just the patent office's usual level of competance.
You couldn't patent the idea of having a door only open for certain people, but you could patent various ways for making a door act that way. Unless we're talking about actual reality, in which case you could patent breathing, and the patent office would grant it without reading it, leaving it to the people you bill (for breathing without a license) to somehow find the mega$$$ needed to get the courts to invalidate the stupid thing.
I don't think that Apple's designs are even a marketing thing. Marketing tends to be about finding a design that will appeal to the most people. Apple's design seems to be about finding a design that will astonish people...
I can't think of any computer design that rivals Apple's work in "finding a design that will appeal to the most people", ie marketing oriented aesthetic. Apple designs to appeal to non-techies as well as techies, as broad a market as possible. I definitely think it's marketing-driven design. (Just wanted to say that for that record, I know you don't agree:-)
"I've found that engineers who don't care about how things look on the outside generally don't care too much about how they work on the inside either."
Be careful in this judgement. I've found that good engineers have an engineer's aesthetic - and that that aesthetic may appear to others to be lack of caring about appearances, and rub non-engineers the wrong way.
In the same way that an architect will build his own home, and it will be a black cube that outrages the non-architect neighbourhood, who portest the ugly "eyesore" to the planning commission, an engineer's aesthetic may be well developed, yet appear to most other people as an absence of aesthetic consideration. What it is, is usually some kind of "form follows function" aesthetic, where the thing perhaps gains great beauty to the eye of the engineer on account of the sheer efficiency of the design - everything in the design has purpose, every purpose is so beautifly arranged as to minimally hinder the function of the rest of the machine, etc etc.
But to anyone else, it might look like a mess.
Apple machines show first and foremost a marketer's aesthetic (have it look pretty to the consumer). I think they usually show some decent engineer's aesthic on the inside as well, and while I suspect the later is of lower importance to Apple, that's not really my point. My point was that appearances can be deceptive when it comes to engineers and aesthetics:-)
(As to laptops, I use a tablet/laptop convertable desktop replacement machine. 5 hour battery life, wacom art pen for the screen, etc etc. Apple doesn't make anything close to it, which surprises me, as they place themselves as catering to designers, and what could be better than a go-anywhere electronic sketchpad? I personally suspect that Apple is doing another ipod manouver - developing tablets, but letting the tablet innovators spend their R&D finding and overcome the problems of the form factor, allowing Apple to spent theirs on flair and blitz the market. But I couldn't wait for that, had to get my tablet right away, and it's great. Totally impressed by the design:) I digress again...
I would also suggest not using a fancy case to carry around your laptop - those leather targus bags just scream "look at me! expensive stuff here!"
Not only that, they scream "DORK!" too.:(
(They may be marketed as slick "executive" gear, but when 8 out of every 10 times you see one, it's awkwardly slung over the shoulder of someone with a stoop and bad hygene, a mental association begins to form between the two, and the "executive" marketing is overwritten with real-world experience/prejudice.)
But if they made such a bad that failed to suck (ie, would work _well_ for a tablet pc, and be _practical_ instead of zippers out the wazoo), then I'd buy it in a heartbeat. (I have impeccable dork credentials anyway:-)
Currently I walk around with the tablet in a beat-up old FedEX box in my backpack. Not to deter muggers, but because a old cardboard FedEX box is more practical than the crap they sell that's supposedly designed for the job. Not Impressed. But that's another rant for another day.
Nothing says Columbine louder than a pasty guy in a full length black trenchcoat.
I'll just be today's loser who makes the obligatory comment that neigther of the columbine killers wore trenchcoats. Or black. Not that it really matters. Media is stronger than reality, and blue parkers are entirely forgettable:)
Incidentally, Keanu is a pasty guy, and he looks fine in a full-length black trenchcoat. Ok, he also has the cops bugging him, but that's beside the point:-)
you can draw a katana pretty quick and that 4 foot plus depending on your height.
Ok, this is wierd. I often hear people say katanas are long, but all the ones I've seen are short (~3 foot blade plus handle), and from what I've read, the correct length is the blade tip is off the ground when the arm is relaxed and the grip is at the tsuba. That means that 3 feet is a pretty decent length for a samurai-style katana (Japanese tend to be shorter than me, especially a few hundred years ago:). I've seen pictures of much longer ones, but these were all noted as "blades this long are etremely rare", presumably on account of them being more unweildy than the evolved length.
Or did you mean a katana is 4 feet including the grip? (From the context, it sounds otherwise, but never trust the context:-)
And while I agree 3 feet isn't that long, if the mugger is already up close and personal, it's still too long:). Maybe draw while rotating your body so the partly-drawn blade intercepts his knife... you never know - he might be slow and clumsy:) But it's an urban legend anyway. I've heard varients of this story from so many sources. Perhaps it actually happened, who knows, I tend to think it probably didn't.
Maybe they think it's better to lose money now, and have the issue of who owns LINUX remain clouded in the public mind, than lose the money later when the courts publically declare LINUX to be the real deal and safe for everyone to use.
A lot of people instead like that white earbuds MATCH the color of the white iPod. They also look stylish. It's a style issue.
Or, lack of style issue:) If it were about style, people would chose different earbuds that match their outfit, or compliment their features, not something that is identical out of the box, and distinctive primarily as product branding - that's fad/fashion, not style.
And even having the buds match the player is nice only if the player is actually visible - which defeats the point of all the feature sacrifices that were made to acheive it's great size and pocketablity. But then... if the point is not to be stylish, but instead to be _seen_ with the ipod, then the ipod isn't going to be left in a pocket, but held openly in one hand (as is commonly seen from a lot of users).
So I think most people you _see_ with an ipod, are either unconcerned about style, or lacking it. Whereas those ipod users who I _don't_ see, (because they use buds that compliment _their_ style, rather than default ones, with their gadgets not on display, not distracting from the form, those users probably are very stylish:)
Unfortunately, precisely because those ipod users are stylish, they're not useful as product posterboys (and postergirls).
These are the people that fascinate me however. (little tangent) Whenever someone walks into a room, and WHAM, they seem totally hot, or totally with it, and yet on reflection, you can't easily articulate why - I now have a radar for that, because generally it means interesting shit is flying under the radar, speaking directly to your perception at a level you're not easily aware of, despite it being far more powerful stuff than stuff you are aware of, like someone wearing the latest brand-names. Screw brand-names, they're snake-oil - especially since the Real Deal is out there.
Why do you think he was pretending? Some people (like me) don't like using their HDD-player while jogging, and prefer to grab a flash player for that activity - it's smaller, lighter, more able to survive impact/drops, cheaper (in case #2 fails), and solid state.
If it's a box running OSS couldn't someone edit the source to simply ignore the flag and record anyway?
Sure, but then that person is guilty of a federal crime under the DMCA, and (assuming the justice system does its job correctly), that person then goes to jail. Maybe someone will "take a puch for the good of the people", maybe not. It shouldn't have ever come to that.
None of the individual elements in the trap are too harmful on their own, which is how they manage to sneak past the people. But once all the parts are in place and activated, the trap becomes unbreakable.
Not all the parts are assembled yet, but the trap is already looking pretty tough.
Personally, I'll stick with my Crown Victoria for now. It may drink gas, (I get about 20 MPG from my highway and city driving combined) but it's safe
Uh... you are aware that the crown vic is considered so unsafe that police in several states are refusing to drive them and suing Ford over their fleets due to the number of officers killed by the bad design of these vehicles? The gas tank is conveniently located between the rear bumper and the rear axle, so even minor rear-endings have resulted in deaths from fuel infernos, and major collisions are even more problematic. Police of course, trained to use the rear of a car to slow or stop a moving car, are at even greater danger, but the word most associated with the Crown Vic is "unsafe", not "safe".
Ford tried to patch up the problem with a protective bladder in the tank, but last I heard, tests suggest this is of limited help.
Hilary (to rest of RIAA): "What!?!? I did all your dirty work - I did exactly what you told me to do, what you desperately needed to have someone do. I suffered the hate mail and made the sacrifices for the job - to do what you demanded, and because I did it all, you want me to step down, because doing your dirty work has made me unpopular and your PR bunnies don't like that?!?!"
Ha, wouldn't that be cool; poetic justice - a great example of evil eating it's own.
Moral of the story - jobs and careers that have you abandon ethics and screw over others, make you just another rat in the race. ie, fair game for all the other vermin. The only problem is that this country is owned, run, and ruled by vermin. So this brief little triumph for good is a lonely, isolated case.
[conspiracy_theory] Has no-one else ever noticed that whenever one of the big three makes a greener car (be it a hybrid, recyclable, or good fuel economy, or better emissions, or whatever), they make it REALLY REALLY UGLY. And then lobby congress saying "But Americans don't want good cars - look at the high-fuel ecomony models we offer - no-one buys them. Americans WANT dirty cars, so you must not pass this horrible bill that requires better emissions or fuel economy". Other countries seem to be able to design green cars that fail to suck. But whenever the big three try it, they somehow manage to include some showstopper of idiotic design, that essentially makes the car awful. Then no-one buys it. Then they present this fact to congress. Strange.
Hey, you may be right but the big difference between the two is that Apple hasn't broken the law.
I completely disagree. The difference is that Apple hasn't been proclaimed guilty by a court of law. Well, not often, anyway.
People also said (until they were blue in the face) that Microsoft had broken no law. Microsoft didn't suddenly become criminal because the court confirmed it had been criminal - it had always been criminal because it had committed crimes. And the same is true of Apple. A crime is a crime regardless of whether you get called on it or not.
The average journalist (or person in general - including/. readers) doesn't know enough about science to know that genes can't "jump species" as diverse as corn to soybean.
Perhaps the average journalist doesn't know this fact because it is false. Horizontal gene transfer is much less understood than vertical (duh), but current research suggests it plays a larger role than previously assumed. Some researchers think it plays a massive role. But however big or small that role is, it is not relevant here - the point is that horizontal gene transfer can and does occur in nature, constantly, between completely different species. Thus placing such complete trust in there being an impervious natural barrier keeping GM under control is begging fate to let GM get out of control. It is not a responsible way to treat a potent technology.
vaguely related rant: There are people who hystically oppose GM because they think "frankenfood" will make them sick. And there are people who hysterically support GM because, well, I don't know - they think new technology always and automagically makes the world a better place, perhaps, or the own shares in biotech maybe. Both camps are misguided idiots that annoy the crap out of me, and the debate is almost always between only these two, and thus achieves nothing except bringing the ideas of each camp to more people, when the ideas of the other (less idiotic) camps should be getting publicity. grrr.:-) end rant.
Irregardless, that doesn't negate the fact that if one seed was planted,
Fine. Then mill the corn before sending it over.
There's the catch - the cost of milling seed is a lot more than the seed itself, and our generous biotech food-aid donars are only offering seed - not milled seed - to countries that can't afford the milling (if they could afford milling, they wouldn't be needing so much aid).
It's like gifting someone a broken car that is worth $500, but will require $1000 of repairs before it will run, and would otherwise require you to pay a $100 dumping fee to get rid of it, and doing this openly in front of all that person's friends who have heard them talk about how much they need a car, but are unaware of the condition the car on offer is - the offer isn't as generous as the PR bunnies make it sound, and the recipients are going to be made to look like picky, luddite, and ungrateful in front of the world if they refuse, because most people take the PR bunnies at their world - that these nations are turning their noses up at valuable food aid because they're backwards and hysterical about GM.
The truth, as always, is painted with a many more shades of grey.
I've wanted to do a Brazil terminal for years. That mod is awesome. The thing that held me back - and that doesn't seem to have been addressed, is the danger from exposing a CRT tube - there are high voltage components. I know that caps in even a small TV can hold enough charge to potentially kill someone weeks after it was last plugged in (and certainly enough to give you one hell of a jolt). Is the mac CRT monitor safer somehow? (I haven't been inside one recently - I was looking at tiny ancient PC greenscreens).
My feeling is that this mod may be dangerious - the exposed CRT means you can put your hand in the wrong place while it's turned on. Perhaps add a glass dome/enclosure to it? Does anyone know more about the innards of the mac CRT and safety?
I had a look at the Ephpod site, it wasn't too clear on this - does it allow your ipod to double as a portable HDD that makes no distinction between mp3 files and others? (ie, no copy-control crap, no dumbing-down of the display to make it "easier" for people who don't understand file systems to arrange their music, etc etc.
My guess is Yes, it does it all fine, but does anyone know?
I think the ability to transfer GB of music / data files at 50x the speed of the other, larger capacity MP3 players is worth the money
No it's not - it's no faster than the other larger capacity players (unless you're thinking of old models that pre-date the ipod), so the extra money buys you nothing in the way of speed. It does have a smaller form factor though. For some, who don't need much capacity, that will be worthwhile.
The ipod's biggest advantage, in my opinion, is that my grandmother would have a little less difficulty with it than most other players.
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"In that respect our government is proportional, every district choses a law maker. "
In other words, it's not proportional at all, because the votes don't match the seats. 10% of the country could vote for a third party, and that party could get no seats, meaning that 26 million people are denied representation, and their votes count for nothing. To say this is proportional is just silly.
Thats funny in the last election I saw at least five candidates on my states ballot (Bush, Gore, Nader, Brown, (and then the socialist party)). I voted third party. When more people do it in congressional elections things will change, its in the peoples hands.
No, you are idealistic and not looking at a wide enough range of democratic systems. In context, it is clear the US system does not (and can not) work. You need a proportional democracy for third parties, because the game is inherently rigged against them in a system where only parties that could get a majority in an electorate somewhere can get anywhere.
You can put third partys on the ballot, but that doesn't mean it's possible for them to get seats, due to way the system inherently works. That makes it a token exercise with the head in the sand. An electorical reform to a proper system is needed. I've seen it happen in another country, it's the best thing that can happen. Suddenly, there is no more childish left-right simplification, because there are more than two points of reference - more than two parties, and politics becomes a lot fairer, because people's votes aren't tossed aside by a system that cannot give their party seats that match the votes they get.
The US system is so antiquidated that it is quite broken by modern standards. Extra names on the ballot do not chage that, an upgrade to a proportional system does.
A friend of mine rally got into that book. He became more manipulative, used flattery as a means to an end, etc. I really didn't like the change.
:-)
I haven't read it, but I'm wondering - how much of the book is actually about making you a better person, as opposed to a person more able to get their way by hook or by crook?
It seemed like the later to me, but a study consisting of one person is meaningless
The general rule is that patents protect ideas, copyright protects expressions or implementations.
I know this is stupidly idealistic, but according to the patent office, ideas are explicity not patentable, only specific mechanisms/implementations. That the patent office regularly rubberstamps patents on things which are really no more than ideas is just the patent office's usual level of competance.
You couldn't patent the idea of having a door only open for certain people, but you could patent various ways for making a door act that way. Unless we're talking about actual reality, in which case you could patent breathing, and the patent office would grant it without reading it, leaving it to the people you bill (for breathing without a license) to somehow find the mega$$$ needed to get the courts to invalidate the stupid thing.
I don't think that Apple's designs are even a marketing thing. Marketing tends to be about finding a design that will appeal to the most people. Apple's design seems to be about finding a design that will astonish people...
:-)
I can't think of any computer design that rivals Apple's work in "finding a design that will appeal to the most people", ie marketing oriented aesthetic. Apple designs to appeal to non-techies as well as techies, as broad a market as possible. I definitely think it's marketing-driven design. (Just wanted to say that for that record, I know you don't agree
"I've found that engineers who don't care about how things look on the outside generally don't care too much about how they work on the inside either."
:-)
:) I digress again...
Be careful in this judgement. I've found that good engineers have an engineer's aesthetic - and that that aesthetic may appear to others to be lack of caring about appearances, and rub non-engineers the wrong way.
In the same way that an architect will build his own home, and it will be a black cube that outrages the non-architect neighbourhood, who portest the ugly "eyesore" to the planning commission, an engineer's aesthetic may be well developed, yet appear to most other people as an absence of aesthetic consideration. What it is, is usually some kind of "form follows function" aesthetic, where the thing perhaps gains great beauty to the eye of the engineer on account of the sheer efficiency of the design - everything in the design has purpose, every purpose is so beautifly arranged as to minimally hinder the function of the rest of the machine, etc etc.
But to anyone else, it might look like a mess.
Apple machines show first and foremost a marketer's aesthetic (have it look pretty to the consumer). I think they usually show some decent engineer's aesthic on the inside as well, and while I suspect the later is of lower importance to Apple, that's not really my point. My point was that appearances can be deceptive when it comes to engineers and aesthetics
(As to laptops, I use a tablet/laptop convertable desktop replacement machine. 5 hour battery life, wacom art pen for the screen, etc etc. Apple doesn't make anything close to it, which surprises me, as they place themselves as catering to designers, and what could be better than a go-anywhere electronic sketchpad? I personally suspect that Apple is doing another ipod manouver - developing tablets, but letting the tablet innovators spend their R&D finding and overcome the problems of the form factor, allowing Apple to spent theirs on flair and blitz the market. But I couldn't wait for that, had to get my tablet right away, and it's great. Totally impressed by the design
I would also suggest not using a fancy case to carry around your laptop - those leather targus bags just scream "look at me! expensive stuff here!"
:(
:-)
Not only that, they scream "DORK!" too.
(They may be marketed as slick "executive" gear, but when 8 out of every 10 times you see one, it's awkwardly slung over the shoulder of someone with a stoop and bad hygene, a mental association begins to form between the two, and the "executive" marketing is overwritten with real-world experience/prejudice.)
But if they made such a bad that failed to suck (ie, would work _well_ for a tablet pc, and be _practical_ instead of zippers out the wazoo), then I'd buy it in a heartbeat. (I have impeccable dork credentials anyway
Currently I walk around with the tablet in a beat-up old FedEX box in my backpack. Not to deter muggers, but because a old cardboard FedEX box is more practical than the crap they sell that's supposedly designed for the job. Not Impressed. But that's another rant for another day.
Damn, nice outlook and attitude to life. I like it. :)
Nothing says Columbine louder than a pasty guy in a full length black trenchcoat.
:)
:-)
I'll just be today's loser who makes the obligatory comment that neigther of the columbine killers wore trenchcoats. Or black. Not that it really matters. Media is stronger than reality, and blue parkers are entirely forgettable
Incidentally, Keanu is a pasty guy, and he looks fine in a full-length black trenchcoat. Ok, he also has the cops bugging him, but that's beside the point
you can draw a katana pretty quick and that 4 foot plus depending on your height.
:).
:-)
:). Maybe draw while rotating your body so the partly-drawn blade intercepts his knife... you never know - he might be slow and clumsy :) But it's an urban legend anyway. I've heard varients of this story from so many sources. Perhaps it actually happened, who knows, I tend to think it probably didn't.
Ok, this is wierd. I often hear people say katanas are long, but all the ones I've seen are short (~3 foot blade plus handle), and from what I've read, the correct length is the blade tip is off the ground when the arm is relaxed and the grip is at the tsuba. That means that 3 feet is a pretty decent length for a samurai-style katana (Japanese tend to be shorter than me, especially a few hundred years ago
I've seen pictures of much longer ones, but these were all noted as "blades this long are etremely rare", presumably on account of them being more unweildy than the evolved length.
Or did you mean a katana is 4 feet including the grip? (From the context, it sounds otherwise, but never trust the context
And while I agree 3 feet isn't that long, if the mugger is already up close and personal, it's still too long
Maybe they think it's better to lose money now, and have the issue of who owns LINUX remain clouded in the public mind, than lose the money later when the courts publically declare LINUX to be the real deal and safe for everyone to use.
A lot of people instead like that white earbuds MATCH the color of the white iPod. They also look stylish. It's a style issue.
:)
:)
Or, lack of style issue
If it were about style, people would chose different earbuds that match their outfit, or compliment their features, not something that is identical out of the box, and distinctive primarily as product branding - that's fad/fashion, not style.
And even having the buds match the player is nice only if the player is actually visible - which defeats the point of all the feature sacrifices that were made to acheive it's great size and pocketablity. But then... if the point is not to be stylish, but instead to be _seen_ with the ipod, then the ipod isn't going to be left in a pocket, but held openly in one hand (as is commonly seen from a lot of users).
So I think most people you _see_ with an ipod, are either unconcerned about style, or lacking it. Whereas those ipod users who I _don't_ see, (because they use buds that compliment _their_ style, rather than default ones, with their gadgets not on display, not distracting from the form, those users probably are very stylish
Unfortunately, precisely because those ipod users are stylish, they're not useful as product posterboys (and postergirls).
These are the people that fascinate me however. (little tangent) Whenever someone walks into a room, and WHAM, they seem totally hot, or totally with it, and yet on reflection, you can't easily articulate why - I now have a radar for that, because generally it means interesting shit is flying under the radar, speaking directly to your perception at a level you're not easily aware of, despite it being far more powerful stuff than stuff you are aware of, like someone wearing the latest brand-names. Screw brand-names, they're snake-oil - especially since the Real Deal is out there.
Why do you think he was pretending? Some people (like me) don't like using their HDD-player while jogging, and prefer to grab a flash player for that activity - it's smaller, lighter, more able to survive impact/drops, cheaper (in case #2 fails), and solid state.
If it's a box running OSS couldn't someone edit the source to simply ignore the flag and record anyway?
Sure, but then that person is guilty of a federal crime under the DMCA, and (assuming the justice system does its job correctly), that person then goes to jail.
Maybe someone will "take a puch for the good of the people", maybe not. It shouldn't have ever come to that.
None of the individual elements in the trap are too harmful on their own, which is how they manage to sneak past the people. But once all the parts are in place and activated, the trap becomes unbreakable.
Not all the parts are assembled yet, but the trap is already looking pretty tough.
Possible correction: Doom was released Christmas of 1993.
Personally, I'll stick with my Crown Victoria for now. It may drink gas, (I get about 20 MPG from my highway and city driving combined) but it's safe
Uh... you are aware that the crown vic is considered so unsafe that police in several states are refusing to drive them and suing Ford over their fleets due to the number of officers killed by the bad design of these vehicles?
The gas tank is conveniently located between the rear bumper and the rear axle, so even minor rear-endings have resulted in deaths from fuel infernos, and major collisions are even more problematic. Police of course, trained to use the rear of a car to slow or stop a moving car, are at even greater danger, but the word most associated with the Crown Vic is "unsafe", not "safe".
Ford tried to patch up the problem with a protective bladder in the tank, but last I heard, tests suggest this is of limited help.
Why is it that people don't feel they should make a link when they post a URL?
Not everyone knows HTML, it's no big deal.
Hilary (to rest of RIAA): "What!?!? I did all your dirty work - I did exactly what you told me to do, what you desperately needed to have someone do. I suffered the hate mail and made the sacrifices for the job - to do what you demanded, and because I did it all, you want me to step down, because doing your dirty work has made me unpopular and your PR bunnies don't like that?!?!"
Ha, wouldn't that be cool; poetic justice - a great example of evil eating it's own.
Moral of the story - jobs and careers that have you abandon ethics and screw over others, make you just another rat in the race. ie, fair game for all the other vermin.
The only problem is that this country is owned, run, and ruled by vermin. So this brief little triumph for good is a lonely, isolated case.
[conspiracy_theory]
Has no-one else ever noticed that whenever one of the big three makes a greener car (be it a hybrid, recyclable, or good fuel economy, or better emissions, or whatever), they make it REALLY REALLY UGLY.
And then lobby congress saying "But Americans don't want good cars - look at the high-fuel ecomony models we offer - no-one buys them. Americans WANT dirty cars, so you must not pass this horrible bill that requires better emissions or fuel economy".
Other countries seem to be able to design green cars that fail to suck. But whenever the big three try it, they somehow manage to include some showstopper of idiotic design, that essentially makes the car awful. Then no-one buys it. Then they present this fact to congress.
Strange.
genuinely incompetent, or deliberately dastardly?
[/conspiracy_theory]
Hey, you may be right but the big difference between the two is that Apple hasn't broken the law.
I completely disagree. The difference is that Apple hasn't been proclaimed guilty by a court of law. Well, not often, anyway.
People also said (until they were blue in the face) that Microsoft had broken no law. Microsoft didn't suddenly become criminal because the court confirmed it had been criminal - it had always been criminal because it had committed crimes. And the same is true of Apple. A crime is a crime regardless of whether you get called on it or not.
The average journalist (or person in general - including /. readers) doesn't know enough about science to know that genes can't "jump species" as diverse as corn to soybean.
:-)
Perhaps the average journalist doesn't know this fact because it is false. Horizontal gene transfer is much less understood than vertical (duh), but current research suggests it plays a larger role than previously assumed. Some researchers think it plays a massive role. But however big or small that role is, it is not relevant here - the point is that horizontal gene transfer can and does occur in nature, constantly, between completely different species. Thus placing such complete trust in there being an impervious natural barrier keeping GM under control is begging fate to let GM get out of control. It is not a responsible way to treat a potent technology.
vaguely related rant:
There are people who hystically oppose GM because they think "frankenfood" will make them sick. And there are people who hysterically support GM because, well, I don't know - they think new technology always and automagically makes the world a better place, perhaps, or the own shares in biotech maybe. Both camps are misguided idiots that annoy the crap out of me, and the debate is almost always between only these two, and thus achieves nothing except bringing the ideas of each camp to more people, when the ideas of the other (less idiotic) camps should be getting publicity.
grrr.
end rant.
Irregardless, that doesn't negate the fact that if one seed was planted,
Fine. Then mill the corn before sending it over.
There's the catch - the cost of milling seed is a lot more than the seed itself, and our generous biotech food-aid donars are only offering seed - not milled seed - to countries that can't afford the milling (if they could afford milling, they wouldn't be needing so much aid).
It's like gifting someone a broken car that is worth $500, but will require $1000 of repairs before it will run, and would otherwise require you to pay a $100 dumping fee to get rid of it, and doing this openly in front of all that person's friends who have heard them talk about how much they need a car, but are unaware of the condition the car on offer is - the offer isn't as generous as the PR bunnies make it sound, and the recipients are going to be made to look like picky, luddite, and ungrateful in front of the world if they refuse, because most people take the PR bunnies at their world - that these nations are turning their noses up at valuable food aid because they're backwards and hysterical about GM.
The truth, as always, is painted with a many more shades of grey.
I've wanted to do a Brazil terminal for years. That mod is awesome. The thing that held me back - and that doesn't seem to have been addressed, is the danger from exposing a CRT tube - there are high voltage components. I know that caps in even a small TV can hold enough charge to potentially kill someone weeks after it was last plugged in (and certainly enough to give you one hell of a jolt). Is the mac CRT monitor safer somehow? (I haven't been inside one recently - I was looking at tiny ancient PC greenscreens).
My feeling is that this mod may be dangerious - the exposed CRT means you can put your hand in the wrong place while it's turned on. Perhaps add a glass dome/enclosure to it? Does anyone know more about the innards of the mac CRT and safety?
I had a look at the Ephpod site, it wasn't too clear on this - does it allow your ipod to double as a portable HDD that makes no distinction between mp3 files and others? (ie, no copy-control crap, no dumbing-down of the display to make it "easier" for people who don't understand file systems to arrange their music, etc etc.
My guess is Yes, it does it all fine, but does anyone know?
I think the ability to transfer GB of music / data files at 50x the speed of the other, larger capacity MP3 players is worth the money
No it's not - it's no faster than the other larger capacity players (unless you're thinking of old models that pre-date the ipod), so the extra money buys you nothing in the way of speed. It does have a smaller form factor though. For some, who don't need much capacity, that will be worthwhile.
The ipod's biggest advantage, in my opinion, is that my grandmother would have a little less difficulty with it than most other players.