Hmm. I know what you mean, but actually I think comics are significantly poorer because of the way they tend to run on for ever and ever (in fact, this is one of the reasons I watch so few TV series, but that's another topic).
It is impossible to sustain a really good story indefinitely, and most have a "natural". Sure it's upsetting when it's over: recently I was really upset when "The Life of Pi" (too lazy to link - check amazon) ended, but it would have been a worse novel if it had carried on any longer. As it was, that is as close to a perfectly written book as I've read in ages, and I think that Gaiman knew exactly what he was doing when he said that one condition of writing Sandman was that he could end it.
Umm. I think you'd be lucky for find that $10 LCD cable from any laptop manufacturer. The same thing happened with me and Sony charged me 250 GBP to fix it. This was after a hinge went and they refused to sell me the part for that either (luckily that was under warranty). Now the keyboard has gone... yup, another 250 GBP if I want to fix it (not a chance in hell).
I flew to San Francisco a couple of years ago and was appalled by the customs officials there. In the queue next to me I heard the following conversation:
official: So you're from india then?
guy: yes.
official: Are there any of you left there?
guy: Er. Yes.
official: Huh. It seems you're all here.
(it was a while ago, but that was the gist of it)
I've heard similar stories about British iommigration and seen some pretty shocking stuff here in Switzerland. I think that wherever you go you meet racism in immigration. It's not necessarily representative of the views of the whole country.
Nuclear reactors are fairly close to terrorist-proof. In California, they've survived earthquakes, and they're designed to handle most airliners crashing straight into them. Their common dome housings also would help to deflect anything larger than they were designed for, and the lessons learned from Three Mile Island have gone a long way in improving responses and designs I was told that about UK reactors too. The immediate question I have is does that include 747s? (I don't think so). And does that include two planes, three planes etc? I think that, post september 11, I would not be blase about the dangers posed by terrorists and nuclear plants and I *CERTAINLY* don't think it's a good idea to have one in back yard, or in any densely populated areas.
How is a direct reply to one of the parent questions off-topic?
Although having looked at "I am a racist's" webpage, frankly I think we should all ignore him. I don't think it's a joke (and if it is it's in very poor taste).
Excellent point about loveline and breeding qualifications in the U.S. No one is breeding on darwinian principles anymore, unless it's social darwinism.
Well, I think you're basically right but probably the abilities that people find attractive now are applicable in a more "physical" darwinist sense. For example, funny people are normally attractive... and this ability to make jokes probably indicates an intelligence which has obvious survival benefits. Also dancing, and sports, are obvious indications of physical prowess...
In short, I doubt that socialism, or any form of government si going to lead us to physically inferior, stupid humans.
Maynard, that was great! It's not often on slashdot that we get to see such cogent reasoning. Admittedly you were arguing with someone who seems almost unbelievably intolerant, stupid and ignorant, but still, you did an excellent job!
Er. The USA does not even come CLOSE to having half the world's population!
Lookinghere I get the following figures: Rank Country Population (millions) 1 China 1,289 2 India 1,069 3 United States 292
So assuming a world population of around 6 billion, the USA has around 20% of the world's population. That's a lot, but not nearly as many as India which speaks "english" english.
But not ALL games are like that. Some are exceedingly realistic, and frankly all that matters is how it feels: if, because of the quirks of their simulation, placing the cars center of gravity below the car makes it drive more realistically then who gives a shit?
There was an article a while ago (no link sorry - about to catch a plane so limited time to google) about how nissan skyline sales have rocketed in the UK, and that Nissan did research into it and found that a significant fraction bought the car because of Gran Turismo! (they were very, very shocked) Okay so the simulation isn't perfect... and I'm damn sure that most of those people went for a test drive in an actual car before putting money down. But the point that was got across was that this car outperforms many cars way more expensive than it. Instant brand-recognition, and more importantly, brand-appreciation. Car manufacturers would be stupid to ignore this marketing avenue - in games people can try obscure cars that they've never heard of, and if they handle well, they might well look into getting one in real life.
Your idea is very, very silly and I strongly suggest you don't waste time with simulations. Imagine the planets are in alignment, as happens sometimes. They would then shield each other from this "global graviton flux" and the orbits would be perturbed. For that matter, you CANNOT have orbiting bodies in your system - that requires a centripetal force which you cannot provide.
Provide me with a simpler explanation that uses less entities? Positing the existance of an omnipotent, omniscient and thus (probably) infinitely complex being is NOT the simplest solution!
Okay, the server was just an example, and perhaps not a very good one. But consider: the ONLY reason that things like Samba work is through a lot of effort reverse engineering MS standards... which MS changes to exclude competitors. This is against the law, and contrary to the interests of most of us consumers. The same goes with OpenOffice, Abiword etc. they may support MS Office, but incompletely and not terribly well. And when Office XZ (or whatever) comes out, they'll quite probably have to start over again.
Don't get me wrong: I don't think MS should be told "you can never change standards again, you can never improve your products" but since MS has in the past changed standards apparently specifically to exclude their rivals, they have to be watched closely. And forced to follow the law.
Why on Earth should microsoft have to do this? I just can think of no explanation why they should be FORCED to give away their code and secrets. If the EU forces this through, it's going to be the deathknell of traditional commercial software in Europe--will every other company who has a dominant App have to open the code or be given the boot from Europe?
The reason microsoft should be forced to do this is that it is illegal for a monopoly to abuse its power. This is NOT the nasty-old EU having a go at poor-old MS.
It is not acceptable for someone who buys a desktop from MS to use Word, to be forced to use a MS server - these are completely different beasts, and there is not good reason why they should have to come from the same company
Now of course MS would very much like you to buy everything from them, but the wider needs of society outweigh the desires of one company, (which, almost by definition, is doing okay if it's a monopoly).
MS has all the benefits of being a de facto monopoly, whose file formats etc are industry standard. The downside is it cannot act like a normal company - for the good of all of us it must be made to keep its interfaces open, so that (coming back to my example) another company can make a server that works as well as a MS powered one. Then the consumer can make a choice based on performance, rather than being forced to opt for an inferior product, simply because it's the only game in town. And it is this competition which drives innovation and progress.
And why is no one in Europe worried about Apple? OS X includes EVEN MORE apps than does Windows--the only difference is not as many people use OS X.
Even if this were true Apple is not a monopoly, and so different laws apply.
You have some good points which you obliterate by needlessly saying "so unless you are a Nazi I suggest you think about that statement a little more."
That's insulting and stupid: saying that countries should not make enemies might be naive, but it certainly does not make someone a Nazi! The best answer I guess is, try to refrain from making enemies whilst acting in a way you believe is honourable. You probably think the US is fulfilling these obligations. I'd disagree, and suggest that the warmongers in the current administration are creating problems for future generations of americans. Bu having different views doesn't make either of us nazis.
Yeah, but if you're not going to spend the money (and I guess money is usually spent on material goods) then why not turn it over to worthwhile causes that will spend it? I think my point still stands, but whatever... it doesn't bother me that much to be honest!
Er. That just seems weird to me. What is the point of having money and not spending it? Fine, do the whole "I don't need wordly possessions" schtick if you want, but then why not give your money to charity so it can help people? There's something obscene about the idea of money sitting in a bank, earning the banks money when it could be spent on (say) cancer research and benefit mankind.
... but of course that depends on coders to be consistent with their numbering, which they aren't: one person's 0.1 could be anothr persons 5.2! Bear in mind that this is based on established, well-tested mozilla code. By all means back up your mail, but 0.1 does NOT imply that it's going to eat your mail, trash your disk or anything like that!
I'm certainly no expert in this field, but as someone else has said, windows 2003 is new and untested, whereas linux is not. There is a very good reason why people are using Linux and not windows in the particular arena.
And whilst his/her bosses concerns might be legitimate, that doesn't stop them being wrong, and being swayed by M$ fud. How useful is that indemnity in real life?
I'd like to second this. I was very happy with my Vaio until the hinge snapped after 11 months (this has also happened on 2 other Vaios I know of). I was told that because it might take more than 1 month to repair (partly because it had to be shipped to belgium to be repaired!), and that my warranty ran out in one month I wasn't covered! After weeks of arguing (and legal advice) I got it fixed for free.
Next the backlight went, after the warranty expired. They wanted 10 GBP from me ("to open a case") before they'd even discuss about getting it fixed - all I wanted to do was to send the bloody thing back and get it repaired, but I had to spend 40 minutes on the the phone answering idiotic questions.
My keyboard has now gone, and I can't face speaking to those arseholes again, so my iotherwise functional laptop is gathering dust. I will never, ever buy a Vaio again. Loved the machine - hated the company.
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It is impossible to sustain a really good story indefinitely, and most have a "natural". Sure it's upsetting when it's over: recently I was really upset when "The Life of Pi" (too lazy to link - check amazon) ended, but it would have been a worse novel if it had carried on any longer. As it was, that is as close to a perfectly written book as I've read in ages, and I think that Gaiman knew exactly what he was doing when he said that one condition of writing Sandman was that he could end it.
Yes he did (and it's excellent).
Umm. I think you'd be lucky for find that $10 LCD cable from any laptop manufacturer. The same thing happened with me and Sony charged me 250 GBP to fix it. This was after a hinge went and they refused to sell me the part for that either (luckily that was under warranty). Now the keyboard has gone ... yup, another 250 GBP if I want to fix it (not a chance in hell).
Very good! That just made me laugh out loud!
official: So you're from india then?
guy: yes.
official: Are there any of you left there?
guy: Er. Yes.
official: Huh. It seems you're all here.
(it was a while ago, but that was the gist of it)
I've heard similar stories about British iommigration and seen some pretty shocking stuff here in Switzerland. I think that wherever you go you meet racism in immigration. It's not necessarily representative of the views of the whole country.
Can someone mod this up please?
Nuclear reactors are fairly close to terrorist-proof. In California, they've survived earthquakes, and they're designed to handle most airliners crashing straight into them. Their common dome housings also would help to deflect anything larger than they were designed for, and the lessons learned from Three Mile Island have gone a long way in improving responses and designs I was told that about UK reactors too. The immediate question I have is does that include 747s? (I don't think so). And does that include two planes, three planes etc? I think that, post september 11, I would not be blase about the dangers posed by terrorists and nuclear plants and I *CERTAINLY* don't think it's a good idea to have one in back yard, or in any densely populated areas.
Although having looked at "I am a racist's" webpage, frankly I think we should all ignore him. I don't think it's a joke (and if it is it's in very poor taste).
Excellent point about loveline and breeding qualifications in the U.S. No one is breeding on darwinian principles anymore, unless it's social darwinism.
Well, I think you're basically right but probably the abilities that people find attractive now are applicable in a more "physical" darwinist sense. For example, funny people are normally attractive
In short, I doubt that socialism, or any form of government si going to lead us to physically inferior, stupid humans.
Maynard, that was great! It's not often on slashdot that we get to see such cogent reasoning. Admittedly you were arguing with someone who seems almost unbelievably intolerant, stupid and ignorant, but still, you did an excellent job!
I guess so. It doesn't read like that though...
Lookinghere I get the following figures:
Rank Country Population (millions)
1 China 1,289
2 India 1,069
3 United States 292
So assuming a world population of around 6 billion, the USA has around 20% of the world's population. That's a lot, but not nearly as many as India which speaks "english" english.
There was an article a while ago (no link sorry - about to catch a plane so limited time to google) about how nissan skyline sales have rocketed in the UK, and that Nissan did research into it and found that a significant fraction bought the car because of Gran Turismo! (they were very, very shocked) Okay so the simulation isn't perfect
Your idea is very, very silly and I strongly suggest you don't waste time with simulations. Imagine the planets are in alignment, as happens sometimes. They would then shield each other from this "global graviton flux" and the orbits would be perturbed. For that matter, you CANNOT have orbiting bodies in your system - that requires a centripetal force which you cannot provide.
Positing the existance of an omnipotent, omniscient and thus (probably) infinitely complex being is NOT the simplest solution!
Occam's razor works fine as a guiding principle.
Don't get me wrong: I don't think MS should be told "you can never change standards again, you can never improve your products" but since MS has in the past changed standards apparently specifically to exclude their rivals, they have to be watched closely. And forced to follow the law.
Hmm. Not in the EU as far as I know. But maybe ;-)
The reason microsoft should be forced to do this is that it is illegal for a monopoly to abuse its power. This is NOT the nasty-old EU having a go at poor-old MS.
It is not acceptable for someone who buys a desktop from MS to use Word, to be forced to use a MS server - these are completely different beasts, and there is not good reason why they should have to come from the same company
Now of course MS would very much like you to buy everything from them, but the wider needs of society outweigh the desires of one company, (which, almost by definition, is doing okay if it's a monopoly).
MS has all the benefits of being a de facto monopoly, whose file formats etc are industry standard. The downside is it cannot act like a normal company - for the good of all of us it must be made to keep its interfaces open, so that (coming back to my example) another company can make a server that works as well as a MS powered one. Then the consumer can make a choice based on performance, rather than being forced to opt for an inferior product, simply because it's the only game in town. And it is this competition which drives innovation and progress.
And why is no one in Europe worried about Apple? OS X includes EVEN MORE apps than does Windows--the only difference is not as many people use OS X.
Even if this were true Apple is not a monopoly, and so different laws apply.
That's insulting and stupid: saying that countries should not make enemies might be naive, but it certainly does not make someone a Nazi! The best answer I guess is, try to refrain from making enemies whilst acting in a way you believe is honourable. You probably think the US is fulfilling these obligations. I'd disagree, and suggest that the warmongers in the current administration are creating problems for future generations of americans. Bu having different views doesn't make either of us nazis.
Yeah, but if you're not going to spend the money (and I guess money is usually spent on material goods) then why not turn it over to worthwhile causes that will spend it? I think my point still stands, but whatever ... it doesn't bother me that much to be honest!
Er. That just seems weird to me. What is the point of having money and not spending it? Fine, do the whole "I don't need wordly possessions" schtick if you want, but then why not give your money to charity so it can help people? There's something obscene about the idea of money sitting in a bank, earning the banks money when it could be spent on (say) cancer research and benefit mankind.
... but of course that depends on coders to be consistent with their numbering, which they aren't: one person's 0.1 could be anothr persons 5.2! Bear in mind that this is based on established, well-tested mozilla code. By all means back up your mail, but 0.1 does NOT imply that it's going to eat your mail, trash your disk or anything like that!
And whilst his/her bosses concerns might be legitimate, that doesn't stop them being wrong, and being swayed by M$ fud. How useful is that indemnity in real life?
How is this a troll?!?
Next the backlight went, after the warranty expired. They wanted 10 GBP from me ("to open a case") before they'd even discuss about getting it fixed - all I wanted to do was to send the bloody thing back and get it repaired, but I had to spend 40 minutes on the the phone answering idiotic questions.
My keyboard has now gone, and I can't face speaking to those arseholes again, so my iotherwise functional laptop is gathering dust. I will never, ever buy a Vaio again. Loved the machine - hated the company.