Traditionally "epic" is a literary term meaning a long story or poem (keyword: long)
Perhaps if one considers all the time and effort required to get into space to be in a position to take such a picture, I can see "epic" being a proper description.
I just keep adding these low-value (as in, user content) TLDs to blacklists, particularly for email. I'm sure I'm not the only sysadmin doing that
You are not the only one taking such a stance, however a couple years ago it became clear that a whitelist method will be far easier, quicker, and softer/fuzzier to your sanity.
There are currently 1300 active english gTLDs added and active in the past 16 months alone. There are over 7000 unicode gTLDs for other languages and alphabets. There is no end in sight for those numbers to stop rising.
Here at work I whitelist the following:.?? (aka two letter ccTLDs - though not really a safe assumption any longer).com.net.org.edu.gov.mil.int.arpa - and for now.info
Be aware that along with.info were a few other restricted gTLDs in the initial batch that may be safe:.info.biz.name (and I think.pro was restricted too, but I've never seen it used nor been asked to whitelist it here)
Ones I do not allow here, but others should be aware were in the same second-gen gTLD batch are:.pro.bank.aero.museum.mobi.post
Anything else came in the third-generation batch and should be blocked/ignored if you don't do international business (and in most cases, even if you do)
And what gives you the prerogative to be the freeloader? Obviously not everyone can be.
1) I just made $1500 in donations this month to my favorite four video streamers, with a fifth scheduled in a couple weeks (the one without paypal in another country, so takes a bit longer than normal)
I'm quite interested in your personal definition of "freeloader" if that is what you call me for blocking ads yet ensuring money lands in the pockets of the content creators I wish to continue creating content.
2) I have the same prerogative to be a "freeloader" as you have the prerogative to be a "script-kiddie hacker."
Stop trying to repeatedly infect my computers via flash exploits delivered over your ads and we'll talk about me not blocking them.
Until then, just remember that the unauthorized access to a computer act you perform is a very serious criminal act compared to the non-crime of blocking your ads that I do.
Way back when I was in my teens, I would always add 10 to my real age and so subtract 10 from my real birth year. Makes it real easy to remember the lie and be able to make match even years later.
Of course when I was 15 the web wasn't yet a year old and we still got our 8-bit gif porn from FTP that didn't/couldn't age check, but for BBS profiles it worked great.
Never came up against such a validation myself however, at least not that I ever noticed. But I'm just a bit surprised this is my first time hearing of such validation in practice.
At least the site/service you use doesn't require a credit card to "prove" age.
Surely the case should be against the film studios that made the films and not Netflix which is just distributing them ?
According to the film studios, adding subtitles creates a derivative work and the distribution of it a copyright violation, and the person doing it a horrible human being that should be burnt alive after being fined a hundred trillion dollars for damages.
He should have just sued the MPAA instead, then everyone wins!:P
First just to be clear, I'm not disagreeing with your analysis, I agree it is completely spot-on. If anything my counter is directed at Nintendo and this choice of policy (not that anyone there would be reading this nor care if they did)
They're afraid that if people start playing conversions of their old games (or even just start watching videos of other people playing old games), they'll have no incentive to go out and by their newer games/consoles.
The thing with this line of reasoning is that there are many people like myself who aren't willing to purchase something we can't see or know anything about before buying it.
If I can't see screenshots of the amazing graphics, videos demonstrating the game play mechanics, see the first impressions from reviewers I respect the opinion of, or otherwise get some idea the game may be something I would enjoy playing and get value out of - I simply will not be purchasing it at all.
I have no problems paying a high price for something I believe will be of high value to me. I also have no problem paying a low price if the value is expected to be low but still there.
What I do have a problem with is paying any price for something of unknown value. I simply refuse to do so.
Not to mention if it was a smaller less recognizable gaming company, going out of your way to hide all details about your game before getting my money strongly implies they know they are peddling garbage, and I can only assume such a purchase was designed to be a scam to take my money while providing no value. It's worth noting that even the large companies like Nintendo are not immune from this gut reaction feeling. Only their past track record keeps me from assuming the worst. But I still have to question what they are trying to hide, and why they can't be honest about their product so I can make an informed purchase.
Despite the fact their behavior is intended to prevent lack of sales, the reality is their behavior directly results in a lack of sales.
Snowden IS a traitor: (at least) of N.S.A., and his oath to them, exclusively, and also of U.S.A. inclusively
How? Please be detailed.
He upheld the laws of the USA, upheld his oath to the US government and the NSA. He violated no conditions of his oath what so ever.
The NSA can not require someone to swear an oath to break the law and betray the US constitution in any legal sense - yet that's exactly what they tried to do.
Breaking a promise to be a criminal does not make you a criminal.
The oaths required from the DOE, DOD, and DOJ all explicitly demand you do not follow illegal orders, do not break laws without explicit exception, and to report to the higher authorities any illegal orders given - all of which Snowden did to the letter of the law and his oath.
In short, if you demand I follow an order of yours, do not bitch and claim I'm a traitor to you when I do exactly as you demanded from me, because then everyone will see your demand and accusation as the bullshit it is.
They're terrified of their brand ever being associated with "adult" material because parents might sue them for said exposing their child to hypothetical adult material.
That must be why Nintendo partnered with Playboy to promote the Nintendo exclusive release of Bayonetta 2.
I understand your sentiment but, don't forget that in most cases it's not your co-workers or even your supervisor who makes this choice. I've worked one place where this was policy to prevent employees from doing Bad Thing(tm)
But if you haven't locked out the persons accounts BEFORE they state their intention to quit, you have already 100% failed at stopping Bad Things(tm).
Part of doing Bad Things(tm) is not to pull the action movie cliche of laying out your evil plans to the good guy before leaving him bound yet quite alive to escape and use that very knowledge against you. You plan and execute your Bad Things(tm) while you still have the ability to do so, not after the time where there is an equal-to or greater than zero percent chance someone could prevent it.
Hypothetical - If you intended to murder someone, would you: A) sneak up on them unexpectedly to assure the best chances of success? or B) inform the target of your intentions so they can take steps to protect themselves and/or steps to prevent you from doing so?
True you may get lucky that the one doing Bad Things(tm) is stupid and does just that, but that isn't 100% either, and isn't something one should put themselves in a position to have to bet on either way.
The only sure fire way I am aware of to predict the future regarding when employment will be terminated is if it was initiated by the company. You'll note in the case of terminations the above policy is almost always followed as a matter of course already.
But unless you can read minds, it's probably safe to say you won't accurately predict an employee leaving before they themselves decide that is an option and choose to act on it.
About the only exception is if the company is making that employees life so miserable already that quitting is the only logical choice - but even then I would argue that is the company initiating it, even if it is an indirect, round-about, and dickish way to do so.
Since you are way too late by this point to do anything to stop Bad Things(tm), why harm the professional relationship further? Treating them as a criminal can't possibly help you or the company in any way, so why cause a non-zero percent chance of harming you or the company by such actions?
Not only are most "secret question" answers easily guessable for anyone you know well, it's also a security risk not unlike reusing the same password on multiple sites.
If I sign up at banks A and B and provide truthful answers to security questions, then any employee of bank A can authenticate/as me/ to bank B, and the reverse as well, on top of anyone that knows me well who could likely pull it off with both banks.
I store secret questions picked and that sites answers along with the rest in my password manager.
If I ever expect to possibly one day maybe need it for say phone verification, I'll put 3-5 seconds of thought into what in-context would be the most off-topic, shocking, and hilarious answers possible that can be spoken over the phone. Otherwise nonsensical random words are used just like you did.
aka, when signing up for a bank loan, perhaps: Q: What is the name of the first street you lived on? A: The corner of blackjack rd and slot-machine ave, next to "i don't have a problem" park.
Replacing the Microsoft SecureBoot key with my own PKI key is perhaps #3 on the list of things I do when configuring a new computer before ever installing a hard drive or OS - following enabling vPro AMT and then the BMC manager if present.
If I am unable to replace the master SecureBoot key with my own, that machine is getting packed up and sent right back to the OEM as defective.
I only buy OEM systems for work and build systems for home use. But the HP account for work sees a couple hundred computers a year, which isn't all that many when speaking "volume purchasing", but will instantly become zero if they choose to lock me out at the BIOS level.
It's already annoying enough that they ship hard drives completely unsuitable for use and requiring formatting (we aren't large enough for custom disk images or custom SLIC BIOS entries yet) - but at least this is only an annoyance and not out right sending defective equipment, which is the only possible definition for locking you out of the system at the firmware level and not allowing any OS to boot. (By "any" I don't mean less than one, I mean literally any OS)
The major change in Windows 8 was the UI but you're saying if I use via third-party software to roll back the UI to Windows 7 then Windows 8 is good. That's like saying the Spanish Inquisition is a party once you factor out all the murders.
So what you're saying is you haven't installed Firefox or Chrome but instead are using solely the built in Internet Explorer browser? With no antivirus?
Hate to break it to you, but you very likely already have a ton of third party viruses, trojans, keyloggers, and network scanners installed too:P
Windows 10 would be "free for the first year," a deliberately ambiguous phrasing that they have yet to clarify.
Ambiguous?
If it was released tomorrow (Mar 19th 2015) then the deadline would be a year after (Mar 19th 2016)
If you install/upgrade-to 10 before the deadline, it is free. Upon and after the deadline, you will have to buy it in order to install/upgrade-to.
The only thing ambiguous about it is our lack of knowing when Win10 will be released, which we need first before we can "add one to it" and give you a more direct answer.
But let us reword your position for a moment to point out the folly (currently at least) in its usefulness.
Here in my home country, if I desired a hamburger I happen to know from experience that most restaurants will have such a thing to sell to me. Ignoring jokes about McDonalds not having real food for just a moment, I know they are the most common place around to find a hamburger at.
Then you come along and (correctly, but uselessly) point out that the laws of physics do not rule out the possibility of finding a hamburger sitting around in some random persons back yard, and so such places should all be equally searched as well.
Yet if you or I were to travel to a country we have never been to before and happened to desire a hamburger, we would search out a restaurant knowing the chance of finding a hamburger there, even without ever having visited a restaurant in that country before.
No one is actually arguing that it wouldn't be possible to find a hamburger in a random persons backyard (although many would argue if it would be a good idea to eat it:P ) but from experience we know the odds of finding one in such a place are much much lower than compared to a restaurant.
Likewise, we know life on earth is more likely to be found in water than not. That doesn't mean there is NO life outside of the water at all, just that the odds of finding it in water are higher than finding it elsewhere.
Again, no one is actually arguing that water is required for life in general, only that our sample of one shows a much higher chance of finding it, and our sample size of one is all we have to formulate characteristics to actually look for and detect.
So looking for life in water, that is similar to life on earth, is what we have the best description of (as crappy as it may be) and so the best chance of actually detecting, and our one sample shows it as the highest likelihood of occurring in water.
This is why we look for water and use the characteristics of life we have to match on - because it gives the best chance of success.
As our samples of majorly differing life forms increases and our characteristics to match on increase, we will have better odds of success looking elsewhere.
But with our current knowledge and technical level, it makes no sense to search for hamburgers in random back yards when we can search in restaurants first.
You always aim for the low hanging fruit first, then move on to the harder to reach fruit after. You have to learn to walk before you can run. Insert additional cheesy proverbs here (especially if they make good hamburger toppings! sorry, I think I'm hungry)
Just because searching for life as we know it in water is the first step does not exclude all the other harder to detect steps, it only delays them until later, hopefully to a time we are better equipped to do so both with technology and our knowledge.
It's also worth pointing out that no one is actually forcing you to look in the most common places for the things we know how to detect - you are free to look anywhere you like for things you can't describe, if you so wish. It's just that your odds of success are so drastically lower, even compared to the already seemingly low chances in finding life in water on another world, that few people would be willing to throw money at you for the task.
And that, put simply, is why we look for water on other worlds in our search for life.
The problem with only using "how I feel" as a measurement while ignoring scientific measurements of the effects is that human senses are pretty horrible and are often wrong.
Back in my day this was taught and demonstrated in public education (seems not to be the case anymore) and can be proven with a very simple experiment: the old warm and cold bowl of water trick.
Line up three bowls on the counter. Fill one half way with cold water and another half way with hot (to the touch, not burning) water. Put one hand in each for a few minutes. Then mix the two bowls of water together in the last bowl to get warm water, and put both your hands together in that bowl.
The hand previously in the cold water will feel hot, and the hand previously in the hot water will feel cold, both at the same time and in the same bowl of water. Your senses are completely lying to you. One bowl of water can't be two different temperatures at the same time.
Only our intellect is capable of recognizing the contradiction in the data from your senses to indicate neither can't be correct.
Only impartial scientific measurement can give you accurate data that is correct, combined again with our intellect to let us override data from our senses with measured data.
This isn't to say our senses aren't important or don't matter at all, only that our senses are just the first step in obtaining knowledge. All three (senses, intellect, and measurements) are required.
Please don't rely on one without the others, as that only serves to make your knowledge dubious, and draw into question any and all future knowledge based on that one incorrect fact.
My state does that... with barber shops. You need a permit, and to take an exam which shows you know how to avoid electrocuting your customers with the electric clippers, and how not to transmit ringworm or scabies.
Rats, I knew I should have checked with a lawyer before opening my Joe's Barber Shop and Scabies Quartet franchise!
I have used Macs since they existed, and I never once saw the Sad Mac, aside from looking it up, or seeing it in documentation.
I've seen it twice (outside of documentation, as you say) Once while learning how to code finder extensions in pascal - poorly. Another when the MB wasn't in a case and I accidentally dropped a couple HD screws out of my hand directly onto the MB.
Obviously both cases were my own doing and 'my fault', but I remember being pretty proud at the time seeing something so rare most people didn't know what that icon even meant.
The spinning beach ball was also exceptionally rare until OS X came along, now you do see that one occasionally.
I don't remember OS 9 too well, but wasn't the spinning beach ball a new introduction of OS X 10.0? Along with most of the candy style widgets? In OS 8 I clearly remember the only 'wait' cursor was the wrist watch that always said 3 PM, and had no color in it.
It's almost like they don't care about the little people's views...
Cable Co Exec: *Hands over envelope of cash* You my nigga?
Representative: It certainly appears so.
Cable Co Exec: The night of the fight, you may feel a slight sting. That's pride fucking with you. Fuck pride. Pride only hurts. You fight through that shit. Because a year from now, when you're kicking it in the Caribbean, you'll say to yourself: I was right
Representative: I have no problem with that.
Cable Co Exec: In the vote, your ass goes down. Say it.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes we know those are all well known and long unfixed problems with IPv4...
But you promised a list of IPv6 weaknesses.
Traditionally "epic" is a literary term meaning a long story or poem (keyword: long)
Perhaps if one considers all the time and effort required to get into space to be in a position to take such a picture, I can see "epic" being a proper description.
I just keep adding these low-value (as in, user content) TLDs to blacklists, particularly for email. I'm sure I'm not the only sysadmin doing that
You are not the only one taking such a stance, however a couple years ago it became clear that a whitelist method will be far easier, quicker, and softer/fuzzier to your sanity.
There are currently 1300 active english gTLDs added and active in the past 16 months alone.
There are over 7000 unicode gTLDs for other languages and alphabets.
There is no end in sight for those numbers to stop rising.
http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/delegated-strings
http://money.cnn.com/infographic/technology/new-gtld-list/
Here at work I whitelist the following: .?? (aka two letter ccTLDs - though not really a safe assumption any longer) .com .net .org .edu .gov .mil .int .arpa - and for now .info
Be aware that along with .info were a few other restricted gTLDs in the initial batch that may be safe: .info .biz .name .pro was restricted too, but I've never seen it used nor been asked to whitelist it here)
(and I think
Ones I do not allow here, but others should be aware were in the same second-gen gTLD batch are: .pro .bank .aero .museum .mobi .post
Anything else came in the third-generation batch and should be blocked/ignored if you don't do international business (and in most cases, even if you do)
YMMV
Oh, so I'm a freeloader because I both directly pay the content producers I watch, and apparent DON'T block ads either?
Good to know
And what gives you the prerogative to be the freeloader? Obviously not everyone can be.
1) I just made $1500 in donations this month to my favorite four video streamers, with a fifth scheduled in a couple weeks (the one without paypal in another country, so takes a bit longer than normal)
I'm quite interested in your personal definition of "freeloader" if that is what you call me for blocking ads yet ensuring money lands in the pockets of the content creators I wish to continue creating content.
2) I have the same prerogative to be a "freeloader" as you have the prerogative to be a "script-kiddie hacker."
Stop trying to repeatedly infect my computers via flash exploits delivered over your ads and we'll talk about me not blocking them.
Until then, just remember that the unauthorized access to a computer act you perform is a very serious criminal act compared to the non-crime of blocking your ads that I do.
Way back when I was in my teens, I would always add 10 to my real age and so subtract 10 from my real birth year.
Makes it real easy to remember the lie and be able to make match even years later.
Of course when I was 15 the web wasn't yet a year old and we still got our 8-bit gif porn from FTP that didn't/couldn't age check, but for BBS profiles it worked great.
Never came up against such a validation myself however, at least not that I ever noticed. But I'm just a bit surprised this is my first time hearing of such validation in practice.
At least the site/service you use doesn't require a credit card to "prove" age.
Surely the case should be against the film studios that made the films and not Netflix which is just distributing them ?
According to the film studios, adding subtitles creates a derivative work and the distribution of it a copyright violation, and the person doing it a horrible human being that should be burnt alive after being fined a hundred trillion dollars for damages.
He should have just sued the MPAA instead, then everyone wins! :P
ah yes. It's a classic page right out of "how to win friends and influence people". Impress them with your smug sense of superiority!
I hate to be the friend that has to break this to you, but your smug sense of superiority isn't all that impressive :P
*clicks your dislike button*
First just to be clear, I'm not disagreeing with your analysis, I agree it is completely spot-on.
If anything my counter is directed at Nintendo and this choice of policy (not that anyone there would be reading this nor care if they did)
They're afraid that if people start playing conversions of their old games (or even just start watching videos of other people playing old games), they'll have no incentive to go out and by their newer games/consoles.
The thing with this line of reasoning is that there are many people like myself who aren't willing to purchase something we can't see or know anything about before buying it.
If I can't see screenshots of the amazing graphics, videos demonstrating the game play mechanics, see the first impressions from reviewers I respect the opinion of, or otherwise get some idea the game may be something I would enjoy playing and get value out of - I simply will not be purchasing it at all.
I have no problems paying a high price for something I believe will be of high value to me.
I also have no problem paying a low price if the value is expected to be low but still there.
What I do have a problem with is paying any price for something of unknown value. I simply refuse to do so.
Not to mention if it was a smaller less recognizable gaming company, going out of your way to hide all details about your game before getting my money strongly implies they know they are peddling garbage, and I can only assume such a purchase was designed to be a scam to take my money while providing no value.
It's worth noting that even the large companies like Nintendo are not immune from this gut reaction feeling. Only their past track record keeps me from assuming the worst.
But I still have to question what they are trying to hide, and why they can't be honest about their product so I can make an informed purchase.
Despite the fact their behavior is intended to prevent lack of sales, the reality is their behavior directly results in a lack of sales.
Snowden IS a traitor: (at least) of N.S.A., and his oath to them, exclusively, and also of U.S.A. inclusively
How? Please be detailed.
He upheld the laws of the USA, upheld his oath to the US government and the NSA.
He violated no conditions of his oath what so ever.
The NSA can not require someone to swear an oath to break the law and betray the US constitution in any legal sense - yet that's exactly what they tried to do.
Breaking a promise to be a criminal does not make you a criminal.
The oaths required from the DOE, DOD, and DOJ all explicitly demand you do not follow illegal orders, do not break laws without explicit exception, and to report to the higher authorities any illegal orders given - all of which Snowden did to the letter of the law and his oath.
In short, if you demand I follow an order of yours, do not bitch and claim I'm a traitor to you when I do exactly as you demanded from me, because then everyone will see your demand and accusation as the bullshit it is.
They're terrified of their brand ever being associated with "adult" material because parents might sue them for said exposing their child to hypothetical adult material.
That must be why Nintendo partnered with Playboy to promote the Nintendo exclusive release of Bayonetta 2.
http://wiiudaily.com/2014/10/nintendo-partners-with-playboy-to-promote-bayonetta-2/
http://bayonetta2.nintendo.com/
http://www.playboy.com/galleries/pamela-horton-nintendo-bayonetta/slide-1
I understand your sentiment but, don't forget that in most cases it's not your co-workers or even your supervisor who makes this choice. I've worked one place where this was policy to prevent employees from doing Bad Thing(tm)
But if you haven't locked out the persons accounts BEFORE they state their intention to quit, you have already 100% failed at stopping Bad Things(tm).
Part of doing Bad Things(tm) is not to pull the action movie cliche of laying out your evil plans to the good guy before leaving him bound yet quite alive to escape and use that very knowledge against you.
You plan and execute your Bad Things(tm) while you still have the ability to do so, not after the time where there is an equal-to or greater than zero percent chance someone could prevent it.
Hypothetical - If you intended to murder someone, would you:
A) sneak up on them unexpectedly to assure the best chances of success? or
B) inform the target of your intentions so they can take steps to protect themselves and/or steps to prevent you from doing so?
True you may get lucky that the one doing Bad Things(tm) is stupid and does just that, but that isn't 100% either, and isn't something one should put themselves in a position to have to bet on either way.
The only sure fire way I am aware of to predict the future regarding when employment will be terminated is if it was initiated by the company.
You'll note in the case of terminations the above policy is almost always followed as a matter of course already.
But unless you can read minds, it's probably safe to say you won't accurately predict an employee leaving before they themselves decide that is an option and choose to act on it.
About the only exception is if the company is making that employees life so miserable already that quitting is the only logical choice - but even then I would argue that is the company initiating it, even if it is an indirect, round-about, and dickish way to do so.
Since you are way too late by this point to do anything to stop Bad Things(tm), why harm the professional relationship further? Treating them as a criminal can't possibly help you or the company in any way, so why cause a non-zero percent chance of harming you or the company by such actions?
Not only are most "secret question" answers easily guessable for anyone you know well, it's also a security risk not unlike reusing the same password on multiple sites.
If I sign up at banks A and B and provide truthful answers to security questions, then any employee of bank A can authenticate /as me/ to bank B, and the reverse as well, on top of anyone that knows me well who could likely pull it off with both banks.
I store secret questions picked and that sites answers along with the rest in my password manager.
If I ever expect to possibly one day maybe need it for say phone verification, I'll put 3-5 seconds of thought into what in-context would be the most off-topic, shocking, and hilarious answers possible that can be spoken over the phone.
Otherwise nonsensical random words are used just like you did.
aka, when signing up for a bank loan, perhaps:
Q: What is the name of the first street you lived on?
A: The corner of blackjack rd and slot-machine ave, next to "i don't have a problem" park.
"Sorry to see the Shack gone"
I'm not. Radioshack was fucking horrible in the last 20 years.
Not coincidentally my sorrow at seeing the shack gone actually started about 20 years ago :P
Wait a sec, you mean to say there isn't really a bunch of hot godaddy girls waiting on the edge of their seats just to talk to me??
*dejected face*
Replacing the Microsoft SecureBoot key with my own PKI key is perhaps #3 on the list of things I do when configuring a new computer before ever installing a hard drive or OS - following enabling vPro AMT and then the BMC manager if present.
If I am unable to replace the master SecureBoot key with my own, that machine is getting packed up and sent right back to the OEM as defective.
I only buy OEM systems for work and build systems for home use. But the HP account for work sees a couple hundred computers a year, which isn't all that many when speaking "volume purchasing", but will instantly become zero if they choose to lock me out at the BIOS level.
It's already annoying enough that they ship hard drives completely unsuitable for use and requiring formatting (we aren't large enough for custom disk images or custom SLIC BIOS entries yet) - but at least this is only an annoyance and not out right sending defective equipment, which is the only possible definition for locking you out of the system at the firmware level and not allowing any OS to boot.
(By "any" I don't mean less than one, I mean literally any OS)
The major change in Windows 8 was the UI but you're saying if I use via third-party software to roll back the UI to Windows 7 then Windows 8 is good. That's like saying the Spanish Inquisition is a party once you factor out all the murders.
So what you're saying is you haven't installed Firefox or Chrome but instead are using solely the built in Internet Explorer browser? With no antivirus?
Hate to break it to you, but you very likely already have a ton of third party viruses, trojans, keyloggers, and network scanners installed too :P
Windows 10 would be "free for the first year," a deliberately ambiguous phrasing that they have yet to clarify.
Ambiguous?
If it was released tomorrow (Mar 19th 2015) then the deadline would be a year after (Mar 19th 2016)
If you install/upgrade-to 10 before the deadline, it is free.
Upon and after the deadline, you will have to buy it in order to install/upgrade-to.
The only thing ambiguous about it is our lack of knowing when Win10 will be released, which we need first before we can "add one to it" and give you a more direct answer.
But let us reword your position for a moment to point out the folly (currently at least) in its usefulness.
Here in my home country, if I desired a hamburger I happen to know from experience that most restaurants will have such a thing to sell to me. Ignoring jokes about McDonalds not having real food for just a moment, I know they are the most common place around to find a hamburger at.
Then you come along and (correctly, but uselessly) point out that the laws of physics do not rule out the possibility of finding a hamburger sitting around in some random persons back yard, and so such places should all be equally searched as well.
Yet if you or I were to travel to a country we have never been to before and happened to desire a hamburger, we would search out a restaurant knowing the chance of finding a hamburger there, even without ever having visited a restaurant in that country before.
No one is actually arguing that it wouldn't be possible to find a hamburger in a random persons backyard (although many would argue if it would be a good idea to eat it :P ) but from experience we know the odds of finding one in such a place are much much lower than compared to a restaurant.
Likewise, we know life on earth is more likely to be found in water than not.
That doesn't mean there is NO life outside of the water at all, just that the odds of finding it in water are higher than finding it elsewhere.
Again, no one is actually arguing that water is required for life in general, only that our sample of one shows a much higher chance of finding it, and our sample size of one is all we have to formulate characteristics to actually look for and detect.
So looking for life in water, that is similar to life on earth, is what we have the best description of (as crappy as it may be) and so the best chance of actually detecting, and our one sample shows it as the highest likelihood of occurring in water.
This is why we look for water and use the characteristics of life we have to match on - because it gives the best chance of success.
As our samples of majorly differing life forms increases and our characteristics to match on increase, we will have better odds of success looking elsewhere.
But with our current knowledge and technical level, it makes no sense to search for hamburgers in random back yards when we can search in restaurants first.
You always aim for the low hanging fruit first, then move on to the harder to reach fruit after.
You have to learn to walk before you can run.
Insert additional cheesy proverbs here (especially if they make good hamburger toppings! sorry, I think I'm hungry)
Just because searching for life as we know it in water is the first step does not exclude all the other harder to detect steps, it only delays them until later, hopefully to a time we are better equipped to do so both with technology and our knowledge.
It's also worth pointing out that no one is actually forcing you to look in the most common places for the things we know how to detect - you are free to look anywhere you like for things you can't describe, if you so wish.
It's just that your odds of success are so drastically lower, even compared to the already seemingly low chances in finding life in water on another world, that few people would be willing to throw money at you for the task.
And that, put simply, is why we look for water on other worlds in our search for life.
The problem with only using "how I feel" as a measurement while ignoring scientific measurements of the effects is that human senses are pretty horrible and are often wrong.
Back in my day this was taught and demonstrated in public education (seems not to be the case anymore) and can be proven with a very simple experiment: the old warm and cold bowl of water trick.
Line up three bowls on the counter. Fill one half way with cold water and another half way with hot (to the touch, not burning) water. Put one hand in each for a few minutes.
Then mix the two bowls of water together in the last bowl to get warm water, and put both your hands together in that bowl.
The hand previously in the cold water will feel hot, and the hand previously in the hot water will feel cold, both at the same time and in the same bowl of water.
Your senses are completely lying to you. One bowl of water can't be two different temperatures at the same time.
Only our intellect is capable of recognizing the contradiction in the data from your senses to indicate neither can't be correct.
Only impartial scientific measurement can give you accurate data that is correct, combined again with our intellect to let us override data from our senses with measured data.
This isn't to say our senses aren't important or don't matter at all, only that our senses are just the first step in obtaining knowledge. All three (senses, intellect, and measurements) are required.
Please don't rely on one without the others, as that only serves to make your knowledge dubious, and draw into question any and all future knowledge based on that one incorrect fact.
The obvious question - do you drink it or snort it?
First one, then the other.
My state does that ... with barber shops. You need a permit, and to take an exam which shows you know how to avoid electrocuting your customers with the electric clippers, and how not to transmit ringworm or scabies.
Rats, I knew I should have checked with a lawyer before opening my Joe's Barber Shop and Scabies Quartet franchise!
Are there smells we cannot appreciate in the same vein that there are sounds we cannot hear?
Apparently so. People tell me all the time I have a unique smell that cannot be appreciated!
I have used Macs since they existed, and I never once saw the Sad Mac, aside from looking it up, or seeing it in documentation.
I've seen it twice (outside of documentation, as you say)
Once while learning how to code finder extensions in pascal - poorly.
Another when the MB wasn't in a case and I accidentally dropped a couple HD screws out of my hand directly onto the MB.
Obviously both cases were my own doing and 'my fault', but I remember being pretty proud at the time seeing something so rare most people didn't know what that icon even meant.
The spinning beach ball was also exceptionally rare until OS X came along, now you do see that one occasionally.
I don't remember OS 9 too well, but wasn't the spinning beach ball a new introduction of OS X 10.0? Along with most of the candy style widgets?
In OS 8 I clearly remember the only 'wait' cursor was the wrist watch that always said 3 PM, and had no color in it.
But I admit it was some time ago now
It's almost like they don't care about the little people's views...
Cable Co Exec: *Hands over envelope of cash* You my nigga?
Representative: It certainly appears so.
Cable Co Exec: The night of the fight, you may feel a slight sting. That's pride fucking with you. Fuck pride. Pride only hurts. You fight through that shit.
Because a year from now, when you're kicking it in the Caribbean, you'll say to yourself: I was right
Representative: I have no problem with that.
Cable Co Exec: In the vote, your ass goes down. Say it.
Representative: In the vote, my ass goes down.