IMO low user awareness of Opera is why FF is currently "winning", and why Konqueror gets microscopic publicity even though it works well and is limited to 'Nix.
The most important marker will be if the people who wanted Dell to offer them actually buy them. Joe Sixpack is NOT going to buy these. "Joe 'Nixpack" might figure out ways to make use of them, even if it is taking advantage of the 'Nixdiscount then deploying them with Windows.
"Every one needs linux unless your happy with being spoon feed crap software and just OK but easily breakable security."
Most of the users think this is normal or don't know it is the case. They do not perceive a need, unlike the car owners you mentioned.
Once the barrier to entry of learning Windows is surmounnted, most people are not interested in learning anything else. I use Linux and prefer it, but the average computer user isn't you or me.
It's still Not Windows. When you grow up learning English, the superiority of some other language pales besides the convenience of a fairly well understood communication tool.
The purpose of most Windows computers is to communicate with other Windows computers, and the lay person knowledge pool is largely Windows.
Windows users don't NEED Linux, unless they are geeks and powerusers. Windows doesn't cost enough to matter in the rich USA, and it comes with most PCs.
"just imagine what it's like when your playlist never changes! If I hear "Hotel California" one more time this week, somebody's going to get strangled."
Formatted radio is decades old. so listen to your own music. Being too lazy to burn CDs, or better yet get a car stereo that takes SD cards, is deserving of "radio".
I haven't even bothered to look for a worthwile broadcast radio station since the WNEW (RIP Allison Steele!) glory days in the 1970s. Most radio was shite THEN, let alone now. That's why we did cassette-tape "peer to peer". The kids with money had reel-to-reel setups.
Being concerned about commercial radio is like being concerned about broadcast TV. Both are deliberately set up to market lowest-common-denominator garbage to morons. Even wanting them to be different is naive and silly.
"Sure, you can socialise more while watching TV via the internet (channel based chats, program based discussions) but that is not the same as laughing about a show with the wife and / or friends, collectively as a nation worry about something that needs to be done (and doing so because of that) or discussing a controversial documentary with your colleagues."
Depends on the wife and friends. Self and spouse view (and "laugh about") content on each others machines (vnc), and chat verbally while surfing. We do and see more interesting things via computer than through the Idiot Box, especially because we can surf seperate subjects then share the good bits in real time!
Controversial documentaries etc are accessed and discussed online with current and past colleagues. The Stupidty Pump doesn't have anything the internet can't beat. TV is the equivalent of AM radio.
"collectively as a nation worry about something that needs to be done"
Anyone worth interacting with is already wired. I socialize far more using computers then before. I can interact online, set up activities in meatspace, then followup online. "Collective worry" and activism are facilitated by the interactive internet more than the one-way consumption of network "news" narrated by a spokesmodel.
We had an A-10 that had a full piddle pack left in the cockpit during MOPP 4. Closed canopy = hot, burst piddle pack... Glad I wasn't the crew chief.
Of course, I could use a relief tube. Unlike shared aircraft (where tobacco spit could clog relief tubes) I wouldn't have to blow out the goo with an air compressor.:)
Second-hand Century Series urine anecdote: An old Chief back when I first enlisted told us that filing the aluminum outside portion of the relief tube so the chamfer faced _forward_ would create positive pressure instead of vacuum.
Exploitation of poorly paid labor is the price of jumpstarting the economy.
"Why is it OK to treat Chinese workers like that but not British, European or American workers?"
Okayness is irrelevant. If working conditions for Chinese workers were magically mandated to be equivalent to those in the EUSian countries, they would not have any advantage. Their employers would lay them off, and they would not benefit. A shitty job beats no job when there is no safety net.
British, European, and American workers inherited societies built by poor, non-union, expendable labor. That labor sustained the rapid growth we needed. It was the cost of doing business.
You still didn't answer the question of what YOU would do when faced with a high probability (as demonstrated in combat, not some hypothetical situation) that the wounded enemy would try to take you out.
Well? You have the moral high ground, you have established your righteousness, so quit dodging the question!
Do you assume all wounded are benign if they are not obviously armed and moving about? How do you ensure (if you care) the safety of your own troops who are with you?
"If you defend your marines when they illegally murder wounded enemies," Cite the law you assert the shooting of an enemy (who one suspects is armed and falsely surrendering) violates.
"Why should they risk getting their hospitals attacked by bringing your blue eyed wounded there for treatment?"
Blue-eyed? Stereotype much?
"It's much safer to just kill them in cold blood."
Not as policy, because a blanket refusal to take prisoners means the opponent will fight to the death. The historic example of the Nazi "Commissar Order", which directed the execution of captured Soviet Comissars, backfired because it ensured the affected Soviets would not only fight to the death, but lead their troops accordingly.
DISCRETION, where one need not feat overmuch the consequences of making sure the enemy cannot shoot you in the back or blow you up while you attempt to determine his condition, is a useful option because it reflects a common-sense approach to the problem. If a sizeable number of wounded enemy tend to commit suicide in order to take out your troops, what is the LOGICAL response?
BTW, US troops do not historically fight to the death and use subterfuge to conceal weapons when wounded for use on approaching enemy troops. The enemy are aware of this. Of course now that killing prisoners is Jihadist policy, they might as well die fighting rather than be cut up.
"Me, after many stubborn years, I've learned the fine art of the two hour phone call."
Beginning with my year at Kunsan, Korea, I learned the are of frequent several-hour voice and text messaging sessions with my wife. I didn't use my "morale calls" as there was no need. Instead of a limited audio-only connection, we could see, hear, and text each other simultaneously. Distractions were no problem, and we are both old farts who ought by tradition to be grumbling about all this newfangled technology. To each his own...
"You are defending shooting unarmed, injured men? You're morally bankrupt."
Then how,precisely, exactly, would YOU deal with a combatant you had reason to suspect may be armed and playing possum? How would YOU deal with the Japanese soldiers on Iwo, from your moral high ground?
"You can take the high road and fight fair, or accept that planes in buildings and dirty bombs are also free game if you don't. Pick one."
False asserted conclusion, as there are no absolute definition of "fair", and the mosque shooting (for example) has not been found to be illegal. It's your game. Define "fair".
"2- No wonder you people are ignorant, since you get your info from Fox News."
That was not relevant to the statement of the Marine who served in the Pacific regarding the Japanese troops. I left it in as it was in the middle of the overall comment. Your reply conveniently did not address how the Japanese who chose to remain a threat were dealt with.
Once they are out in quantity, it is reasonable to expect that the batteries will be eagerly acquired by scrap metal dealers in the manner of most other auto parts. Locally, our scrap dealers give about a dollar a battery for dead lead-acid units. The more valuable hybrid batteries should be in demand once the infrastructure to recycle them is widespread.
YOU'RE ignoring many wars worth of combat experience, where men who APPEAR to be unarmed set off a satchel charge or toss a grenade they palmed for the purpose. Shooting them when they are not displaying total surrender is a very reasonable precaution, just as reasonable (or not) as the rest of war.
If you really believe war is not like that, do volunteer as a "designated casualty checker".
Example from someone with more combat time than either of us:
"I noticed several people wrote in about the status of the Marine who shot the wounded guy in the mosque. I don't know what the Marine Corps is waiting for, but he should be cleared and given a medal right away. We can't expect to win a PC War, and we can't expect Marines to remain the best, most feared fighting force in the world if they have to fight PC. The only way to win any war is to be feared and respected, not soft and fuzzy. The last time I read the Geneva Convention Rules, they covered uniformed men only; those out of uniform were not legitimate and not protected. If you check the O'Reilly Fox News Channel poll on the question of the Marine, you will find that out of 111,116 viewers that voted (certainly not a majority Marine audience), 98% support the Marine. As I remember WWII, (Cpl. F-2-21, 3rd Marine Division--Bougainville, Guam, and Iwo Jima), every Jap we came across in combat got shot. Our G-2 had to beg us to take a prisoner so it could find out some information. Practically every wounded Jap we came across was waiting with a hand grenade to kill one more American. We were happy to deprive them of the opportunity. One more thing, when we were sent overseas, it was for the duration of the war, which turned out to be from two to three years for those that survived."
Semper Fi, Frank Hall
"My PC and other computing equipment make my office look like a jet cockpit."
I WISH my office looked like a cockpit. I could use a master brightness control to regulate light levels on all my room and indicator lights. My LCD monitors and laptop screen would be Multifunction Displays. I'd have a recumbent chair with HOTAS controls as well as a keyboard over my lap.
"The aircrew report seeing a crowd of individuals and they are immediately given permission to fire."
We don't know who cleared them from the video and what other info they had to make the call. As for "not running down the middle of the road", just because insurgents have a reputation does not make all of them smart any more than it would make all G.I.s do the optimal thing every time. If they felt threatened in their location, bugging out in a hurry could well have caused them to screw up.
Insurgents aren't all going to have the same level of training, and the less-professional will tend to have a high mort rate.
"Executing unarmed wounded soldiers is generally viewed as unacceptable."
The trooper firing didn't KNOW the Iraqi wasn't lying on an armed grenade or concealing a pistol he might have been trying to reach for. He did not KNOW he was unarmed.
"If you don't want to have wounded and unarmed US soldiers being similarly executed in future conflicts, it might be a good idea to desist from the practice now."
Shooting questionable enemy is historically a normal part of mopping up by any force, because taking the safe tack makes military sense. Why have your own folks get killed and maimed in order to rescue the fellow who just tried (with or without success) to kill and maim them? Read some WWII Pacific theater history for prior examples. Our enemies no longer take prisoners except for later execution, so there is no potential quid pro quo if there ever was. Our opponents are immune to any "Marquess of Queensberry" examples we might try to set.
"Or the Apache killing these unarmed men in a farmers field, working on a tractor."
I notice you selected the SNIPPED version. Here's a link to the full version. Watch old boy play "hide the SA7", using his buddies and their equipment as cover. Note the whole interaction between the people, including the initial conversation by the car and the rapid ditching of the weapon in the field. I contemptuously defy anyone to link these behaviors to tractor repair. I work on ag equipment and tractors, and there is nothing among my parts stash or tool collection that is the size and shape of a handheld SAM tube. That is no grain drill section (note the dangling end cap when he runs), PTO shaft, or similar.
"A known tactic of anti-Iraqi forces (AIF) is to feign injury or death, and the marine could reasonably claim they were still a threat."
"Blowing up Mosque's doesn't look so good either."
Nor does using them for military purposes, which removes their protected status under the GC.
"Or this apparent murder of civilians driving by in their cars."
All we have is a "stovepiped" view from a cam, with no overall context as to what actions were taking place nearby. Note the cameraman, "Doc" comments that no unarmed people were harmed, and he would probably have been in a position to view the cleanup. Those vehicles could have done a driveby or similar off-camera, but we don't know either way.
"The famous "Awe Dude" air-strike on a crowd of civilians."
Post-strike assertions go both ways, but the ground controller called it in during the ground battle. What did he see that we didn't? All we see from the video is a group of people moving purposefully in one general direction.
"If you have a MAP and some basic skills you can always know "i'm here, and i need to be there, so I need to generally be going X direction."
I supplement maps by printing Google Maps of the area I need in Hybrid view. I get decent photos with road overlay, and toss them into my truckers atlas. A scout compass in the glovebox is handy but I don't use it much.
Pics are a huge help when doing things like hunting junk vehicles. I can pull them up while on the phone, ask the seller where the vehicle is are in relation to structures/landmarks, and find the site much quicker.
I suggest finding a hobby or other interest so satisfying that you don't give a shit what you do to pay the bills.
When you have arrived at a level of proficiency so high that your job isn't interesting, take advantage of being able to earn money easily!
I'd pump septic tanks for 100K/year if required and not mind a bit. My hobbies and interests (mechanics/electronics/computers) match my current job, but if they did not I'd just work for the money and have fun elsewhere. A job that is NOT challenging frees the mind from the stress of worrying about meeting survival needs.
"Let me guess: you feel the same way about sex workers in southeast asia?"
The sex workers have no alternative. Prospective G.I.s have many. If you can pass the ASVAB, get a minimal Secret clearance, etc, you can (for example) go learn to drive 18-wheelers and make better initial money.
"In many cases they may see no viable alternative to military service to realizing the demanding values and expectations society has instilled in them."
Our society is not demanding. People naturally yearn for the challenge of war. That is why many G.I.s re-enlist and do tour after tour.
Slashdot Mirror
"How, exactly, did these nutjobs scrape together the heaps of money that must have been required to build this carnival side-show?"
There are many of them, and superstition does not exclude the ability to function effectively in the economy.
IMO low user awareness of Opera is why FF is currently "winning", and why Konqueror gets microscopic publicity even though it works well and is limited to 'Nix.
The most important marker will be if the people who wanted Dell to offer them actually buy them.
Joe Sixpack is NOT going to buy these.
"Joe 'Nixpack" might figure out ways to make use of them, even if it is taking advantage of the 'Nixdiscount then deploying them with Windows.
"Every one needs linux unless your happy with being spoon feed crap software and just OK but easily breakable security."
Most of the users think this is normal or don't know it is the case. They do not perceive a need, unlike the car owners you mentioned.
Once the barrier to entry of learning Windows is surmounnted, most people are not interested in learning anything else. I use Linux and prefer it, but the average computer user isn't you or me.
"Why do we care why women do or do not go into IT?"
I don't care if ANYONE does. Hint: if everyone does what you do, you'll get sharecropper wages.
It's still Not Windows.
When you grow up learning English, the superiority of some other language pales besides the convenience of a fairly well understood communication tool.
The purpose of most Windows computers is to communicate with other Windows computers, and the lay person knowledge pool is largely Windows.
Windows users don't NEED Linux, unless they are geeks and powerusers. Windows doesn't cost enough to matter in the rich USA, and it comes with most PCs.
"This is why you use Firefox" with the trackmenot extension:
http://mrl.nyu.edu/~dhowe/trackmenot/
"just imagine what it's like when your playlist never changes! If I hear "Hotel California" one more time this week, somebody's going to get strangled."
Formatted radio is decades old. so listen to your own music.
Being too lazy to burn CDs, or better yet get a car stereo that takes SD cards, is deserving of "radio".
I haven't even bothered to look for a worthwile broadcast radio station since the WNEW (RIP Allison Steele!) glory days in the 1970s. Most radio was shite THEN, let alone now. That's why we did cassette-tape "peer to peer". The kids with money had reel-to-reel setups.
Being concerned about commercial radio is like being concerned about broadcast TV. Both are deliberately set up to market lowest-common-denominator garbage to morons. Even wanting them to be different is naive and silly.
"Sure, you can socialise more while watching TV via the internet (channel based chats, program based discussions) but that is not the same as laughing about a show with the wife and / or friends, collectively as a nation worry about something that needs to be done (and doing so because of that) or discussing a controversial documentary with your colleagues."
Depends on the wife and friends. Self and spouse view (and "laugh about") content on each others machines (vnc), and chat verbally while surfing. We do and see more interesting things via computer than through the Idiot Box, especially because we can surf seperate subjects then share the good bits in real time!
Controversial documentaries etc are accessed and discussed online with current and past colleagues. The Stupidty Pump doesn't have anything the internet can't beat. TV is the equivalent of AM radio.
"collectively as a nation worry about something that needs to be done"
Anyone worth interacting with is already wired. I socialize far more using computers then before. I can interact online, set up activities in meatspace, then followup online. "Collective worry" and activism are facilitated by the interactive internet more than the one-way consumption of network "news" narrated by a spokesmodel.
Ah, maintenance memories!
:)
We had an A-10 that had a full piddle pack left in the cockpit during MOPP 4. Closed canopy = hot, burst piddle pack... Glad I wasn't the crew chief.
Of course, I could use a relief tube. Unlike shared aircraft (where tobacco spit could clog relief tubes) I wouldn't have to blow out the goo with an air compressor.
Second-hand Century Series urine anecdote:
An old Chief back when I first enlisted told us that filing the aluminum outside portion of the relief tube so the chamfer faced _forward_ would create positive pressure instead of vacuum.
Exploitation of poorly paid labor is the price of jumpstarting the economy.
"Why is it OK to treat Chinese workers like that but not British, European or American workers?"
Okayness is irrelevant. If working conditions for Chinese workers were magically mandated to be equivalent to those in the EUSian countries, they would not have any advantage. Their employers would lay them off, and they would not benefit. A shitty job beats no job when there is no safety net.
British, European, and American workers inherited societies built by poor, non-union, expendable labor. That labor sustained the rapid growth we needed. It was the cost of doing business.
You still didn't answer the question of what YOU would do when faced with a high probability (as demonstrated in combat, not some hypothetical situation) that the wounded enemy would try to take you out.
Well? You have the moral high ground, you have established your righteousness, so quit dodging the question!
Do you assume all wounded are benign if they are not obviously armed and moving about? How do you ensure (if you care) the safety of your own troops who are with you?
"If you defend your marines when they illegally murder wounded enemies,"
Cite the law you assert the shooting of an enemy (who one suspects is armed and falsely surrendering) violates.
"Why should they risk getting their hospitals attacked by bringing your blue eyed wounded there for treatment?"
Blue-eyed? Stereotype much?
"It's much safer to just kill them in cold blood."
Not as policy, because a blanket refusal to take prisoners means the opponent will fight to the death. The historic example of the Nazi "Commissar Order", which directed the execution of captured Soviet Comissars, backfired because it ensured the affected Soviets would not only fight to the death, but lead their troops accordingly.
DISCRETION, where one need not feat overmuch the consequences of making sure the enemy cannot shoot you in the back or blow you up while you attempt to determine his condition, is a useful option because it reflects a common-sense approach to the problem.
If a sizeable number of wounded enemy tend to commit suicide in order to take out your troops, what is the LOGICAL response?
BTW, US troops do not historically fight to the death and use subterfuge to conceal weapons when wounded for use on approaching enemy troops. The enemy are aware of this. Of course now that killing prisoners is Jihadist policy, they might as well die fighting rather than be cut up.
"Me, after many stubborn years, I've learned the fine art of the two hour phone call."
Beginning with my year at Kunsan, Korea, I learned the are of frequent several-hour voice and text messaging sessions with my wife. I didn't use my "morale calls" as there was no need.
Instead of a limited audio-only connection, we could see, hear, and text each other simultaneously.
Distractions were no problem, and we are both old farts who ought by tradition to be grumbling about all this newfangled technology.
To each his own...
"You are defending shooting unarmed, injured men? You're morally bankrupt."
Then how,precisely, exactly, would YOU deal with a combatant you had reason to suspect may be armed and playing possum?
How would YOU deal with the Japanese soldiers on Iwo, from your moral high ground?
"You can take the high road and fight fair, or accept that planes in buildings and dirty bombs are also free game if you don't. Pick one."
False asserted conclusion, as there are no absolute definition of "fair", and the mosque shooting (for example) has not been found to be illegal.
It's your game. Define "fair".
"2- No wonder you people are ignorant, since you get your info from Fox News."
That was not relevant to the statement of the Marine who served in the Pacific regarding the Japanese troops. I left it in as it was in the middle of the overall comment. Your reply conveniently did not address how the Japanese who chose to remain a threat were dealt with.
I didn't snip the middle of the paragraph, but I notice your comment does NOT address the WWII Marines stated reason for shooting Japs.
"Basically, selection bias much."
WTF did the poll have to do with mopping up at Iwo?
Once they are out in quantity, it is reasonable to expect that the batteries will be eagerly acquired by scrap metal dealers in the manner of most other auto parts. Locally, our scrap dealers give about a dollar a battery for dead lead-acid units. The more valuable hybrid batteries should be in demand once the infrastructure to recycle them is widespread.
Perhaps, as in the case of SCO, MSFT would rather not have PJ at Groklaw dissect their claims...
"You're defending "shooting injured, unarmed men"???"
5 /jan_6.asp
YOU'RE ignoring many wars worth of combat experience, where men who APPEAR to be unarmed set off a satchel charge or toss a grenade they palmed for the purpose. Shooting them when they are not displaying total surrender is a very reasonable precaution, just as reasonable (or not) as the rest of war.
If you really believe war is not like that, do volunteer as a "designated casualty checker".
Example from someone with more combat time than either of us:
"I noticed several people wrote in about the status of the Marine who shot the wounded guy in the mosque. I don't know what the Marine Corps is waiting for, but he should be cleared and given a medal right away. We can't expect to win a PC War, and we can't expect Marines to remain the best, most feared fighting force in the world if they have to fight PC. The only way to win any war is to be feared and respected, not soft and fuzzy. The last time I read the Geneva Convention Rules, they covered uniformed men only; those out of uniform were not legitimate and not protected. If you check the O'Reilly Fox News Channel poll on the question of the Marine, you will find that out of 111,116 viewers that voted (certainly not a majority Marine audience), 98% support the Marine.
As I remember WWII, (Cpl. F-2-21, 3rd Marine Division--Bougainville, Guam, and Iwo Jima), every Jap we came across in combat got shot. Our G-2 had to beg us to take a prisoner so it could find out some information.
Practically every wounded Jap we came across was waiting with a hand grenade to kill one more American. We were happy to deprive them of the opportunity. One more thing, when we were sent overseas, it was for the duration of the war, which turned out to be from two to three years for those that survived."
Semper Fi, Frank Hall
http://www.grunt.com/scuttlebutt/newsarchives/200
"My PC and other computing equipment make my office look like a jet cockpit."
I WISH my office looked like a cockpit.
I could use a master brightness control to regulate light levels on all my room and indicator lights.
My LCD monitors and laptop screen would be Multifunction Displays.
I'd have a recumbent chair with HOTAS controls as well as a keyboard over my lap.
"The aircrew report seeing a crowd of individuals and they are immediately given permission to fire."
We don't know who cleared them from the video and what other info they had to make the call. As for "not running down the middle of the road", just because insurgents have a reputation does not make all of them smart any more than it would make all G.I.s do the optimal thing every time. If they felt threatened in their location, bugging out in a hurry could well have caused them to screw up.
Insurgents aren't all going to have the same level of training, and the less-professional will tend to have a high mort rate.
"Executing unarmed wounded soldiers is generally viewed as unacceptable."
The trooper firing didn't KNOW the Iraqi wasn't lying on an armed grenade or concealing a pistol he might have been trying to reach for. He did not KNOW he was unarmed.
"If you don't want to have wounded and unarmed US soldiers being similarly executed in future conflicts, it might be a good idea to desist from the practice now."
Shooting questionable enemy is historically a normal part of mopping up by any force, because taking the safe tack makes military sense. Why have your own folks get killed and maimed in order to rescue the fellow who just tried (with or without success) to kill and maim them?
Read some WWII Pacific theater history for prior examples.
Our enemies no longer take prisoners except for later execution, so there is no potential quid pro quo if there ever was. Our opponents are immune to any "Marquess of Queensberry" examples we might try to set.
"Or the Apache killing these unarmed men in a farmers field, working on a tractor."
e r_shot_wounded_Iraqi_at_Fallujah_in_self_defense
I notice you selected the SNIPPED version. Here's a link to the full version.
Watch old boy play "hide the SA7", using his buddies and their equipment as cover. Note the whole interaction between the people, including the initial conversation by the car and the rapid ditching of the weapon in the field. I contemptuously defy anyone to link these behaviors to tractor repair. I work on ag equipment and tractors, and there is nothing among my parts stash or tool collection that is the size and shape of a handheld SAM tube. That is no grain drill section (note the dangling end cap when he runs), PTO shaft, or similar.
http://www.murdoconline.net/archives/001763.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wdJo-eoLxI (search 'helicopter kills" and compare versions)
"Or executing a wounded Iraqi"
How would/do/have YOU act/acted when you suspect(ed) an enemy fighter may be "playing possum"?
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/U.S._Navy_finds_soldi
"A known tactic of anti-Iraqi forces (AIF) is to feign injury or death, and the marine could reasonably claim they were still a threat."
"Blowing up Mosque's doesn't look so good either."
Nor does using them for military purposes, which removes their protected status under the GC.
"Or this apparent murder of civilians driving by in their cars."
All we have is a "stovepiped" view from a cam, with no overall context as to what actions were taking place nearby. Note the cameraman, "Doc" comments that no unarmed people were harmed, and he would probably have been in a position to view the cleanup. Those vehicles could have done a driveby or similar off-camera, but we don't know either way.
"The famous "Awe Dude" air-strike on a crowd of civilians."
Post-strike assertions go both ways, but the ground controller called it in during the ground battle.
What did he see that we didn't?
All we see from the video is a group of people moving purposefully in one general direction.
Ideology-based conjecture is not proof.
"If you have a MAP and some basic skills you can always know "i'm here, and i need to be there, so I need to generally be going X direction."
I supplement maps by printing Google Maps of the area I need in Hybrid view. I get decent photos with road overlay, and toss them into my truckers atlas. A scout compass in the glovebox is handy but I don't use it much.
Pics are a huge help when doing things like hunting junk vehicles. I can pull them up while on the phone, ask the seller where the vehicle is
are in relation to structures/landmarks, and find the site much quicker.
"You can still have a full life without being an internet addict, they are still BOOKS out there."
Yep. Sure are. I download some, and order others online. Saves fuel, time, and hassling with brick-and-mortar retailers.
I suggest finding a hobby or other interest so satisfying that you don't give a shit what you do to pay the bills.
When you have arrived at a level of proficiency so high that your job isn't interesting, take advantage of being able to earn money easily!
I'd pump septic tanks for 100K/year if required and not mind a bit.
My hobbies and interests (mechanics/electronics/computers) match my current job, but if they did not I'd just work for the money and have fun elsewhere. A job that is NOT challenging frees the mind from the stress of worrying about meeting survival needs.
"Let me guess: you feel the same way about sex workers in southeast asia?"
The sex workers have no alternative. Prospective G.I.s have many.
If you can pass the ASVAB, get a minimal Secret clearance, etc, you can (for example) go learn to drive 18-wheelers and make better initial money.
"In many cases they may see no viable alternative to military service to realizing the demanding values and expectations society has instilled in them."
Our society is not demanding. People naturally yearn for the challenge of war. That is why many G.I.s re-enlist and do tour after tour.