It seems that unlike the US, every other country that has an automobile industry is proud of this industry. Despite the US auto industry's long and storied history, and the large number of jobs it brings to this country, most Americans act like they don't care if the big three stayed in business or not. Ford actually did the right thing by being one of the first companies to bring a hybrid SUV to market but people still are critical about them having to pay Toyota royalties on some of the technology they used. Because the US industry has almost no protection in their home market and has to pay 100% of their employees health care and retirement (unlike almost every other country in the world that has an auto industry) the only way they could keep their market share in their home market was to make cars with low MPG because with cheap gas most Americans didn't care about gas mileage. Now that gas prices are up and the big three can't rely on SUVs to stay in business the big three are hurting and most Americans act like that is a good thing. Do you realize how many middle class jobs we will loose if they go belly up? I say it is time for Americans to show a little pride and respect in their Auto industry again. When you consider all of the boneheaded Government policies over the last 30 years I say American cars are amazingly good!
It is funny that in China they don't know that Buick only makes cars for old people. Buick is the top selling brand in China and the cars have a big following among young professionals. Their conservative designs also mean that many of their cars end up being pretty reliable too. It might be a cast iron push rod V6 but I am sure that after 40 years they have worked most of the bugs out.
You say it amuses you that Americans like to keep the imperial system but then go on to show that the one system is linked to the other. In other words you just showed yourself that it really doesn't matter.
We all know that God himself came down and defined a meter to be exactly so big.
Personally I don't think it is bad that we still use inches sometimes because it just goes to show that all units are just made up. It starts to get you used to switching between different units which you even have to do if everything is metric. How many electron volts in a joule? Both metric units for energy and switching between them is more fun than going from meters to yards. Since they are all made up anyway you should just use what unit is convenient and understand the limitations of any unit.
What does it mean to be a "a conservative when it comes to budget?" Does that mean you like tax breaks to Bill Gates, increased spending on a pointless war and pork projects that win votes but bring nothing to the tax payer. All that combines to a budget deficit that is totally out of control and threatens to bankrupt our entire country. I mean really what does it mean to be fiscally conservative anymore? The only people who seem to know how to balance a check book anymore are the democrats!
You will never be able to afford a real Apple I. However if you want to let people play with a vintage computer (and a very important one at that) without risking a real classic you can by the Replica I for about $200. It is a replica of the Apple I (since Woz still owns the rights to the apple I and not Apple he has the rights to let others make replica's and clones) but it uses more modern parts. Here is the website: http://www.brielcomputers.com/
There is a world of difference between deficit and debt. It is true that our debt as a percentage of GDP is not the highest in the world (althought the absolute value probably is the highest.) But our current deficit is so high that if we continue to go down this road we could just end up on top of the wonderful list!
It is like a person putting thousands of dollars on the credit card each month and justifying it because they aren't as close to our limit as their neighbors are -- just wait a little while and everyone will all be in the same boat! I believe paying down the interest on the debt is already the second highest cost in the federal budget. Your tax dollars doing nothing thanks to supply side economics!
I complained about us selling debt to China and others and the dollar dropping because of our trade imbalance and you say basically say: No it is ok because Asian countries (China) are manipulating things (buying our debt) so the dollar isn't as low as it should be (and the Euro is higher than it should be.) Isn't what you said pretty close to what I said but reworded to make it sound like it is a good thing? Correct me if I missed something.
Look we are selling our country to China! Communist Red Evil Evil China! Weren't we supposed to have beaten the commies in the cold war? What gives? What do you think is going to happen if they demand their money back? They way out number us you know -- and they can kick our butts in ping pong:) And now they make all of our cheap electronic goods!
And yes there are lots of reasons why the price of oil is high. One of those reasons is the devalueing of the dollar. Of course I would say that at least 9 out of 10 of the reasons for high price of oil can be blamed on one president. I am note sure if I can blame Katrina on Bush (maybe you can with global warming) but problems in the middle east, large profits by the oil companies, not cleaning up after katrina etc. etc. can be blamed on Bush.
Listen I actually think it isn't a bad thing if the price of oil goes up because it could help us explore other energy sources. I brought it up because for some reason it gets Americans pissed to talk about it. Maybe it is because in the back of our minds we know the war should have lowered the price by now.
Part of the problem is that these metals are becoming more valuable, but the other half of the problem is that our money is now worth less than the metal it is printed on! Maybe if the borrow and spend president we have now would stop spending like a drunken sailor -- and stop borrowing billions of dollars from China and other fun governments, our money would not devalue quite as fast. Part of the reason why oil is so expensive is because you are buying it with US dollars that aren't worth as much as they used to be. When the Euro was introduced it was set to be equal to 1 US dollar -- look at the price now! If we don't get this debt in hand things are going to get a lot worse! And don't think you are going to get off easy just because you aren't an American the economies of the world are more closely tied than ever. Besides there is a chance that your market could get flooded with cheap American exports (at least we can hope that will happen.)
After the sega saturn no one is going to release a system that is designed to do 2d games better than 3d games (they added a second processor to the saturn as so it could do 3d games well but it was much harder to program for.) Sony has spent so much money marketing 3d games as being better that I am afraid that 2d games may never be as popular again. If you want a good 2d game get a used saturn (with the 4 meg ram cart) or dreamcast and go nuts with imported games. If you buy popular games from Sony, Nintendo, or MS then I am afraid you may find yourself stuck with 3d games.
Maybe we only hear about the ones from the US and Russia because they happened so long ago that they are no longer classified. Maybe one day other countries will let it slip that 20 years ago they too almost caused WWIII.
Car companies do not yet know how to produce diesel cars that pass emission standards in all 50 states. Not many companies are going to market a car here that they can't sell in California. This is probably why the only diesel cars you can buy here are from european companies. Diesels are popular in europe so the cost of developing the technology is already covered and they aren't risking much by selling them here is most (but not all) states.
Companies are working on making diesel cars that pass the standards (trucks have a lower standard which is why you do see some diesel pickups and SUVs in the US) but I don't think the tech is there yet. The feds forcing gas companies to only sell low sulfur diesel fuel is helping since that is supposed to make it easier for car companies to make the new clean diesels -- plus low sulfur fuel doesn't smell as bad as the old fuel did.
I think diesels are also not as popular here because most people remember what diesel cars were like the last time people started worrying about gas prices (and thus diesels jumped in popularity.) In the 1970's diesels were much more dirty and noisy and smelly than they are today. Plus back then you often had to wait for several minutes for the glow plugs to warm up. Of course the newer cars are much better but most americans haven't figured that out yet.
It isn't difficult to look up at all the brightness from the sun and think that maybe there is something there that we cannot see.
That thing in the sun that we cannot see is the planet Vulcan (not to be confused with the planet from Star Trek.) It is clear that this planet is the reason why the orbit of Mercury is not what we would expect using Newtonian physics. All we need to do is find that planet and newton's laws will be validated
But now this Einstein guy would have us believe that we should change Newton's law of gravity just because he couldn't grasp that there is a strange planet out there that exists just outside our ability to measure it.
My point is that any theory may seem insane until it is validated using physical measurements.
Those who push a theory that is eventually proven wrong are doing an important job. They are helping the theory that will be proven right to become that much stronger. So no matter which side is eventually proven right we really need to thank both sides!
Is there dark matter or do we need to change our ideas about the laws of gravity? I for one am going to wait until all the measurements are in before I make up my mind!
And then Apple themselves came out with an ad that said, "to use a PC you have to read all of this!" A huge stack of manuals would then fall in front of a PC. They would then point out that, "to use a Mac you only have to read this!" At which point a tiny little manual would fall in front of the Mac. From that time forward products only came with a few instructions (if you were lucky your manual might even be written in English -- instead of just having pictures showing you what to do) and the 800 number you have to call (and stay on hold for hours on end) if you can't get it to work. I remember my hercules monochrome card came with complete specs and as a 12 year old I was able to figure out how to draw pictures from basic by poking into the video ram. What type of manual do you get with your graphics card today? I guess the problem is that people got scared when their computer came with information they couldn't understand and wouldn't need.
I am guessing that your favorite company depends as much on which side of the Atlantic you live on as the engineering that goes into the planes. Anyway BOTH Airbus and Boeing make EXTREMELY reliable planes. It is completely amazing that these two companies can make flying machines that can take us around the world so quickly and that the tickets are amazingly cheap. If we didn't have both Airbus and Boeing then there would be a company that has a monopoly and I assure you that the quality of the planes would suffer. So I say hurray for Boeing AND Airbus! It is ok to say that this Boeing plane does this better than Airbus but Airbus does that better than Boeing but simply saying the Boeing or Airbus is dangerous or that all of their planes suck is stupid and frankly not true. We should all hope that Boeing and Airbus continue to compete with each other because we the flying public benefit from them.
God? Everyone knows it is really the Flying Spaghetti Monster that controls these things. If we would just increase the number of pirates in the world (http://www.venganza.org/) then global warming would reverse!
Yes, we don't have all of the answers therefore we must have none of the answers. If you aren't exactly right about one thing you must be wrong about EVERYTHING.Drugy Limbaugh said it so it must be true! That show I watched on the discovery channel last week backs me up so it isn't like I have to listen to the top scientists in the entire world or anything. So let's all stick our heads into the sand and sing "la la nothing to see here, I can't hear you!" I mean if you are wrong it isn't a big deal -- it is just the entire planet that gets screwed over! That isn't worth lowering the profits of big companies by any amount. Heck why do we even need to spend any more money investigating this if Jesus is going to come down in a few years and God is going to destroy the planet soon and send everyone who isn't in your exact religion to hell anyway.
In Maryland (borders PA to the south) you can't buy alcohol in super markets either. I wouldn't say that the state's government in Maryland is run by a bunch of 80 year olds. There are several other states that are like that too. When I go out of state I always think it is strange that you can buy beer in 7-11's or super markets. And I think beer in gas stations is just a bad idea! Alcohol is a drug and "Drugs are bad Mmmkay!"
Yes Air america is still around and growing. http://www.airamericaradio.com/stations I understand that they get pretty good ratings in the markets that they are in.
What happens to the "fastest computer yet" after a few years (decades.) They are impressive now but eventually they will become slower than a common desktop machine. Do they have a life cycle where they start as a companie's fastest machine, but later become a server or go into some other duty that doesn't require the world's fastest machine (after the company goes out and buys an even faster machine.) Is there a market for such machines? Or are they so expensive to run that they are eventually just recycled or sold as scrap? It might be cool to have the worlds fastest machine as of 1990 or so to play with. Are such machines still in use?
Cheese does have some carbs so while on induction you are only supposed to eat a few ounces a day. After induction, if it doesn't make you stall, I guess you can eat more! Mmmm cheese! Gotta love that Atkins diet!
Yes, we are SURE that global warming will be that big of a problem. So let's all ignore it and continue on as if nothing is going to happen. After all the cost of the loss of planet Earth is nothing compared to the short term loss to the economy because we put in higer standards. If we are wrong, and we are destroying the Earth (the only planet that we know of that can support life) hey we could move to -- uh Mars! Move on nothing to see here.
Let's say that tomorrow Apple unofficially leaks the fact that with motherboard X and video card Y you could run the X86 MacOS on a standard PC. How many people do you think would then go out and buy a shrink wrapped copy of MacOS to try it? How many people would build such a computer just so they could run MacOS? How big of a community would then spring up? How many open source drivers do you think that community would then come up with to run MacOS on other X86 computers? Apple could sell an upgrade version of the OS and then sell the non-upgrade version at a huge premium (to make up for the lost hardware sales.) Apple would sell millions of extra copies of MacOS -- and maybe with a huge mark-up -- without having to do much work at all. They would never have to officially support MacOS on standard PC's so if you have a problem with your hardware that is your problem. And millions will still buy mac's just to get the official support.
I hate to 100% agree with Cringely but I think the only reason why Apple wouldn't do this is because they are being stupid. No I don't care how much money I would make -- MacOS should only be on a Mac!
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It seems that unlike the US, every other country that has an automobile industry is proud of this industry. Despite the US auto industry's long and storied history, and the large number of jobs it brings to this country, most Americans act like they don't care if the big three stayed in business or not. Ford actually did the right thing by being one of the first companies to bring a hybrid SUV to market but people still are critical about them having to pay Toyota royalties on some of the technology they used. Because the US industry has almost no protection in their home market and has to pay 100% of their employees health care and retirement (unlike almost every other country in the world that has an auto industry) the only way they could keep their market share in their home market was to make cars with low MPG because with cheap gas most Americans didn't care about gas mileage. Now that gas prices are up and the big three can't rely on SUVs to stay in business the big three are hurting and most Americans act like that is a good thing. Do you realize how many middle class jobs we will loose if they go belly up? I say it is time for Americans to show a little pride and respect in their Auto industry again. When you consider all of the boneheaded Government policies over the last 30 years I say American cars are amazingly good!
It is funny that in China they don't know that Buick only makes cars for old people. Buick is the top selling brand in China and the cars have a big following among young professionals. Their conservative designs also mean that many of their cars end up being pretty reliable too. It might be a cast iron push rod V6 but I am sure that after 40 years they have worked most of the bugs out.
You say it amuses you that Americans like to keep the imperial system but then go on to show that the one system is linked to the other. In other words you just showed yourself that it really doesn't matter.
We all know that God himself came down and defined a meter to be exactly so big.
Personally I don't think it is bad that we still use inches sometimes because it just goes to show that all units are just made up. It starts to get you used to switching between different units which you even have to do if everything is metric. How many electron volts in a joule? Both metric units for energy and switching between them is more fun than going from meters to yards. Since they are all made up anyway you should just use what unit is convenient and understand the limitations of any unit.
What does it mean to be a "a conservative when it comes to budget?" Does that mean you like tax breaks to Bill Gates, increased spending on a pointless war and pork projects that win votes but bring nothing to the tax payer. All that combines to a budget deficit that is totally out of control and threatens to bankrupt our entire country. I mean really what does it mean to be fiscally conservative anymore? The only people who seem to know how to balance a check book anymore are the democrats!
So you have a 125V PAL TV from Canada? Or do you have a PAL to NTSC converter? Just wondering.
You will never be able to afford a real Apple I. However if you want to let people play with a vintage computer (and a very important one at that) without risking a real classic you can by the Replica I for about $200. It is a replica of the Apple I (since Woz still owns the rights to the apple I and not Apple he has the rights to let others make replica's and clones) but it uses more modern parts. Here is the website: http://www.brielcomputers.com/
There is a world of difference between deficit and debt. It is true that our debt as a percentage of GDP is not the highest in the world (althought the absolute value probably is the highest.) But our current deficit is so high that if we continue to go down this road we could just end up on top of the wonderful list!
:) And now they make all of our cheap electronic goods!
It is like a person putting thousands of dollars on the credit card each month and justifying it because they aren't as close to our limit as their neighbors are -- just wait a little while and everyone will all be in the same boat! I believe paying down the interest on the debt is already the second highest cost in the federal budget. Your tax dollars doing nothing thanks to supply side economics!
I complained about us selling debt to China and others and the dollar dropping because of our trade imbalance and you say basically say: No it is ok because Asian countries (China) are manipulating things (buying our debt) so the dollar isn't as low as it should be (and the Euro is higher than it should be.) Isn't what you said pretty close to what I said but reworded to make it sound like it is a good thing? Correct me if I missed something.
Look we are selling our country to China! Communist Red Evil Evil China! Weren't we supposed to have beaten the commies in the cold war? What gives? What do you think is going to happen if they demand their money back? They way out number us you know -- and they can kick our butts in ping pong
And yes there are lots of reasons why the price of oil is high. One of those reasons is the devalueing of the dollar. Of course I would say that at least 9 out of 10 of the reasons for high price of oil can be blamed on one president. I am note sure if I can blame Katrina on Bush (maybe you can with global warming) but problems in the middle east, large profits by the oil companies, not cleaning up after katrina etc. etc. can be blamed on Bush.
Listen I actually think it isn't a bad thing if the price of oil goes up because it could help us explore other energy sources. I brought it up because for some reason it gets Americans pissed to talk about it. Maybe it is because in the back of our minds we know the war should have lowered the price by now.
Why is Gas so expensive in Europe?
Taxes!
And I think the US should tax gas as much (but see how much political capitol that would take!)
Part of the problem is that these metals are becoming more valuable, but the other half of the problem is that our money is now worth less than the metal it is printed on! Maybe if the borrow and spend president we have now would stop spending like a drunken sailor -- and stop borrowing billions of dollars from China and other fun governments, our money would not devalue quite as fast. Part of the reason why oil is so expensive is because you are buying it with US dollars that aren't worth as much as they used to be. When the Euro was introduced it was set to be equal to 1 US dollar -- look at the price now! If we don't get this debt in hand things are going to get a lot worse! And don't think you are going to get off easy just because you aren't an American the economies of the world are more closely tied than ever. Besides there is a chance that your market could get flooded with cheap American exports (at least we can hope that will happen.)
After the sega saturn no one is going to release a system that is designed to do 2d games better than 3d games (they added a second processor to the saturn as so it could do 3d games well but it was much harder to program for.) Sony has spent so much money marketing 3d games as being better that I am afraid that 2d games may never be as popular again. If you want a good 2d game get a used saturn (with the 4 meg ram cart) or dreamcast and go nuts with imported games. If you buy popular games from Sony, Nintendo, or MS then I am afraid you may find yourself stuck with 3d games.
Maybe we only hear about the ones from the US and Russia because they happened so long ago that they are no longer classified. Maybe one day other countries will let it slip that 20 years ago they too almost caused WWIII.
Car companies do not yet know how to produce diesel cars that pass emission standards in all 50 states. Not many companies are going to market a car here that they can't sell in California. This is probably why the only diesel cars you can buy here are from european companies. Diesels are popular in europe so the cost of developing the technology is already covered and they aren't risking much by selling them here is most (but not all) states.
Companies are working on making diesel cars that pass the standards (trucks have a lower standard which is why you do see some diesel pickups and SUVs in the US) but I don't think the tech is there yet. The feds forcing gas companies to only sell low sulfur diesel fuel is helping since that is supposed to make it easier for car companies to make the new clean diesels -- plus low sulfur fuel doesn't smell as bad as the old fuel did.
I think diesels are also not as popular here because most people remember what diesel cars were like the last time people started worrying about gas prices (and thus diesels jumped in popularity.) In the 1970's diesels were much more dirty and noisy and smelly than they are today. Plus back then you often had to wait for several minutes for the glow plugs to warm up. Of course the newer cars are much better but most americans haven't figured that out yet.
Hear about those scientists doing research into this electricity thing?
Thanks God it's not my taxes that are spent on this research.
I'd rather have my artist friends make another painting using gas light. Not like this electricity thing will ever lead to anything useful!
Look at the sun. Look at how bright it is.
It isn't difficult to look up at all the brightness from the sun and think that maybe there is something there that we cannot see.
That thing in the sun that we cannot see is the planet Vulcan (not to be confused with the planet from Star Trek.) It is clear that this planet is the reason why the orbit of Mercury is not what we would expect using Newtonian physics. All we need to do is find that planet and newton's laws will be validated
But now this Einstein guy would have us believe that we should change Newton's law of gravity just because he couldn't grasp that there is a strange planet out there that exists just outside our ability to measure it.
My point is that any theory may seem insane until it is validated using physical measurements.
Those who push a theory that is eventually proven wrong are doing an important job. They are helping the theory that will be proven right to become that much stronger. So no matter which side is eventually proven right we really need to thank both sides!
Is there dark matter or do we need to change our ideas about the laws of gravity? I for one am going to wait until all the measurements are in before I make up my mind!
And then Apple themselves came out with an ad that said, "to use a PC you have to read all of this!" A huge stack of manuals would then fall in front of a PC. They would then point out that, "to use a Mac you only have to read this!" At which point a tiny little manual would fall in front of the Mac. From that time forward products only came with a few instructions (if you were lucky your manual might even be written in English -- instead of just having pictures showing you what to do) and the 800 number you have to call (and stay on hold for hours on end) if you can't get it to work. I remember my hercules monochrome card came with complete specs and as a 12 year old I was able to figure out how to draw pictures from basic by poking into the video ram. What type of manual do you get with your graphics card today? I guess the problem is that people got scared when their computer came with information they couldn't understand and wouldn't need.
I am guessing that your favorite company depends as much on which side of the Atlantic you live on as the engineering that goes into the planes. Anyway BOTH Airbus and Boeing make EXTREMELY reliable planes. It is completely amazing that these two companies can make flying machines that can take us around the world so quickly and that the tickets are amazingly cheap. If we didn't have both Airbus and Boeing then there would be a company that has a monopoly and I assure you that the quality of the planes would suffer. So I say hurray for Boeing AND Airbus! It is ok to say that this Boeing plane does this better than Airbus but Airbus does that better than Boeing but simply saying the Boeing or Airbus is dangerous or that all of their planes suck is stupid and frankly not true. We should all hope that Boeing and Airbus continue to compete with each other because we the flying public benefit from them.
God? Everyone knows it is really the Flying Spaghetti Monster that controls these things. If we would just increase the number of pirates in the world (http://www.venganza.org/) then global warming would reverse!
Yes, we don't have all of the answers therefore we must have none of the answers. If you aren't exactly right about one thing you must be wrong about EVERYTHING.Drugy Limbaugh said it so it must be true! That show I watched on the discovery channel last week backs me up so it isn't like I have to listen to the top scientists in the entire world or anything. So let's all stick our heads into the sand and sing "la la nothing to see here, I can't hear you!" I mean if you are wrong it isn't a big deal -- it is just the entire planet that gets screwed over! That isn't worth lowering the profits of big companies by any amount. Heck why do we even need to spend any more money investigating this if Jesus is going to come down in a few years and God is going to destroy the planet soon and send everyone who isn't in your exact religion to hell anyway.
In Maryland (borders PA to the south) you can't buy alcohol in super markets either. I wouldn't say that the state's government in Maryland is run by a bunch of 80 year olds. There are several other states that are like that too. When I go out of state I always think it is strange that you can buy beer in 7-11's or super markets. And I think beer in gas stations is just a bad idea! Alcohol is a drug and "Drugs are bad Mmmkay!"
Yes Air america is still around and growing.
http://www.airamericaradio.com/stations
I understand that they get pretty good ratings in the markets that they are in.
What happens to the "fastest computer yet" after a few years (decades.) They are impressive now but eventually they will become slower than a common desktop machine. Do they have a life cycle where they start as a companie's fastest machine, but later become a server or go into some other duty that doesn't require the world's fastest machine (after the company goes out and buys an even faster machine.) Is there a market for such machines? Or are they so expensive to run that they are eventually just recycled or sold as scrap? It might be cool to have the worlds fastest machine as of 1990 or so to play with. Are such machines still in use?
He though he got a lot of email before. I wonder what happens after his email address is splashed up on /.?
Cheese does have some carbs so while on induction you are only supposed to eat a few ounces a day. After induction, if it doesn't make you stall, I guess you can eat more! Mmmm cheese! Gotta love that Atkins diet!
Yes, we are SURE that global warming will be that big of a problem. So let's all ignore it and continue on as if nothing is going to happen. After all the cost of the loss of planet Earth is nothing compared to the short term loss to the economy because we put in higer standards. If we are wrong, and we are destroying the Earth (the only planet that we know of that can support life) hey we could move to -- uh Mars! Move on nothing to see here.
Let's say that tomorrow Apple unofficially leaks the fact that with motherboard X and video card Y you could run the X86 MacOS on a standard PC. How many people do you think would then go out and buy a shrink wrapped copy of MacOS to try it? How many people would build such a computer just so they could run MacOS? How big of a community would then spring up? How many open source drivers do you think that community would then come up with to run MacOS on other X86 computers? Apple could sell an upgrade version of the OS and then sell the non-upgrade version at a huge premium (to make up for the lost hardware sales.) Apple would sell millions of extra copies of MacOS -- and maybe with a huge mark-up -- without having to do much work at all. They would never have to officially support MacOS on standard PC's so if you have a problem with your hardware that is your problem. And millions will still buy mac's just to get the official support.
I hate to 100% agree with Cringely but I think the only reason why Apple wouldn't do this is because they are being stupid. No I don't care how much money I would make -- MacOS should only be on a Mac!