Somehow, I don't think you have ever voted in the United States. Please tell me, where are you from and have you ever voted in the U.S.?
The last Presidential election held here in Tampa had about 65 issues on the ballot. You are going to count and record 65 items in 10 seconds?
I have heard of some cities having over 100 issues on a ballot. Think you can count all the items on that ballot by hand and record the data in 10 seconds? How about 1 minute?
100 years ago the population of the United States was 87 million. Of those, approximately 14 million people voted. That was about 66% turn-out rate. In that election, there were no Senators being elected. Also, no women were allowed to vote in that election.
The current population of the United States is 300 million, of those approximately 167 million are eligible to vote. Voter turnout rate for the last two elections was approximately 50%.
There is a vast difference between 14 million and 80 million.
Voter turnout percentage may be lower but the total number of voters has increased.
Scantron voting. You missed the time that there was a hand recount and people could not successfully follow the directions for scantron sheets and were marking with little tiny dots, checks and "X"es. It was the same arguments as the pregnant and hanging chads.
Ok, so where are you going to find 3-10 people to work 8 hours a day for a month counting votes in a county with a low population?
The problem is who is going to be available to make counting ballots a full time job for a month and how does one qualify them to the satisfaction of all parties. One will have to pair people by political affiliation, specifically no pair can be for the same candidate. Considering that those counting the ballots will have to be available all day, anyone with a full time job is out of the question.
Finding that many people who are qualified and who can devote that much time to what is essentially a temp job will not be as easy as you think. Imagine it as jury duty guarantied to last one month, possibly more.
Oh, and how do recounts get handled? Are new counting teams formed or do you get a whole new group of counters?
And if you want something really scary, imagine that you have to train the counters. Hanging/pregnant chads anyone?
That is almost 2 ballots a minute. How many questions do you have on your ballots?
Last election we had about 65 questions per ballot. When we vote here, we vote for everything all at once. That means all local, state, and federal positions that are up for contest plus any local, state, and federal questions such as changes to laws.
There are approximately 170 million registered voters in the US. If only 50 million vote, and each ballot is counted by hand, and it takes 1 mintue to count and record one ballot that makes That is that is about 833,333 man hours to count the vote. Assuming two people to count one ballot, that is 1,666,667 man hours. Assuming you want to be able to do a recount, the count will have to be done in one month, that is 160 hours.
That is 10,416 people doing nothing but counting votes for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for one month. That figure does not include manager, organizers, support personnel, guards, transportation of the ballots, etc. And, remember, most of the jobs are only temp jobs lasting between one and three months.
There are 150 million registered voters in the U.S.
Exactly how are you going to count them all by hand between the election and swearing in? Also, if there is some dispute, how many ordinary people will be needed to count the election?
The reason Congress has "failed to rein in the Bush administration" is because people like you insist they try to do it stupidly. You demand that funding be cut off or that all the troops be pulled out next week.
Reigning in the administration is like moving a mountain and you do it the same way, one little bit at a time.
But, do you people see that? No, you don't. You insist on big sweeping changes immediately, and so the bills fail.
Many users aren't choosing to use Windows, many users aren't choosing to use Linux, they use either anyway.... "CHOICE IS BAD!"
No, dumb-ass. You make choices you live with the consequences. One of the consequences of using a third tier, server-centric operating system is that one does not get a lot of support and that support tends to be crappy. Stop putting words in my mouth, fanboy.
Did you know that I use Linux because of it's technical superiority rather than any idealistic reasons? I also actually paid for various distributions I use. From Mandriva to SuSE Linux, so stop with your annoying stereotyping. Feel free though to suggest exactly what work for them and don't forget to give all the specifications for it. DRM is already supported on Linux thanks to realplayer, which runs on OS X, Windows and Linux.
I really don't give a damn why you use it or what distro's you have used. I have used everything from Slackware back in the mid 90s to CygWin and SuSE today (I use it on my home server and dual boot my two windows boxes, plus I have an NSLU-2 running Unslung as a mail server). It is not stereotyping to suggest that one give back to the community instead of whining about someone not supporting their precious O/S.
No. I also don't believe I should be forced to pay for a service that I cannot use because I choose to use Linux. Much like the people who choose not to drink and drive.
No, dumb-ass, most people do not drink and drive and most people use Windows. You choose to use Linux, much like some people choose to drink and drive. And speaking of being forces to pay for a service that one can not use, I can not use welfare or the schools because I have a good job and no children. Does that mean you believe I should not have to pay taxes to support those items?
This point doesn't make sense to me. Smoking is banned in public places and within private companies in the UK because it infringes on other people's health. These regulations are in place to protect lives. Linux users getting charged for a service that they cannot use does not protect lives.
Here, let me educate you. In both instances, a group of people, who make up a minority of the whole, engage in an activity that the majority does not. In both instances, the minority wish to impose upon others so that they may both engage in their activity and suffer no consequences to their choice. You and your ilk wish to force the expenditure of resources, resources that could be better used, to support your platform, even if it is not cost effective. Smokers wish to smoke anywhere and everywhere they want, even if it disturbs or harms others. In both instances, the minority group is being self-centered assholes.
I don't drink, I don't smoke. I shouldn't be forced to consume alcohol because the majority happen to. I shouldn't be forced to breathe the air you made toxic because you and many others have a smoking addiction. I shouldn't be forced to pay for a service I cannot use.
First off, I do not smoke and I rarely drink, so you can climb down off your high horse. Second, while you "shouldn't be forced to consume alcohol because the majority happen to", you also don't get to complain you didn't get a free beverage on "Free Beer" night, and that is exactly what you are doing.
You, in your ignorance, are taking instances where the majority (society) imposed it's will on the minority(smokers, drunk drivers) and equating it to a minority(Linux users) trying to impose it's will. Choosing to use Linux does not make you special and it does not mean that anyone has to think of you before Windows users, or even think of you and your operating system at all.
Get it through your thick skull: You are a self-created minority (a tiny minority at that) and you can stop being in the minority at any time. No one owes you anything because you choose to be in the minority. Quit bitching when people don't go out of there way to make things simple or even available to you.
It is not whether something is or is not news. It is whether the reporting is accurate and non-biased.
Take a recent headline and write-up in a blog: "Man gets jail sentence for assault with pickles." The write-up talked about how the guy was arrested and charged with assault and battery for throwing two pickles at someone. What the blog write-up failed to mention was that the man also hit and kicked the other person to the floor, then ripped a phone out of the wall and hit both the first person and a second person with the phone.
The arrest and sentence might be news, but the write-up is not journalism.
Another example is when anti-war bloggers put up a headline reading "U.S. soldiers kill three children in firefight" then describe U.S. soldiers blowing up a building with children inside while completely neglecting to mention the rocket propelled grenade fire coming from the building.
It is not a question of what is news, it is a question of whether the article is journalism.
Well then shouldn't Linux users be required to pay less tax so that it doesn't go to BBC?
No, Linux users are choosing to use Linux. Using Linux comes with some cost to the individual using it. Don't like, don't use Linux. Don't sit there and whine that you are not getting what you want and expect everyone to bend over backwards for you. Don't act like you are 20000 times more important than you really are.
Also I don't recall anywhere stating that the BBC was aiming to make a profit, I DO recall that they aim to help make their programmes accessible to as much people as possible.
Funny, but 95% of the population seems like much of the people as reasonably possible.
Currently they're ignoring 6% of people. and the fact that it'd take £1000+ to port to Linux might make sense, except that the majority of the code would only need small changes, and they should be able to fairly easily identify the parts that need to be redone easily if they followed good design.
Then, you should, in the spirit of open source, volunteer to do the work for them.
In any case, you are just whining because the 5% that make up Mac users and the.004 percent who make up the Linux users were not treated as important as the 16+ million Windows users who make up 94% of the market.
You are a selfish brat. You want to be treated as special because of something you choose to do. If your choice should not effect what other people are required to do. Tell me, do you believe that because a few people choose to drink and drive that the rest of the population should be forced to stay off the road? Do you also believe that because a portion of the population chooses to smoke that smoking should be allowed everywhere including elementary schools, movie theaters, and hospitals?
You are not special. You do not have any special rights. No one should have to be forced to do something simply because you choose to be different.
Grow up and act like a responsible adult and live with the consequences of your decisions.
If it is not cost effective to support those 6%, then yes, they should. Tell me, should they spend the same amount on 6% of their customers as they did on the other 94%?
Let me put it in a way that your little mind can grasp: If it cost 1 million to implement iPlayer for each platform, then it would cost:
The cost per Windows user is 0.06
The cost per Mac user is 1.17
The cost per Linux user is 1,166
And, companies often do not do what 6% of their shareholders. I think you have forgotten that shareholders vote on many things and it is majority rule. If a vote is 49%/51%, then the 49% lose and the policy of the other 51% gets implemented.
What makes you think you and your choice of operating system is more important and deserves a bigger share of the money and resources than the other 95% of the population? What makes you think you are worth 19,400 times than 95% of the rest of the population?
Do you see the depths of your selfishness yet?
More importantly, if you had RTFA, you would have seen where they decided to support the majority of their visitors first and then add support for the rest later.
The BBC spokesman said that BEFORE they instituted the iPlayer software, they had very few visitors using Linux. The submitter then tries to refute this statement by using the current state as to why there would have been fewer visitors in the past.
Why he would expect a large number of Linux-based visitors to the site when the media downloads are Windows XP only is not clear.
This is disingenuous and does not refute the fact that 94% of the visitors to the BBC site were using Windows before the iPlayer rollout.
Either the submitter can not read, can not think, or is a trolling fanboy. In any instance, the submission is inaccurate.
Most blog posts are of little, if any, journalistic merit. They often fail at the most basic of journalistic levels and fail to follow the rules of journalism.
Biased propaganda is not journalism and does not deserve the protections afforded true journalism.
Thanks to people refusing to take responsibility for themselves and a government and court system that back them, there hasn't been a decent chemistry set in about 20 years.
Thanks stupid people and product liability lawsuits.
Greenpeace is full of hypocrites. They run their organization on fossil fuels then protest the fossil fuel industry. They take money to not protest against companies. They are just a variation on the protection racket
The usability and technology world doesn't revolve around Walt Mossberg. Mossberg may have indicated that desktop Linux isn't for the average user, but it's also possible to find many pundits who will say that desktop Windows isn't for the average user either; that doesn't stop most PC makers from bundling Windows with their PCs.
In the end, it's all about what you're used to. Mossberg is used to Windows, so it seems more 'normal' to him. In time, people will, due to the increased uptake of Linux brought about by a liberated market, also find that it too is 'normal'.
Unfortunately, the author never refutes Mossberg's assertion. Instead, the author dismisses it. Windows is easier to use than Linux. This comes from the fact that FLOSS is "by geeks for geeks". FLOSS projects get to the point where the geeks find it usable and then usability development generally stops. Technical development may continue, but the usability stays frozen. There is also the problem of inconsistent user interfaces, with people reinventing the wheel, sometimes several times over and often poorly.
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Somehow, I don't think you have ever voted in the United States. Please tell me, where are you from and have you ever voted in the U.S.?
The last Presidential election held here in Tampa had about 65 issues on the ballot. You are going to count and record 65 items in 10 seconds?
I have heard of some cities having over 100 issues on a ballot. Think you can count all the items on that ballot by hand and record the data in 10 seconds? How about 1 minute?
100 years ago the population of the United States was 87 million. Of those, approximately 14 million people voted. That was about 66% turn-out rate. In that election, there were no Senators being elected. Also, no women were allowed to vote in that election.
The current population of the United States is 300 million, of those approximately 167 million are eligible to vote. Voter turnout rate for the last two elections was approximately 50%.
There is a vast difference between 14 million and 80 million.
Voter turnout percentage may be lower but the total number of voters has increased.
Scantron voting. You missed the time that there was a hand recount and people could not successfully follow the directions for scantron sheets and were marking with little tiny dots, checks and "X"es. It was the same arguments as the pregnant and hanging chads.
It got really ugly.
How many issues are on a ballot there?
Here in Tampa FL we had about 65 last election. I don't think anyone can count and record 65 items from a ballot in one minute, let alone 20 seconds.
Ok, so where are you going to find 3-10 people to work 8 hours a day for a month counting votes in a county with a low population?
The problem is who is going to be available to make counting ballots a full time job for a month and how does one qualify them to the satisfaction of all parties. One will have to pair people by political affiliation, specifically no pair can be for the same candidate. Considering that those counting the ballots will have to be available all day, anyone with a full time job is out of the question.
Finding that many people who are qualified and who can devote that much time to what is essentially a temp job will not be as easy as you think. Imagine it as jury duty guarantied to last one month, possibly more.
Oh, and how do recounts get handled? Are new counting teams formed or do you get a whole new group of counters?
And if you want something really scary, imagine that you have to train the counters. Hanging/pregnant chads anyone?
That is almost 2 ballots a minute. How many questions do you have on your ballots?
Last election we had about 65 questions per ballot. When we vote here, we vote for everything all at once. That means all local, state, and federal positions that are up for contest plus any local, state, and federal questions such as changes to laws.
There are approximately 170 million registered voters in the US. If only 50 million vote, and each ballot is counted by hand, and it takes 1 mintue to count and record one ballot that makes That is that is about 833,333 man hours to count the vote. Assuming two people to count one ballot, that is 1,666,667 man hours. Assuming you want to be able to do a recount, the count will have to be done in one month, that is 160 hours.
That is 10,416 people doing nothing but counting votes for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for one month. That figure does not include manager, organizers, support personnel, guards, transportation of the ballots, etc. And, remember, most of the jobs are only temp jobs lasting between one and three months.
Where will you get the workforce?
There are 150 million registered voters in the U.S.
Exactly how are you going to count them all by hand between the election and swearing in? Also, if there is some dispute, how many ordinary people will be needed to count the election?
Funny, when I was there, I heard it all the time.
You just don't notice it.
The reason Congress has "failed to rein in the Bush administration" is because people like you insist they try to do it stupidly. You demand that funding be cut off or that all the troops be pulled out next week.
Reigning in the administration is like moving a mountain and you do it the same way, one little bit at a time.
But, do you people see that? No, you don't. You insist on big sweeping changes immediately, and so the bills fail.
Been to Canada much?
I have been there and seen how they sneer at people from the U.S. behind their backs.
Yes, the difference was that Bush came across as one of the people while Gore came across as a wooden, deluded ass.
Gore lost and Bush won for the exact same reason that Dole lost and Clinton won.
Is that why the Democrats, a.k.a .those "liberals" you mention, are the ones who voted to table the bill(that means kill it)?
Now, please learn what is going on before you comment on something or STFU.
You are not a moderate. Your post belies your bias.
No, dumb-ass. You make choices you live with the consequences. One of the consequences of using a third tier, server-centric operating system is that one does not get a lot of support and that support tends to be crappy. Stop putting words in my mouth, fanboy.
I really don't give a damn why you use it or what distro's you have used. I have used everything from Slackware back in the mid 90s to CygWin and SuSE today (I use it on my home server and dual boot my two windows boxes, plus I have an NSLU-2 running Unslung as a mail server). It is not stereotyping to suggest that one give back to the community instead of whining about someone not supporting their precious O/S.
No, dumb-ass, most people do not drink and drive and most people use Windows. You choose to use Linux, much like some people choose to drink and drive. And speaking of being forces to pay for a service that one can not use, I can not use welfare or the schools because I have a good job and no children. Does that mean you believe I should not have to pay taxes to support those items?
Here, let me educate you. In both instances, a group of people, who make up a minority of the whole, engage in an activity that the majority does not. In both instances, the minority wish to impose upon others so that they may both engage in their activity and suffer no consequences to their choice. You and your ilk wish to force the expenditure of resources, resources that could be better used, to support your platform, even if it is not cost effective. Smokers wish to smoke anywhere and everywhere they want, even if it disturbs or harms others. In both instances, the minority group is being self-centered assholes.First off, I do not smoke and I rarely drink, so you can climb down off your high horse. Second, while you "shouldn't be forced to consume alcohol because the majority happen to", you also don't get to complain you didn't get a free beverage on "Free Beer" night, and that is exactly what you are doing.
You, in your ignorance, are taking instances where the majority (society) imposed it's will on the minority(smokers, drunk drivers) and equating it to a minority(Linux users) trying to impose it's will. Choosing to use Linux does not make you special and it does not mean that anyone has to think of you before Windows users, or even think of you and your operating system at all.
Get it through your thick skull: You are a self-created minority (a tiny minority at that) and you can stop being in the minority at any time. No one owes you anything because you choose to be in the minority. Quit bitching when people don't go out of there way to make things simple or even available to you.
It is not whether something is or is not news. It is whether the reporting is accurate and non-biased.
Take a recent headline and write-up in a blog: "Man gets jail sentence for assault with pickles."
The write-up talked about how the guy was arrested and charged with assault and battery for throwing two pickles at someone. What the blog write-up failed to mention was that the man also hit and kicked the other person to the floor, then ripped a phone out of the wall and hit both the first person and a second person with the phone.
The arrest and sentence might be news, but the write-up is not journalism.
Another example is when anti-war bloggers put up a headline reading "U.S. soldiers kill three children in firefight" then describe U.S. soldiers blowing up a building with children inside while completely neglecting to mention the rocket propelled grenade fire coming from the building.
It is not a question of what is news, it is a question of whether the article is journalism.
No, Linux users are choosing to use Linux. Using Linux comes with some cost to the individual using it. Don't like, don't use Linux. Don't sit there and whine that you are not getting what you want and expect everyone to bend over backwards for you. Don't act like you are 20000 times more important than you really are.Funny, but 95% of the population seems like much of the people as reasonably possible.Then, you should, in the spirit of open source, volunteer to do the work for them.
In any case, you are just whining because the 5% that make up Mac users and the
You are a selfish brat. You want to be treated as special because of something you choose to do. If your choice should not effect what other people are required to do. Tell me, do you believe that because a few people choose to drink and drive that the rest of the population should be forced to stay off the road? Do you also believe that because a portion of the population chooses to smoke that smoking should be allowed everywhere including elementary schools, movie theaters, and hospitals?
You are not special. You do not have any special rights. No one should have to be forced to do something simply because you choose to be different.
Grow up and act like a responsible adult and live with the consequences of your decisions.
Let me put it in a way that your little mind can grasp: If it cost 1 million to implement iPlayer for each platform, then it would cost:
And, companies often do not do what 6% of their shareholders. I think you have forgotten that shareholders vote on many things and it is majority rule. If a vote is 49%/51%, then the 49% lose and the policy of the other 51% gets implemented.
What makes you think you and your choice of operating system is more important and deserves a bigger share of the money and resources than the other 95% of the population? What makes you think you are worth 19,400 times than 95% of the rest of the population?
Do you see the depths of your selfishness yet?
More importantly, if you had RTFA, you would have seen where they decided to support the majority of their visitors first and then add support for the rest later.
Now, stop being a self-centered asshole.
This is disingenuous and does not refute the fact that 94% of the visitors to the BBC site were using Windows before the iPlayer rollout.
Either the submitter can not read, can not think, or is a trolling fanboy. In any instance, the submission is inaccurate.
Most blog posts are of little, if any, journalistic merit. They often fail at the most basic of journalistic levels and fail to follow the rules of journalism.
Biased propaganda is not journalism and does not deserve the protections afforded true journalism.
Thanks to people refusing to take responsibility for themselves and a government and court system that back them, there hasn't been a decent chemistry set in about 20 years.
Thanks stupid people and product liability lawsuits.
Hypocrisy is always wrong.
But, I guess it is OK in your mind to say "Do as I say, not as I do."
Greenpeace is full of hypocrites. They run their organization on fossil fuels then protest the fossil fuel industry. They take money to not protest against companies. They are just a variation on the protection racket
In other words "Pics or it didn't happen."
Plain and simple, anyone can claim anything and someone is going to buy it even if there is absolutely no proof. Just look at homeopathy.
No pictures of the "dragonflies" and I have to conclude it is paranoia and drugs talking.
Unfortunately, the author never refutes Mossberg's assertion. Instead, the author dismisses it. Windows is easier to use than Linux. This comes from the fact that FLOSS is "by geeks for geeks". FLOSS projects get to the point where the geeks find it usable and then usability development generally stops. Technical development may continue, but the usability stays frozen. There is also the problem of inconsistent user interfaces, with people reinventing the wheel, sometimes several times over and often poorly.