Local extremely idiot municipal candidate not only robocalled on E-day, he managed to call both of our numbers at least ten times. Before 9 am.
And got Bonus Points because he kept robocalling people in a different city from the one where he was running.
AND Got Extra Super Bonus Points for blaming the computer and saying that he couldn't control how it called.
AND AND Got Mega-Stupendous Super Extra OMFG PONIES Bonus Points because neither the robodial phone number or his campaign office had anyone answering phones, and his voicemail box was (surprise...) full.
Coming from Canada a few year ago I was amazed by the USPS.
Overnight delivery? We're used to four to seven days, even in town.
Saturday delivery? We lost that in the seventies.
Mail pickup at your rural mailbox? I'm assuming we don't have that either.
Most amazing to us though was that people used USPS to send important things, and assumed that they'd arrive, and on time. No way do you do that with Canada Post.
Microsoft already tried this many moons ago, when Windows were but 3.1 I believe... or maybe when DOS was 6.0...?
If memory serves me they started offering some stripped back version of Central Point AV. Don't recall why they stopped.
*Slightly* off topic, but let's face it: you'd do something like that because, deep down inside (if nothing else), you're hoping they'll fire up the software on that USB stick and say, "wow! And it's free??? Gimme some more o' dis!"
More likely deep down inside he's too cheap or lazy to actually go buy a gift.
I used OS X for three years on a Powerbook as my primary machine, as well as on iMacs at orgs where I worked, and can honestly say that even though I tried mightily to like it, I was happy to toss it out and move back to Windows, then Ubuntu.
Try as I might, it always seemed more difficult to do things on the Mac. I kept running headlong into UI choices that were completely unintuitive to me, and often which didn't make any allowance for my habits or preferences.
In the end the "Apple is always right, and by definition whatever they decide is in your own best interests, so don't complain" attitude drove me away.
What I LOVE about Linux: I really dislike Unity, but it took less than two minutes to switch the machine back to Gnome - including Googling the solution.
In my experience there no significant difference between the various Windows, Mac OS, and Gnome KDE variants - desktop, icons, some kind of tool bars and launcher bars; drop down menus. At this point anyone who can use one can use another with minimal difficulty. It comes down to personal taste.
Some people love Unity - I hate it. I'd rather have a menu full of everything that I might need instead of the dumbed down Top Five BIG icons that Unity gives you. Maybe it works for some people, but not for me.
I guess at the end of the day my biggest measure of a UI is how quickly I can find the function, app, setting, or file that I need. On any system - Mac, Windows, Ubuntu - my first move is to set things up so that docs and downloads go to ONE place that is defined by me, not into whatever variation on "My Documents" the OS thinks that I need. Likewise I nuke most of the icons that get dropped onto the desktop and add what I want - Chrome, some kind of File Manager, LibreOffice or MS Office. Maybe a couple more.
If, for example, fifty people in your shop have iPhones, and would like to use them with your corporate e-mail, the most time effective solution is to (yes) learn how to do that effectively, and then WRITE IT UP IN CLEAR, STEP BY STEP ENGLISH so that people can do it themselves.
Or you can rant and rave, refuse to help, and wind up with half of those people either having e-mail that doesn't work, e-mail setups that conflict with your sacred servers, or, if you're REALLY lucky, phones with downloaded apps that actually do some damage.
It's always seemed rather bizarre that you can be a deadbeat car dealer, subdivision developer, banker - hell just about any "profession" that you care to name --run up unsupportable debts, and then declare bankruptcy and have them disappear with no significant long term harm to you.
Student loans though - the one debt that actually might make you more likely to avoid repeating the boom/bust credit cycle - is somehow untouchable.
No cliques, no popularity contests, no teenage pregnancies and other delinquent behaviours.
I call BS on that. If for no other reason than Robert Pickering, alleged to have sexually assaulted two students while working at the Toronto Waldorf School.
(Really long and bizarre page - CTRL F to find him)
Two data points do not prove anything. Show me a study of two or three communities with similar socio-economic levels, and where the only real difference is the per-capita spending on education.
The point is that all else being roughly equal money spent on education is well invested.
Perhaps this is why Germany is kicking US butt economically?
Actually we're developing one from super high tensile strength aluminum that should able to protect us from both satellite space radio waves AND falling space satellite debris!
They are machines, and they carry weapons, No soldiers present.
Just for clarity, can you define just how much distance you need between the bullet and the person pulling the trigger before you can pretend that there are no people involved in the action?
Remote control assassinations from across the globe. Assassinations of American citizens abroad. Renditions to "friendly" countries for torture (And boy, one would think that Iraq now has "friendly" status, the infrastructure, and lots of trained experts in place to take on that role). Indefinite imprisonment of children without charges or trials.
Good thing you've got a President who takes the moral high ground.
It's been pointed out many times that SF&F actually outsells many of the books listed on say the NYT list of bestsellers. It's just that the editors of those lists exclude certain genres from what they will list. Harlequin romances for example.
Slashdot Mirror
Beware the Holy Hand Grenade!
By. Neal Stephenson. Nuff Sed - excellent, and at 1000+ pages, will gobble up a fair bit fo your flight in a very entertaining fashion. http://www.amazon.ca/Reamde-Novel-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0061977969 As well, William Gibson has new non-fiction collection out which I expect will be dandy. http://www.amazon.ca/Distrust-Particular-Flavor-William-Gibson/dp/039915843X
" There may be non-infringing ways of doing something similar, but they probably will be clumsy in comparison.""
Please Mr Fan-boi, explain this comment without use breathless fawning Apple-speak.
In all likelihood there are many ways to "do something similar" which will be just dandy, and perhaps even better than what happens on your iPhone.
Works great for me on my Android phone, assume it would work for you. Found it on this really neat thing called the Android Market....
Right here.
I've never had a call to Telus or Rogers that was less than 60 minutes, and usually multiple calls at that.
Surely no worse than Rogers Bell Telus (choose yr poison)
Local extremely idiot municipal candidate not only robocalled on E-day, he managed to call both of our numbers at least ten times. Before 9 am.
And got Bonus Points because he kept robocalling people in a different city from the one where he was running.
AND Got Extra Super Bonus Points for blaming the computer and saying that he couldn't control how it called.
AND AND Got Mega-Stupendous Super Extra OMFG PONIES Bonus Points because neither the robodial phone number or his campaign office had anyone answering phones, and his voicemail box was (surprise...) full.
Coming from Canada a few year ago I was amazed by the USPS.
Overnight delivery? We're used to four to seven days, even in town.
Saturday delivery? We lost that in the seventies.
Mail pickup at your rural mailbox? I'm assuming we don't have that either.
Most amazing to us though was that people used USPS to send important things, and assumed that they'd arrive, and on time. No way do you do that with Canada Post.
Run like which business? Enron? Worldcom? Lehman Brothers?
Shocking but true - lots of businesses are very poorly run.
Cables cars in San Francisco too. Great fun, and not just for tourists.
Microsoft already tried this many moons ago, when Windows were but 3.1 I believe... or maybe when DOS was 6.0...?
If memory serves me they started offering some stripped back version of Central Point AV. Don't recall why they stopped.
*Slightly* off topic, but let's face it: you'd do something like that because, deep down inside (if nothing else), you're hoping they'll fire up the software on that USB stick and say, "wow! And it's free??? Gimme some more o' dis!"
More likely deep down inside he's too cheap or lazy to actually go buy a gift.
I see your activistpost.com and raise you Paroxysm.ca. Amazing fun with Freedom of Information requests!
Obviously the problem has NOTHING to do with the iPhone or its owner. The issue is why the 911 system is badly designed that this happens.
An emergency system like 911 really needs a solid and intuitive user interface that will prevent errors like this.
I look forward to the introduction of i911 on the upcoming iPhone 5.
I used OS X for three years on a Powerbook as my primary machine, as well as on iMacs at orgs where I worked, and can honestly say that even though I tried mightily to like it, I was happy to toss it out and move back to Windows, then Ubuntu.
Try as I might, it always seemed more difficult to do things on the Mac. I kept running headlong into UI choices that were completely unintuitive to me, and often which didn't make any allowance for my habits or preferences.
In the end the "Apple is always right, and by definition whatever they decide is in your own best interests, so don't complain" attitude drove me away.
What I LOVE about Linux: I really dislike Unity, but it took less than two minutes to switch the machine back to Gnome - including Googling the solution.
In my experience there no significant difference between the various Windows, Mac OS, and Gnome KDE variants - desktop, icons, some kind of tool bars and launcher bars; drop down menus. At this point anyone who can use one can use another with minimal difficulty. It comes down to personal taste.
Some people love Unity - I hate it. I'd rather have a menu full of everything that I might need instead of the dumbed down Top Five BIG icons that Unity gives you. Maybe it works for some people, but not for me.
I guess at the end of the day my biggest measure of a UI is how quickly I can find the function, app, setting, or file that I need. On any system - Mac, Windows, Ubuntu - my first move is to set things up so that docs and downloads go to ONE place that is defined by me, not into whatever variation on "My Documents" the OS thinks that I need. Likewise I nuke most of the icons that get dropped onto the desktop and add what I want - Chrome, some kind of File Manager, LibreOffice or MS Office. Maybe a couple more.
If, for example, fifty people in your shop have iPhones, and would like to use them with your corporate e-mail, the most time effective solution is to (yes) learn how to do that effectively, and then WRITE IT UP IN CLEAR, STEP BY STEP ENGLISH so that people can do it themselves.
Or you can rant and rave, refuse to help, and wind up with half of those people either having e-mail that doesn't work, e-mail setups that conflict with your sacred servers, or, if you're REALLY lucky, phones with downloaded apps that actually do some damage.
(324,600 kilometers) or 0.85 the distance from the moon to Earth
Maybe I just re-read Lucifer's Hammer too many times, but I'm wondering what the margin of error is on this calculation?
If they're off by even 20% I can imagine some not good things happening.
It's always seemed rather bizarre that you can be a deadbeat car dealer, subdivision developer, banker - hell just about any "profession" that you care to name --run up unsupportable debts, and then declare bankruptcy and have them disappear with no significant long term harm to you.
Student loans though - the one debt that actually might make you more likely to avoid repeating the boom/bust credit cycle - is somehow untouchable.
FUNNY! (At least in the American mortgage context!)
No cliques, no popularity contests, no teenage pregnancies and other delinquent behaviours.
I call BS on that. If for no other reason than Robert Pickering, alleged to have sexually assaulted two students while working at the Toronto Waldorf School.
(Really long and bizarre page - CTRL F to find him)
Two data points do not prove anything. Show me a study of two or three communities with similar socio-economic levels, and where the only real difference is the per-capita spending on education.
The point is that all else being roughly equal money spent on education is well invested.
Perhaps this is why Germany is kicking US butt economically?
Actually we're developing one from super high tensile strength aluminum that should able to protect us from both satellite space radio waves AND falling space satellite debris!
They are machines, and they carry weapons, No soldiers present.
Just for clarity, can you define just how much distance you need between the bullet and the person pulling the trigger before you can pretend that there are no people involved in the action?
Remote control assassinations from across the globe. Assassinations of American citizens abroad. Renditions to "friendly" countries for torture (And boy, one would think that Iraq now has "friendly" status, the infrastructure, and lots of trained experts in place to take on that role). Indefinite imprisonment of children without charges or trials.
Good thing you've got a President who takes the moral high ground.
It's been pointed out many times that SF&F actually outsells many of the books listed on say the NYT list of bestsellers. It's just that the editors of those lists exclude certain genres from what they will list. Harlequin romances for example.