There're (or at least were, when I had it) several times as many titles available on DVD than on streaming. Yeah, all the mainstream stuff is streamed, but the really weird, offbeat crazy shite is only on DVD. The mail thing is a hassle, but I saw such strange things that I may go back to it as the streaming isn't holding my interest so well anymore.
They're already undergoing censorship pains as the Feministas and their SJWs undertake to erase all opposing viewpoints. An arms race with the adblockers will stick a knife in their back when they need it most.
And some of their bosses don't just cash out for new machinery every decade. My own boss' policy is to run the old junk until it breaks down.
Neither of us have 64 bit computers. Neither of us even have computers new enough to do useful virtualization (ie run WinXP ina box). Neither of us have money to buy new computers.
The Hot Shots hit balloons at 3 or 4 yards (I don't think it was 7?), from the holster, with single-action, in way under a quarter-second. Winning time of the meet I saw on TV was, IIRC, 118 mS. Shots are fired from the hip, without any time-consuming ritual of lifting the sights to your eye.
While this is nowhere near as fast as Gene Wilder in Blazing Saddles, you will NOT react to this guy fast enough to avoid getting shot. If he draws first, you're dead.
The vast majority of news stories I've read in my lifetime about 'gunfights' involve lots of rounds being expended & not many hits. Lots and lots of stories about the first shot being fired, and that missing completely. Any studies of several hundred modern 'gunfights' that say otherwise? Any studies at all?
Well, they won't be acknowledged around here, and they're hardly _studies_, but there are plenty of _News_Stories_ about reasonably accurate firearms use. These stories prove that it is possible to hit bad guys under stress, and undescore the fact that these criminals do NOT want a fight, they _want_ an easy score. When confronted with deadly force, they:
A. RUN AWAY!!! (often wounded)
B. Die.
C. (Occasionally) make return fire.
This makes a firearm (any firearm) that_you_can_connect_with a very valuable thing in any gunfight.
BYU has, I believe consistently rated _really_ high (like, top five) in Playboy Magazine's polls of the Top Party Schools (in teh US) over many years. I can assure you they have porn there.
...all monopolies are created thanks to force applied by the government.
Then explain to us - which government regulation created the Micro$oft monopoly? The barriers to entry that they hide behind were certainly not created by the government, most are the result of exclusive contracts - with many hidden from the public (and the market, and even the _courts_) by NDAs.
Do you believe that contracts should not be enforced by government? I personally would entertain the argument that NDAs are evil, and might be a good thing to outlaw, but I'm sure someone can come up with an example of a situation where they're essential.
I do not believe that ALL monopoly is the government's fault, though of course one certainly may be caused by regulatory action.
And I could build a portable gyzmo to do just that. Of course it'd be illegal in many states (as radar detectors already are), but there must be some way around that.
It'd fsck yer [GPS] navigation, but who needs navigation if it's gonna be taxed?
Your blanket statement that Free software somehow simply, automagically loses out to V$ in the areas of "usability & productivity" is an unsubstanstiated crock. Emacs is a mature, highly polished, extremely flexible/customizable IDE and the product of twenty-five years of user-driven development. It was probably the _first_ IDE. Vi is more tightly focused, but also an efficient, highly usable tool. Both have large, experienced, and fanatically loyal user bases.
Having used both, and Visual Studio, I _strongly_ prefer emacs and vi. You can't simply tell me that "they aren't usable". I find them more logical, efficient, productive (as in: faster) and _portable_ as well. I want you to explain just what you think makes V$ _soooo_ much more "usable and productive".
With the wealth of alternatives available (let's not leave out Eclipse, since it seems pretty popular too, as well as Free), I can see no reason to tolerate the moral bankruptcy of the factors of Visual Studio. But you don't want to talk about _that_.
So, enlighten us. What's so all-fired "usable" about V$? What makes it so superior to, say, emacs? What does it have going for it besides its Imperial market monopoly, with the accompanying shills, "analysts", and astroturfers?
And bear in mind that I place a great distinction between "User Friendly" and "Beginner Friendly". For "Beginner Friendly", I'll agree that the Imperial "Tools" are da bomb. Not being a beginner, however, "Beginner Friendly" is not what I want.
and if you think that emacs, and all those vi variants for that matter, aren't usable and productive just because _you_ can't work them, that sounds quite ignorant to me. Several of us here find emacs (and vi*) highly productive. IMNSHO emacs, gcc and Perl are the "killer apps" of *nix (even if they are ported to the monopoly platform - they lose something in the move).
If you think that the software monopolist is morally acceptable, I suggest you go read this, and this, and this. And then go develop yer Micro$oft apps on V$ (if you can still stomach them). See if I care.
The application I'm presently working on is actually targeted for Winbloze XP (against _my_ will). That doesn't keep me from writing it in Perl/Tk with emacs. When it's done, I expect it to run equally well in any environment (that supports Perl & Tk, which is A LOT). Try that with Visual Studio. I bet you can't, because V$ was deliberately engineered to make it as difficult as possible to develop for any non-Imperial target.
When I abandoned the Evil Empire, V$, VC++, MFC, and all of that rot in favor of Free software, I was overjoyed not only by the ideology but by the quality of the tools. I've never looked back.
I'm strongly tempted to label this another 'bloze problem. I'll admit I've never tried a huge file on Winbloze. I've loaded and worked with dozen-megabyte files in Linux, and emacs on Solaris can handle a gigabyte file from halfway across the continent via nfs.
Oh. Uh, some of us here are working with a higher value of "free" than "free as in beer". The monopolist will never meet this standard, and we therefore shun it and all its products.
This is a winbloze problem, and not emacs' fault. If you had a platform that didn't inject a carriage return in front of every linefeed as it writes the file to disk, it wouldn't corrupt yer hex files. Cygwin works around this transparently nowdays.
I've yet to choke emacs, on gigabyte files. (data & logs.... NOT code!) To be sure, it can take a while to load a real monster, but if you're patient, have enough swap space, and take the time to reminisce about the '386 days, it _will_ work.
Slashdot Mirror
There're (or at least were, when I had it) several times as many titles available on DVD than on streaming.
Yeah, all the mainstream stuff is streamed, but the really weird, offbeat crazy shite is only on DVD. The mail thing is a hassle, but I saw such strange things that I may go back to it as the streaming isn't holding my interest so well anymore.
I see I failed to point out that what will kill it will be somebody offering something at least as cool but without any censorship & ads.
to kill it.
They're already undergoing censorship pains as the Feministas and their SJWs undertake to erase all opposing viewpoints. An arms race with the adblockers will stick a knife in their back when they need it most.
My TV broke, so screw it.
And some of their bosses don't just cash out for new machinery every decade.
My own boss' policy is to run the old junk until it breaks down.
Neither of us have 64 bit computers.
Neither of us even have computers new enough to do useful virtualization (ie run WinXP ina box).
Neither of us have money to buy new computers.
None of our American presidents even slightly resemble Spock...
It's called "Microsoft Windows(tm)(R)(c)"
Mod parent "Insightful"
for The Fast Draw(tm).
The Hot Shots hit balloons at 3 or 4 yards (I don't think it was 7?), from the holster, with single-action, in way under a quarter-second. Winning time of the meet I saw on TV was, IIRC, 118 mS. Shots are fired from the hip, without any time-consuming ritual of lifting the sights to your eye.
While this is nowhere near as fast as Gene Wilder in Blazing Saddles, you will NOT react to this guy fast enough to avoid getting shot. If he draws first, you're dead.
Well, they won't be acknowledged around here, and they're hardly _studies_, but there are plenty of _News_Stories_ about reasonably accurate firearms use. These stories prove that it is possible to hit bad guys under stress, and undescore the fact that these criminals do NOT want a fight, they _want_ an easy score. When confronted with deadly force, they:
A. RUN AWAY!!! (often wounded)
B. Die.
C. (Occasionally) make return fire.
This makes a firearm (any firearm) that_you_can_connect_with a very valuable thing in any gunfight.
This guy managed 1 for 4, but that was enough:
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=12A808418303B698&p_docnum=1
There are plenty of stories like this. I'd cite more, but it's bedtime.
"Get off a shot _fast_. This startles your opponent, and gives you time to make your second shot perfect."
-- Lazarus Long
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071233/
BYU has, I believe consistently rated _really_ high (like, top five) in Playboy Magazine's polls of the Top Party Schools (in teh US) over many years. I can assure you they have porn there.
oOps...
I guess _that_ demonstrates the value of the "Preview" button!
I swear. Moderators can't read a /sarcasm tag anymore?
Posting anonymously, for obvious reasons....
Then explain to us - which government regulation created the Micro$oft monopoly?
The barriers to entry that they hide behind were certainly not created by the government, most are the result of exclusive contracts - with many hidden from the public (and the market, and even the _courts_) by NDAs.
Do you believe that contracts should not be enforced by government?
I personally would entertain the argument that NDAs are evil, and might be a good thing to outlaw, but I'm sure someone can come up with an example of a situation where they're essential.
I do not believe that ALL monopoly is the government's fault, though of course one certainly may be caused by regulatory action.
That's the crux of this discussion.
Libertarians should strive for MINIMAL regulation, in the interest of providing Fair Competition in a Free Marketplace.
Over-regulation, OTOH, is even worse than none at all, because it gives arbitrary control to some regulatory body which probably doesn't deserve it.
And I could build a portable gyzmo to do just that.
Of course it'd be illegal in many states (as radar detectors already are), but there must be some way around that.
It'd fsck yer [GPS] navigation, but who needs navigation if it's gonna be taxed?
Well then why don't you just explain it to us?
Your blanket statement that Free software somehow simply, automagically loses out to V$ in the areas of "usability & productivity" is an unsubstanstiated crock. Emacs is a mature, highly polished, extremely flexible/customizable IDE and the product of twenty-five years of user-driven development. It was probably the _first_ IDE. Vi is more tightly focused, but also an efficient, highly usable tool. Both have large, experienced, and fanatically loyal user bases.
Having used both, and Visual Studio, I _strongly_ prefer emacs and vi. You can't simply tell me that "they aren't usable". I find them more logical, efficient, productive (as in: faster) and _portable_ as well. I want you to explain just what you think makes V$ _soooo_ much more "usable and productive".
With the wealth of alternatives available (let's not leave out Eclipse, since it seems pretty popular too, as well as Free), I can see no reason to tolerate the moral bankruptcy of the factors of Visual Studio. But you don't want to talk about _that_.
So, enlighten us. What's so all-fired "usable" about V$? What makes it so superior to, say, emacs? What does it have going for it besides its Imperial market monopoly, with the accompanying shills, "analysts", and astroturfers?
And bear in mind that I place a great distinction between "User Friendly" and "Beginner Friendly". For "Beginner Friendly", I'll agree that the Imperial "Tools" are da bomb. Not being a beginner, however, "Beginner Friendly" is not what I want.
and if you think that emacs, and all those vi variants for that matter, aren't usable and productive just because _you_ can't work them, that sounds quite ignorant to me. Several of us here find emacs (and vi*) highly productive. IMNSHO emacs, gcc and Perl are the "killer apps" of *nix (even if they are ported to the monopoly platform - they lose something in the move).
If you think that the software monopolist is morally acceptable, I suggest you go read this, and this, and this. And then go develop yer Micro$oft apps on V$ (if you can still stomach them). See if I care.
The application I'm presently working on is actually targeted for Winbloze XP (against _my_ will). That doesn't keep me from writing it in Perl/Tk with emacs. When it's done, I expect it to run equally well in any environment (that supports Perl & Tk, which is A LOT). Try that with Visual Studio. I bet you can't, because V$ was deliberately engineered to make it as difficult as possible to develop for any non-Imperial target.
When I abandoned the Evil Empire, V$, VC++, MFC, and all of that rot in favor of Free software, I was overjoyed not only by the ideology but by the quality of the tools. I've never looked back.
And since when did astroturfers get mod points?
I'm strongly tempted to label this another 'bloze problem. I'll admit I've never tried a huge file on Winbloze. I've loaded and worked with dozen-megabyte files in Linux, and emacs on Solaris can handle a gigabyte file from halfway across the continent via nfs.
In fairness, it was three years ago when I tried to install the native emacs. The situation may have improved.
Oh. Uh, some of us here are working with a higher value of "free" than "free as in beer". The monopolist will never meet this standard, and we therefore shun it and all its products.
Oh, stop, please. I can't take it.
This is a winbloze problem, and not emacs' fault.
If you had a platform that didn't inject a carriage return in front of every linefeed as it writes the file to disk, it wouldn't corrupt yer hex files. Cygwin works around this transparently nowdays.
On what planet?
I've yet to choke emacs, on gigabyte files. (data & logs.... NOT code!)
To be sure, it can take a while to load a real monster, but if you're patient, have enough swap space, and take the time to reminisce about the '386 days, it _will_ work.