I knew the "high quality cable" game was snake oil when I saw the gold contacts on an OPTICAL cable.
Yeah, it's important to have large-gauge wire for speakers. It's not important for that wire to be made of virgin silver, rolled between the thighs of Venezuelan maidens.
Uh huh. Let's go to an autocross course and find out if you're correct.
The Camaro has a big engine, and a truly awful suspension. I'm no Porsche fan, but the Camaro is nowhere in the same league when comparing sports cars.
I can't figure out how you touched the wheel and it didn't scroll. The thing seems awfully sensitive to me.
There aren't screens on the iPod that don't have several options to scroll. I can't understand why you couldn't correlate "Move finger on pad" with "cursor on screen moves".
"The USPS is forced on people not because competition is impossible, but because it's outlawed."
Huh? Nothing's stopping me from sending letters through DHL or Airborne or FedEx or UPS. The USPS is great and all, and it's by far the most cost-effective for me, but it's not like it's costing you tax dollars.
Nothing's stopping DHL from letting people install DHL mailboxes at their homes. They just won't, because it would not be profitable to do so.
What a pretty planet you must live on. What color is the sky?
I'll agree that there are certainly excesses in spending on the military, but all the countries that didn't spend any money on the military don't exist any more.
I heard what the Oracle said, and it was mystical gibberish. I know that this isn't hard sci fi, but I needed more to not kill my supension of disbelief.
"generated by people who didn't really bother digging into the story and really paying attention to what happened."
That was your opener. I DID pay attention. I WAS looking for explanations of why stuff happened, and those explanations were not sufficient for my satisfaction.
A good storyteller sets up the universe, and that universe is self-consistent. Superman can fly. That's fine...I didn't have any issue whatsoever when Neo started flying around. That was great. However, when Superman flys around the world backwards fast enough to stop time, my suspension of disbelief goes away. When the storyteller's universe does something NOT self-consistent, when he says "Oh, well, Neo has to stop these Sentinels here so, um, he...does. He's got 802.11 in his brain." that's called deus ex machina, and it's bad storytelling.
I don't want everything on a silver platter. I want them to not break my suspension of disbelief because they needed to manufacture a cliffhanger.
I would have put up with the over-reliance on cheesy effects (that was conspicuously absent in the first movie...I thought the effects were VERY well done) had they given me a meaty story to sink my teeth into. They simply dropped the ball.
Ah, so I'm not smart enough to appreciate the subtleties of the storytelling?
Bullshit.
I heard how the Architect explained the relationship between Neo and the machines. I heard the Oracle say that Neo had the same powers in the real world and the machine world. That was not sufficient for me to suspend disbelief. It just happened, and they said "Oh yeah, he can do that." To my mind, it broke the rules of the universe they'd set up. It was straight up unvarnished deus ex machina, and that is not good storytelling.
I shouldn't have to watch the DVD box set to explain the holes in the plot. I like watching DVD box sets (LotR, anyone?) to enhance and enrich my enjoyment of movies, not to patch over shoddy storytelling.
I was disappointed with Reloaded, and particularly with Revolutions, because they took the easy way out.
Why could Neo kill Sentinels in real life? Because he, uh, could. All of a sudden. Yeah.
Lame answer.
I didn't care for either the 1000 Smiths fight, nor for the Smith-Neo fight at the end of Revolutions. Neither was as tight or beautiful to watch as the fight between Morpheus and Neo in the dojo. Yeah, they were all special-effecty, but not as beautifully choreographed. Even the Neo-Seraph fight (which I'd been looking forward to) was only mediocre.
The big brawl at the Merovingian's house was great. The upside down fight in Revolutions was lame. The chase scene in Reloaded was great.
They had some opportunities for really, REALLY good storytelling, and really, REALLY good action scenes, and I think they just wimped out.
I don't care what Microsoft does, as long as they don't take control of yet another market. That's my point.
If I maintained a program that followed some standard, I'd make sure I had the best implementation of that standard available. I'd also make sure I was working to improve the standard.
MS's track record with embrace and extend is well-established. Why would they change their stripes now?
They should not illegally attempt to extend their monopoly into other markets. That's what they should do. Apart from that, they can do whatever they want.
I don't want to start a revolt, mostly because I don't think it would work.
I DO want to get off this rock and start again, though. See my rants against the ignorant people who think that manned space exploration does not have value. For me, the necessary and sufficient justification for manned space exploration is to found a new nation that will change the world the same way America did 200 years ago.
That nation will be on a different world, but it will surely improve this one.
"Well, no, imho the Bill of Rights is mainly about limits on sovereign power, not specifying limits on personal rights, so on that point, I reckon we'd agree."
Yup. Now we just need to get Congress, the Supremes, the Executive, and the majority of Americans to understand that. I'm not holding my breath.
"What's the definition of public use?"
Use by the public. That is, not for private, profit-seeking enterprise.
I can't argue the law, because the law is expressly designed to be inaccessible to intelligent laypeople like myself. I CAN, however, argue principle, and the principle that the Government shouldn't be able to take my home without due process is pretty sound.
That was the exact problem with the Bill of Rights. Some people think that they enumerate ALL the Rights protected by the Constitution, and that's simply not the case.
If the State can take my home and give it to a developer, without due process, how can anybody be secure? How can that not devolve into tyranny, nepotism, and plutocracy?
The goal is not "Democracy". The goal is "A more perfect union".
When you vote to take away my Rights, that's democracy infringing on liberty, and it's Bad. Democracy's only salient virtue is that it tends to infringe less on "inalienable rights" than other forms of government. Democracy is not sacrosanct. Inalienable rights (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness) are.
That's why the American experiment is currently breaking down: Nobody seems to understand why we're here.
" All of these are functions of 3rd party vendor support. Apples aren't particularly good about this either."
Huh? I can't remember the last time I had to install a driver to get hardware to work on my Powerbook. Printer, camera, hard drive, worked out of the box. No driver install. My Treo worked after installing Palm Desktop.
You dodge the question of why Linux is bad about hardware drivers by implying that Apple is equally bad, and I find that contention laughable.
"Apple cheerleaders have always been about 10 years behind the times in their criticisms"
I'm trying to figure out where your criticisms come from. It's not ten years ago...it's some kind of bizarro-world.
It's hard, so we should just not do it? Again, I think your point of view is a very short sighted one.
There is no more frontier on this planet. Economic expansion has, throughout history, come from exploring and exploiting frontiers. Why would we just stop now?
Space exploration is cheap relative to any other Federal expenditure. If we can get NASA to enable, rather than hamper, private space exploration, it'll get even cheaper.
Space travel is dangerous, but there are thousands if not millions of people who would gladly take the risk. The rewards are literally uncountable.
Slashdot Mirror
I knew the "high quality cable" game was snake oil when I saw the gold contacts on an OPTICAL cable.
Yeah, it's important to have large-gauge wire for speakers. It's not important for that wire to be made of virgin silver, rolled between the thighs of Venezuelan maidens.
Jog wheel on VCRs, tuning knobs on radios, fishing reels, wheels...
Yeah, there aren't any other devices that turn circular motion into linear motion. Totally baffling.
Uh huh. Let's go to an autocross course and find out if you're correct.
The Camaro has a big engine, and a truly awful suspension. I'm no Porsche fan, but the Camaro is nowhere in the same league when comparing sports cars.
I can't figure out how you touched the wheel and it didn't scroll. The thing seems awfully sensitive to me.
There aren't screens on the iPod that don't have several options to scroll. I can't understand why you couldn't correlate "Move finger on pad" with "cursor on screen moves".
Seriously: What confused you?
"The USPS is forced on people not because competition is impossible, but because it's outlawed."
Huh? Nothing's stopping me from sending letters through DHL or Airborne or FedEx or UPS. The USPS is great and all, and it's by far the most cost-effective for me, but it's not like it's costing you tax dollars.
Nothing's stopping DHL from letting people install DHL mailboxes at their homes. They just won't, because it would not be profitable to do so.
What a pretty planet you must live on. What color is the sky?
I'll agree that there are certainly excesses in spending on the military, but all the countries that didn't spend any money on the military don't exist any more.
I heard what the Oracle said, and it was mystical gibberish. I know that this isn't hard sci fi, but I needed more to not kill my supension of disbelief.
You don't understand.
"generated by people who didn't really bother digging into the story and really paying attention to what happened."
That was your opener. I DID pay attention. I WAS looking for explanations of why stuff happened, and those explanations were not sufficient for my satisfaction.
A good storyteller sets up the universe, and that universe is self-consistent. Superman can fly. That's fine...I didn't have any issue whatsoever when Neo started flying around. That was great. However, when Superman flys around the world backwards fast enough to stop time, my suspension of disbelief goes away. When the storyteller's universe does something NOT self-consistent, when he says "Oh, well, Neo has to stop these Sentinels here so, um, he...does. He's got 802.11 in his brain." that's called deus ex machina, and it's bad storytelling.
I don't want everything on a silver platter. I want them to not break my suspension of disbelief because they needed to manufacture a cliffhanger.
I would have put up with the over-reliance on cheesy effects (that was conspicuously absent in the first movie...I thought the effects were VERY well done) had they given me a meaty story to sink my teeth into. They simply dropped the ball.
Ah, so I'm not smart enough to appreciate the subtleties of the storytelling?
Bullshit.
I heard how the Architect explained the relationship between Neo and the machines. I heard the Oracle say that Neo had the same powers in the real world and the machine world. That was not sufficient for me to suspend disbelief. It just happened, and they said "Oh yeah, he can do that." To my mind, it broke the rules of the universe they'd set up. It was straight up unvarnished deus ex machina, and that is not good storytelling.
I shouldn't have to watch the DVD box set to explain the holes in the plot. I like watching DVD box sets (LotR, anyone?) to enhance and enrich my enjoyment of movies, not to patch over shoddy storytelling.
I was disappointed with Reloaded, and particularly with Revolutions, because they took the easy way out.
Why could Neo kill Sentinels in real life? Because he, uh, could. All of a sudden. Yeah.
Lame answer.
I didn't care for either the 1000 Smiths fight, nor for the Smith-Neo fight at the end of Revolutions. Neither was as tight or beautiful to watch as the fight between Morpheus and Neo in the dojo. Yeah, they were all special-effecty, but not as beautifully choreographed. Even the Neo-Seraph fight (which I'd been looking forward to) was only mediocre.
The big brawl at the Merovingian's house was great. The upside down fight in Revolutions was lame. The chase scene in Reloaded was great.
They had some opportunities for really, REALLY good storytelling, and really, REALLY good action scenes, and I think they just wimped out.
Disappointing.
I don't care what Microsoft does, as long as they don't take control of yet another market. That's my point.
If I maintained a program that followed some standard, I'd make sure I had the best implementation of that standard available. I'd also make sure I was working to improve the standard.
MS's track record with embrace and extend is well-established. Why would they change their stripes now?
They should not illegally attempt to extend their monopoly into other markets. That's what they should do. Apart from that, they can do whatever they want.
If they weren't a monopoly, they could do whatever they want to, and I wouldn't care. However, since they ARE a monopoly, I DO care.
And republics don't work if the only two viable choices for a given office are both wolves.
Sometimes I wonder if the concept of a citizen statesman wasn't a bit naive.
I don't want to start a revolt, mostly because I don't think it would work.
I DO want to get off this rock and start again, though. See my rants against the ignorant people who think that manned space exploration does not have value. For me, the necessary and sufficient justification for manned space exploration is to found a new nation that will change the world the same way America did 200 years ago.
That nation will be on a different world, but it will surely improve this one.
Good, that way so when poor people don't vote, they can be put in jail and permanently disenfranchised. Fucking brilliant plan, sparky.
Freedom means that I can do what I please. If that means I don't vote, YOU don't have anything to say about it.
Say that again next week. I think it'll sound pretty funny.
"Well, no, imho the Bill of Rights is mainly about limits on sovereign power, not specifying limits on personal rights, so on that point, I reckon we'd agree."
Yup. Now we just need to get Congress, the Supremes, the Executive, and the majority of Americans to understand that. I'm not holding my breath.
"What's the definition of public use?"
Use by the public. That is, not for private, profit-seeking enterprise.
I can't argue the law, because the law is expressly designed to be inaccessible to intelligent laypeople like myself. I CAN, however, argue principle, and the principle that the Government shouldn't be able to take my home without due process is pretty sound.
That was the exact problem with the Bill of Rights. Some people think that they enumerate ALL the Rights protected by the Constitution, and that's simply not the case.
If the State can take my home and give it to a developer, without due process, how can anybody be secure? How can that not devolve into tyranny, nepotism, and plutocracy?
The goal is not "Democracy". The goal is "A more perfect union".
When you vote to take away my Rights, that's democracy infringing on liberty, and it's Bad. Democracy's only salient virtue is that it tends to infringe less on "inalienable rights" than other forms of government. Democracy is not sacrosanct. Inalienable rights (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness) are.
That's why the American experiment is currently breaking down: Nobody seems to understand why we're here.
" All of these are functions of 3rd party
vendor support. Apples aren't particularly good
about this either."
Huh? I can't remember the last time I had to install a driver to get hardware to work on my Powerbook. Printer, camera, hard drive, worked out of the box. No driver install. My Treo worked after installing Palm Desktop.
You dodge the question of why Linux is bad about hardware drivers by implying that Apple is equally bad, and I find that contention laughable.
"Apple cheerleaders have always been about
10 years behind the times in their criticisms"
I'm trying to figure out where your criticisms come from. It's not ten years ago...it's some kind of bizarro-world.
Some day, robots will be able to mine minerals and bring them back here. However, TODAY, the only viable possibility is human exploration.
So, no, you're still wrong.
It's hard, so we should just not do it? Again, I think your point of view is a very short sighted one.
There is no more frontier on this planet. Economic expansion has, throughout history, come from exploring and exploiting frontiers. Why would we just stop now?
Space exploration is cheap relative to any other Federal expenditure. If we can get NASA to enable, rather than hamper, private space exploration, it'll get even cheaper.
Space travel is dangerous, but there are thousands if not millions of people who would gladly take the risk. The rewards are literally uncountable.
"Manned space flight and exploration space flight are not economically viable."
How is this statement different from saying in 1490 that "Manned crossing of the Atlantic and exploration of the globe are not economically viable."
I think your contention is very, very short sighted.
"Just for the record, my kids attend public schools, where my wife volenteers, and then they do additional studing at home"
I hope you don't help them with their spelling homework.
"additional studing"? I don't even want to ask...