You know, anybody who thinks that space research and development isn't ABSURDLY PROFITABLE need only look at the tax revenue generated by the communications satellite industry, and compare that to NASA's budget for, say, the last 50 years.
So far, space exploration has been CHEAP. Thinking that you have better ways to spend the $1 your taxes contributed to NASA's budget this year is just ridiculous. There are A LOT of other places we could carve out serious money from the federal budget. NASA is small potatoes.
Speaking of agriculture, how much did we pay people to not grow stuff this year? Just checking.
An aside: I think NASA is doing a terrible job of exploring and exploiting space. Yet another unmanned probe is just not enough to get people engaged in space travel. The science is great, but the real reason to go to space is to explore new frontiers, and settle them. Anything that does not aim directly at that goal is wasting time.
Humans are, by nature, explorers. I believe that much of the strife and ennui we feel today is because we don't have the hope of being able to go to a new place, and make it a home. I believe that the best and the brightest have always been willing to settle new lands, and I would LOVE to be one of the next generation.
Look, I worked IT for a hundred doctors' offices in a major metropolitan area. Doctors are no more, and no less, computer literate than the general populace. Most of the docs I spoke with were highly intelligent, easy to teach, and interested in learning how to do new stuff.
So I really don't know what you're after, here. Smart people know how to learn stuff. Lots of docs are smart people.
Incidentally, most of those doctors' staff people were similarly teach-able. I think that the assumption that people are unable to learn how to drive a computer is due to the fact that lots of people are bad at teaching people how to use computers.
I betcha the doctors are so amazed that intelligent computer people can be so dumbfounded by the practice of medicine.
If you're a smart person, you're very much in touch with the fact that you're ignorant about 99% of the stuff in the universe. If you think you're not ignorant, you're not very smart.
t's hard to find ways to do the things I want to do with it. Like, how do actually do something useful with this?
I'm really curious: What exactly were you trying to do that you couldn't figure out how to do? I mean, I know you can't find the Registry on a Mac (but that's definitely a feature, not a bug...). We'll gloss over the overly-combative "how do I do something useful with this?" by referring you to Pixar's art department, who after beating you with shovels, will explain to you how they've made a couple pretty darn good movies with these Macintosh things.
Look, if you don't know how to use the system, just admit it...but don't make silly statements and expect everybody else to just nod their heads at you...
Or, gosh...maybe they just have a different opinion than you do. Ah, but now we're back to talking about dementia, right?
Come on. Porsche makes some great cars. They're proven on the race track. Are there cheaper cars? Yes. Are there better cars? (in my opinion) Absolutely. I can think of a half-dozen first-rate sports cars off the top of my head I'd buy with the same money. But to say that Porsches give small benefit relative to the costs is silly, particularly if you don't know what benefits the customer might be shopping for.
But you forgot the number of hours you're going to have to spend messing with the PC over its life time.
In my experience, Macs are almost trouble free. My XP box, well, it's about time for its biannual pave-the-hard-drive-to-make-it-run-fast-again routine. That takes the better part of a day to get back up to speed.
Buy what you like. Use what you like. Nobody's going to take away your (or my) white-box hand built PCs. But when I want to get stuff done instead of messing with the computer, I prefer Macintoshes.
And now, we get back to the same ridiculous idea that Apple should stop doing what it's good at and start competing head to head with Microsoft, selling x86 operating systems.
It's impossible for me to understate what a bad idea this would be. Would YOU like to be the poor schlock who has to pick up the phone and help some user figure out why the sound card he got out of a box of Cracker Jack doesn't work?
The support costs alone would be astronomical. And, if Apple didn't provide support, everybody would think "Gosh, this OS sucks. It doesn't work with my Adlib Gold sound card I got back in 1988."
Trying to support the PC architecture is a nightmare. Not doing so completely would destroy any chance Apple had to compete on the OS front. I think Apple is doing just fine right where they are: Selling superb hardware and excellent software to customers who aren't afraid to pay for quality.
Look, if you don't want to use a Mac, us Mac users aren't going to come hunt you down and make you join our ranks. Use what you like. Have a nice day.
Huh? You do understand that the radio in the phone only has to talk to a tower, whose proximity is not related to whether or not the call is long distance, right?
Maybe you meant that the phone gets hotter if it's farther from a tower...
So what if I'm a shyster lawyer, and I bring suit against a company on my own behalf? I spend nothing, and risk nothing, and maybe I can get a pile of dough from a corp.
Don't get me wrong, I'm no corporate apologist, but I don't think that your idea is workable and/or fair.
Those are useful figures. However, consider that mobile phones go next to your melon, whereas refrigerators and 5.1 receivers, typically, do not.
Aside: I read once that a mobile phone earpiece with the phone at your waist doesn't really decrease radiation hitting your cranium, as the wire acts as an antenna. Is there anything to this I wonder?
I don't know if mobile phones are dangerous or not, but I am mighty respectful of the inverse square law. A refrigerator 5 feet away is very different from a phone in my ear.
I'd agree with you, if the legitimacy of the grievance were more relevant to the judgement than the net salary of the opposing legal teams.
Does Erin Brockovich win sometimes? Sure. But, there are also zillions of well-meaning crusading lawyers out there who get ground into a fine powder by corporate legal teams.
Thank you for properly using the phrase "begs the question" in a/. post.
The fact that you have the same handle as my best friend scares me, as I am certain he could not use the phrase "begs the question" correctly in a/. post.
Slashdot Mirror
...but I still don't like Pepsi. Why did they spend all that money again, getting Britney to shake her tits at me?
As the parent poster noted, the Apollo 11 flag was blown down by the launch of the Lunar module.
I was just waxing romantic. : )
Would you care to provide some support for your wild-ass assertion?
Please explain how the Great Society plan brought about the downfall of the USSR.
How cool would it be if the Chinese explorers put the American flag back up, and planted a Chinese flag next to it?
Call me a jingoist, but I just get goosebumps from the symbolism. That would be an incredible, gallant gesture.
Umm, go look at all the names of the engineers that actually built that vaunted Mercury capsule.
Their names sounded a lot more like "Von Braun" than yours does, I'll wager.
The Chinese space ship is way better than YOUR space ship, so I don't think you have any room to judge.
And that's "Soyuz", buster.
You know, anybody who thinks that space research and development isn't ABSURDLY PROFITABLE need only look at the tax revenue generated by the communications satellite industry, and compare that to NASA's budget for, say, the last 50 years.
So far, space exploration has been CHEAP. Thinking that you have better ways to spend the $1 your taxes contributed to NASA's budget this year is just ridiculous. There are A LOT of other places we could carve out serious money from the federal budget. NASA is small potatoes.
Speaking of agriculture, how much did we pay people to not grow stuff this year? Just checking.
An aside: I think NASA is doing a terrible job of exploring and exploiting space. Yet another unmanned probe is just not enough to get people engaged in space travel. The science is great, but the real reason to go to space is to explore new frontiers, and settle them. Anything that does not aim directly at that goal is wasting time.
Humans are, by nature, explorers. I believe that much of the strife and ennui we feel today is because we don't have the hope of being able to go to a new place, and make it a home. I believe that the best and the brightest have always been willing to settle new lands, and I would LOVE to be one of the next generation.
Look, I worked IT for a hundred doctors' offices in a major metropolitan area. Doctors are no more, and no less, computer literate than the general populace. Most of the docs I spoke with were highly intelligent, easy to teach, and interested in learning how to do new stuff.
So I really don't know what you're after, here. Smart people know how to learn stuff. Lots of docs are smart people.
Incidentally, most of those doctors' staff people were similarly teach-able. I think that the assumption that people are unable to learn how to drive a computer is due to the fact that lots of people are bad at teaching people how to use computers.
I betcha the doctors are so amazed that intelligent computer people can be so dumbfounded by the practice of medicine.
If you're a smart person, you're very much in touch with the fact that you're ignorant about 99% of the stuff in the universe. If you think you're not ignorant, you're not very smart.
The first link is to a poster of some gourds, which a) aren't computers and b) aren't on Apple's site. Try again.
The second link is broken. None for you.
I'm really curious: What exactly were you trying to do that you couldn't figure out how to do? I mean, I know you can't find the Registry on a Mac (but that's definitely a feature, not a bug...). We'll gloss over the overly-combative "how do I do something useful with this?" by referring you to Pixar's art department, who after beating you with shovels, will explain to you how they've made a couple pretty darn good movies with these Macintosh things.
Look, if you don't know how to use the system, just admit it...but don't make silly statements and expect everybody else to just nod their heads at you...
Or, gosh...maybe they just have a different opinion than you do. Ah, but now we're back to talking about dementia, right?
Come on. Porsche makes some great cars. They're proven on the race track. Are there cheaper cars? Yes. Are there better cars? (in my opinion) Absolutely. I can think of a half-dozen first-rate sports cars off the top of my head I'd buy with the same money. But to say that Porsches give small benefit relative to the costs is silly, particularly if you don't know what benefits the customer might be shopping for.
Find me a fruit-colored computer for sale on Apple's web site, and I'll buy it for you.
And if you try to come up with some aluminum colored fruit, I'm going to make you eat ten before I buy you your computer.
But you forgot the number of hours you're going to have to spend messing with the PC over its life time.
In my experience, Macs are almost trouble free. My XP box, well, it's about time for its biannual pave-the-hard-drive-to-make-it-run-fast-again routine. That takes the better part of a day to get back up to speed.
Buy what you like. Use what you like. Nobody's going to take away your (or my) white-box hand built PCs. But when I want to get stuff done instead of messing with the computer, I prefer Macintoshes.
And now, we get back to the same ridiculous idea that Apple should stop doing what it's good at and start competing head to head with Microsoft, selling x86 operating systems.
It's impossible for me to understate what a bad idea this would be. Would YOU like to be the poor schlock who has to pick up the phone and help some user figure out why the sound card he got out of a box of Cracker Jack doesn't work?
The support costs alone would be astronomical. And, if Apple didn't provide support, everybody would think "Gosh, this OS sucks. It doesn't work with my Adlib Gold sound card I got back in 1988."
Trying to support the PC architecture is a nightmare. Not doing so completely would destroy any chance Apple had to compete on the OS front. I think Apple is doing just fine right where they are: Selling superb hardware and excellent software to customers who aren't afraid to pay for quality.
Look, if you don't want to use a Mac, us Mac users aren't going to come hunt you down and make you join our ranks. Use what you like. Have a nice day.
I am so proud that I didn't recognize that as humor.
Moving along.
Huh? You do understand that the radio in the phone only has to talk to a tower, whose proximity is not related to whether or not the call is long distance, right?
Maybe you meant that the phone gets hotter if it's farther from a tower...
Hmmm.
So what if I'm a shyster lawyer, and I bring suit against a company on my own behalf? I spend nothing, and risk nothing, and maybe I can get a pile of dough from a corp.
Don't get me wrong, I'm no corporate apologist, but I don't think that your idea is workable and/or fair.
HEY! I have a Performa 6115, you insensitive clod! I love that computer!
On all other points, YOU ARE RIGHT.
Yeah, ghetto-ized. Like a five star hotel is ghetto-ized.
Steve Jobs cares about 1) doing it Steve's way 2) cool design 3) technological excellence.
Market share? Who cares? It's not a factor. Apple is making much money.
Those are useful figures. However, consider that mobile phones go next to your melon, whereas refrigerators and 5.1 receivers, typically, do not.
Aside: I read once that a mobile phone earpiece with the phone at your waist doesn't really decrease radiation hitting your cranium, as the wire acts as an antenna. Is there anything to this I wonder?
I don't know if mobile phones are dangerous or not, but I am mighty respectful of the inverse square law. A refrigerator 5 feet away is very different from a phone in my ear.
I'd agree with you, if the legitimacy of the grievance were more relevant to the judgement than the net salary of the opposing legal teams.
Does Erin Brockovich win sometimes? Sure. But, there are also zillions of well-meaning crusading lawyers out there who get ground into a fine powder by corporate legal teams.
I'm not telling you how to run your life, and I respect your right to do whatever you like in your home.
However, if you put your kids in a car, I think you might have disproportionate assessment of the risks posed by low-power high-freq radio.
Thank you for properly using the phrase "begs the question" in a /. post.
/. post.
The fact that you have the same handle as my best friend scares me, as I am certain he could not use the phrase "begs the question" correctly in a
: )
Wow.
I totally failed to understand what the hell you are saying. This must be one of the most content-free posts I've ever seen...
By what appalling twist of linguistics could one say that these CDs have been "enhanced"? What can I do with them that I can't do with REAL CD's?
This is really funny. Well, it would be, if it wasn't going to cost this grad student his livelihood...