Most of the "sloppiness" the author refers to is attributable to:
A) User error
B) Obscure interactions with obscure software
C) Corners cut in design and manufacturing
At the present time, solving each of these problems has an associated cost.
A) You set up a system that gives users (and developers) so few choices that they are unable to make mistakes.
B) You set up draconian nonsupport criteria that explicitly list the software that users can have on their machines, and/or force all developers to only use your API's.
C) You charge more, mediate performance, and lag the rest of the market.
I have little sympathy for Ms. Barron's plight. She could always buy a Mac, and Macs do a better job of fixing the above problems than do Wintel boxen. She might have to learn a new (and highly constraining) interface, but I can almost guarantee her problems would go away. There's less software written for it, and it's more expensive, but dem's da berries.
You know, vi is free and it doesn't crash. If there were money to be made by holding users hands to a greater degree current UI's do, odds are we'd be using Apple IX's right now.
I'm not sure if this is still true, but it used to be that if you were in the armed forces, you could legally buy alcohol at your post's class six store, regardless of whether you were 21 or not.
Kalifa does have a point. We do have the occasional dust-up over such things here in the USA, and we have also gone after foreign companies for perceived Nazi tie-ins.
See this press release from the ADL for more info.
Though Pokemon is neither as disturbing as nazism or as fun as sex (or do I have those backwards?), the principle difference between here and the land of the Eiffel Tower and sub-40-bit encryption is that here the mere *threat* of legal action (as opposed to a ruling) was enough to force a Japanese corporation to change its product, which was not ever indended for consumption by Americans.
All you have to do is add some speakers. After a doddering Floridian votes but before he returns to his land yacht, a graphic of the disembodied head of Regis Philbin can say "Is that your final answer?"
Or, better yet:
> Hello, I am VOTE TABULATOR. What would you like to discuss?
* I'm voting Nader.
> Do you believe it is normal to be voting Nader?
* Yes.
> Are you Sure?
* Quite.
> OK... "I'm voting Nader". Tell me more.
* What more do you want?
> We were discussing you, not me.
* Do you want me to vote for my congressman, too?
> Oh... want you to vote for your congressman, too?
* AAAAARGH!
> Tell me more...
* Not you!
> We were discussing you, not me.
*sound of feet running very, very quickly from the polling station*
If somebody destroyed your car, it would hurt. That car represents many months of your labor. By destroying what an enemy produces, you hurt the enemy--regardless of whether the production is a house, a train, or a weapon. Reducing an enemy to desperate poverty is a handy way to break their will (unless they are already there in the first place--see Vietnam and Afghanistan). Killing people often only makes their comrades angrier.
War, in the past couple of centuries, has mostly been about pitting economy versus economy. US and Russian tanks weren't better than German tanks--we just produced a hell of a lot more, and Allied tanks had important hard-to-get extras like fuel and ammunition.
> The fundamental questions of modern land warfare
> are: where are they? Where are we? Whoever has
> more success in answering these questions will > probably win.
Back in cadet land, I often answered this question with my handy TI-85. I realized it was roughly the same size as a 30-round M16 magazine, and it fit quite nicely in my Vietnam-era ammo pouch. So, I waterproofed it and programmed it to do map work. Since I'm good at pencil and paper map work, I often got tapped to do so during exercises.
I pretty much just used it to check my work during the planning stages, but it was really handy when calling for indirect fire. Determine azimuth to target, estimate distance to target, give current location, ta-da. It beat the hell out of whipping out a map and a protractor while you were supposed to be seeking cover from a couple of machine guns firing blanks.
Of course, the sight of a cadet diving for cover behind a tree, putting down his weapon, and whipping out a calculator amused the other cadets tremendously.
Meth? RTP? You've got to be kidding. I also work in RTP, and the techies who come here come to *escape* the dot-com lifestyle, wanting a nice place to raise their kids. They tend to live in Cary and N. Raleigh. To be perfectly honest, Durham (my home) is a meth hub, but that is mostly because it has high levels of unemployment and poverty (many tobacco jobs have been lost), is a trucking and railway hub, and lies between Charlotte and DC on I-85. Durham's drug problem is long-standing, and I have difficulty believing a 6000% increase over two years.
The E and the club drugs are likely consumed by the college kids. There are a total of about 65K college kids in the Triangle area, mostly at NC State, Duke, and UNC.
The LA times article was poorly researched and poorly written. Note that most of the statistics are unattributed to any individuals. They jump from NC, to the Coast Guard, to the University of Michigan, fer cryin' out loud.
Slashdot Mirror
Most of the "sloppiness" the author refers to is attributable to:
A) User error
B) Obscure interactions with obscure software
C) Corners cut in design and manufacturing
At the present time, solving each of these problems has an associated cost.
A) You set up a system that gives users (and developers) so few choices that they are unable to make mistakes.
B) You set up draconian nonsupport criteria that explicitly list the software that users can have on their machines, and/or force all developers to only use your API's.
C) You charge more, mediate performance, and lag the rest of the market.
I have little sympathy for Ms. Barron's plight. She could always buy a Mac, and Macs do a better job of fixing the above problems than do Wintel boxen. She might have to learn a new (and highly constraining) interface, but I can almost guarantee her problems would go away. There's less software written for it, and it's more expensive, but dem's da berries.
You know, vi is free and it doesn't crash. If there were money to be made by holding users hands to a greater degree current UI's do, odds are we'd be using Apple IX's right now.
I'm not sure if this is still true, but it used to be that if you were in the armed forces, you could legally buy alcohol at your post's class six store, regardless of whether you were 21 or not.
...and not all of them require an actual ruling.
Kalifa does have a point. We do have the occasional dust-up over such things here in the USA, and we have also gone after foreign companies for perceived Nazi tie-ins. See this press release from the ADL for more info.
Though Pokemon is neither as disturbing as nazism or as fun as sex (or do I have those backwards?), the principle difference between here and the land of the Eiffel Tower and sub-40-bit encryption is that here the mere *threat* of legal action (as opposed to a ruling) was enough to force a Japanese corporation to change its product, which was not ever indended for consumption by Americans.
Disturbing enough for you?
Cool! I'm all for computer voting.
All you have to do is add some speakers. After a doddering Floridian votes but before he returns to his land yacht, a graphic of the disembodied head of Regis Philbin can say "Is that your final answer?"
Or, better yet:
> Hello, I am VOTE TABULATOR. What would you like to discuss?
* I'm voting Nader.
> Do you believe it is normal to be voting Nader?
* Yes.
> Are you Sure?
* Quite.
> OK... "I'm voting Nader". Tell me more.
* What more do you want?
> We were discussing you, not me.
* Do you want me to vote for my congressman, too?
> Oh... want you to vote for your congressman, too?
* AAAAARGH!
> Tell me more...
* Not you!
> We were discussing you, not me.
*sound of feet running very, very quickly from the polling station*
If somebody destroyed your car, it would hurt. That car represents many months of your labor. By destroying what an enemy produces, you hurt the enemy--regardless of whether the production is a house, a train, or a weapon. Reducing an enemy to desperate poverty is a handy way to break their will (unless they are already there in the first place--see Vietnam and Afghanistan). Killing people often only makes their comrades angrier. War, in the past couple of centuries, has mostly been about pitting economy versus economy. US and Russian tanks weren't better than German tanks--we just produced a hell of a lot more, and Allied tanks had important hard-to-get extras like fuel and ammunition.
> The fundamental questions of modern land warfare > are: where are they? Where are we? Whoever has > more success in answering these questions will > probably win. Back in cadet land, I often answered this question with my handy TI-85. I realized it was roughly the same size as a 30-round M16 magazine, and it fit quite nicely in my Vietnam-era ammo pouch. So, I waterproofed it and programmed it to do map work. Since I'm good at pencil and paper map work, I often got tapped to do so during exercises. I pretty much just used it to check my work during the planning stages, but it was really handy when calling for indirect fire. Determine azimuth to target, estimate distance to target, give current location, ta-da. It beat the hell out of whipping out a map and a protractor while you were supposed to be seeking cover from a couple of machine guns firing blanks. Of course, the sight of a cadet diving for cover behind a tree, putting down his weapon, and whipping out a calculator amused the other cadets tremendously.
Meth? RTP? You've got to be kidding. I also work in RTP, and the techies who come here come to *escape* the dot-com lifestyle, wanting a nice place to raise their kids. They tend to live in Cary and N. Raleigh. To be perfectly honest, Durham (my home) is a meth hub, but that is mostly because it has high levels of unemployment and poverty (many tobacco jobs have been lost), is a trucking and railway hub, and lies between Charlotte and DC on I-85. Durham's drug problem is long-standing, and I have difficulty believing a 6000% increase over two years.
The E and the club drugs are likely consumed by the college kids. There are a total of about 65K college kids in the Triangle area, mostly at NC State, Duke, and UNC.
The LA times article was poorly researched and poorly written. Note that most of the statistics are unattributed to any individuals. They jump from NC, to the Coast Guard, to the University of Michigan, fer cryin' out loud.