I don't know.. I think the tech sells the console pretty well. I just played a Wii just a week ago for the first time. It was cool! I played a bowling game, and it was fun. Was the bowling game that great? No... it was the Wii controller that made it fun.
I get your point though, it's a fine line. I think making that technology work allowed developers to think of simple games like bowling in a whole new light. Wii fit? Very cool game (saw my friend's kids playing it). You wouldn't be able to pull that game off without the technology. But the thing Nintendo is doing is showing their games, and not even saying "look how f'ing cool this controller is!" They sell their system as a whole. By doing this, they are opening up "gaming" to a whole new market. Sony and MS are still scratching their heads.
I am still amazed by the progress made with systems, I just cannot keep up with it.
My first PC in 1990 was a 386DX-33 w/2 MB RAM and an 80MB HD. I paid $2200 for it.
I am definitely on the slow end of the upgrade cycle. I mean embarassingly slow. I am running a Duron 1.3 with 768 MB RAM. I just upgraded my video card to a Radeon 9600 AGP that I got for free. I am outside any upgrade curve, I have to ditch it and go with a whole new system - which is why I haven't done it yet. My 4 year old daughter has a faster computer, it's an AMD Sempron system that someone had set out in their bulk trash. I grabbed it thinking I could use some parts, and it was a working system.
I run Kubuntu, and my system is still OK. I wish it could be a bit faster at times, but overall it does what I need it to do. I *have* found that it does run slower over the past year for certain websites... e.g. Slashdot takes a long time to load, and navigates a lot slower than it used to... and my CPU pegs. It didn't used to do that.
P.S. Nanny nanny boo boo we had the cool technology before you did.
Seriously, we wouldn't be even talking about the wii if it didn't have the cool technology controls. Without that, many of their games would be re-hashed old ones, or not even possible.
So it's all about entertainment - once you have the technology. And don't think that Nintendo isn't ALSO working on the technology aspect of it.
Since this is/., 1 cron job and an addition to your/etc/rc.local(or distro equiv.) would do the trick. You could first use mencoder to capture and video sources (using command line it will take snaps at intervals all on its own) and rsync as you cron job taking the diffs of the whole drive to online storage, bonus points to trigger a sync the moment the network route becomes available. Nifty idea would be to set up a gmail account and use it to store incremental backups rather than the original image, 7-8 GB of diffs could likely go a long way.
Your scenario assumes a Linux system... in that case, how would the thief even be able to log in to use it? Surely you don't have it auto-login, do you? And if the thief is good enough to crack the login, your cron job wouldn't stand a chance.
Please officially (re?)release hordes of Q3A CDs all across the globe. Its a fine game! Kids and grown ups alike all across the world would enjoy it. It can easily be the de-facto standard in entry level serious gaming.
Damn, I'm old. I miss Quake MegaTF, which was the last time I seriously played online.
Agile is great for quickly verifying your project is moving in the right direction. I'm just wary of it being use as a substitute for a robust system design. Users might be happy with the basic functionality they see, but they may not be in a good position to see the big picture of long term maintenance or system architecture. If adding a new function turns into a massive hack to get it to work, you aren't doing them a favor by being highly responsive up front.
Actually, you ARE doing them a big favor by figuring it out early. In a waterfall project, you wouldn't find out that the function was a hack until much much later.
To be fair, I don't think Agile is a good fit for every project. If you have other system dependencies, they would all have to be on-board with the Agile methods to play nicely. But it's good to have Agile for projects that are independent and do benefit from rapid feedback.
Personally, while I think the ideals of stabilizing the region, making the world safe for democracy, and helping to bring Iraq out of the middle ages are all good goals, there were better ways to do it.
Those are admirable goals... but I don't believe they had anything to do with why we are there. They sound good AFTER the fact, and if those were in fact the goals they would have been established BEFORE we went there. You don't get to establish your goals after you've already done something. The Bush administration gave a bullshit reason (immediate threat to us) and when they were called on it they just kind of kept repeating it... then all of a sudden it was part of the war on terror. If you have valid reasons for doing something, you don't need to make up something that sounds MORE valid.
I honestly believe it was a personal vendetta by GW to get Saddam. There's no real proof of that, but we don't have any other valid reason and I think it makes sense. People like to complain about Obama's stimulus package and how it is bankrupting the country, but take a glance at the ongoing cost of the Iraq war... and it isn't just money, lives have been and are being lost.
Come back when you understand what the Iraq war is actually about.
Which is WHAT exactly? I am not talking about the reasons we are still there... why did we go there? I have NEVER heard a valid reason. People love to rag on countries who wouldn't back us up, like France, calling them cowards. I remember when we invaded Iraq, because I travelled to Paris on vacation 3 days later. I was very conscious of the situation. France simply stated "show us proof of why you are invading" and we COULDN'T DO IT. The only "proof" we had was doctored and fake.
We NEVER EVER gave a valid reason for invading a soverign nation and overthrowing their government. Since that time, there's been a lot fo back-pedaling and bullshit talk about liberating Iraq... none of it is true. There was no terrorist link, there was no compelling reason to liberate them (things hadn't changed all that much there for 20 years).
So please, PLEASE explain what the Iraq war is all about. In a sentence or two why we went there. Explain why we've spent billions upon billions of dollars and lives in Iraq. It always turns into a debate about "what SHOULD we do" or "what have we gained vs lost", but I have yet to hear any kind of reasoning WHY we went there.
"ONCE THE REQUIREMENTS ARE LOCKED DOWN you do not accept changes to them. "
Unless, of course, you are using an iterative or agile methodology.
I am not sure the original poster is asking about project management... It sounded to me more like "development project management". Because full-blown project management involves everything for a project - initial stages, getting the line of business engaged, development, testing, user acceptance, implementation, support, overall budget, training, etc etc etc. It's a much bigger animal that managing just the development piece.
Granted, you can use many of the principles... like creating a plan, tracking to the plan, re-planning when necessary, tracking to milestones, status reporting, tollgates, communication planning, etc.
And I have a general rule - when in doubt, draw a picture.
And I've downloaded several shows from the UK, just because we don't get them here. OK, we do finally get Top Gear, which is one of the best shows out there, IMO. I've also gotten "The F Word" and "Kitchen Nightmares"... that show is much more better in the UK version, less "manufactured drama".
Exactly. Why do people feel entitled to "free" content that other people have invested significant amounts of time and money in creating?.........I think $80,000 is too much for a car, which is why I don't own aa $80,000 car. Not liking the price is NOT justification for taking it anyway.
I missed "The Office" last night. I could watch it on nbc.com, but I downloaded it. How is anyone losing money? Hell, I just saved NBC some bandwidth, and I guarantee they didn't lose any advertising revenue on me.
And I don't remember the comedian, but his routine went something like this: Someone said "how can you download music? That's stealing. You wouldn't steal a car, would you?" No, of course not. But if one of my friends called me up and said "Hey, I just got a new car... would you like me to burn you a copy?"...... Yeah, I might consider it.
I am not a Mac person... at all. I used a friends once, and I just do not like it. They don't make sense to me. I understand they make perfect sense to a lot of people... just not me.
But where that "hidden" tax is going is hardware support, or call it lock-in if you will. It's a different approach, where they make sure that your SYSTEM works, as opposed to MS where they don't directly control the hardware. While you're locked into more expensive hardware with Mac, it works and works well. People are obviously willing to pay for that. And support, which I understand is pretty good with Mac.
I'd love to hear Microsoft's view on what their tax offers the consumer.
"If you applied the same logic and standards evenhandedly then you would have to conclude that "Windows is not yet ready for the desktop".
And my entire point is that logic and standards are NOT applied evenhandedly in the desktop market. Microsoft owns it, they created the rules and the standards - like it or not. Linux has to play on the field MS created. It's not fair, that's just the way it is.
If we were starting from scratch, where there wasn't a dominant and defacto "standard" then I would agree that Windows wouldn't have the advantage.
Why is it that every time someone posts a "linux not ready for desktop" comment, at least one person has to pipe up that they're using linux exclusively on the desktop?
That's about as helpful as saying, "Well, the bug doesn't happen on my machine."
Because most people don't realize that "the desktop" is not the same as "a desktop".
Let's face facts here people.. Microsoft owns the desktop. Because of that fact, "the desktop" has implied rules. Apple doesn't really fit into "the desktop" because they are a successful niche, and make their own rules and control their own domain.
Linux is not ready for "the desktop" because there is no way to strongarm companies for drivers, whether directly or indirectly by the sheer business sense to provide them. Linux is not ready for "the desktop" because it doesn't fit into those rules. However, it is ready for many many people. I have been running it exclusively at home since 1999. Sure, there are problems with it, but I have just as many problems at work where it's Windows. You work around them. Linux has proven that it is ready for "the server".
I don't want Linux to be ready for "the desktop" because I am not convinced that it would be beneficial to Linux to be on "the desktop". All I can visualize is it losing what makes it special.
OK, this isn't really about which app to set up, but I work for a very large bank, and I work from home. The standard is Office Communicator. While there are things I really don't like about the setup (no tabs, I can't log coversations automatically), there are things I do really like. I'm not trying to sell you on it as a solution, but there are features you could look for in other solutions.
a. Everyone has their standard login assigned to them... I don't have to chat with people's made-up logins. It's their full name, not some goofy nickname.
b. Integration with calendars. If someone is in a meeting, it shows their status as such. Integrates with Out of Office reminders, and you can set notes on your account too. Very handy.
c. The ability to add people to a conversation, having a virtual conference... couple that with...
d. The ability to screen share via a communicator session. Invaluable. You don't have to start up a livemeeting (although, you can do that too from Communicator), you can just quickly share your app/desktop with one or more people.
e. Although I can't log conversations, I can email them to myself. Good for referencing back to. However, being able to log everything would be much much better. I've lost conversations due to network glitches/closing the window accidentally.
Communicator may not fit the bill, but it does have some nice features for use in the workplace. Consider some of them in whatever you do choose.
Let's just think about it for a second.... Bush put a program in place to illegally monitor US citizens.
How can Obama support the lawsuits without disclosing how it was all done, and who did it? I am sure there are state secrets involved. Hey, I don't like the wiretapping thing any more than anybody else. But let's look at it realistically - Obama has to clean up the mess Bush made. I don't really see a clean way to do this. It exists for the economy (which Bush IGNORED), Iraq, wiretapping, and countless other things.
I voted for Obama, and his presidency has been somewhat disappointing thus far. But people comparing him to Bush? Let's get a grip folks, and remember that he inherited all of this crap that was created by the previous guy.
Bad analogy time - what if the country used Windows ME, and someone dumped it in your lap and said "here - you own it now - good luck". Could you fix it and satisfy all your customers in 3 months?
Movies won't capture what you read as a kid. And I'm just trying to remember back when I was that age... but isn't 7 a little too young for super hero comics? I honestly don't remember when I got into them.
Just a word of advice, and this is just IMO, but don't force your memories on your kids. I introduce some things, like Bugs Bunny, to my kids just so I don't have to watch friggin' Dora again, but they didn't like it. Luckily, they like Road Runner. But don't force it. I find it creepy when parents try to make a little clone of themselves.
And I think the super hero movies should be made for those who grew up with them. I was very pleased with Iron Man and Batman Begins/The Dark Knight because of this. X-men series was good too. Let's NOT sanitize them for kids. Everything is geared towards kids these days, can we please keep these for ourselves? Fantastic Four was TERRIBLE for this very reason. I dub it the "Lucasizing" of movies. Enough with the Poochie-like characters and the belching after eathing something already.
The license for the javascript software you are running might be important, but the far more important factor, in my mind, is the IP rights and responsibilities attached to your data.
Who has access to your data? How can you verify that? Who is responsible for keeping it secure? Who is responsible for making backups? How can you verify that?
OK, what data do I own when using the internet? Is the date/time that I accessed a website my data, or theirs? Is my IP address my data, or is it my ISPs?
Talking ownership of data on the internet is a scary thing.
That is the current cost of the Iraq war. Yeah, let's talk about the "outrage du jour", shall we? IMO, while possibly an ill conceived plan, this has a goal and a purpose. And hundereds of thousands of people won't be killed or injured because of it.
And they aren't funding this with taxpayer money, they are just printing up more money to pay it off. Just like they are doing with the Iraq war. This isn't our money, it's our grandkids' money.. and their grandkids' money.
This administration is telling us what is going on, for the most part - and we don't like it. Hey, they're all going to screw us, but what would you rather have - one that lies to you and treats you like children, keeping you scared of the monsters under the bed?
A molecular biologist might have no knowledge, or care, about what percentage of the earth is covered in water, or how many days it takes for the earth to orbit the sun.
"Science" means following the scientific theory, and HOW science works. That is where most people fail - that and critical thinking. You can apply the theory to lots of things... if you just spew factoids, you don't actually LEARN.
Give a man a taco, he eats for a day. Teach a man to... wait, I messed up.
I normally buy online, but I had a couple of great experiences at Circuit City. I saw a DVD Recorder (Pye) that they had on their site. I went into the store that was very near to my house, and it was $11 higher. For a $90 item, that is significant. I asked one of the sales guys about it, and he explained the online prices were different. But then he led me to one of their store computers, and said "just buy it online, and do in-store pickup... I'll go get one for you." I save the $, they got the sale. All in all, a great deal.
That store near me just opened last year... it was kind of sad to see it go. I also bought a TV from them. I happened to get a newegg deal email the next day for one I was looking at that went on sale. CC wouldn't let me return the one I got without a restocking fee.. but I still got a great deal on the TV. So not that big of a deal.
Slashdot Mirror
English?!? I thought she was dead.
I don't know.. I think the tech sells the console pretty well. I just played a Wii just a week ago for the first time. It was cool! I played a bowling game, and it was fun. Was the bowling game that great? No... it was the Wii controller that made it fun.
I get your point though, it's a fine line. I think making that technology work allowed developers to think of simple games like bowling in a whole new light. Wii fit? Very cool game (saw my friend's kids playing it). You wouldn't be able to pull that game off without the technology. But the thing Nintendo is doing is showing their games, and not even saying "look how f'ing cool this controller is!" They sell their system as a whole. By doing this, they are opening up "gaming" to a whole new market. Sony and MS are still scratching their heads.
I am still amazed by the progress made with systems, I just cannot keep up with it.
My first PC in 1990 was a 386DX-33 w/2 MB RAM and an 80MB HD. I paid $2200 for it.
I am definitely on the slow end of the upgrade cycle. I mean embarassingly slow. I am running a Duron 1.3 with 768 MB RAM. I just upgraded my video card to a Radeon 9600 AGP that I got for free. I am outside any upgrade curve, I have to ditch it and go with a whole new system - which is why I haven't done it yet. My 4 year old daughter has a faster computer, it's an AMD Sempron system that someone had set out in their bulk trash. I grabbed it thinking I could use some parts, and it was a working system.
I run Kubuntu, and my system is still OK. I wish it could be a bit faster at times, but overall it does what I need it to do. I *have* found that it does run slower over the past year for certain websites... e.g. Slashdot takes a long time to load, and navigates a lot slower than it used to... and my CPU pegs. It didn't used to do that.
P.S. Nanny nanny boo boo we had the cool technology before you did.
Seriously, we wouldn't be even talking about the wii if it didn't have the cool technology controls. Without that, many of their games would be re-hashed old ones, or not even possible.
So it's all about entertainment - once you have the technology. And don't think that Nintendo isn't ALSO working on the technology aspect of it.
Since this is /., 1 cron job and an addition to your /etc/rc.local(or distro equiv.) would do the trick. You could first use mencoder to capture and video sources (using command line it will take snaps at intervals all on its own) and rsync as you cron job taking the diffs of the whole drive to online storage, bonus points to trigger a sync the moment the network route becomes available. Nifty idea would be to set up a gmail account and use it to store incremental backups rather than the original image, 7-8 GB of diffs could likely go a long way.
Your scenario assumes a Linux system... in that case, how would the thief even be able to log in to use it? Surely you don't have it auto-login, do you? And if the thief is good enough to crack the login, your cron job wouldn't stand a chance.
So are external hard drives inside the computer? :)
It's the sound of Flickr sobbing.
Please officially (re?)release hordes of Q3A CDs all across the globe. Its a fine game! Kids and grown ups alike all across the world would enjoy it. It can easily be the de-facto standard in entry level serious gaming.
Damn, I'm old. I miss Quake MegaTF, which was the last time I seriously played online.
Agile is great for quickly verifying your project is moving in the right direction. I'm just wary of it being use as a substitute for a robust system design. Users might be happy with the basic functionality they see, but they may not be in a good position to see the big picture of long term maintenance or system architecture. If adding a new function turns into a massive hack to get it to work, you aren't doing them a favor by being highly responsive up front.
Actually, you ARE doing them a big favor by figuring it out early. In a waterfall project, you wouldn't find out that the function was a hack until much much later.
To be fair, I don't think Agile is a good fit for every project. If you have other system dependencies, they would all have to be on-board with the Agile methods to play nicely. But it's good to have Agile for projects that are independent and do benefit from rapid feedback.
Personally, while I think the ideals of stabilizing the region, making the world safe for democracy, and helping to bring Iraq out of the middle ages are all good goals, there were better ways to do it.
Those are admirable goals... but I don't believe they had anything to do with why we are there. They sound good AFTER the fact, and if those were in fact the goals they would have been established BEFORE we went there. You don't get to establish your goals after you've already done something. The Bush administration gave a bullshit reason (immediate threat to us) and when they were called on it they just kind of kept repeating it... then all of a sudden it was part of the war on terror. If you have valid reasons for doing something, you don't need to make up something that sounds MORE valid.
I honestly believe it was a personal vendetta by GW to get Saddam. There's no real proof of that, but we don't have any other valid reason and I think it makes sense. People like to complain about Obama's stimulus package and how it is bankrupting the country, but take a glance at the ongoing cost of the Iraq war... and it isn't just money, lives have been and are being lost.
Come back when you understand what the Iraq war is actually about.
Which is WHAT exactly? I am not talking about the reasons we are still there... why did we go there? I have NEVER heard a valid reason. People love to rag on countries who wouldn't back us up, like France, calling them cowards. I remember when we invaded Iraq, because I travelled to Paris on vacation 3 days later. I was very conscious of the situation. France simply stated "show us proof of why you are invading" and we COULDN'T DO IT. The only "proof" we had was doctored and fake.
We NEVER EVER gave a valid reason for invading a soverign nation and overthrowing their government. Since that time, there's been a lot fo back-pedaling and bullshit talk about liberating Iraq... none of it is true. There was no terrorist link, there was no compelling reason to liberate them (things hadn't changed all that much there for 20 years).
So please, PLEASE explain what the Iraq war is all about. In a sentence or two why we went there. Explain why we've spent billions upon billions of dollars and lives in Iraq. It always turns into a debate about "what SHOULD we do" or "what have we gained vs lost", but I have yet to hear any kind of reasoning WHY we went there.
What would happen then? Maybe he has an estate who could fight it. Weird legal ground I bet.
"ONCE THE REQUIREMENTS ARE LOCKED DOWN you do not accept changes to them. "
Unless, of course, you are using an iterative or agile methodology.
I am not sure the original poster is asking about project management... It sounded to me more like "development project management". Because full-blown project management involves everything for a project - initial stages, getting the line of business engaged, development, testing, user acceptance, implementation, support, overall budget, training, etc etc etc. It's a much bigger animal that managing just the development piece.
Granted, you can use many of the principles... like creating a plan, tracking to the plan, re-planning when necessary, tracking to milestones, status reporting, tollgates, communication planning, etc.
And I have a general rule - when in doubt, draw a picture.
And I've downloaded several shows from the UK, just because we don't get them here. OK, we do finally get Top Gear, which is one of the best shows out there, IMO. I've also gotten "The F Word" and "Kitchen Nightmares"... that show is much more better in the UK version, less "manufactured drama".
Exactly. Why do people feel entitled to "free" content that other people have invested significant amounts of time and money in creating?.........I think $80,000 is too much for a car, which is why I don't own aa $80,000 car. Not liking the price is NOT justification for taking it anyway.
I missed "The Office" last night. I could watch it on nbc.com, but I downloaded it. How is anyone losing money? Hell, I just saved NBC some bandwidth, and I guarantee they didn't lose any advertising revenue on me.
And I don't remember the comedian, but his routine went something like this:
Someone said "how can you download music? That's stealing. You wouldn't steal a car, would you?" No, of course not. But if one of my friends called me up and said "Hey, I just got a new car... would you like me to burn you a copy?"...... Yeah, I might consider it.
I am not a Mac person... at all. I used a friends once, and I just do not like it. They don't make sense to me. I understand they make perfect sense to a lot of people... just not me.
But where that "hidden" tax is going is hardware support, or call it lock-in if you will. It's a different approach, where they make sure that your SYSTEM works, as opposed to MS where they don't directly control the hardware. While you're locked into more expensive hardware with Mac, it works and works well. People are obviously willing to pay for that. And support, which I understand is pretty good with Mac.
I'd love to hear Microsoft's view on what their tax offers the consumer.
"If you applied the same logic and standards evenhandedly then you would have to conclude
that "Windows is not yet ready for the desktop".
And my entire point is that logic and standards are NOT applied evenhandedly in the desktop market. Microsoft owns it, they created the rules and the standards - like it or not. Linux has to play on the field MS created. It's not fair, that's just the way it is.
If we were starting from scratch, where there wasn't a dominant and defacto "standard" then I would agree that Windows wouldn't have the advantage.
Why is it that every time someone posts a "linux not ready for desktop" comment, at least one person has to pipe up that they're using linux exclusively on the desktop?
That's about as helpful as saying, "Well, the bug doesn't happen on my machine."
Because most people don't realize that "the desktop" is not the same as "a desktop".
Let's face facts here people.. Microsoft owns the desktop. Because of that fact, "the desktop" has implied rules. Apple doesn't really fit into "the desktop" because they are a successful niche, and make their own rules and control their own domain.
Linux is not ready for "the desktop" because there is no way to strongarm companies for drivers, whether directly or indirectly by the sheer business sense to provide them. Linux is not ready for "the desktop" because it doesn't fit into those rules. However, it is ready for many many people. I have been running it exclusively at home since 1999. Sure, there are problems with it, but I have just as many problems at work where it's Windows. You work around them. Linux has proven that it is ready for "the server".
I don't want Linux to be ready for "the desktop" because I am not convinced that it would be beneficial to Linux to be on "the desktop". All I can visualize is it losing what makes it special.
OK, this isn't really about which app to set up, but I work for a very large bank, and I work from home. The standard is Office Communicator. While there are things I really don't like about the setup (no tabs, I can't log coversations automatically), there are things I do really like. I'm not trying to sell you on it as a solution, but there are features you could look for in other solutions.
a. Everyone has their standard login assigned to them... I don't have to chat with people's made-up logins. It's their full name, not some goofy nickname.
b. Integration with calendars. If someone is in a meeting, it shows their status as such. Integrates with Out of Office reminders, and you can set notes on your account too. Very handy.
c. The ability to add people to a conversation, having a virtual conference... couple that with...
d. The ability to screen share via a communicator session. Invaluable. You don't have to start up a livemeeting (although, you can do that too from Communicator), you can just quickly share your app/desktop with one or more people.
e. Although I can't log conversations, I can email them to myself. Good for referencing back to. However, being able to log everything would be much much better. I've lost conversations due to network glitches/closing the window accidentally.
Communicator may not fit the bill, but it does have some nice features for use in the workplace. Consider some of them in whatever you do choose.
Let's just think about it for a second.... Bush put a program in place to illegally monitor US citizens.
How can Obama support the lawsuits without disclosing how it was all done, and who did it? I am sure there are state secrets involved. Hey, I don't like the wiretapping thing any more than anybody else. But let's look at it realistically - Obama has to clean up the mess Bush made. I don't really see a clean way to do this. It exists for the economy (which Bush IGNORED), Iraq, wiretapping, and countless other things.
I voted for Obama, and his presidency has been somewhat disappointing thus far. But people comparing him to Bush? Let's get a grip folks, and remember that he inherited all of this crap that was created by the previous guy.
Bad analogy time - what if the country used Windows ME, and someone dumped it in your lap and said "here - you own it now - good luck". Could you fix it and satisfy all your customers in 3 months?
Movies won't capture what you read as a kid. And I'm just trying to remember back when I was that age... but isn't 7 a little too young for super hero comics? I honestly don't remember when I got into them.
Just a word of advice, and this is just IMO, but don't force your memories on your kids. I introduce some things, like Bugs Bunny, to my kids just so I don't have to watch friggin' Dora again, but they didn't like it. Luckily, they like Road Runner. But don't force it. I find it creepy when parents try to make a little clone of themselves.
And I think the super hero movies should be made for those who grew up with them. I was very pleased with Iron Man and Batman Begins/The Dark Knight because of this. X-men series was good too. Let's NOT sanitize them for kids. Everything is geared towards kids these days, can we please keep these for ourselves? Fantastic Four was TERRIBLE for this very reason. I dub it the "Lucasizing" of movies. Enough with the Poochie-like characters and the belching after eathing something already.
The license for the javascript software you are running might be important, but the far more important factor, in my mind, is the IP rights and responsibilities attached to your data.
Who has access to your data? How can you verify that? Who is responsible for keeping it secure? Who is responsible for making backups? How can you verify that?
OK, what data do I own when using the internet? Is the date/time that I accessed a website my data, or theirs? Is my IP address my data, or is it my ISPs?
Talking ownership of data on the internet is a scary thing.
8,200,000,000 * 80 = 656,000,000,000
That is the current cost of the Iraq war. Yeah, let's talk about the "outrage du jour", shall we? IMO, while possibly an ill conceived plan, this has a goal and a purpose. And hundereds of thousands of people won't be killed or injured because of it.
And they aren't funding this with taxpayer money, they are just printing up more money to pay it off. Just like they are doing with the Iraq war. This isn't our money, it's our grandkids' money.. and their grandkids' money.
This administration is telling us what is going on, for the most part - and we don't like it. Hey, they're all going to screw us, but what would you rather have - one that lies to you and treats you like children, keeping you scared of the monsters under the bed?
These are still factoids, not "science".
A molecular biologist might have no knowledge, or care, about what percentage of the earth is covered in water, or how many days it takes for the earth to orbit the sun.
"Science" means following the scientific theory, and HOW science works. That is where most people fail - that and critical thinking. You can apply the theory to lots of things... if you just spew factoids, you don't actually LEARN.
Give a man a taco, he eats for a day. Teach a man to... wait, I messed up.
I normally buy online, but I had a couple of great experiences at Circuit City. I saw a DVD Recorder (Pye) that they had on their site. I went into the store that was very near to my house, and it was $11 higher. For a $90 item, that is significant. I asked one of the sales guys about it, and he explained the online prices were different. But then he led me to one of their store computers, and said "just buy it online, and do in-store pickup... I'll go get one for you." I save the $, they got the sale. All in all, a great deal.
That store near me just opened last year... it was kind of sad to see it go. I also bought a TV from them. I happened to get a newegg deal email the next day for one I was looking at that went on sale. CC wouldn't let me return the one I got without a restocking fee.. but I still got a great deal on the TV. So not that big of a deal.
I liked CC 10x better than Best Buy.