Or land their crates safely after traveling for billions of miles, or at least crash somewhere else but in the middle of nowhere, midwest USA.
If you were an alien, where would you land your craft? In the middle of nowhere, where there is no one around to mess with you or your stuff, or in the right in the middle of Central Park, where the Bloods or the Crips might gank you and jack your ride?
One could imagine that they're either more subtle when they try to remain under cover than leaving mutilated cattle and anally probed people lying around after their departure
Mutilated cattle may be an entirely different phenomenon than aliens (see el chupacabra, for instance, for a weirder, but alternate explanation), but as far as anally-probed people -- well, again, if you were going to anally probe people, would you anally probe the President or some celebrity or would you pick some poor schmuck whom no one is ever going to believe?
Why not land in the middle of the Superbowl finals
I assume they also wouldn't want to get involved in local conflicts.
C'mon, try to see it from the alien's perspective.
I think your post and the gp are both ridiculous. We can't even understand other cultures on our own planet, sometimes in our own COUNTRY - and you are talking about looking at things from an alien's perspective? That is utterly impossible. It's a bunch of worthless speculation because you are putting your brain into theirs. Even to say "if you were an alien, what would you do?" is a worthless statement... you wouldn't be you anymore - you'd be an alien with all of that alien's experiences and thoughts, with no knowledge of what you know now about Earth... not to mention that your post is very US-centric.
Maybe I've read too much Hofstadter. But this argument is just pointless. And I wouldn't have even responded if your post hadn't been modded interesting.
The article mentions early on that he's a "computer engineer", then mentions he's a systems administrator. Nowhere does it say he's a software engineer.
Those are very very different things. Even when programmers call themselves software engineers, it isn't always accurate. But rarely do I ever hear of admins calling themselves that.
PC Gaming is dying because people are tired of the "latest, greatest" games not only including a $50 price tag, but also another $250 price tag for a new video card to play them well!
First off, I don't think the PC Gaming industry is dying.. I just think it isn't growing like it was in the past. Here's the thing: they created this "must have latest and greatest" culture, and now they are getting bitten by it. Want latest and greatest? You have to buy $300 worth of hardware. Same goes for the music industry... they created the culture of "gotta have it" music, then they refused to embrace MP3s. They missed out on a GOLD mine.
I used to play a few games, but couldn't keep up. I almost bought a new video card in anticipation of Half-Life2, but thought better of it. Turned out to be a pretty good decision.... the game was delayed, and now there are cards that can run it for really cheap. Of course, I still haven't bought it. In fact, and this will probably shock a lot of people, I am still playing Half-Life single-player mods that are out there. And I am running it through WINE on Linux. So I'm probably not the typical gamer. I don't feel like I am missing out on anything, and when I do get around to playing HL2, I will have a ton of fun times ahead of me. Oh, and I haven't owned a console since Super Nintendo. I have no interest in crap like GTA or whatever else is out there. Maybe people have just learned that you CAN live without games, and people who live for gaming are kind of.. well, ridiculous.
Proof that lawyers aren't interested in "the truth" at all.
Well, no. They're interested in putting forth the best possible argument for their side. That's their job. Truth is for the judge and jury to decide.
1. This wasn't his attorney for this case, it was his previous divorce attorney who was recently re-hired. 2. The judge and jury did decide - guilty. Nothing more to discuss, nothing more to defend.
The statement "is hard to undo" means that they would try to "undo" the fact that he led them to the body. So it isn't about him maybe clearing his conscience and maybe giving some kind of peace to her family.. it's about winning, and manipulating the system. Let's not see if he can be rehabilitated, just deny everything and the legal system can be "worked". HE CAN'T UNDO HIS GUILT, but you can be sure that lawyers like this guy will try to do just that. Manipulation and deceit - this is what our legal system has become.
Proof that lawyers aren't interested in "the truth" at all. They are just soul-less scumbags.
FTA: John Fuery, who first represented Reiser in his divorce case which with Nina which began in 2004, said he thought that Reiser made "a mistake" by taking police to the spot where he apparently buried her.
Fuery said leading authorities to the location of a murder victim's body "proves your guilt and is hard to undo" in the future when a convicted murderer goes before a parole board to ask to be released from state prison.
I think it would be more interesting to do it with identical hardware PCs, one running Windows, one running Linux. Do some benchmarking before starting, use the same tools on both (firefox/thunderbird maybe). Could be interesting.
Just wish people quit pushing the ones that can't hack in CS to QA. I work for a software company as a developer, but so wish the QA people aren't just CS rejects. They need to be good at what they do and good QA people are hard to find. There can be a lot of scripting and programming in QA in the right environment and not just script monkeys that runs what they are told. QA really is a calling.
That's exactly why I chose it in 1995. I graduated in '93 with a CS degree... went to work at Motorola... entry level build engineer/release management. Maintained shell scripts, did software builds, etc. After a year was given the choice of paths - join the dev team or join the test team. I chose the test team, it's just what I'm better at. And I've met as many bad programmers as I have bad testers over the years.
And for the record people, QA is not testing - that's QC. Yeah, I know everyone calls it QA, but it's not correct. And even worse, you don't "QA something"... ugh. I've done my share of testing, test planning, requirements analysis, inspections, etc. I've now gotten into test management, and don't regret my initial choice. Programmers can make more, especially if they're good at a language in demand. But I can test anything. (system level testing, not looking at code and writing unit tests) I don't need to know the latest HOT language to be able to test things. I feel it's more flexible and I can get into other areas of software development if I choose to (I have dabbled in project management over the years)
It's a big big software development world out there, don't pigeon-hole CS people as programmers. Learn that there is a LOT more to software development than just programming. You WANT your testers, managers, and requirements people to have CS degrees. IMO, everyone needs to be more versed in the entire SDLC, it makes for a more well-rounded team.
Fitness centers operate similarly, they have numbers on how many times each member comes per week, and based on that (and other parameters) they price access to the center.
Now, imagine you buy a year membership card.
Then you start showing up each morning, and again in the evening.
Then the fitness center comes to you and says: "You can come here, but we are going to lock all the doors when you show up, because you are using up to much resources and thus denying them to our other members.
Except those people give a shit about their country. Where were these people during the last election? Where is the armed revolt against our government? Wiretapping isn't an invasion against our citizens?
I understand the rights that gun owners have. I grew up with guns and hunting, and deeply respect firearms. I just think that it is sad that the FIRST issue that is always on those people's minds is wanting to own killing devices to stop a tyrannical government. Guns are created to kill, they are single purpose. Sure, people use them for target practice and hunting, but killing is the name of the game. Killing and violence has penetrated our society to the deepest levels, and that makes me sad. My 3 year old daughter has recently talked about killing this and killing that... it's from being at daycare where the boys are always "killing" each other.
And "well, you can't escape it" is a fucking stupid response. We foster and breed violence. There's an undercurrent that violence is OK. Violence is a real thing, but we have no respect for it - it's entertainment.
I really do understand the arguments for gun ownership, and I wish I could believe in them. Unfortunately, I believe more in the stupidity, ignornace, and the mental and physical laziness of our general population. Everything is a knee-jerk reaction based on whatever the fuck Fox News told them. If I could eliminate all guns from this country with a snap of my fingers I would do it. IMO, the general population just isn't responsible enough to own them. But I can't do that, and we do have a stunning legal system in place. We don't need any more legislation, so don't think I am advocating anything of that sort.
Why don't we start CARING about our country FIRST, before we start our pseudo-preparations for defending ourselves against it? Maybe it's just too late for that. Guns are the answer to a question I really wish we didn't have to ask. It's just too bad that we can't solve more issues using our brains. I think if our population was smarter in general, having guns be so prevalent wouldn't make me so nervous.
Excellent point, and of course the list can go on and on. Sure, some apps like Photoshop are named well... GIMP, not so much. Irfanview.. huh?
When I go to my menu in Kubuntu Feisty and look under Multimedia for example, I see "Amarok (Audio Player)", "K3b (CD & DVD Burning)", "Kaffeine (Media Player)", etc. This is a subtle but very useful feature when I actually use the menu for something, which isn't very often.
Let's face it - people will have to get to know their computers a little better. People love to tout the ease of package management in Ubuntu, but there are frustrations with that as well. But I've been using Linux as my primary machine since Redhat 7.1 - so believe me, I appreciate the advances!
Installing on Windows is pretty easy (thanks to 3rd party installers), but I like the ability to delve into things if I want to. They're all frustrating at times, they're computers. Maybe we'll get to the day when they're not, but somehow I don't think so... I am sure in 10 years I'll be complaining that my 10TB drive is running out of space, and that I haven't taken the 30 seconds to update from Kubuntu Naughty Newt to Omnipotent Ostrich because of a known glitch in the Nvidia holo-drivers.
And yet their individual attitudes towards the U.S. are surprisingly positive. One reporter admits he'd like nothing better than to get an offer from Fox News, move to the U.S., and educate his children here. Another says that he has an infinite faith in the U.S. constitution. Of course, you are talking about reporters. Not people who have been locked up for 6 years against their will, not knowing anything about what has happened to their families and not knowing whether they will ever get out, be tortured, killed, etc. And I think it's safe to say they are innocent people - if we are going with the 'innocent until proven guilty' mantra. If you can't prove someone's guilt, or even CHARGE them with something in 6 years, then you need to let them go. Think about that... what were you doing 6 years ago.. what have you done since then? These people have been sitting in prison for no reason. (we have to assume no reason, since no reason has ever been provided)
Perhaps Hofstadter has no need for AI or robots, but I would love to see robots reach our level of thinking while I'm living. Work on AI shows us how we think and that is very fascinating. The rise of the robots will be *the* big event in our lives. When Hofstadter talks, I tend to listen to him. The man is brilliant. I find each of his books annoying at first, until my mind settles into them. Then it just envelopes me. It was no different with "I Am A Strange Loop". Overall, the book was great and addressed some very interesting questions in depth. No offense to you, but I am sure that his insights into AI are pretty extensive, and most people who say they would like to be around AI haven't thought about it to the depths he has. Of course, he was just stating his personal opinion on it.
GEB is a must read, as is "The Mind's I". If you are up for it, tackle "Metamagical Themas" - I had a 45 minute each way commute on a train while reading that, so I got to read an hour and a half a day on that thing. Some days, I just couldn't read that much of it, there was just too much to digest. Funny story, when my wife and I were dating, we went into a bookstore and split up. She's into languages. We met back after about 30 minutes of browsing. I had "Metamagical Themas", and she had "Le Ton Beau De Marot". We had both picked up books by him in totally different sections.
On the other hand, at least he does something. There are a lot of wealthy people out there who NEVER participate in anything other than gratifying themselves.
Of course, if they do it anonymously we wouldn't really know, would we?
they just don't know what to do with the money anymore. Give Bill credit for giving back.
Hmm. I've never liked this stance. Yes, he gives back a lot of money. But do this little exercise: Take Bill's net worth, then calculate what percentage of that a million dollars is. Then take that percentage of your net worth. That is what a million dollars is like to Bill. Last time I did this several years ago, it was about $2.
Comparatively, it's even worse than that, because I couldn't survive on 50% of my net worth, but he could survive on.5% of his. Yes, he donates a lot of money (to a foundation with his name plastered on it)... but as you said, he has more money than he can use... so it's no sacrifice to donate it or just throw it away. So at least something good can come of it, but let's not pretend it's any great sacrifice on his part.
It's not just that George Lucas had cold feet, he's become a bad director, he's lost his creative touch and filmmaking skill.
Please show where he had any. Seriously.
Lucas has stated on multiple occasions where Star Wars wasn't his true vision. He didn't have the control he wanted when that movie was made. He gained more control with ESB, and even more with ROTJ. He had full control with the pre/sequels. The only reason ROTJ isn't in the SUCK category is because it was grouped with the first two movies. It really fits much better with the more recent 3. Ewoks, that forest cycle bit, etc.
I'm convinced he's a formula-hack with no real talent or skill for movie-making. He's as much of a movie-maker as Bill Gates is a computer geek. Maybe at one time it was true, but they found their true calling as ruthless businessmen.
Sorry, but I gotta say that you're going for imports that just aren't better than a lot of domestic brews.
But they are more readily available to me.
My big grocery store is within walking distance from my house. They do have some micro-and-not-mega-brews, and good ones. But those aren't my staples. I kind of have to get what they stock though, and German beers just hit my palate more often than not. I go through phases though. Now if I want to drive for 20 minutes, I can get to an AJs or BevMo and go nuts. Leffe is one of my favorites, and Duvel... my wife lived in Belgium for a while, and we visited there once. Truly amazing beers.
And if I want to drive a little further and spend more, there's a "Yard House" about 30 minutes away. 130+ beers on tap. Left-Hand Milk Stout is awesome. And they have some "interesting" combinations like Framboise and Youngs Chocolate Stout. I probably won't get it again, but was glad I tried it.
When you make it yourself, it's close to half price of regular beer and often the result is better. For the experienced brewer often becomes almost always.
When you brew beer commercially, it becomes very important to make same beer every time, and to make something which easy to consume. The consumer beer is lighter (in colour and taste), because that's what you can drink in large quantities.
If you want beer full of flavour, the price goes up, or you have to make it yourself.
It's sad that people still think of that ice-cold-piss-water served by the major brewers as "beer". I've always respected the home-brewers, and thought about getting into it a couple of times... but just haven't. I don't really need or have time for any hobbies like that. The idea of making a tasty dark beer is very appealing... but there are so many choices out there, and I still haven't tried them all.:)
Good beer isn't that expensive. 7 or 8 dollars if you want to try a 6-pack, cheaper if you get a 12-pack. That's $1.35 per beer. The way I figure it, that's like going to a bar and buying 2 beers, and I don't go out to bars that much anymore. I know a guy who drinks Miller Lite... he drinks a lot of it. I drink all kinds of "expensive" beers, but I don't pound down 6 of them a night. We're probably spending the same amount of money on beer, and while he may be getting drunker, I really enjoy mine. Could I save a few dollars by home brewing? Maybe.. but let's not forget all the "learning" batches, the time it takes, and the waiting! Oh, the waiting!
go-tos are Becks, St.Pauli Girl, Warsteiner, Newcastle, Grolsch, and a variety of dark beers. Youngs Oatmeal Stout and Chocolate Stout are hard to beat.
Slashdot Mirror
Or land their crates safely after traveling for billions of miles, or at least crash somewhere else but in the middle of nowhere, midwest USA.
If you were an alien, where would you land your craft? In the middle of nowhere, where there is no one around to mess with you or your stuff, or in the right in the middle of Central Park, where the Bloods or the Crips might gank you and jack your ride?
One could imagine that they're either more subtle when they try to remain under cover than leaving mutilated cattle and anally probed people lying around after their departure
Mutilated cattle may be an entirely different phenomenon than aliens (see el chupacabra, for instance, for a weirder, but alternate explanation), but as far as anally-probed people -- well, again, if you were going to anally probe people, would you anally probe the President or some celebrity or would you pick some poor schmuck whom no one is ever going to believe?
Why not land in the middle of the Superbowl finals
I assume they also wouldn't want to get involved in local conflicts.
C'mon, try to see it from the alien's perspective.
I think your post and the gp are both ridiculous. We can't even understand other cultures on our own planet, sometimes in our own COUNTRY - and you are talking about looking at things from an alien's perspective? That is utterly impossible. It's a bunch of worthless speculation because you are putting your brain into theirs. Even to say "if you were an alien, what would you do?" is a worthless statement... you wouldn't be you anymore - you'd be an alien with all of that alien's experiences and thoughts, with no knowledge of what you know now about Earth... not to mention that your post is very US-centric.
Maybe I've read too much Hofstadter. But this argument is just pointless. And I wouldn't have even responded if your post hadn't been modded interesting.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486358/
Just watched it last night. Creepy, creepy stuff.
The article mentions early on that he's a "computer engineer", then mentions he's a systems administrator. Nowhere does it say he's a software engineer.
Those are very very different things. Even when programmers call themselves software engineers, it isn't always accurate. But rarely do I ever hear of admins calling themselves that.
Maybe he read too many episodes of BOFH. :)
Yes, someone please mod the parent post up!
PC Gaming is dying because people are tired of the "latest, greatest" games not only including a $50 price tag, but also another $250 price tag for a new video card to play them well!
First off, I don't think the PC Gaming industry is dying.. I just think it isn't growing like it was in the past. Here's the thing: they created this "must have latest and greatest" culture, and now they are getting bitten by it. Want latest and greatest? You have to buy $300 worth of hardware. Same goes for the music industry... they created the culture of "gotta have it" music, then they refused to embrace MP3s. They missed out on a GOLD mine.
I used to play a few games, but couldn't keep up. I almost bought a new video card in anticipation of Half-Life2, but thought better of it. Turned out to be a pretty good decision.... the game was delayed, and now there are cards that can run it for really cheap. Of course, I still haven't bought it. In fact, and this will probably shock a lot of people, I am still playing Half-Life single-player mods that are out there. And I am running it through WINE on Linux. So I'm probably not the typical gamer. I don't feel like I am missing out on anything, and when I do get around to playing HL2, I will have a ton of fun times ahead of me. Oh, and I haven't owned a console since Super Nintendo. I have no interest in crap like GTA or whatever else is out there. Maybe people have just learned that you CAN live without games, and people who live for gaming are kind of.. well, ridiculous.
Proof that lawyers aren't interested in "the truth" at all.
Well, no. They're interested in putting forth the best possible argument for their side. That's their job. Truth is for the judge and jury to decide.
1. This wasn't his attorney for this case, it was his previous divorce attorney who was recently re-hired.
2. The judge and jury did decide - guilty. Nothing more to discuss, nothing more to defend.
The statement "is hard to undo" means that they would try to "undo" the fact that he led them to the body. So it isn't about him maybe clearing his conscience and maybe giving some kind of peace to her family.. it's about winning, and manipulating the system. Let's not see if he can be rehabilitated, just deny everything and the legal system can be "worked". HE CAN'T UNDO HIS GUILT, but you can be sure that lawyers like this guy will try to do just that. Manipulation and deceit - this is what our legal system has become.
... right where ID belongs.
Proof that lawyers aren't interested in "the truth" at all. They are just soul-less scumbags.
FTA:
John Fuery, who first represented Reiser in his divorce case which with Nina which began in 2004, said he thought that Reiser made "a mistake" by taking police to the spot where he apparently buried her.
Fuery said leading authorities to the location of a murder victim's body "proves your guilt and is hard to undo" in the future when a convicted murderer goes before a parole board to ask to be released from state prison.
I think it would be more interesting to do it with identical hardware PCs, one running Windows, one running Linux. Do some benchmarking before starting, use the same tools on both (firefox/thunderbird maybe). Could be interesting.
Just wish people quit pushing the ones that can't hack in CS to QA. I work for a software company as a developer, but so wish the QA people aren't just CS rejects. They need to be good at what they do and good QA people are hard to find. There can be a lot of scripting and programming in QA in the right environment and not just script monkeys that runs what they are told. QA really is a calling.
That's exactly why I chose it in 1995. I graduated in '93 with a CS degree... went to work at Motorola... entry level build engineer/release management. Maintained shell scripts, did software builds, etc. After a year was given the choice of paths - join the dev team or join the test team. I chose the test team, it's just what I'm better at. And I've met as many bad programmers as I have bad testers over the years.
And for the record people, QA is not testing - that's QC. Yeah, I know everyone calls it QA, but it's not correct. And even worse, you don't "QA something"... ugh. I've done my share of testing, test planning, requirements analysis, inspections, etc. I've now gotten into test management, and don't regret my initial choice. Programmers can make more, especially if they're good at a language in demand. But I can test anything. (system level testing, not looking at code and writing unit tests) I don't need to know the latest HOT language to be able to test things. I feel it's more flexible and I can get into other areas of software development if I choose to (I have dabbled in project management over the years)
It's a big big software development world out there, don't pigeon-hole CS people as programmers. Learn that there is a LOT more to software development than just programming. You WANT your testers, managers, and requirements people to have CS degrees. IMO, everyone needs to be more versed in the entire SDLC, it makes for a more well-rounded team.
Fitness centers operate similarly, they have numbers on how many times each member comes per week, and based on that (and other parameters) they price access to the center.
Now, imagine you buy a year membership card.
Then you start showing up each morning, and again in the evening.
Then the fitness center comes to you and says: "You can come here, but we are going to lock all the doors when you show up, because you are using up to much resources and thus denying them to our other members.
Do you think there would be any outrage ?
Not from the Slashdot crowd.
Except those people give a shit about their country. Where were these people during the last election? Where is the armed revolt against our government? Wiretapping isn't an invasion against our citizens?
I understand the rights that gun owners have. I grew up with guns and hunting, and deeply respect firearms. I just think that it is sad that the FIRST issue that is always on those people's minds is wanting to own killing devices to stop a tyrannical government. Guns are created to kill, they are single purpose. Sure, people use them for target practice and hunting, but killing is the name of the game. Killing and violence has penetrated our society to the deepest levels, and that makes me sad. My 3 year old daughter has recently talked about killing this and killing that... it's from being at daycare where the boys are always "killing" each other.
And "well, you can't escape it" is a fucking stupid response. We foster and breed violence. There's an undercurrent that violence is OK. Violence is a real thing, but we have no respect for it - it's entertainment.
I really do understand the arguments for gun ownership, and I wish I could believe in them. Unfortunately, I believe more in the stupidity, ignornace, and the mental and physical laziness of our general population. Everything is a knee-jerk reaction based on whatever the fuck Fox News told them. If I could eliminate all guns from this country with a snap of my fingers I would do it. IMO, the general population just isn't responsible enough to own them. But I can't do that, and we do have a stunning legal system in place. We don't need any more legislation, so don't think I am advocating anything of that sort.
Why don't we start CARING about our country FIRST, before we start our pseudo-preparations for defending ourselves against it? Maybe it's just too late for that. Guns are the answer to a question I really wish we didn't have to ask. It's just too bad that we can't solve more issues using our brains. I think if our population was smarter in general, having guns be so prevalent wouldn't make me so nervous.
'nuff said
Excellent point, and of course the list can go on and on. Sure, some apps like Photoshop are named well... GIMP, not so much. Irfanview.. huh?
When I go to my menu in Kubuntu Feisty and look under Multimedia for example, I see "Amarok (Audio Player)", "K3b (CD & DVD Burning)", "Kaffeine (Media Player)", etc.
This is a subtle but very useful feature when I actually use the menu for something, which isn't very often.
Let's face it - people will have to get to know their computers a little better. People love to tout the ease of package management in Ubuntu, but there are frustrations with that as well. But I've been using Linux as my primary machine since Redhat 7.1 - so believe me, I appreciate the advances!
Installing on Windows is pretty easy (thanks to 3rd party installers), but I like the ability to delve into things if I want to. They're all frustrating at times, they're computers. Maybe we'll get to the day when they're not, but somehow I don't think so... I am sure in 10 years I'll be complaining that my 10TB drive is running out of space, and that I haven't taken the 30 seconds to update from Kubuntu Naughty Newt to Omnipotent Ostrich because of a known glitch in the Nvidia holo-drivers.
GEB is a must read, as is "The Mind's I". If you are up for it, tackle "Metamagical Themas" - I had a 45 minute each way commute on a train while reading that, so I got to read an hour and a half a day on that thing. Some days, I just couldn't read that much of it, there was just too much to digest. Funny story, when my wife and I were dating, we went into a bookstore and split up. She's into languages. We met back after about 30 minutes of browsing. I had "Metamagical Themas", and she had "Le Ton Beau De Marot". We had both picked up books by him in totally different sections.
Perhaps you should look up the definition of 'altruism'.
Of course, if they do it anonymously we wouldn't really know, would we?
Hmm. I've never liked this stance. Yes, he gives back a lot of money. But do this little exercise: Take Bill's net worth, then calculate what percentage of that a million dollars is. Then take that percentage of your net worth. That is what a million dollars is like to Bill. Last time I did this several years ago, it was about $2.
Comparatively, it's even worse than that, because I couldn't survive on 50% of my net worth, but he could survive on
Please show where he had any.
Seriously.
Lucas has stated on multiple occasions where Star Wars wasn't his true vision. He didn't have the control he wanted when that movie was made. He gained more control with ESB, and even more with ROTJ. He had full control with the pre/sequels. The only reason ROTJ isn't in the SUCK category is because it was grouped with the first two movies. It really fits much better with the more recent 3. Ewoks, that forest cycle bit, etc.
I'm convinced he's a formula-hack with no real talent or skill for movie-making. He's as much of a movie-maker as Bill Gates is a computer geek. Maybe at one time it was true, but they found their true calling as ruthless businessmen.
But they are more readily available to me.
My big grocery store is within walking distance from my house. They do have some micro-and-not-mega-brews, and good ones. But those aren't my staples. I kind of have to get what they stock though, and German beers just hit my palate more often than not. I go through phases though. Now if I want to drive for 20 minutes, I can get to an AJs or BevMo and go nuts. Leffe is one of my favorites, and Duvel... my wife lived in Belgium for a while, and we visited there once. Truly amazing beers.
And if I want to drive a little further and spend more, there's a "Yard House" about 30 minutes away. 130+ beers on tap. Left-Hand Milk Stout is awesome. And they have some "interesting" combinations like Framboise and Youngs Chocolate Stout. I probably won't get it again, but was glad I tried it.
When you brew beer commercially, it becomes very important to make same beer every time, and to make something which easy to consume.
The consumer beer is lighter (in colour and taste), because that's what you can drink in large quantities.
If you want beer full of flavour, the price goes up, or you have to make it yourself.
It's sad that people still think of that ice-cold-piss-water served by the major brewers as "beer". I've always respected the home-brewers, and thought about getting into it a couple of times... but just haven't. I don't really need or have time for any hobbies like that. The idea of making a tasty dark beer is very appealing... but there are so many choices out there, and I still haven't tried them all.
Good beer isn't that expensive. 7 or 8 dollars if you want to try a 6-pack, cheaper if you get a 12-pack. That's $1.35 per beer. The way I figure it, that's like going to a bar and buying 2 beers, and I don't go out to bars that much anymore. I know a guy who drinks Miller Lite... he drinks a lot of it. I drink all kinds of "expensive" beers, but I don't pound down 6 of them a night. We're probably spending the same amount of money on beer, and while he may be getting drunker, I really enjoy mine. Could I save a few dollars by home brewing? Maybe.. but let's not forget all the "learning" batches, the time it takes, and the waiting! Oh, the waiting!
go-tos are Becks, St.Pauli Girl, Warsteiner, Newcastle, Grolsch, and a variety of dark beers. Youngs Oatmeal Stout and Chocolate Stout are hard to beat.
After you have kids, you aren't so much interested in how long it lasts, but the MTBF. (Mean Time Between Fscks)
Yep, just ask Bank of America, who recently bought Countrywide.
Please explain the difference.