I have posted this previously, it has to do my experiences as an American in Paris. I think it is worth posting again.
Amen. I know a bit about the French, but don't really know much of the language. I can repeat it quite convincingly though. My wife got her Masters in French linguistics. We spent a week in Paris the week after the war with Iraq started. We were concerned about being Americans in Paris at that time, but not too worried. Because my wife is fluent in French, she did most of the talking and it was a fantastic vacation. We encountered a couple of rude people: A metro ticket agent (duh) and a waiter. In the waiter's defense, we were eating lunch well after lunchtime, so I didn't attribute the rudeness to being French.
In fact, I found the French to be quite pleasant. In our hotel, they had a small free breakfast buffet. No, not like the buffets here in the US. Very good food, simple stuff. On our last day there, we were enjoying our breakfast and a herd of American teenagers rumbled in. It was startling how noisy, clumsy, rude, and obviously American they were. Granted, they were teenagers, but we saw several groups of teens up on the Eiffel Tower, and the only noticable ones were Americans and Canadians. The British ones were next on the list.
I think two things made us blend in - my wife knowing the language (and my lame attempts), and the fact that we made an attempt to fit in. We dressed the part, which made such a huge difference. It actually became kind of interesting to be able to pick out who the tourists were based on what they were wearing and how they acted. It definitely changed my perspective on things. Funny how Americans bitch about the French being rude to them, yet they don't make an honest attempt to learn French. Yet someone here doesn't speak the language, and we yell "Go home" or "Speak American!".
If you want to hear some real ignorance on the topic, tune in to Fox News sometime. Wow. How embarassing.
a health care system available to all its citizens?
My wife has family all over Canada, and I can tell you that from their experiences, the healthcare system isn't all that great. While everyone has coverage, it can be pretty tough to get in to see a doctor. Things take longer because their system is swamped. And I remember something about how the banking industry isn't that good up there, so you don't get decent interest rates. Or something like that, I can't remember. I just meant to say that it is no "wonderland", they do have their own issues.
But damn, are they polite up there. We went there on our honeymoon, took a 2 day tour on the Rocky Mountaineer. When we were pulling out of the station in Vancouver, there was graffiti sprayed on a nearby overpass. What did it say? "Welcome to Vancouver". Cracked my ass UP. Victoria was absolutely beautiful, I would move there in a second if I thought I could find a job.
Not to mention "Stuff that is spelled incorrectly."
Come on, "comming"? Like in an earlier story, where the poster said they "seen" something. And they couldn't take a second to capitalize "friday"? Sheesh.
I wish , just once.. a company I owned stock in would restate their books in a positive manner... ie: oops, we forgot to count that extra 200 million worth of revenue.
That'd be a pleasant change.
If you were the accountant, and you found an unreported 200 million, what would you do with it?
(Disclaimer: I live in Japan, where the Xbox's popularity level is somewhere around "the whowhat?". Is the Xbox doing any better in the West?)
Yes, it is. Because we have it crammed down our throats. (disclaimer: the only console I own is a SNES) My nieces got an Xbox for Christmas because they are impressionable kids. My brother asked me which one he should get them, and I said it was between the PS2 and the Gamecube. For them, I said to go with the Gamecube, but if he wanted to play any of the old PS1 games, to go with the PS2. He went with the Xbox, because he had "heard more about it". What he really meant was he had heard the name Xbox a jillion times. My younger brother got an Xbox too, and when I asked him why, he cited some marketing crap about how the graphics were better. (which they are, but that doesn't mean the console is better).
Xbox sells as many units as it does here in the US because Microsoft has the money to push the damn thing. I don't know how many contests I heard that were giving away an Xbox. All over the place - TV commercials, magazines, radio. The Xbox is popular because it is presented as being popular. People are generally ignorant, and will believe what they are told.
That being said, MS now has a foothold in the market, and they have the money to buy up the good game developers. Then you'll see something like the Nintendo strategy of producing games only for their system. Wait until MS purchases a big media company, and they get the product tie-ins to their game console.
Have you ever considered that they couldn't care less about DRM on the media?
What possible reason would Microsoft, or more personally Bill Gates care about it? Seriously. They don't produce movies. They don't produce music.
Well, here is one theory . Seriously, maybe Microsoft has plans to get into the media production industry within the next 10 years. Maybe they, or Bill himself, already owns chunks of big media companies. So it might be safe to say that TODAY Microsoft doesn't produce movies or music, but in 10 years....
I can't think of any other culture that would want to do something like this. I love Japan. Everything about it seems to be 20 years in the future. If you ever say anything weird or unbelievable, add "in Japan" at the end, and it sounds more realistic.
I was wondering about the culture difference and the acceptance of this technology. Well, I guess that would be part of my question - is this "no big deal" to the Japanese? Or do they have tinfoil hats over there too? The thing is, in the USA we NEED the tinfoil hats. It has been proven over and over again that we as a culture have a tendency to abuse power. Not that other countries don't, but they don't have our Constitution. We keep saying "freedom freedom freedom" and yet at the same time we don't necessarily honor it all the time.
Maybe in Japan they can implement this technology without worry of abuse because that would be wrong. Or maybe it will be abused, but nobody will care. Anyone know more about modern Japanese culture to comment?
What - berets, stripey shirts, and a string of onions?
[ Lame joke not flamebait...:-)]
You forgot the cigarettes and pencil-thin moustache.:-)
For those who don't know, it was pants (not jeans or shorts), non-athletic shoes, variety of basic-color Tshirts that fit (not baggy), and a zip-up black sweater. Of course, it helped that my wife and I aren't overweight. Being overweight over there will make you stick out like a fat thumb.
I think you could have picked better examples than a paint mixer and a car ECU!
I did, but I wanted to show the sheer variety of things. You don't even think of something like a paint mixer. Just look around during your daily life.
As for truly portable music , umm , well I hate to point it out to you but that was available back in the 70s.
Well, yeah, sort of. But the volume wasn't there. What you can carry around in an iPod vs a cassette player? The ability to transfer your music, burn it to CDs? I have a CD player in my car that plays MP3s from CD. While the concepts were there, they have been improved upon.
What about the average Joe, the average corporate user? I don't think these people understand the severity of the situation here or that they even care. Hence, we still have roughly 90% of the users out there just moving along with these secure-as-swiss-cheese browsers and not moving to more secure solutions.
The average corporate user will use whatever they are told to use. I am constantly amazed at the apathy of corporate users. I heard someone the other day complaining about all the popup windows in IE. (and this was for work related activities). So I downloaded Mozilla for her, had her install it, and showed her how it blocked popups and some of the other cool features. A few days later, we were working on something and she was using IE. I asked her why she wasn't using Mozilla, and she said "I dunno, I am used to IE." She is bright technically, but sometimes I have to wonder.
I can go on, and this one is even better. Our IT department sent out an email about one of the recent IE vulnerabilities, and said that until a patch was released, people should use the internet as little as possible. No mention of another brower whatsoever, just "stay off the internet". Unbelievable.
Sorry, but computers are the most unique and versatile tool EVER invented? Step away from the PC every now and again and check out the world.
Think of what computers have allowed us to do. Not just personal computers, all electronic computers. They are everywhere. Sure, they may be used for a lot of conveniences, but those are fantastic conveniences. Do you remember what it was like to check out at the grocery store 20 years ago? I cannot imagine doing that now. It takes minutes to run an entire cart of groceries through and pay for them. But that is consumerism, so someone may be willing to live without that. Think of the medical industry. The advances because of computers has been immense. The tools and technology that they use today is fantastic. Now you could argue that the medical system in this country is no better off, because of shortages, malpractice, etc. But you have to look at the accomplishments of the tool without passing judgement on the industry itself. I got some paint this past weekend. Computer mixed it. I drove my car to get the paint - it has a computer managing the engine system. We have a rover on Mars. Satellite images of the planet. Weather radar that you can view on the internet. Truly portable music. Everything from scientific applications to pure entertainment. Some things that could never have existed without computers.
I fully understand the need to disconnect every once in a while. But if you *really* investigate what computers have done for us, it is mind-boggling.
I think the whole arrogance thing is overblown. Yes Parisian waiters are arrogant - you expect that. But by and large they're just regular people trying to get by in the world just like most people. You find some friendly people, some @$$holes. Same everywhere you go.
Amen. I know a bit about the French, but don't really know much of the language. I can repeat it quite convincingly though. My wife got her Masters in French linguistics. We spent a week in Paris the week after the war with Iraq started. We were concerned about being Americans in Paris at that time, but not too worried. Because my wife is fluent in French, she did most of the talking and it was a fantastic vacation. We encountered a couple of rude people: A metro ticket agent (duh) and a waiter. In the waiter's defense, we were eating lunch well after lunchtime, so I didn't attribute the rudeness to being French.
In fact, I found the French to be quite pleasant. In our hotel, they had a small free breakfast buffet. No, not like the buffets here in the US. Very good food, simple stuff. On our last day there, we were enjoying our breakfast and a herd of American teenagers rumbled in. It was startling how noisy, clumsy, rude, and obviously American they were. Granted, they were teenagers, but we saw several groups of teens up on the Eiffel Tower, and the only noticable ones were Americans and Canadians.
I think two things made us blend in - my wife knowing the language (and my lame attempts), and the fact that we made an attempt to fit in. We dressed the part, which made such a huge difference. It actually became kind of interesting to be able to pick out who the tourists were based on what they were wearing and how they acted. It definitely changed my perspective on things. Funny how Americans bitch about the French being rude to them, yet they don't make an honest attempt to learn French. Yet someone here doesn't speak the language, and we yell "Go home" or "Speak American!".
If you want to hear some real ignorance on the topic, tune in to Fox News sometime. Wow. How embarassing.
And you can tell they don't want to admit it because it's named Windows Services for UNIX. UNIX Services for Windows is more correct, but they want you to believe that Windows is empowering UNIX instead of the other way around.
Why don't they just name it Functional Unix Distribution and get the whole acronym thing out in the open.
Who knows. They probably wouldn't get the deserved credit anyway. They might be working on algorithms, or other such stuff that you just don't see. WMV? Although it is proprietary, it is a pretty good format. I'd bet that if you look in MS's patent portfolio, you'd see some of the things they have done. I have always said that MS is not a technology company, they are a software business. They probably saw the power that companies like IBM have with their patent portfolio, and simply bought people who could beef theirs up.
The speed with which a fix was issued after the general public was made aware of the problem was good... but the previous activity over the bug (imagine setting the status to WONTFIX for this!!??) smacks of Microsoft-style negligence/lack-of-concern.
Microsoft-style? WTF? I am no fan of MS, but have you ever worked in the software industry? Sweeping bugs under the rug is the way things are done, period. I have been doing QA/Testing for 10 years, and it is like that all over the place.
And I am not necessarily passing judgement on it either, because software development is about mitigating risk. You have to balance all the aspects of software development, you can't fix everything. Here is how sofware projects work: (think of it as a grid)
From the items on the left, you can optimize one, constrain one, and accept the other two. Usually, it is optimize scope, constrain schedule, and accept the cost and quality. But for places like NASA, I am sure it is not like that at all.
Unfortunately, the need for innovative work to reinforce and expand the existing business model and never ever undermine it is constraining and prevents the company from releasing the full talent of its employees.
Speaking of giving up, I think a lot of the bad feelings over the third film were because people gave up after the underwhelming second film. Perhaps the third doesn't "make up" for the second, but how could it? Watch it again and you just may find you actually like it on it's own merits.
Agreed. Here is a tip - don't stand in line for these things at the theater. I saw the first one and frickin loved it. Saw the second one, and left kind of scratching my head. I had to hope that the third one would tie it all up. But I waited, and didn't go see it in the theater. I read all the bad reviews. Then I rented it - and thought it was better than the 2nd one. It wasn't THAT bad. Not great, but better than a lot of the reviews I read.
Everyone talks about the "movie theater experience", but I just don't get it. Other than bigger and louder, the theater experience just is not as good to me. No, I am not one of those people with the 5.1 surround and a 60" TV. I have basic surround and a 27" TV, and I still enjoy movies more at home than at the theater. Cheaper food, more comfortable, I can go pee without missing any of the movie, etc. I don't need to share the experience with a hundred other people.
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And if you think that all you need to effectively manage a project is some Gantt charts, then I have an EULA I'd like you to sign.
I think what the parent poster was hoping for (as was I) was a Project Management system. Gantt charts alone don't cut it.
Amen. I know a bit about the French, but don't really know much of the language. I can repeat it quite convincingly though. My wife got her Masters in French linguistics. We spent a week in Paris the week after the war with Iraq started. We were concerned about being Americans in Paris at that time, but not too worried. Because my wife is fluent in French, she did most of the talking and it was a fantastic vacation. We encountered a couple of rude people: A metro ticket agent (duh) and a waiter. In the waiter's defense, we were eating lunch well after lunchtime, so I didn't attribute the rudeness to being French.
In fact, I found the French to be quite pleasant. In our hotel, they had a small free breakfast buffet. No, not like the buffets here in the US. Very good food, simple stuff. On our last day there, we were enjoying our breakfast and a herd of American teenagers rumbled in. It was startling how noisy, clumsy, rude, and obviously American they were. Granted, they were teenagers, but we saw several groups of teens up on the Eiffel Tower, and the only noticable ones were Americans and Canadians. The British ones were next on the list.
I think two things made us blend in - my wife knowing the language (and my lame attempts), and the fact that we made an attempt to fit in. We dressed the part, which made such a huge difference. It actually became kind of interesting to be able to pick out who the tourists were based on what they were wearing and how they acted. It definitely changed my perspective on things. Funny how Americans bitch about the French being rude to them, yet they don't make an honest attempt to learn French. Yet someone here doesn't speak the language, and we yell "Go home" or "Speak American!".
If you want to hear some real ignorance on the topic, tune in to Fox News sometime. Wow. How embarassing.
My wife has family all over Canada, and I can tell you that from their experiences, the healthcare system isn't all that great. While everyone has coverage, it can be pretty tough to get in to see a doctor. Things take longer because their system is swamped. And I remember something about how the banking industry isn't that good up there, so you don't get decent interest rates. Or something like that, I can't remember. I just meant to say that it is no "wonderland", they do have their own issues.
But damn, are they polite up there. We went there on our honeymoon, took a 2 day tour on the Rocky Mountaineer. When we were pulling out of the station in Vancouver, there was graffiti sprayed on a nearby overpass. What did it say?
"Welcome to Vancouver".
Cracked my ass UP. Victoria was absolutely beautiful, I would move there in a second if I thought I could find a job.
Why?
How about:
And you thought "finding out the hot girl you were chatting with is really a guy" was creepy...
think about it.
Come on, "comming"? Like in an earlier story, where the poster said they "seen" something. And they couldn't take a second to capitalize "friday"? Sheesh.
No better way to point out that you are a redneck than to say you "just seen" something. Hilarious, in a tragic sort of way.
If you were the accountant, and you found an unreported 200 million, what would you do with it?
Yes, it is. Because we have it crammed down our throats. (disclaimer: the only console I own is a SNES) My nieces got an Xbox for Christmas because they are impressionable kids. My brother asked me which one he should get them, and I said it was between the PS2 and the Gamecube. For them, I said to go with the Gamecube, but if he wanted to play any of the old PS1 games, to go with the PS2. He went with the Xbox, because he had "heard more about it". What he really meant was he had heard the name Xbox a jillion times. My younger brother got an Xbox too, and when I asked him why, he cited some marketing crap about how the graphics were better. (which they are, but that doesn't mean the console is better).
Xbox sells as many units as it does here in the US because Microsoft has the money to push the damn thing. I don't know how many contests I heard that were giving away an Xbox. All over the place - TV commercials, magazines, radio. The Xbox is popular because it is presented as being popular. People are generally ignorant, and will believe what they are told.
That being said, MS now has a foothold in the market, and they have the money to buy up the good game developers. Then you'll see something like the Nintendo strategy of producing games only for their system. Wait until MS purchases a big media company, and they get the product tie-ins to their game console.
Well, here is one theory . Seriously, maybe Microsoft has plans to get into the media production industry within the next 10 years. Maybe they, or Bill himself, already owns chunks of big media companies. So it might be safe to say that TODAY Microsoft doesn't produce movies or music, but in 10 years....
I can hear the hackers salivating now. This would be sweet to hack and get MAME running on it. Instant-on MAME machine? Sweet.
I was wondering about the culture difference and the acceptance of this technology. Well, I guess that would be part of my question - is this "no big deal" to the Japanese? Or do they have tinfoil hats over there too? The thing is, in the USA we NEED the tinfoil hats. It has been proven over and over again that we as a culture have a tendency to abuse power. Not that other countries don't, but they don't have our Constitution. We keep saying "freedom freedom freedom" and yet at the same time we don't necessarily honor it all the time.
Maybe in Japan they can implement this technology without worry of abuse because that would be wrong. Or maybe it will be abused, but nobody will care. Anyone know more about modern Japanese culture to comment?
You forgot the cigarettes and pencil-thin moustache. :-)
For those who don't know, it was pants (not jeans or shorts), non-athletic shoes, variety of basic-color Tshirts that fit (not baggy), and a zip-up black sweater. Of course, it helped that my wife and I aren't overweight. Being overweight over there will make you stick out like a fat thumb.
I did, but I wanted to show the sheer variety of things. You don't even think of something like a paint mixer. Just look around during your daily life.
As for truly portable music , umm , well I hate to point it out to you but that was available back in the 70s.
Well, yeah, sort of. But the volume wasn't there. What you can carry around in an iPod vs a cassette player? The ability to transfer your music, burn it to CDs? I have a CD player in my car that plays MP3s from CD. While the concepts were there, they have been improved upon.
The average corporate user will use whatever they are told to use. I am constantly amazed at the apathy of corporate users. I heard someone the other day complaining about all the popup windows in IE. (and this was for work related activities). So I downloaded Mozilla for her, had her install it, and showed her how it blocked popups and some of the other cool features. A few days later, we were working on something and she was using IE. I asked her why she wasn't using Mozilla, and she said "I dunno, I am used to IE." She is bright technically, but sometimes I have to wonder.
I can go on, and this one is even better. Our IT department sent out an email about one of the recent IE vulnerabilities, and said that until a patch was released, people should use the internet as little as possible. No mention of another brower whatsoever, just "stay off the internet". Unbelievable.
Think of what computers have allowed us to do. Not just personal computers, all electronic computers. They are everywhere. Sure, they may be used for a lot of conveniences, but those are fantastic conveniences. Do you remember what it was like to check out at the grocery store 20 years ago? I cannot imagine doing that now. It takes minutes to run an entire cart of groceries through and pay for them. But that is consumerism, so someone may be willing to live without that. Think of the medical industry. The advances because of computers has been immense. The tools and technology that they use today is fantastic. Now you could argue that the medical system in this country is no better off, because of shortages, malpractice, etc. But you have to look at the accomplishments of the tool without passing judgement on the industry itself. I got some paint this past weekend. Computer mixed it. I drove my car to get the paint - it has a computer managing the engine system. We have a rover on Mars. Satellite images of the planet. Weather radar that you can view on the internet. Truly portable music. Everything from scientific applications to pure entertainment. Some things that could never have existed without computers.
I fully understand the need to disconnect every once in a while. But if you *really* investigate what computers have done for us, it is mind-boggling.
Amen. I know a bit about the French, but don't really know much of the language. I can repeat it quite convincingly though. My wife got her Masters in French linguistics. We spent a week in Paris the week after the war with Iraq started. We were concerned about being Americans in Paris at that time, but not too worried. Because my wife is fluent in French, she did most of the talking and it was a fantastic vacation. We encountered a couple of rude people: A metro ticket agent (duh) and a waiter. In the waiter's defense, we were eating lunch well after lunchtime, so I didn't attribute the rudeness to being French.
In fact, I found the French to be quite pleasant. In our hotel, they had a small free breakfast buffet. No, not like the buffets here in the US. Very good food, simple stuff. On our last day there, we were enjoying our breakfast and a herd of American teenagers rumbled in. It was startling how noisy, clumsy, rude, and obviously American they were. Granted, they were teenagers, but we saw several groups of teens up on the Eiffel Tower, and the only noticable ones were Americans and Canadians.
I think two things made us blend in - my wife knowing the language (and my lame attempts), and the fact that we made an attempt to fit in. We dressed the part, which made such a huge difference. It actually became kind of interesting to be able to pick out who the tourists were based on what they were wearing and how they acted. It definitely changed my perspective on things. Funny how Americans bitch about the French being rude to them, yet they don't make an honest attempt to learn French. Yet someone here doesn't speak the language, and we yell "Go home" or "Speak American!".
If you want to hear some real ignorance on the topic, tune in to Fox News sometime. Wow. How embarassing.
Hi, this is 2001, we would like our vaporware back. Thank you.
Why don't they just name it Functional Unix Distribution and get the whole acronym thing out in the open.
Who knows. They probably wouldn't get the deserved credit anyway. They might be working on algorithms, or other such stuff that you just don't see. WMV? Although it is proprietary, it is a pretty good format. I'd bet that if you look in MS's patent portfolio, you'd see some of the things they have done. I have always said that MS is not a technology company, they are a software business. They probably saw the power that companies like IBM have with their patent portfolio, and simply bought people who could beef theirs up.
Microsoft-style? WTF? I am no fan of MS, but have you ever worked in the software industry? Sweeping bugs under the rug is the way things are done, period. I have been doing QA/Testing for 10 years, and it is like that all over the place.
And I am not necessarily passing judgement on it either, because software development is about mitigating risk. You have to balance all the aspects of software development, you can't fix everything. Here is how sofware projects work: (think of it as a grid)
Optimize Contstrain Accept
Cost
Schedule
Scope
Quality
From the items on the left, you can optimize one, constrain one, and accept the other two. Usually, it is optimize scope, constrain schedule, and accept the cost and quality. But for places like NASA, I am sure it is not like that at all.
This is reality.
Unless over the last 13 years you have used your immense cash stockpiles to hire people for the sole purpose of research.
That sounds like a wager to me.
One that I have already won.
That sure explains the UI.
Agreed. Here is a tip - don't stand in line for these things at the theater. I saw the first one and frickin loved it. Saw the second one, and left kind of scratching my head. I had to hope that the third one would tie it all up. But I waited, and didn't go see it in the theater. I read all the bad reviews. Then I rented it - and thought it was better than the 2nd one. It wasn't THAT bad. Not great, but better than a lot of the reviews I read.
Everyone talks about the "movie theater experience", but I just don't get it. Other than bigger and louder, the theater experience just is not as good to me. No, I am not one of those people with the 5.1 surround and a 60" TV. I have basic surround and a 27" TV, and I still enjoy movies more at home than at the theater. Cheaper food, more comfortable, I can go pee without missing any of the movie, etc. I don't need to share the experience with a hundred other people.