Do you really think it's unreasonable to ask for a source when a statistic is quoted? If you're not prepared to back up a claim of fact you shouldn't make it.
It's unlikely that an inheriting developer is ever going to compliment the quality of your code. If he did, he'd never get the green light to trash all your work and start again from scratch.
Really? I don't get that. The reason that people use the word as an insult is because it is a word used to describe people who have intellectual challenges. It doesn't matter what you do, the euphemism treadmill will get you in the end. As evidence I submit this anecdote: I was spending some time with a couple of young gentlmen (kids of a friend of mine) who are 9 and 11 years old. Big kid was teasing little kid, so big kid said "you're a special needs kid!". Does this help you see the futility of rotating in new acceptable terms every couple of decades?
The Time Agents from the 51st Century (of whom Captain Jack is one) were actually first mentioned in the classic Tom Baker story "The Talons of Weng Chiang". Robert Holmes was the author.
I'd love to know where Jack was when the Doctor was "with the Filipino army at the final advance on Reykjavik", as he states in that story.
Ask that person to construct a coordinated response that has nothing to do with america. They just can't. Within half a minute they reflexively go back to sneering at the US.
And you wonder why the rest of the world sneers...
Don't take this the wrong way, but do you really think it's OK to be "for" an election candidate in a foreign country? Maybe I'm just an over sensitive Canuck (highly possible) but if a USian told me that he was "for Harper" or "for Dion", I would find that somewhat offensive.
I recall being pretty offended by Michael Moore when he made pronouncements about who Canadians should vote for in one of our recent Federal elections.
Don't get me wrong, I'm interested in the outcome of the US Presidential election (it affects everyone on earth), and I certainly have strong opinions about which Presidential candidates would be good for Canada. I just don't really think it would be in good taste for me to openly be for a particular candidate.
Indeed, more people are needed to lend a hand, yet many Canadians forget where THEIR parents came from and resent newcomers. On the other hand, we do seem to get a pretty good return for our tax dollars. I wouldn't say that I pay my taxes gladly, but at least corruption seems to be kept to a low boil, everybody has equal (if sometimes inadequate) access to health care, and we aren't going ever-deeper into debt to fund massive exports of suffering and death.
Up here in Canada we are not quite so so phobic towards immigrants (we know we need them) as you folks down south. We are pleased to welcome skilled foreigners, you will not hear quite the same (cryptically racist, it would seem) anti-immigrant drum beat here.
To all of your examples: mainstream belief, not science made those claims. Show me any scientist,ever, who has made any of those claims based on experimentation.
Interesting. I find about the opposite experience. The web-based development work I do is endless banal variations on a theme. "Could you maybe make that blue instead?", "No, no! We want to take twelve percent as a gross margin BEFORE factoring in overhead".
But, every database is a special unique snowflake. The front-ends are all the same but the data is frequently interesting. I'd rather write stored procedures than application code.
However, opinions vary and I'm glad that some people find satisfaction in writing that stuff. Hopefully it means less of it for me:).
I disagree. People choose "fit" partners, and being intelligent and rational beings (on good days) we generally have a good sense of our own interests. How else does one explain the evidence of money's value as an aphrodisiac?
The Roman Republic became an Empire because of wealth. The individual members of the oligarchy that ruled the Republic were able to amass enough individual wealth that they were able to raise and fund armies from their private fortunes. It is an illuminating example because you had two "sides" (Optimates, the best people vs. Populares, for the people) who pursued somewhat different policies - to the people living at the time this certainly looked like the "real" conflict, but in the end it was the ability of individual warlords to use the existing ideology of the Roman state to justify their actions that allowed the state to disintegrate around them. Even Caesar's murderer ended up pursuing individual supremacy, mainly because there was no real alternative - the changing composition of the oligarchy killed it, not any particular political agenda.
Expensive software, at least the kind that people use to make money with, is expensive for the most part because the seller is trying to capture some fraction of the revenue you will make from using it. If you are downloading it from mininova you most likely aren't trying to make a buck off it. In that case, a smart vendor probably looks the other way at that kind of piracy because it increases the user base at no real cost.
Actually, I grew up in a Canadian border town, socialized with and knew many US citizens. I did IT work for a medicare HMO (yes, I was outsourced foreign labour:P), and I understand what a lack of proper, long-term, preventative care can do to a person's enjoyment of life as well as their overall life span. If the fact that hospitals don't turn people away helps you sleep at night, great, but that's not the same as providing adequate care to your citizens.
I also vividly can remember a young woman (a US citizen) who I knew years ago, who managed a record store. She worked hard for her eight dollars an hour and had few complaints, until the day she was diagnosed with MS while uninsured. I am pretty sure that this person would have some arguments with your point of view.
I'm not coming at this ideologically, I don't think that the United States is the great Satan or that there is nothing to admire in your dynamic economic system. I'm usually considered pretty conservative on this side of the border. I just think that your social model is pretty wasteful of human potential. Maybe the US has enough of a population that it can waste a few million children per generation due to inadequate schools, social programs, et cetera, our country has a small population and doesn't have this luxury.
Now this is an interesting counterargument, and as a Canadian I can definitely appreciate your concerns about a Canadian-style system. However, my belief is that it is both immoral and bad business for a wealthy nation to allow people to go uninsured. it IS possible to have a nationalised health system as well as high quality private care, just ask the Brits.
Canada:) But then we have a more moderate approach than Western Europe, who do seriously need to liberalize their economies. Erring on the side of social responsibility is no bad thing in my book.
It amazes me that this is your perspective. Perhaps you are trolling but I'll take you at face value.
The US welfare system which is woefully inadequate, in combination with its lack of social mobility result in a more or less permanent underclass of hopeless individuals. For you to say that the US system is a social "hammock" tells me than you have little knowledge of the world outside your borders. Most of the rest of us in the "West" have much more redistribution of wealth than you folks do and yet, people still go to work, there are still thriving and successful global businesses which come out of the various countries in Europe plus Canada, all of whom have a sane and humane social model which stands as a stark accusation of the great waste of human potential in the US. The fact that the richest country in the world, with the highest health care spending per-capita, still can't find its way to provide basic health insurance for every citizen is repugnant. For the sake of ideology it seems, folks in the US are willing to stand by and watch people die for lack of decent health care, and live without a hope of a better future for themselves or their children.
I'm afraid that you have been listening to the words of others without giving them much thought or investigating for yourself.
Slashdot Mirror
Do you really think it's unreasonable to ask for a source when a statistic is quoted? If you're not prepared to back up a claim of fact you shouldn't make it.
It's unlikely that an inheriting developer is ever going to compliment the quality of your code. If he did, he'd never get the green light to trash all your work and start again from scratch.
I deplore the use of the word
Really? I don't get that. The reason that people use the word as an insult is because it is a word used to describe people who have intellectual challenges. It doesn't matter what you do, the euphemism treadmill will get you in the end. As evidence I submit this anecdote: I was spending some time with a couple of young gentlmen (kids of a friend of mine) who are 9 and 11 years old. Big kid was teasing little kid, so big kid said "you're a special needs kid!". Does this help you see the futility of rotating in new acceptable terms every couple of decades?
Can you cite an example of a country which does this?
the Time Agents
The Time Agents from the 51st Century (of whom Captain Jack is one) were actually first mentioned in the classic Tom Baker story "The Talons of Weng Chiang". Robert Holmes was the author.
I'd love to know where Jack was when the Doctor was "with the Filipino army at the final advance on Reykjavik", as he states in that story.
Ask that person to construct a coordinated response that has nothing to do with america. They just can't. Within half a minute they reflexively go back to sneering at the US.
And you wonder why the rest of the world sneers...
Please now enlighten me how this is so. I look forward to your diatribe against restrictions on hate speech or French language legistlation.
Copyright infringement isn't stealing.
Don't take this the wrong way, but do you really think it's OK to be "for" an election candidate in a foreign country? Maybe I'm just an over sensitive Canuck (highly possible) but if a USian told me that he was "for Harper" or "for Dion", I would find that somewhat offensive.
I recall being pretty offended by Michael Moore when he made pronouncements about who Canadians should vote for in one of our recent Federal elections.
Don't get me wrong, I'm interested in the outcome of the US Presidential election (it affects everyone on earth), and I certainly have strong opinions about which Presidential candidates would be good for Canada. I just don't really think it would be in good taste for me to openly be for a particular candidate.
Then again, maybe you're a US expat..
Indeed, more people are needed to lend a hand, yet many Canadians forget where THEIR parents came from and resent newcomers.
On the other hand, we do seem to get a pretty good return for our tax dollars. I wouldn't say that I pay my taxes gladly, but at least corruption seems to be kept to a low boil, everybody has equal (if sometimes inadequate) access to health care, and we aren't going ever-deeper into debt to fund massive exports of suffering and death.
Up here in Canada we are not quite so so phobic towards immigrants (we know we need them) as you folks down south. We are pleased to welcome skilled foreigners, you will not hear quite the same (cryptically racist, it would seem) anti-immigrant drum beat here.
By all means, implement your wonderful scheme. I'm sure the rest of the world would thank you for accelerating your relative decline.
You mean like you guys left cleaning Iraq to the Iraqis? Oh wait...
My first thought is Doc Hopper, the villain of "The Muppet Movie".
Don't fish around like that on the production system. Do it in your test lab with the backups...
To all of your examples: mainstream belief, not science made those claims. Show me any scientist,ever, who has made any of those claims based on experimentation.
Interesting. I find about the opposite experience. The web-based development work I do is endless banal variations on a theme. "Could you maybe make that blue instead?", "No, no! We want to take twelve percent as a gross margin BEFORE factoring in overhead".
But, every database is a special unique snowflake. The front-ends are all the same but the data is frequently interesting. I'd rather write stored procedures than application code.
However, opinions vary and I'm glad that some people find satisfaction in writing that stuff. Hopefully it means less of it for me :).
I disagree. People choose "fit" partners, and being intelligent and rational beings (on good days) we generally have a good sense of our own interests. How else does one explain the evidence of money's value as an aphrodisiac?
The Roman Republic became an Empire because of wealth. The individual members of the oligarchy that ruled the Republic were able to amass enough individual wealth that they were able to raise and fund armies from their private fortunes. It is an illuminating example because you had two "sides" (Optimates, the best people vs. Populares, for the people) who pursued somewhat different policies - to the people living at the time this certainly looked like the "real" conflict, but in the end it was the ability of individual warlords to use the existing ideology of the Roman state to justify their actions that allowed the state to disintegrate around them. Even Caesar's murderer ended up pursuing individual supremacy, mainly because there was no real alternative - the changing composition of the oligarchy killed it, not any particular political agenda.
err, or those with girlfriends, wives or daughters. Guess that's not you :)
Expensive software, at least the kind that people use to make money with, is expensive for the most part because the seller is trying to capture some fraction of the revenue you will make from using it. If you are downloading it from mininova you most likely aren't trying to make a buck off it. In that case, a smart vendor probably looks the other way at that kind of piracy because it increases the user base at no real cost.
Actually, I grew up in a Canadian border town, socialized with and knew many US citizens. I did IT work for a medicare HMO (yes, I was outsourced foreign labour :P), and I understand what a lack of proper, long-term, preventative care can do to a person's enjoyment of life as well as their overall life span. If the fact that hospitals don't turn people away helps you sleep at night, great, but that's not the same as providing adequate care to your citizens.
I also vividly can remember a young woman (a US citizen) who I knew years ago, who managed a record store. She worked hard for her eight dollars an hour and had few complaints, until the day she was diagnosed with MS while uninsured. I am pretty sure that this person would have some arguments with your point of view.
I'm not coming at this ideologically, I don't think that the United States is the great Satan or that there is nothing to admire in your dynamic economic system. I'm usually considered pretty conservative on this side of the border. I just think that your social model is pretty wasteful of human potential. Maybe the US has enough of a population that it can waste a few million children per generation due to inadequate schools, social programs, et cetera, our country has a small population and doesn't have this luxury.
Now this is an interesting counterargument, and as a Canadian I can definitely appreciate your concerns about a Canadian-style system. However, my belief is that it is both immoral and bad business for a wealthy nation to allow people to go uninsured. it IS possible to have a nationalised health system as well as high quality private care, just ask the Brits.
Canada :) But then we have a more moderate approach than Western Europe, who do seriously need to liberalize their economies. Erring on the side of social responsibility is no bad thing in my book.
It amazes me that this is your perspective. Perhaps you are trolling but I'll take you at face value.
The US welfare system which is woefully inadequate, in combination with its lack of social mobility result in a more or less permanent underclass of hopeless individuals. For you to say that the US system is a social "hammock" tells me than you have little knowledge of the world outside your borders. Most of the rest of us in the "West" have much more redistribution of wealth than you folks do and yet, people still go to work, there are still thriving and successful global businesses which come out of the various countries in Europe plus Canada, all of whom have a sane and humane social model which stands as a stark accusation of the great waste of human potential in the US. The fact that the richest country in the world, with the highest health care spending per-capita, still can't find its way to provide basic health insurance for every citizen is repugnant. For the sake of ideology it seems, folks in the US are willing to stand by and watch people die for lack of decent health care, and live without a hope of a better future for themselves or their children.
I'm afraid that you have been listening to the words of others without giving them much thought or investigating for yourself.