KhanAcademy is one of my favorite sites. It constantly reminds me of how much I have forgotten while at the same time rewarding me for the time I spend on it. I think every parent should encourage their kids to use the site, hell every parent of a school age child should have this site bookmarked for their own use as well.
its bad, real bad. Turns take too long to process, which is really bad when many people don't have anything to do but click next turn but one or two do have something. It can take minutes after everyone has clicked. Don't crash while in MP, sometimes its easy to get back in other times... Multi player also has animations hard coded to be off.
As for the intro movie, pressing ENTER skips it, once it bothers to read the keyboard. Otherwise edit the user config file found under documents section of Windows. There are some other settings in the ini files that cannot be adjusted anywhere else, as in, not even the game UI provides access.
I have it up and running on my iMac through boot camp, while I can start off max resolution and features it does chug as you fill in the map. Apparently they animate what is off screen too!
Outside of the multi player my real hangup is the mini map, looks like MS Paint was used. Many of us thought it was obvious place holder, but alas it is still here! Minor nits include not being able to adjust any video settings while playing the game. It takes like four clicks to start a game, as in just to get to the CIV game itself. Seems Steam wants to step in the way every chance it can, even offline. Some nation specials are pretty whack, if played right you can just roll over anything. City States while nice are a great source of workers early on, usually safe to steal one per, the squash which ever City State has an annoying personality. Best hint, leave space for barbarians near them so you get free rep for occasionally bopping the barbarians.
You do not need Steam to play the game nor do you need the DVD. You do need Steam to install it. I don't even let it start anymore, I do not need "buy this game spam" every time I exit to the desktop. I do not need the cheesy achievements and my play uploaded. Which btw, if you load a mod your ineligible for achievements, so don't even go for that clock mod.
Most common issues, can't install the game past Steam, can't run in DX9 more or maybe not in DX11 mode (its much better in DX9), various animation or graphics artifacts, CTDs, and other typical from new releases. The manual is electronic only.
I don't care if it is the same size or not, but when trying both an iPad and Kindle outside its laughable.
The first company to deliver a e-paper quality screen in color is going to rake in the money.
I want a tablet that a) I can use in all lighting conditions, but will accept needing a light source b) will not be horribly put out money wise if I drop it/it walks
One person on CIV Fanatics reported they got the game early but were unable to install it till the appointed time. Steam blocked them.
To me this is unacceptable. They had the boxed game. We have a DRM system which states that that is not enough to play a game. They reserve the right with thirty days notification to change/void the agreement.
In other words, they can prevent you from using the product you purchased. No longer is the $50 for having a game you can play when and where you want to, it only applies when and where they permit you.
Steam is invasive and essentially arbitrary.
I did find it humorous how many derided the retailer at being at fault for selling the game. With users like this what hope is there for the old model.
because this tax certainly isn't, its hitting many who run businesses with five and more employees.
So take your asinine attitude and shove it. When did we become a country when it has been decided you have too much, you don't deserve what you earned, where according to Virginia Democrat Congressman Jim Moran ""... because we have been guided by a Republican administration who believes in the simplistic notion that people who have wealth are entitled to keep it and they have an antipathy towards means of redistributing wealth." " ????
The selfish ones are the ones demanding others fork over their money, the effort of their work, the effort of their risk. The selfish ones are those assigning limits to what people should have, what people should strive for.
The common thread amongst the selfish are : either they have so much they are immune or they are the last who would ever expend the effort to attain it on their own. You know, the forty hour take this job and shove it attitude.
This ain't a billionaire tax by far, its a tax right into the heart of small business. Put the thresh hold into the millions if you want to zing the big guys. Anything else relegates you to being a parrot.
and they will bring forth any violation that others make or they perceive them making but they won't adhere to the same rules or so loosely define their own compliance we will have the equivalent of the UN Human Rights Council.... where the worst of us define the rights of all.
Because there is heavy left lean amongst the boards operators, let alone some who feel threatened by people don't think like them.
Just watch the moderation and see it in action. It is really humorous to see stories like this bring out the viciousness of some who go out of their way to put down those on the right - either by direct attack or inference.
This country was made great because we are open to all ideas. We move left and right and try to maintain a balance.
The animosity has always been there, but trying to attribute it to one side exclusively is very dishonest.
Beck's gathering was impressive for a radio host, but he was capitalizing on something he did not generate, as such it had a great response.
I really doubt either of the two comedians will do similar because they are not going to get people with the same level of emotional investment. Best of luck to them, but mocking rarely does anything but make you look weak. Air America failed because they mocked, they didn't originate. Hopefully these two can do better.
and certainly Aliens 2 was great in its own right. What came after that....
The ultimate kick in the nuts for sequels has to go to Highlander.
I would also say that Empire Strikes Back is better than Star Wars. Star Trek 2 certainly topped Star Trek the Movie.
So, it is not always that sequels fare worse than their lead in movie, it just seems to be of late most are to advance the bank accounts of the stars instead of the story.
in the realm of obesity. I haven't found any mainstream medical articles claiming one is worse than the other, but to lay the blame on corn syrup only is not right. Obesity isn't the property of one ingredient in food, it is from over eating any number of foods. Over eating being taking in more calories than you burn.
As with everything else these days people need someone else to blame for their condition. So we blame the products or the ingredients of those products or even the producer instead of ourselves. It is like the alcoholic who blames the beer manufacturers for his woes. It is, in a sense, what has been wrong with the current generation or two. Blame someone else, someone else will take care of it, etc.
In other words, unless an ingredient is outright harmful it all comes down to how we use it. Want to lick obesity, stop eating so much. Take responsibility for yourself, your family. Don't look for someone else to blame for you woes. Guess what, that same idea works wonders for most aspects of life
to store any business e-mail on their servers and no one with any e-mail which has real world value.
Sorry, but if they can read my e-mail account on GMail without my permission, as in my password, then there is zero security regardless of what all their policies and procedures declare. They should just step up and encrypt all of it using the user's password as part of the key, if not that then automated systems which send e-mail to an audit team, the user, and anyone the user designates, when access by SQL or direct means is performed on the mail accounts from within Google.
I wonder if they store our passwords plain text as well.
uh... so I turn it on its side, what did that gain me exactly?
Its a cube. It is also taller than many other components in most TV stands which are modeled to hold dvd players; most are slim; and receivers/av which stack nicely with other components.
This device is just odd for odd's sake. At least the new Apple TV is black meaning I no longer have to work to hide it, it blends now.
There just is no point in making this device in the shape it is. Its more gimmick than anything else.
Oh, Amazon sells it for $199 and has the dimensions and pictures
the problem they face that in order to be competitive in the market would require them to reduce employee costs. Throw in the uncertainty of the new medical laws coming toward us and it just is not worth the risk. Then top it off with a employees who feel they are worth amount X but to be competitive they are really only worth Y. However they won't work for Y and any GE attempt to hire only for wage Y would load them down with not only bad press but probably problems with government goons who feel the need to set all sorts of new regulations on what they pay let alone how they operate.
We have a government which seems openly hostile to affordable business. Right now to get contracts involving stimulus funds for road building and such any company is required to open themselves to unionization, its right there in the bill. Without someone with deep pockets paying the bills; the government; how does anyone compete in the market? How long before a company which sells anything to the government, goods or services, finds itself under such rules. No, its best to offshore your workers to avoid the petty vote buying of government officials. Investment in a plant that could suddenly be saddled with new expensive work rules and what choice is there?
When the government steps in and tells you the minimums of health and wage benefits required for local workers and shows a propensity for raising those values only an insane business person would bother staying at home. We cannot be competitive when rules are setup to prevent it. Not when the rest of the world isn't hamstrung by the same.
when they start publishing similar information from countries which would be more inclined to take the actions some suggest the US does in response to WikiLeaks
There are times where I cheer them on, there others where I think they only do what they think is safe.
is for all these groups going out of their way to condemn this idiotic church but no condemn the threatened response of adherents of Islam. If one little piss ant church in America can cause so many Muslims unglued.
Frankly, while I find the idea of burning any book abhorrent I think that spitting in the face of these radicals of Islam is more important than not. Either bring your religion to 21st century and join the rest of us or shut the hell up.
So, yeah a small town church with a ego maniac at its helm is burning a book, it is no excuse by any RATIONAL people to react with violence.
There were three Democrats on the FCC, Reed Hundt (chairman), James Quello, and Susan Ness. The two Republicans were Andrew Barrret and Rachelle Chong. So blaming Republicans for change in ownership rules is pretty silly, typical though. It seems that too many rely on ignorance to allow their views to be supported. After all, we know the Republicans had control of Congress then, but the fact remains, they did not have a majority on the FCC.
So if you want to blame Fox's ascendancy on anyone, put the blame on the party who held control over the governing organization that permitted the change.
I don't know when it crept into our industry, but damn if there aren't too many people who don't think they need to work to their fullest, or even half that amount. Worse, quite a few are more than willing to invoke their "minority" position to keep any discipline at bay. We have our off shore contingent and they are very good at what they do, some surprising me with their expertise in areas I wish I was better at. I work for a very good company and they do try to their best in keeping us up to date and feeling valued. However something was lost in this industry, perhaps a reaction to seeing jobs going to off shore. In some ways its like watching petulant children.
Throw in those with expertise who refuse jobs because the pay is below their self perceived value.
I don't know how you put a $ figure on it. For me, it was lack of plastic debt. I have one CC and it it paid off weekly, yeah, weekly. My main debt is my house, followed by a car; whose sale price was less than 30% my gross. I do my best to keep monthlies to a minimum, meaning paid for cell plan, my internet, and my TV.
I set aside multiple savings accounts with automatic $50 deductions or more, after a while you lose track of them until tax time but the its nice to know you have money out there. So besides paying down debt create an automatic deposit into a savings account, preferably not at the same back your checking is at. Then just file it away in the back of your mind. Never touch it unless you lost all other means of having money for shelter and food.
You can be debt free on 20K if you live right. That is where most people get tripped up. They refuse to live within their means and the blame others (if not society). I can't count the number of people I work with who have notes or leases on cars that cost half it not more than half their gross pay. Throw in $100 a month for Smart phone plans; as in many who have one are not; and its easy to see why people aren't happy, they are too busy going broke to impress people, people who generally don't care. I certainly don't care what car you park in the lot, let alone I doubt anyone seeing your shiny 5 series/E-class/A6 really gives a flip when they likely will pass another dozen of the same that day.
Don't live to impress others with material wealth.
and regardless of negative traits assigned to him I see him as what I would want in most actors. Yes he stuck with the Kirk role a long time but he did good clean breaks from it. Kirk was an iconic character and any actor with that as part of his resume will always be shadowed by the character's traits which may not necessarily be the actors. Yeah, read all the "Bad blood" between him and Takei, the "feud" with Nimoy, but honestly, which of all them did as much as he did? He didn't stop. Of course I do like Koneig from TOS too. At least Shatner wasn't afraid to make jokes about his role, let alone slip little asides into other shows which automatically connected you back to Kirk without being outlandish (his phone on BL was pretty good and subtle)
73 years, I wonder what it is like to do something you love for so long, hell I would be happy with half that in a career I enjoyed.
Your comment is in line with "elect Republicans and they will take your Social Security away" or "Elect Democrats and they will raise taxes"
Even if somehow one party managed to control two thirds of both houses and the white house the courts would still be there as well as the court of public opinion. Even while Democrats had a majority in both houses they rarely got anything done. When they did they resorted to parliamentarian tricks and deception. Hell we saw bill after bill passed without Congressmen knowing what was in it and somehow this is better than what might come later?
If anything government is dysfunctional and they have made it so that the rules protect them in their rule. The tea party that many associate negative connotations with is that part which was absconded with by people looking to make money and increase their power base. As was seen in Alaska, the real tea party does not obey the Republican party and does not cede to the Democrats either. It is still up in the open what they may become but if all we have are people spouting FUD what we will have? Simple, the same crap we have now where both parties play people off each other so that THEY can stay in power. So while they cheer your inane comments, put there by endless talking heads on each side, nothing changes and that is the best solution they could hope for.
We have deployed two IBM 570 series minis and 2 595s. These range from 24 to 64 processor systems featuring 30 to 50tb of disk storage. We will deploy a 770? with nearly 100tb of storage backed by I think 96 processors. There are no Intel/AMD servers that reach our needs with the software and reliability we need. Coworkers in other departments might make jokes about our "old school" hardware and such but even they get shocked by our downtime, which was twice in twelve years excluding new machine upgrades; of course during which we were swapped to offsites. First failure was because the install wrongly wired power connections and site UPS failure dropped the box, the second time was site cooling failure and our machines were the last to turn off, the intel/amd heat furnaces; no other way to be polite about them; quickly could not deal with the hot computer room.
While I have great respect for the server group, their hardware just cannot compare. They can spend similar money but once you reach certain sizes minis (AIX or iSeries) become much easier to deal with, hell with 72 iSeries we only had 3 Admins for the whole lot, we have more than that just for one AIX machine, let alone that "department" that supports the servers (think company wide data sharing) or business intelligence setups.
At the same time the one telling point, we are held to a standard which the server groups are not. We have to schedule outages; even with a offsite mirror; just to do upgrades. The other groups get one weekend per quarter, we can't even get that. We serve too many and 24x7 really means 24x365. Lose a file server and people get mad but if we have a slow down we get calls from up high.
So, don't just focus on CPUs, that is the game of PC geeks. We bench mark on work performed and downtime. Every component is intelligent, we don't lose processing power to driving peoples sessions, disk access, and such. FWIW, we host Linux too, so there is some other value for us.
Granted the time at the tournament would make it look good but if you average all the time spent getting there. The payoff is recognition amongst your peers more than monetary rewards.
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KhanAcademy is one of my favorite sites. It constantly reminds me of how much I have forgotten while at the same time rewarding me for the time I spend on it. I think every parent should encourage their kids to use the site, hell every parent of a school age child should have this site bookmarked for their own use as well.
its bad, real bad. Turns take too long to process, which is really bad when many people don't have anything to do but click next turn but one or two do have something. It can take minutes after everyone has clicked. Don't crash while in MP, sometimes its easy to get back in other times... Multi player also has animations hard coded to be off.
As for the intro movie, pressing ENTER skips it, once it bothers to read the keyboard. Otherwise edit the user config file found under documents section of Windows. There are some other settings in the ini files that cannot be adjusted anywhere else, as in, not even the game UI provides access.
I have it up and running on my iMac through boot camp, while I can start off max resolution and features it does chug as you fill in the map. Apparently they animate what is off screen too!
Outside of the multi player my real hangup is the mini map, looks like MS Paint was used. Many of us thought it was obvious place holder, but alas it is still here! Minor nits include not being able to adjust any video settings while playing the game. It takes like four clicks to start a game, as in just to get to the CIV game itself. Seems Steam wants to step in the way every chance it can, even offline. Some nation specials are pretty whack, if played right you can just roll over anything. City States while nice are a great source of workers early on, usually safe to steal one per, the squash which ever City State has an annoying personality. Best hint, leave space for barbarians near them so you get free rep for occasionally bopping the barbarians.
You do not need Steam to play the game nor do you need the DVD. You do need Steam to install it. I don't even let it start anymore, I do not need "buy this game spam" every time I exit to the desktop. I do not need the cheesy achievements and my play uploaded. Which btw, if you load a mod your ineligible for achievements, so don't even go for that clock mod.
Most common issues, can't install the game past Steam, can't run in DX9 more or maybe not in DX11 mode (its much better in DX9), various animation or graphics artifacts, CTDs, and other typical from new releases. The manual is electronic only.
I don't care if it is the same size or not, but when trying both an iPad and Kindle outside its laughable.
The first company to deliver a e-paper quality screen in color is going to rake in the money.
I want a tablet that a) I can use in all lighting conditions, but will accept needing a light source b) will not be horribly put out money wise if I drop it/it walks
ledgers and might just dump those as well.
One person on CIV Fanatics reported they got the game early but were unable to install it till the appointed time. Steam blocked them.
To me this is unacceptable. They had the boxed game. We have a DRM system which states that that is not enough to play a game. They reserve the right with thirty days notification to change/void the agreement.
In other words, they can prevent you from using the product you purchased. No longer is the $50 for having a game you can play when and where you want to, it only applies when and where they permit you.
Steam is invasive and essentially arbitrary.
I did find it humorous how many derided the retailer at being at fault for selling the game. With users like this what hope is there for the old model.
because this tax certainly isn't, its hitting many who run businesses with five and more employees.
So take your asinine attitude and shove it. When did we become a country when it has been decided you have too much, you don't deserve what you earned, where according to Virginia Democrat Congressman Jim Moran ""... because we have been guided by a Republican administration who believes in the simplistic notion that people who have wealth are entitled to keep it and they have an antipathy towards means of redistributing wealth." " ????
The selfish ones are the ones demanding others fork over their money, the effort of their work, the effort of their risk. The selfish ones are those assigning limits to what people should have, what people should strive for.
The common thread amongst the selfish are : either they have so much they are immune or they are the last who would ever expend the effort to attain it on their own. You know, the forty hour take this job and shove it attitude.
This ain't a billionaire tax by far, its a tax right into the heart of small business. Put the thresh hold into the millions if you want to zing the big guys. Anything else relegates you to being a parrot.
I doubt very much I would like to see through the hull during storms or particularly dicey landings.
and they will bring forth any violation that others make or they perceive them making but they won't adhere to the same rules or so loosely define their own compliance we will have the equivalent of the UN Human Rights Council.... where the worst of us define the rights of all.
Because there is heavy left lean amongst the boards operators, let alone some who feel threatened by people don't think like them.
Just watch the moderation and see it in action. It is really humorous to see stories like this bring out the viciousness of some who go out of their way to put down those on the right - either by direct attack or inference.
This country was made great because we are open to all ideas. We move left and right and try to maintain a balance.
The animosity has always been there, but trying to attribute it to one side exclusively is very dishonest.
Beck's gathering was impressive for a radio host, but he was capitalizing on something he did not generate, as such it had a great response.
I really doubt either of the two comedians will do similar because they are not going to get people with the same level of emotional investment. Best of luck to them, but mocking rarely does anything but make you look weak. Air America failed because they mocked, they didn't originate. Hopefully these two can do better.
and many think they will hit it big alleviating them from having to save for their retirement.
and certainly Aliens 2 was great in its own right. What came after that....
The ultimate kick in the nuts for sequels has to go to Highlander.
I would also say that Empire Strikes Back is better than Star Wars. Star Trek 2 certainly topped Star Trek the Movie.
So, it is not always that sequels fare worse than their lead in movie, it just seems to be of late most are to advance the bank accounts of the stars instead of the story.
in the realm of obesity. I haven't found any mainstream medical articles claiming one is worse than the other, but to lay the blame on corn syrup only is not right. Obesity isn't the property of one ingredient in food, it is from over eating any number of foods. Over eating being taking in more calories than you burn.
As with everything else these days people need someone else to blame for their condition. So we blame the products or the ingredients of those products or even the producer instead of ourselves. It is like the alcoholic who blames the beer manufacturers for his woes. It is, in a sense, what has been wrong with the current generation or two. Blame someone else, someone else will take care of it, etc.
In other words, unless an ingredient is outright harmful it all comes down to how we use it. Want to lick obesity, stop eating so much. Take responsibility for yourself, your family. Don't look for someone else to blame for you woes. Guess what, that same idea works wonders for most aspects of life
to store any business e-mail on their servers and no one with any e-mail which has real world value.
Sorry, but if they can read my e-mail account on GMail without my permission, as in my password, then there is zero security regardless of what all their policies and procedures declare. They should just step up and encrypt all of it using the user's password as part of the key, if not that then automated systems which send e-mail to an audit team, the user, and anyone the user designates, when access by SQL or direct means is performed on the mail accounts from within Google.
I wonder if they store our passwords plain text as well.
just like their parents.
Too much of the crap on TV is far worse than games, I doubt games can have a rape/child abuse/etc of the week type scenario and have it fly by.
uh... so I turn it on its side, what did that gain me exactly?
Its a cube. It is also taller than many other components in most TV stands which are modeled to hold dvd players; most are slim; and receivers/av which stack nicely with other components.
This device is just odd for odd's sake. At least the new Apple TV is black meaning I no longer have to work to hide it, it blends now.
There just is no point in making this device in the shape it is. Its more gimmick than anything else.
Oh, Amazon sells it for $199 and has the dimensions and pictures
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0038JE07O
the problem they face that in order to be competitive in the market would require them to reduce employee costs. Throw in the uncertainty of the new medical laws coming toward us and it just is not worth the risk. Then top it off with a employees who feel they are worth amount X but to be competitive they are really only worth Y. However they won't work for Y and any GE attempt to hire only for wage Y would load them down with not only bad press but probably problems with government goons who feel the need to set all sorts of new regulations on what they pay let alone how they operate.
We have a government which seems openly hostile to affordable business. Right now to get contracts involving stimulus funds for road building and such any company is required to open themselves to unionization, its right there in the bill. Without someone with deep pockets paying the bills; the government; how does anyone compete in the market? How long before a company which sells anything to the government, goods or services, finds itself under such rules. No, its best to offshore your workers to avoid the petty vote buying of government officials. Investment in a plant that could suddenly be saddled with new expensive work rules and what choice is there?
When the government steps in and tells you the minimums of health and wage benefits required for local workers and shows a propensity for raising those values only an insane business person would bother staying at home. We cannot be competitive when rules are setup to prevent it. Not when the rest of the world isn't hamstrung by the same.
when they start publishing similar information from countries which would be more inclined to take the actions some suggest the US does in response to WikiLeaks
There are times where I cheer them on, there others where I think they only do what they think is safe.
is for all these groups going out of their way to condemn this idiotic church but no condemn the threatened response of adherents of Islam. If one little piss ant church in America can cause so many Muslims unglued.
Frankly, while I find the idea of burning any book abhorrent I think that spitting in the face of these radicals of Islam is more important than not. Either bring your religion to 21st century and join the rest of us or shut the hell up.
So, yeah a small town church with a ego maniac at its helm is burning a book, it is no excuse by any RATIONAL people to react with violence.
There were three Democrats on the FCC, Reed Hundt (chairman), James Quello, and Susan Ness. The two Republicans were Andrew Barrret and Rachelle Chong. So blaming Republicans for change in ownership rules is pretty silly, typical though. It seems that too many rely on ignorance to allow their views to be supported. After all, we know the Republicans had control of Congress then, but the fact remains, they did not have a majority on the FCC.
So if you want to blame Fox's ascendancy on anyone, put the blame on the party who held control over the governing organization that permitted the change.
I don't know when it crept into our industry, but damn if there aren't too many people who don't think they need to work to their fullest, or even half that amount. Worse, quite a few are more than willing to invoke their "minority" position to keep any discipline at bay. We have our off shore contingent and they are very good at what they do, some surprising me with their expertise in areas I wish I was better at. I work for a very good company and they do try to their best in keeping us up to date and feeling valued. However something was lost in this industry, perhaps a reaction to seeing jobs going to off shore. In some ways its like watching petulant children.
Throw in those with expertise who refuse jobs because the pay is below their self perceived value.
I don't know how you put a $ figure on it. For me, it was lack of plastic debt. I have one CC and it it paid off weekly, yeah, weekly. My main debt is my house, followed by a car; whose sale price was less than 30% my gross. I do my best to keep monthlies to a minimum, meaning paid for cell plan, my internet, and my TV.
I set aside multiple savings accounts with automatic $50 deductions or more, after a while you lose track of them until tax time but the its nice to know you have money out there. So besides paying down debt create an automatic deposit into a savings account, preferably not at the same back your checking is at. Then just file it away in the back of your mind. Never touch it unless you lost all other means of having money for shelter and food.
You can be debt free on 20K if you live right. That is where most people get tripped up. They refuse to live within their means and the blame others (if not society). I can't count the number of people I work with who have notes or leases on cars that cost half it not more than half their gross pay. Throw in $100 a month for Smart phone plans; as in many who have one are not; and its easy to see why people aren't happy, they are too busy going broke to impress people, people who generally don't care. I certainly don't care what car you park in the lot, let alone I doubt anyone seeing your shiny 5 series/E-class/A6 really gives a flip when they likely will pass another dozen of the same that day.
Don't live to impress others with material wealth.
and regardless of negative traits assigned to him I see him as what I would want in most actors. Yes he stuck with the Kirk role a long time but he did good clean breaks from it. Kirk was an iconic character and any actor with that as part of his resume will always be shadowed by the character's traits which may not necessarily be the actors. Yeah, read all the "Bad blood" between him and Takei, the "feud" with Nimoy, but honestly, which of all them did as much as he did? He didn't stop. Of course I do like Koneig from TOS too. At least Shatner wasn't afraid to make jokes about his role, let alone slip little asides into other shows which automatically connected you back to Kirk without being outlandish (his phone on BL was pretty good and subtle)
73 years, I wonder what it is like to do something you love for so long, hell I would be happy with half that in a career I enjoyed.
Your comment is in line with "elect Republicans and they will take your Social Security away" or "Elect Democrats and they will raise taxes"
Even if somehow one party managed to control two thirds of both houses and the white house the courts would still be there as well as the court of public opinion. Even while Democrats had a majority in both houses they rarely got anything done. When they did they resorted to parliamentarian tricks and deception. Hell we saw bill after bill passed without Congressmen knowing what was in it and somehow this is better than what might come later?
If anything government is dysfunctional and they have made it so that the rules protect them in their rule. The tea party that many associate negative connotations with is that part which was absconded with by people looking to make money and increase their power base. As was seen in Alaska, the real tea party does not obey the Republican party and does not cede to the Democrats either. It is still up in the open what they may become but if all we have are people spouting FUD what we will have? Simple, the same crap we have now where both parties play people off each other so that THEY can stay in power. So while they cheer your inane comments, put there by endless talking heads on each side, nothing changes and that is the best solution they could hope for.
they are very much needed.
We have deployed two IBM 570 series minis and 2 595s. These range from 24 to 64 processor systems featuring 30 to 50tb of disk storage. We will deploy a 770? with nearly 100tb of storage backed by I think 96 processors. There are no Intel/AMD servers that reach our needs with the software and reliability we need. Coworkers in other departments might make jokes about our "old school" hardware and such but even they get shocked by our downtime, which was twice in twelve years excluding new machine upgrades; of course during which we were swapped to offsites. First failure was because the install wrongly wired power connections and site UPS failure dropped the box, the second time was site cooling failure and our machines were the last to turn off, the intel/amd heat furnaces; no other way to be polite about them; quickly could not deal with the hot computer room.
While I have great respect for the server group, their hardware just cannot compare. They can spend similar money but once you reach certain sizes minis (AIX or iSeries) become much easier to deal with, hell with 72 iSeries we only had 3 Admins for the whole lot, we have more than that just for one AIX machine, let alone that "department" that supports the servers (think company wide data sharing) or business intelligence setups.
At the same time the one telling point, we are held to a standard which the server groups are not. We have to schedule outages; even with a offsite mirror; just to do upgrades. The other groups get one weekend per quarter, we can't even get that. We serve too many and 24x7 really means 24x365. Lose a file server and people get mad but if we have a slow down we get calls from up high.
So, don't just focus on CPUs, that is the game of PC geeks. We bench mark on work performed and downtime. Every component is intelligent, we don't lose processing power to driving peoples sessions, disk access, and such. FWIW, we host Linux too, so there is some other value for us.
Granted the time at the tournament would make it look good but if you average all the time spent getting there. The payoff is recognition amongst your peers more than monetary rewards.