Metafilter has been around for over a decade and is still hanging in there. People pay $5 to get an account and it has moderation of comments. Just about every post will still have arguments but there is a lot less noise in the comments than other sites.
Parliamentary systems have nothing to do with having a two-party or n-party system. Parliament is where the people go after they've been voted in. having 6% of the people vote in 6% of the members of parliament is about the voting system used. The one we use (and the one that you use as well; I'm Canadian) is First Past the Post. FPP has the advantages of being dead simple, there is a direct link between voters in an area and the person they elect, and it tends to favor majority governments (which then have the ability to get things done for the length of their term).
What you're asking for is a proportional representation system. The downside of such a system is that you lose the geographic link between the voter and their representative. In a small country such as Israel this might not be such a big deal, but in as geographically and culturally diverse a country as America it probably would be. There is also the fact that coalition governments aren't as stable as majority ones, which means that there would be more elections, which most people probably don't see as a desired outcome.
As far as we can tell, the theoretically best voting system is probably the Single Transferable Vote system used in Ireland, Malta and some other places. But it's complex and would require either way more elected representatives, much larger voting districts or some combination of the two. I'm not going to even try to explain STV. There must be a decent wikipedia article on it.
You could use any of these voting systems (or any other one, even randomly electing people) to elect your representatives and still have a parliamentary system.
If you copy the file to the server first (via ftp or whatever) then Gallery2 will happily import it. I think the upload limit has more to do with whatever limits the webserver has rather than Gallery itself (but I could be wrong, as I almost always ftp the files first and then import them).
Isn't blogging all about linking to other blogs? That's how the blogosphere generates its blog-buzz. One blog links to a site, then another blog links to the blog and the site, and so on...
Photo-referencing is really common in comics nowadays. Any illustrator could photo-reference, but it seems like now they just surf porn sites (well Greg Land does anyways) and then use Photoshop to create their panels. This can be good, such as Alex Maleev's work on Daredevil, or not so good, such as Greg Land's work on Ultimate Fantastic Four.
And while there are more comics out there now that go for the photo-referencing, the vast majority still don't. Comic shelves seem to have room for lots of different styles, and this is just one more.
Maybe my use is atypical, but the stuff in my home directory is way more important than the system. If the system is hosed I can boot up from a rescue disk and copy my files elsewhere. If my home directory goes then the stuff I actually used the computer for is gone. Photos, documents, bookmarks, etc.
That being said, I backup everything I can't stand to lose to CDs, iPod, mail servers and other server space I have lying around because I kill my system enough without the help of exploits to know it's a good idea.
I have a Logitech USB webcam, and in Ubuntu it just works (it worked fine in Gentoo too but I had to do a lot of searching to find the kernel driver for it). Software wise there's a program called Camorama which will automatically take a picture at user-defined intervals and will either save it to your hard drive or upload it to a server. It also gives you the option of having "cool" camera effects as well. And the whole thing could be done by a novice (no command line, easy to understand dialogs).
I bought my iPod because I didn't own a computer (well I owned 2 computers but they were a continent away and weren't coming to me any time soon). What I did have was a bunch of mp3 cds which I had made for my discman. A few hours in an internet cafe and I had a whole lot of music in one place. And that music pretty much lasted me a year*. I did buy four cds during that year but those only required short trips to the net cafe.
I mean think about it, if you have a computer then your iPod will only ever really be away from it for one or two days tops. You don't need 30 gigs of music for two days. Really, you don't need 30 gigs of music for two months. With a smaller device, one that holds up to say 5 gigs, you'd still have more music than you could listen to and could just sync it with your computer to change songs when you feel like it.
I didn't have that luxury at the time so I bought the biggest iPod I could find instead.
If I were to buy a music player now I'd get something with a smaller hard drive and form factor. But that's because I have a computer again.
*long story short I was working in Japan and didn't want to buy cds if I didn't have the luggage space to bring them back with me. Of the cds I did buy, I'm pretty certain they're all still over there.
Foundation - various dudes in space. Foundation and Empire - dude and his girlfriend unknowingly take the enemy of the foundation on a trip in space Second Foundation - Young girl travels in space looking for the second foundation Foundation's Edge - Two dudes try to find Earth. They pick up some chicks on the way. Foundation and Earth - The dudes find Earth as well as a robot. Prelude to Foundation - A dude meets a chick and a kid and has adventures on Trantor Forward the Foundation - The last days of the dude and the old galactic empire.
I haven't read any ones after this, are there really more? and only the first three could hope to be called "classic" but if you look at the 7 books that were written by Asimov there were exactly 3 useful women characters: Arkady (the heroine of Second Foundation), the Gaian chick from Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth (who was a sidekick to the two male leads) and Dors who again was a sidekick to Hari, and was a robot to boot. Dors' whole thing was that she was fierce. 20,000 years in the future it is still notable, in a freakish way, that a woman is fierce?!
Maybe you really think that the female characters in the Foundation series were given appropriate roles and abilities. If so, contrast the roles and abilities of women in the Foundation series and Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy.
Seeing how you mentioned Stardust, Good Omens and a bunch of other fantasy stuff I take it you don't mean science fiction but rather books that geeks/nerds like. I'm not saying that individually these books aren't interesting but as a whole it leaves a very stunted impression of what fiction is about.
So give them some Harry Potter. They can read some pretty good fantasy and there won't be any social stigma attached to it.
The problem with books in general for young people is that you have to know what things their parents will be comfortable with. Will they like the mocking of angels and devils in Good Omens? Would they be comfortable with the rape scenes in the Fionavar Tapestry (a great fantasy series)? The rather archaic gender roles in Heinlen and Asimov, and really most of the other classics?
If you leave the ghetto of Sci-fi\fantasy you end up generally with books that have possibly objectionable content or are so devoid of anything that reading them becomes work.
So give 'em some Harry, or Dave Eddings or whoever else (Billy Collins writes some pretty accessible poetry), just check it with the parents so that they don't come back to you later with some complaints.
I'd suggest a book gift card, but I really hate gift cards.
I keep Windows on my computer exclusively for MSN video chat (and CivIV). If I can get a linux alternative that actually works then I won't have to reboot my computer just to chat. And having no legit excuse to go into Windows I won't play CivIV and my grades will improve.
Watching Solaris and Stalker gave me the impression that they were about 50% longer than they needed to be in order to provide Soviet workers with something to do.
I rented Neverwhere, my roommate rented Solaris. The guy at the video store said we'd picked the two longest titles they had.
Unless something has changed in the last 4 months Toyota doesn't sell Lexus in Japan. They have a bunch of different brands and models there but not Lexus.
Aw man, I don't see any other comments reading at -1. My one chance for first post greatness blown. And now this one will be modded -1 offtopic. Can it get any worse?
I saw one of these at Expo2005 in Aichi. It's voice has pretty good intonation and it makes nice genstures and the like. For a normal adult the attraction would wear off pretty soon, but I can picture kids just loving it. It could probably make do as a babysitter provided your house doesn't have stairs.
If by the full cost of the service you mean the $8-12 an hour which these guys get paid then yes, you do pay the full cost.
As for meals costing less here, check out a grocery store here and one in Japan. Then you'll be surprised that meals there don't cost more than they do (ie meals are cheaper relative to the cost of groceries in Japan than here).
There is no tipping in Japan, and the service is of a much higher level than either Europe or North America. When the Japanese go abroad they know they have to tip, but it really must feel like a waste of money for them considering they have to pay more to get less service.
Slashdot Mirror
Metafilter has been around for over a decade and is still hanging in there. People pay $5 to get an account and it has moderation of comments. Just about every post will still have arguments but there is a lot less noise in the comments than other sites.
The GPL does not say you can't charge for software. You can charge. Someone else can take your source code and give it away for free. All is fair.
Parliamentary systems have nothing to do with having a two-party or n-party system. Parliament is where the people go after they've been voted in. having 6% of the people vote in 6% of the members of parliament is about the voting system used. The one we use (and the one that you use as well; I'm Canadian) is First Past the Post. FPP has the advantages of being dead simple, there is a direct link between voters in an area and the person they elect, and it tends to favor majority governments (which then have the ability to get things done for the length of their term).
What you're asking for is a proportional representation system. The downside of such a system is that you lose the geographic link between the voter and their representative. In a small country such as Israel this might not be such a big deal, but in as geographically and culturally diverse a country as America it probably would be.
There is also the fact that coalition governments aren't as stable as majority ones, which means that there would be more elections, which most people probably don't see as a desired outcome.
As far as we can tell, the theoretically best voting system is probably the Single Transferable Vote system used in Ireland, Malta and some other places. But it's complex and would require either way more elected representatives, much larger voting districts or some combination of the two. I'm not going to even try to explain STV. There must be a decent wikipedia article on it.
You could use any of these voting systems (or any other one, even randomly electing people) to elect your representatives and still have a parliamentary system.
I'm pretty sure that any faculty that actually needs Lexis or Westlaw already provides it to their students for free.
That is almost exactly what I do (usually it's some packaged local sweet though), but none of my friends believe that it works.
If you copy the file to the server first (via ftp or whatever) then Gallery2 will happily import it. I think the upload limit has more to do with whatever limits the webserver has rather than Gallery itself (but I could be wrong, as I almost always ftp the files first and then import them).
Isn't blogging all about linking to other blogs? That's how the blogosphere generates its blog-buzz. One blog links to a site, then another blog links to the blog and the site, and so on...
Photo-referencing is really common in comics nowadays. Any illustrator could photo-reference, but it seems like now they just surf porn sites (well Greg Land does anyways) and then use Photoshop to create their panels.
7 44.html
This can be good, such as Alex Maleev's work on Daredevil, or not so good, such as Greg Land's work on Ultimate Fantastic Four.
Greg Land gets some hate in a few places:
http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20060215.html
http://community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/1191
And while there are more comics out there now that go for the photo-referencing, the vast majority still don't. Comic shelves seem to have room for lots of different styles, and this is just one more.
Here's a Guardian link with every article and editorial they have on the issue. Lots of good stuff here.
t ml
http://www.guardian.co.uk/idcards/0,,1373591,00.h
Maybe my use is atypical, but the stuff in my home directory is way more important than the system. If the system is hosed I can boot up from a rescue disk and copy my files elsewhere. If my home directory goes then the stuff I actually used the computer for is gone. Photos, documents, bookmarks, etc.
That being said, I backup everything I can't stand to lose to CDs, iPod, mail servers and other server space I have lying around because I kill my system enough without the help of exploits to know it's a good idea.
I have a Logitech USB webcam, and in Ubuntu it just works (it worked fine in Gentoo too but I had to do a lot of searching to find the kernel driver for it). Software wise there's a program called Camorama which will automatically take a picture at user-defined intervals and will either save it to your hard drive or upload it to a server. It also gives you the option of having "cool" camera effects as well. And the whole thing could be done by a novice (no command line, easy to understand dialogs).
You must be new here. You don't need a good script to make a succesful movie. Just ask George Lucas (or Arnie, Charlize, Julia, Brad,...)
I bought my iPod because I didn't own a computer (well I owned 2 computers but they were a continent away and weren't coming to me any time soon). What I did have was a bunch of mp3 cds which I had made for my discman. A few hours in an internet cafe and I had a whole lot of music in one place. And that music pretty much lasted me a year*. I did buy four cds during that year but those only required short trips to the net cafe.
I mean think about it, if you have a computer then your iPod will only ever really be away from it for one or two days tops. You don't need 30 gigs of music for two days. Really, you don't need 30 gigs of music for two months. With a smaller device, one that holds up to say 5 gigs, you'd still have more music than you could listen to and could just sync it with your computer to change songs when you feel like it.
I didn't have that luxury at the time so I bought the biggest iPod I could find instead.
If I were to buy a music player now I'd get something with a smaller hard drive and form factor. But that's because I have a computer again.
*long story short I was working in Japan and didn't want to buy cds if I didn't have the luggage space to bring them back with me. Of the cds I did buy, I'm pretty certain they're all still over there.
If all you're going on is a hope that they may like it, then you aren't buying them a gift.
It's a concept called consideration of others.
Brief summary of the Foundation series:
Foundation - various dudes in space.
Foundation and Empire - dude and his girlfriend unknowingly take the enemy of the foundation on a trip in space
Second Foundation - Young girl travels in space looking for the second foundation
Foundation's Edge - Two dudes try to find Earth. They pick up some chicks on the way.
Foundation and Earth - The dudes find Earth as well as a robot.
Prelude to Foundation - A dude meets a chick and a kid and has adventures on Trantor
Forward the Foundation - The last days of the dude and the old galactic empire.
I haven't read any ones after this, are there really more? and only the first three could hope to be called "classic" but if you look at the 7 books that were written by Asimov there were exactly 3 useful women characters: Arkady (the heroine of Second Foundation), the Gaian chick from Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth (who was a sidekick to the two male leads) and Dors who again was a sidekick to Hari, and was a robot to boot. Dors' whole thing was that she was fierce. 20,000 years in the future it is still notable, in a freakish way, that a woman is fierce?!
Maybe you really think that the female characters in the Foundation series were given appropriate roles and abilities. If so, contrast the roles and abilities of women in the Foundation series and Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy.
Seeing how you mentioned Stardust, Good Omens and a bunch of other fantasy stuff I take it you don't mean science fiction but rather books that geeks/nerds like. I'm not saying that individually these books aren't interesting but as a whole it leaves a very stunted impression of what fiction is about.
So give them some Harry Potter. They can read some pretty good fantasy and there won't be any social stigma attached to it.
The problem with books in general for young people is that you have to know what things their parents will be comfortable with. Will they like the mocking of angels and devils in Good Omens? Would they be comfortable with the rape scenes in the Fionavar Tapestry (a great fantasy series)? The rather archaic gender roles in Heinlen and Asimov, and really most of the other classics?
If you leave the ghetto of Sci-fi\fantasy you end up generally with books that have possibly objectionable content or are so devoid of anything that reading them becomes work.
So give 'em some Harry, or Dave Eddings or whoever else (Billy Collins writes some pretty accessible poetry), just check it with the parents so that they don't come back to you later with some complaints.
I'd suggest a book gift card, but I really hate gift cards.
I keep Windows on my computer exclusively for MSN video chat (and CivIV). If I can get a linux alternative that actually works then I won't have to reboot my computer just to chat. And having no legit excuse to go into Windows I won't play CivIV and my grades will improve.
OSS is making my life better every day.
Watching Solaris and Stalker gave me the impression that they were about 50% longer than they needed to be in order to provide Soviet workers with something to do.
I rented Neverwhere, my roommate rented Solaris. The guy at the video store said we'd picked the two longest titles they had.
Unless something has changed in the last 4 months Toyota doesn't sell Lexus in Japan. They have a bunch of different brands and models there but not Lexus.
Aw man, I don't see any other comments reading at -1. My one chance for first post greatness blown. And now this one will be modded -1 offtopic. Can it get any worse?
The BSD license lets people do pretty much whatever they want to with the code.
I saw one of these at Expo2005 in Aichi. It's voice has pretty good intonation and it makes nice genstures and the like. For a normal adult the attraction would wear off pretty soon, but I can picture kids just loving it. It could probably make do as a babysitter provided your house doesn't have stairs.
They are just as yappy in Japanese. Sad fact.
If by the full cost of the service you mean the $8-12 an hour which these guys get paid then yes, you do pay the full cost.
As for meals costing less here, check out a grocery store here and one in Japan. Then you'll be surprised that meals there don't cost more than they do (ie meals are cheaper relative to the cost of groceries in Japan than here).
There is no tipping in Japan, and the service is of a much higher level than either Europe or North America. When the Japanese go abroad they know they have to tip, but it really must feel like a waste of money for them considering they have to pay more to get less service.