Yes, Blockbuster lagged behind and was a victim of their own hubris, but I'll still miss them. I never was a huge fan of Netflix going to the subscription system for DVD's. I miss being able to go down to a video store and rent a physical DVD/Blu-ray of the latest videos at a flat rate (with better video quality and all the great extra features that you don't get with streaming).
Unfortunately, Netflix is likely on the verge of abandoning their DVD/Blu-ray by mail program, and special rental versions have all but made extra features an extinct species (still not sure why Blockbuster started buying those and gave up the ONE major advantage they had over streaming services, were they really THAT much cheaper?). One of the great things about DVD's/Blu-Rays (and even before that laserdiscs) were those great commentary tracks and extra features. Sometimes they were better than the movie itself (Cannibal: The Musical, anyone?). Now I'm afraid they're gone for good. No more great commentary tracks and making-of documentaries for us film buffs. And, until bandwidth improves, no more 30mbps 1080p video.
From what I've heard of Linus, his abuse is more of the "I'm a self-important prick" variety than the "I'm trying to motivate you to be a better coder" variety. But yes, the latter wouldn't bother me nearly as much as the former.
I have never recalled an era in history where I couldn't buy a PC without Windows, or when there weren't other OS options available (perhaps you're from an alternate universe where this was once the case). The only times I have ever bought one was when I could get a PC with Windows CHEAPER than I could buy one without. I hardly consider that robbery.
My first PC was custom built with OS/2 Warp. My second was custom built with Red Hat Linux. My third came with Windows, but I only bought it because I didn't feel like building my own (or buying one custom built) that time, and it was cheaper than the custom built one. My most recent one was an Apple. AFAIK, Bill Gates and MS have never "stolen" anything from me. And the only time I have felt forced to use Windows was when I was gaming (and that was because of the game developers, NOT Microsoft).
If someone wants to right to yell at me, he's going to have to pay me (well) for the privilege. I would have taken Steve Jobs' abuse, as long as he kept the paychecks coming. Some prick who expects me to VOLUNTEER for the honor of having him dress me down like a bitch? Not so much.
Yahoo is adopting it because it's a great way to get rid of dead weight, as long as it's used BRIEFLY. It's really not meant to be used in the long-term (as MS and several other have tried to). In the short-term, Yahoo will lose some dead weight. In the long-term, they'll get paranoia, indecisiveness, etc. (in short, a company culture of fear).
It's like my grandpa used to say: "Kid,if you want security, go with U.S. government savings bonds. If you want pussy and meth on the Silk Road, go with Bitcoin." This also explains why my inheritance was mostly in Bitcoins.
Who the fuck modded me down for pointing out that this site doesn't work too well either?? It tried two zip codes in two different states. One just returned a blank page, and one returned a message saying that this state isn't supported. Hardly the wonderful alternative to the Federal webpage that the summary makes it out to be.
Yet I'd be willing to bet that most of the idiots who repeat that adage will turn around and play a modern triple-A level videogame with absolutely no sense of the irony. The days of people doing the really big stuff out of their garages are long gone.
I'm pretty sure that establishing a fascist government ruled by the military wouldn't necessarily produce the peaceful utopia that you (and Heinlein) think it might. The great thing about Verhoeven is that he was uniquely qualified to see that, having grown up in Nazi-occupied Europe during the War. What sounds like a good idea on paper often leads to very bad things in actual practice.
I can't believe that people still don't get that Verhoeven wasn't doing an adaptation of the book, he was doing a SATIRE of it. It was obvious to me the first time I saw it. For god's sake, the officers are wearing Nazi SS uniforms! There were parody newscasts showing soldiers handing out ammo to kids! How could anyone possibly have missed that this was satire??
It was even more obvious than Robocop (another underrated Verhoeven great). If Robocop was a satire of an over-the-top violent action movie (with a little heart), Starship Troopers upped the ante by an order of magnitude. Verhoeven was, after all, an European outsider who had grown up under Nazi occupation. Satirizing a book that glorifies fascism was something he was almost BORN to do. Well, that and showing us Elizabeth Berkley's bush.
Frankly I'm surprised that the Mozilla Foundation hasn't been preparing to ditch Google since they threw them under the bus by making Chrome in the first place
And replace them with who? Google provides something like 90% of their revenue.
This is the first time they have released a console that uses the same optical format as its predecessor
Yeah, and the last time, they had to put a PS2 chip on the mainboard just to do it--adding to the cost and footprint of the PS3 to do it (part of the reason it was $600 at launch). This time they're going for something a little more affordable, and so they weren't about to slap on an entire PS3 chipset on there just so a handful of nitpickers could play their old PS3 games without needing another HDMI port.
Yes, a lot of extras are lame. But they often add interesting insight, and sometimes they're even better than the feature itself. The commentary track on "Cannibal the Musical," for example, is WAY better than the movie itself.
indicate that populations are most likely on the rise
I guess that's what passes for scientific evidence these days in this era of environmental activism masquerading as science: "Eh, probably, maybe..."
and that this boom is taking place in an ocean that is faced with overfishing, acid rain, nutrient pollution from fertilizers and climate change, among other problems.
And of course it follows that if these populations are on the rise (and they MAYBE are, probably) then it's the fault of all the environmentalists' usual suspects. Just surprised they didn't find a way to blame nuclear energy too.
I'm just surprised they haven't tried yet to trump up some pedophilia or sexual assault charge on Snowden. That particular brand of character assassination seems to have replaced the old-fashioned assassination-by-bullet in the CIA arsenal of late, when someone starts leaking or questioning the U.S. dollar. It's probably only because they know he's in a country that isn't going to extradite him no matter what they try to trump up (or maybe they're afraid of overusing the technique and having the press realize it).
I'm not sure what universe you're from, but in mine the hole-in-the-wall Ma and Pa video stores back in the day had okay selections at best. I don't recall ever seeing one that had a selection like Blockbusters, much less better. Maybe you happened to live next to some supersized, uniquely incredible Ma and Pa's. But I seem to remember them sucking pretty hard. There was only one I ever went to, and only because they stocked a lot of REALLY obscure stuff. But obscure stuff was also pretty much ALL they had too.
Slashdot Mirror
I wonder why people choose to live in such inhospitable places.
The Sam Kinison principle: "You see this, fucker? It's sand. You know what it's going to be in a thousand years? SAND!!"
Yes, Blockbuster lagged behind and was a victim of their own hubris, but I'll still miss them. I never was a huge fan of Netflix going to the subscription system for DVD's. I miss being able to go down to a video store and rent a physical DVD/Blu-ray of the latest videos at a flat rate (with better video quality and all the great extra features that you don't get with streaming).
Unfortunately, Netflix is likely on the verge of abandoning their DVD/Blu-ray by mail program, and special rental versions have all but made extra features an extinct species (still not sure why Blockbuster started buying those and gave up the ONE major advantage they had over streaming services, were they really THAT much cheaper?). One of the great things about DVD's/Blu-Rays (and even before that laserdiscs) were those great commentary tracks and extra features. Sometimes they were better than the movie itself (Cannibal: The Musical, anyone?). Now I'm afraid they're gone for good. No more great commentary tracks and making-of documentaries for us film buffs. And, until bandwidth improves, no more 30mbps 1080p video.
From what I've heard of Linus, his abuse is more of the "I'm a self-important prick" variety than the "I'm trying to motivate you to be a better coder" variety. But yes, the latter wouldn't bother me nearly as much as the former.
If your code didn't suck theen maybe you wouldn't get yelled at?
Maybe if YOUR code didn't suck so much someone would be willing to actually pay you for it.
I have never recalled an era in history where I couldn't buy a PC without Windows, or when there weren't other OS options available (perhaps you're from an alternate universe where this was once the case). The only times I have ever bought one was when I could get a PC with Windows CHEAPER than I could buy one without. I hardly consider that robbery.
My first PC was custom built with OS/2 Warp. My second was custom built with Red Hat Linux. My third came with Windows, but I only bought it because I didn't feel like building my own (or buying one custom built) that time, and it was cheaper than the custom built one. My most recent one was an Apple. AFAIK, Bill Gates and MS have never "stolen" anything from me. And the only time I have felt forced to use Windows was when I was gaming (and that was because of the game developers, NOT Microsoft).
If someone wants to right to yell at me, he's going to have to pay me (well) for the privilege. I would have taken Steve Jobs' abuse, as long as he kept the paychecks coming. Some prick who expects me to VOLUNTEER for the honor of having him dress me down like a bitch? Not so much.
Yahoo is adopting it because it's a great way to get rid of dead weight, as long as it's used BRIEFLY. It's really not meant to be used in the long-term (as MS and several other have tried to). In the short-term, Yahoo will lose some dead weight. In the long-term, they'll get paranoia, indecisiveness, etc. (in short, a company culture of fear).
It's like my grandpa used to say: "Kid,if you want security, go with U.S. government savings bonds. If you want pussy and meth on the Silk Road, go with Bitcoin." This also explains why my inheritance was mostly in Bitcoins.
It would seem the pyramid is collapsing.
Who the fuck modded me down for pointing out that this site doesn't work too well either?? It tried two zip codes in two different states. One just returned a blank page, and one returned a message saying that this state isn't supported. Hardly the wonderful alternative to the Federal webpage that the summary makes it out to be.
Mine didn't go to any list, nor did it say my state wasn't supported (it's just blank). Type in zip code 29401 and see for yourself.
Yet I'd be willing to bet that most of the idiots who repeat that adage will turn around and play a modern triple-A level videogame with absolutely no sense of the irony. The days of people doing the really big stuff out of their garages are long gone.
Lucky you. I typed in my zip code and all I got was a blank page back. I must live in one of those zip codes with no insurance companies.
I'm pretty sure that establishing a fascist government ruled by the military wouldn't necessarily produce the peaceful utopia that you (and Heinlein) think it might. The great thing about Verhoeven is that he was uniquely qualified to see that, having grown up in Nazi-occupied Europe during the War. What sounds like a good idea on paper often leads to very bad things in actual practice.
I can't believe that people still don't get that Verhoeven wasn't doing an adaptation of the book, he was doing a SATIRE of it. It was obvious to me the first time I saw it. For god's sake, the officers are wearing Nazi SS uniforms! There were parody newscasts showing soldiers handing out ammo to kids! How could anyone possibly have missed that this was satire??
It was even more obvious than Robocop (another underrated Verhoeven great). If Robocop was a satire of an over-the-top violent action movie (with a little heart), Starship Troopers upped the ante by an order of magnitude. Verhoeven was, after all, an European outsider who had grown up under Nazi occupation. Satirizing a book that glorifies fascism was something he was almost BORN to do. Well, that and showing us Elizabeth Berkley's bush.
I would like to know more.
Frankly I'm surprised that the Mozilla Foundation hasn't been preparing to ditch Google since they threw them under the bus by making Chrome in the first place
And replace them with who? Google provides something like 90% of their revenue.
This is the first time they have released a console that uses the same optical format as its predecessor
Yeah, and the last time, they had to put a PS2 chip on the mainboard just to do it--adding to the cost and footprint of the PS3 to do it (part of the reason it was $600 at launch). This time they're going for something a little more affordable, and so they weren't about to slap on an entire PS3 chipset on there just so a handful of nitpickers could play their old PS3 games without needing another HDMI port.
A spinning disc, in 2013? Who's the target market
People who don't have the bandwidth to download 25-50GB games?
You don't understand science do you?
This isn't science. Its activism that cloaks itself as science.
Which is fine, just shut you yap about it and stay out of politics.
Ironic charge coming from a political activist.
Yes, a lot of extras are lame. But they often add interesting insight, and sometimes they're even better than the feature itself. The commentary track on "Cannibal the Musical," for example, is WAY better than the movie itself.
indicate that populations are most likely on the rise
I guess that's what passes for scientific evidence these days in this era of environmental activism masquerading as science: "Eh, probably, maybe..."
and that this boom is taking place in an ocean that is faced with overfishing, acid rain, nutrient pollution from fertilizers and climate change, among other problems.
And of course it follows that if these populations are on the rise (and they MAYBE are, probably) then it's the fault of all the environmentalists' usual suspects. Just surprised they didn't find a way to blame nuclear energy too.
I smell the heavy miasma of bullshit wafting pretty much anytime a politician speaks of ANYTHING.
I'm just surprised they haven't tried yet to trump up some pedophilia or sexual assault charge on Snowden. That particular brand of character assassination seems to have replaced the old-fashioned assassination-by-bullet in the CIA arsenal of late, when someone starts leaking or questioning the U.S. dollar. It's probably only because they know he's in a country that isn't going to extradite him no matter what they try to trump up (or maybe they're afraid of overusing the technique and having the press realize it).
I'm not sure what universe you're from, but in mine the hole-in-the-wall Ma and Pa video stores back in the day had okay selections at best. I don't recall ever seeing one that had a selection like Blockbusters, much less better. Maybe you happened to live next to some supersized, uniquely incredible Ma and Pa's. But I seem to remember them sucking pretty hard. There was only one I ever went to, and only because they stocked a lot of REALLY obscure stuff. But obscure stuff was also pretty much ALL they had too.