I do agree that a lot of people who take the Bible literally don't seem to understand that the King James (or whichever) version of the Bible is not the divinely inspired original word of God. However, if one starts with the premise that the Bible in its original context is the word of God, one could form a very cohesive belief that a particular translation of the Bible is a bad translation of the word of God.
I think it's important to remember that these are all TRANSLATIONS. So of course they're going to differ. They'll differ even more when you start reading translations into languages other than English. The fact as I understand it is that the meaning of the word is not known, and actually was not known even in earlier translations which might explain why it was left in there even by them. If you look at http://net.bible.org/strong.php?id=07214, for example, you'll see a little information on this.
There's no secret or conspiracy here, as anyone is welcome to learn ancient Hebrew or Aramaic and read the original scriptures for themselves.
It's likely that it does refer to an animal that is now extinct, the most likely current thinking being that it was a type of wild ox or other animal with two horns.
If you're going to criticize the Bible, IMHO this is a pretty lame way to do it as even a tiny little bit of research will show that your point is unfounded.
I haven't found anything worth modding up yet so I'll just post. Here's my personal anecdotal evidence which of course isn't worth much.
I live in rural Ontario, Canada on a farm. I'm 4 miles from the nearest town of ~600 people and about a 15 minute drive from a 45,000 person town (Woodstock, ON if you care). I have fixed wireless available to me which operates on a 900MHz band. The whole general area is blanketed by the service, in some cases even by more than one provider. Sure it cost a few hundred dollars to set up, and it's maybe $70/month when you factor everything in, but for that price I have a nominal 3Mbps/512kbps connection with a static IP, and no bandwidth caps or restrictions. In reality most of the time it's more like 1.5Mbps/400kpbs but it's good enough for me to work from as I'm self employed and work at home.
This service has been available here for years, and was put in place back when I was living in suburban southern California and having trouble finding broadband service.
Fixed wireless seems like a great way to serve low density areas. I personally use XPlornet and am very happy with them. They have real people answering the phones.
And that's why I'm sticking with my hacked-onto-Bell's-network Samsung i500 Palm phone until something comes along that's worth switching for. I can't use SMS or the internet with it, but then again I couldn't afford it up here anyway. I read somewhere recently that data plans are cheaper in Rwanda than in Canada. WTF.
Hey. Feel free to email me if you have further questions, but as you probably know a great place to start is mp3car.com. They have awesome forums there, and that's where I got my integrated startup/shudown controller and 12V DC power supply. I have a VIA EPIA M10000 rev.2 board, which is a 1GHz system. I'd say it's barely fast enough but I got it for something like C$156 shipped so I can't complain.
As far as speed goes, I'd say overall it's maybe slower than my old PIII-800 laptop I used to have. Faster than my old PII-400 by a good margin. It's slow, but it's fast enough for what I use it for. I only have 256MB of RAM in there right now which is most of the problem I think. I also think that maybe I have a bad board, or bad something, because occasionally it slows WAY down and takes 5 minutes to do something that should take 5 seconds. Then eventually it will catch up again. I also get BSODs occasionally, so I wonder if I got a bad board.
It's fast enough to run Google Earth though, or Delorme Street Atlas. It just takes maybe 2-3 minutes to load Google Earth, but once it's going it's not bad.
You can see a couple photos of my setup here and let me know if you have any other questions.
Not to mention the fact that outside of the US, as the article summary mentions, can't otherwise use an iPhone. If I was in the US, I'd probably just switch to AT&T as the plan they offer is (IMHO) reasonable. Since I'm in Canada I'm SOL without either Apple offering the iPhone here, or using a cracked version.
If I buy a cracked version in Canada, it's a win for Apple. The vast majority of people in the US who want an iPhone are just going to switch to AT&T.
There are lots of uses for a CPU like this. I, for example, run a VIA CPU/mobo in my truck. It draws very little current which means my auxilliary battery will run the computer for a lot longer. It also produces less heat than my AMD/Intel options, which means the computer needs no fans, which also saves power and keeps the system quieter. I run Windows XP on there as pretty much all the good GPS software runs on Windows. An ARM chip wouldn't do me much good there, unfortunately.
I agree though, this chip is never going to be the financial success that the Core2 is.
You're right that MOST people wouldn't follow up their words. But some people would, and that's why we have a small percentage of people out there who commit violent crimes.
I remember in university someone broke into my locked apartment and stole my $2500 mountain bike right out of my living room. That represented about 80% of my total net worth at the time and it really really upset me. I would literally have dreams at night for months afterward that I found the person who stole my bike, and I'd very graphically dream of myself beating the crap out of that person until they stopped moving. The dreams would kind of scare me when I woke up and thought about it. I probably wouldn't have gone to that extent if I'd actually found the person (I hope I wouldn't) but I'm pretty sure I'd have done what it took to get him to a police station.
Actually, after I'd received my insurance cheque, the local bike store told me a cop had shown up with my bike frame at the store. He'd apparently bought it used, not knowing it was hot. I didn't really buy that at first but the employees there vouched that he was an honest guy. Since it belonged to the insurance company now, and the store guys had already told the cop that it was a stolen frame, I let it go.
Yeah, WTF is up with Kern. I was SOOOO excited to find Guava juice in the stores when I first moved to California. I couldn't believe it. Then I saw that they sweeten their guava and mango juice! I mean, are they not sweet enough already? Plus, I'd think that anyone who knows to buy guava juice also doesn't feel that they need it artificially sweetened.
Depressing.
Re:Piracy is marker of immature market
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Piracy Economics
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· Score: 1
Umm, you can't copy databases?
Have you ever tried to use the backup/restore features?
Show me how I can access a remote server from a locally installed SQL Server Management Studio Express and back up the remote database to my local drive, and I'll happily do that. The database is on a remote shared server so I don't have access to the file system.
Re:Piracy is marker of immature market
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Piracy Economics
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· Score: 1
Microsoft gives away a LOT of their products. They just don't usually give away their two main cash cows, Windows and Office.
Since SQL Server 2005 came out I've been using their free Express version for developing. I seem to always have one or two clients that use SQL Server. However, one huge limitation is that I can't copy databases with the express version. Yesterday I was once again seriously pissed with Microsoft for this issue and thought they were trying to force me to spend hundreds of dollars on SQL Server just to do this measly task which honestly I shouldn't have to pay for.
Then I looked at microsoft.com this morning and found out that the developer version of SQL Server is only US$50. In my mind that's a reasonable price for what I need, and I don't have a problem paying it. My attitude went from being upset at Microsoft for yet another thing to feeling like they finally got a pricing model right, at least on the low end. Free would have been better, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have paid over $70.
I agree with you. I wasn't saying that Google is ignoring click fraud. I was just explaining how it can happen. A couple years ago I think it was a different story but as the problem became worse, Google started more actively cracking down on it.
And you say 'clickfraud is rampant.'... Are you saying that you think Google is faking clicks? Or pays someone to? I can't see how anyone but Google would benefit from this. (I suppose the paranoid part of me says your competitor could be faking the clicks, to get rid of your ads... But that could have serious legal consequences.)
Click fraud can happen on Google's "content network". I just happen to be looking at one of my ads right now. In the last week, it's been shown 104 times on Google's pages. It's been shown 13,636 times on other pages using Google's Adsense. You know, the Google ads on other peoples' pages.
If I run a site and put Adsense on it, I get a percentage of Google's revenue for each ad clicked through from my site. Therefore, if I have more click-throughs, I get paid more. That's where click fraud comes in. The advertiser gets a higher bill due to more clicks, and Google pays the fraudulent Adsense operator a portion of the revenue.
You can opt out of your ads being shown on the content network, or even on certain sites. But as you can see from the numbers above, you'll be losing out on a HUGE percentage of your ad impressions. OTOH, in my experience the CTR off Google's sites is higher than the content network CTR, and quite possibly depending on what your product is, the people might be more qualified.
It doesn't matter if it doesn't affect 99.99% of their customers. It's still not unlimited, which is what they're advertising. It is a Big Deal for that 0.001% (higher really) of people who DO go over the value. One of my friends just got kicked off Verizon's service a couple weeks ago. He's a software developer, works at home a lot, and livs in an RV. This service SHOULD have been good for him, but after downloading a few TV shows from iTunes (NOT P2P, notice) and a couple Linux ISOs or whatever, he suddenly got booted. They didn't even give him an option to pay more and stay on the service.
That's no "unlimited" in any real sense of the word. I don't think anyone would reasonably fault Verizon for putting a 5GB limit on their plan. To call it unlimited though is disingenuous, no matter what the fine print says, and to not offer any other more expensive options for those who do go over the limit is just stupid.
I believe all the major carriers forbid doing this UNLESS you sign up for their more expensive "computer" plan.
Thanks for playing. The whole point of this is that this IS about people using their $70/month unlimited data plans designed for computer use, not the $15/month "access the internet on your cell phone" plans.
You didn't say I shouldn't use wireless, but you did say "wireless is NOT practical". I disagree. It is very practical, for me and millions of other people all over the world, in all sorts of buildings.
I don't think there's a single reputable vendor of wireless gear who wouldn't tell you in the specs that obstructions will reduce the range of the gear. you make a comment like this:
So, in a place where most houses are as big as mine (and some much larger), and where houses are made of brick, I guess I CAN say that Wi-Fi is not practical, not only for me but for the millions of houses around, made of brick, that won't be able to enjoy wireless as it's supposed to be (that is, just work).
This is the sort of comment to which I was responding. I live in a stone house with walls much thicker and denser than brick, and wireless IS practical for me. It also workes as it "is supposed to" (go read the specs again on any Linksys/Netgear/Apple router) and it does "just work". It required some thought about what equipment to get and where to place it. Big deal.
I also only have two access points in my house, and one in my office which is 40 metres away from the house and is a train caboose entirely encased in aluminium siding, except for the windows and door. Basically a faraday cage.
OK so you live in the third world. I didn't think Argentina quite qualified as "third world", but then again I've never been there. I've heard it's nice and we're considering going late in the year. But anyway. If I spend $500 on wireless gear, that's a drop in the bucket for me compared to days setting up wires. It took me probably at least a day of digging to dig the trench from the house to the office for my ethernet and phone cables, for instance. It was good exercise, but it was a day that I couldn't bill anything, so that "cost" me a lot. If your time is worth anything to you, setting up a wireless network can often be cheaper than a wired one, ESPECIALLY in a brick or stone house where it's hard to wire things too. Not to mention, that switches and ethernet cable cost money too. I probably spent $150 on cable alone although I have a lot left over.
I guess I wasn't responding directly to you about not using wireless, but there was another guy who said he just leaves wires in his living room so he can plug in. I thought that was your comment, which is why I wrote that here.
OK, I live in a 140 year old STONE house, with walls almost a metre thick. I ran gigabit ethernet where I could when I was renovating and was pulling off the old inner wall coverings anyway. I also ran ethernet out to my office which is an old train caboose about 40 metres from my house. I use ethernet for the computers in the basement, the switch in my office, the SageTV media extender beside the TV in the sitting room, and for the computer in front of the TV in the living room, and it all works great.
However...
I ALSO run wireless. I have an Airport Extreme in the basement, an Express on the main floor, and another Express in my office. Why? Becuase I have a laptop and so does my wife, and it's FREAKING STUPID to have them hooked up to ethernet when I can just open them anywhere and have them work. I even use wireless in my office. The reason is, if I have a whole bunch of network shares open, ssh tunnels, etc. and I decide I want to take the powerbook back into the house and I unplug my ethernet cable, I LOSE MY WHOLE SETUP. With wireless, I just pick up my computer and bring it into the house. I have wireless connectivity the whole way across the yard, and my computer just switches automatically from wireless AP to the next. Try that with ethernet.
Some people want wireless, some people want ethernet, and some of us find that using both for their own strengths works best. But if you want to wire an old house, or set up a brick/stone house with wireless, both are certainly possible.
ARGH!!! I'm getting so sick of people spouting this ridiculously narrowminded viewpoint! How's this for an idea: you still take your weekends off, or whatever, but Friday mornings you and your spouse go out for brunch together. Your spouse knows that he/she still gets "non-work" time with you, but your Friday morning date is shared with work. It's a win-win-win situation. Your spouse gets to feel EXTRA-special because you're taking time out of your work day to be with him/her, which you are.
I don't know your SO, if you have one, but my wife is nice and reasonable. She appreciates that when we're on vacation, the computer isn't there. She also appreciates that when I take time out of my work day to do something fun with her, sometimes the phone rings and I have to answer it. I'd still rather be out with her than sitting behind my desk, if my schedule will allow it.
You're looking at this from a very narrow perspective. Let me ask you this: if the only tools you needed to work were a laptop, internet connection and mobile phone, would you rather work your whole year in some windowless cubicle, or spend a few weeks of it in a luxury hotel by the beach, or at a ski resort, or whatever floats your boat?
I've been self employed for a few years. I've spent my time in various cafes for various reasons, and most of the time it was because I was going to be more productive there. Last year my wife took a course in Austria for 3 weeks. I could have stayed at home I suppose, but why? We just rented a hotel room with internet access, and I took my laptop and Vonage phone and it was business as usual. We now also got to write the whole trip off for both of us. I still got to get out hiking and exploring, I got to experience Austria to some extent, and we took 4 days or so off at the end of the trip to just have a mini vacation.
Are you seriously telling me that I should have stayed at home because going to Austria was a "bad vacation"? Come on. And no I don't take my work with me on every vacation; that was our second trip to Europe for the year. The first one was for 3 weeks and I left my laptop at home.
You're absolutely right, of course. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcicial aquatic ceremony! You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you! If I went 'round sayin' I was Emperor, just because some moistened bink lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!
I WISH they didn't plough the road here (southern Ontario). I just drove into a ditch this afternoon trying to avoid the snow plough. There's irony; being sent into the ditch by the very vehicle supposedly going around trying to keep us out.
Yeah, this is totally off-topic, so I'll bring it back on. I haven't received any threatening emails from the toothless tiger, despite having used a P2P client or three.
I'm with you on that. When I can get an actual, real-live "CD quality" download, or better yet, one ripped at an even higher bitrate from the master if it's available, I'll happily spend money on downloads. High-quality downloads without the physical CD and case are worth about as much to me as a purchased CD, which is to say $10-13 for a CD I really want. Which is why I buy most of my CDs used.
Seriously though, if I could get at least CD-quality music at iTunes pricing without DRM, I'd spend money on that. In the meantime, I'll keep downloading music off P2P to try things out, and then buying the music I like off Amazon, eBay or from a local used CD store.
Kinda like prescribing birth control pills "to normalize your hormones and get rid of that acne."
I tried this. Added bonuses were that I tried out and made second soprano in the Vienna Boys' Choir (at age 46), I don't have to shave any more, and my underwear doesn't fit as tightly either.
One downside was that my nipples are a lot more sensitive than they used to be.
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I do agree that a lot of people who take the Bible literally don't seem to understand that the King James (or whichever) version of the Bible is not the divinely inspired original word of God. However, if one starts with the premise that the Bible in its original context is the word of God, one could form a very cohesive belief that a particular translation of the Bible is a bad translation of the word of God.
I think it's important to remember that these are all TRANSLATIONS. So of course they're going to differ. They'll differ even more when you start reading translations into languages other than English. The fact as I understand it is that the meaning of the word is not known, and actually was not known even in earlier translations which might explain why it was left in there even by them. If you look at http://net.bible.org/strong.php?id=07214, for example, you'll see a little information on this.
There's no secret or conspiracy here, as anyone is welcome to learn ancient Hebrew or Aramaic and read the original scriptures for themselves.
It's likely that it does refer to an animal that is now extinct, the most likely current thinking being that it was a type of wild ox or other animal with two horns.
If you're going to criticize the Bible, IMHO this is a pretty lame way to do it as even a tiny little bit of research will show that your point is unfounded.
I haven't found anything worth modding up yet so I'll just post. Here's my personal anecdotal evidence which of course isn't worth much.
I live in rural Ontario, Canada on a farm. I'm 4 miles from the nearest town of ~600 people and about a 15 minute drive from a 45,000 person town (Woodstock, ON if you care). I have fixed wireless available to me which operates on a 900MHz band. The whole general area is blanketed by the service, in some cases even by more than one provider. Sure it cost a few hundred dollars to set up, and it's maybe $70/month when you factor everything in, but for that price I have a nominal 3Mbps/512kbps connection with a static IP, and no bandwidth caps or restrictions. In reality most of the time it's more like 1.5Mbps/400kpbs but it's good enough for me to work from as I'm self employed and work at home.
This service has been available here for years, and was put in place back when I was living in suburban southern California and having trouble finding broadband service.
Fixed wireless seems like a great way to serve low density areas. I personally use XPlornet and am very happy with them. They have real people answering the phones.
And that's why I'm sticking with my hacked-onto-Bell's-network Samsung i500 Palm phone until something comes along that's worth switching for. I can't use SMS or the internet with it, but then again I couldn't afford it up here anyway. I read somewhere recently that data plans are cheaper in Rwanda than in Canada. WTF.
Hey. Feel free to email me if you have further questions, but as you probably know a great place to start is mp3car.com. They have awesome forums there, and that's where I got my integrated startup/shudown controller and 12V DC power supply. I have a VIA EPIA M10000 rev.2 board, which is a 1GHz system. I'd say it's barely fast enough but I got it for something like C$156 shipped so I can't complain.
As far as speed goes, I'd say overall it's maybe slower than my old PIII-800 laptop I used to have. Faster than my old PII-400 by a good margin. It's slow, but it's fast enough for what I use it for. I only have 256MB of RAM in there right now which is most of the problem I think. I also think that maybe I have a bad board, or bad something, because occasionally it slows WAY down and takes 5 minutes to do something that should take 5 seconds. Then eventually it will catch up again. I also get BSODs occasionally, so I wonder if I got a bad board.
It's fast enough to run Google Earth though, or Delorme Street Atlas. It just takes maybe 2-3 minutes to load Google Earth, but once it's going it's not bad.
You can see a couple photos of my setup here and let me know if you have any other questions.
- Andrew.
If I buy a cracked version in Canada, it's a win for Apple. The vast majority of people in the US who want an iPhone are just going to switch to AT&T.
There are lots of uses for a CPU like this. I, for example, run a VIA CPU/mobo in my truck. It draws very little current which means my auxilliary battery will run the computer for a lot longer. It also produces less heat than my AMD/Intel options, which means the computer needs no fans, which also saves power and keeps the system quieter. I run Windows XP on there as pretty much all the good GPS software runs on Windows. An ARM chip wouldn't do me much good there, unfortunately.
I agree though, this chip is never going to be the financial success that the Core2 is.
Sounds like you wish your phone came with one of these...
You're right that MOST people wouldn't follow up their words. But some people would, and that's why we have a small percentage of people out there who commit violent crimes.
I remember in university someone broke into my locked apartment and stole my $2500 mountain bike right out of my living room. That represented about 80% of my total net worth at the time and it really really upset me. I would literally have dreams at night for months afterward that I found the person who stole my bike, and I'd very graphically dream of myself beating the crap out of that person until they stopped moving. The dreams would kind of scare me when I woke up and thought about it. I probably wouldn't have gone to that extent if I'd actually found the person (I hope I wouldn't) but I'm pretty sure I'd have done what it took to get him to a police station.
Actually, after I'd received my insurance cheque, the local bike store told me a cop had shown up with my bike frame at the store. He'd apparently bought it used, not knowing it was hot. I didn't really buy that at first but the employees there vouched that he was an honest guy. Since it belonged to the insurance company now, and the store guys had already told the cop that it was a stolen frame, I let it go.
Yeah, WTF is up with Kern. I was SOOOO excited to find Guava juice in the stores when I first moved to California. I couldn't believe it. Then I saw that they sweeten their guava and mango juice! I mean, are they not sweet enough already? Plus, I'd think that anyone who knows to buy guava juice also doesn't feel that they need it artificially sweetened.
Depressing.
Microsoft gives away a LOT of their products. They just don't usually give away their two main cash cows, Windows and Office.
Since SQL Server 2005 came out I've been using their free Express version for developing. I seem to always have one or two clients that use SQL Server. However, one huge limitation is that I can't copy databases with the express version. Yesterday I was once again seriously pissed with Microsoft for this issue and thought they were trying to force me to spend hundreds of dollars on SQL Server just to do this measly task which honestly I shouldn't have to pay for.
Then I looked at microsoft.com this morning and found out that the developer version of SQL Server is only US$50. In my mind that's a reasonable price for what I need, and I don't have a problem paying it. My attitude went from being upset at Microsoft for yet another thing to feeling like they finally got a pricing model right, at least on the low end. Free would have been better, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have paid over $70.
I agree with you. I wasn't saying that Google is ignoring click fraud. I was just explaining how it can happen. A couple years ago I think it was a different story but as the problem became worse, Google started more actively cracking down on it.
Click fraud can happen on Google's "content network". I just happen to be looking at one of my ads right now. In the last week, it's been shown 104 times on Google's pages. It's been shown 13,636 times on other pages using Google's Adsense. You know, the Google ads on other peoples' pages.
If I run a site and put Adsense on it, I get a percentage of Google's revenue for each ad clicked through from my site. Therefore, if I have more click-throughs, I get paid more. That's where click fraud comes in. The advertiser gets a higher bill due to more clicks, and Google pays the fraudulent Adsense operator a portion of the revenue.
You can opt out of your ads being shown on the content network, or even on certain sites. But as you can see from the numbers above, you'll be losing out on a HUGE percentage of your ad impressions. OTOH, in my experience the CTR off Google's sites is higher than the content network CTR, and quite possibly depending on what your product is, the people might be more qualified.
He was out of contract already. He was in month to month, and I guess they were looking for an opportunity to drop him, and they did.
It doesn't matter if it doesn't affect 99.99% of their customers. It's still not unlimited, which is what they're advertising. It is a Big Deal for that 0.001% (higher really) of people who DO go over the value. One of my friends just got kicked off Verizon's service a couple weeks ago. He's a software developer, works at home a lot, and livs in an RV. This service SHOULD have been good for him, but after downloading a few TV shows from iTunes (NOT P2P, notice) and a couple Linux ISOs or whatever, he suddenly got booted. They didn't even give him an option to pay more and stay on the service.
That's no "unlimited" in any real sense of the word. I don't think anyone would reasonably fault Verizon for putting a 5GB limit on their plan. To call it unlimited though is disingenuous, no matter what the fine print says, and to not offer any other more expensive options for those who do go over the limit is just stupid.
I also only have two access points in my house, and one in my office which is 40 metres away from the house and is a train caboose entirely encased in aluminium siding, except for the windows and door. Basically a faraday cage.
OK so you live in the third world. I didn't think Argentina quite qualified as "third world", but then again I've never been there. I've heard it's nice and we're considering going late in the year. But anyway. If I spend $500 on wireless gear, that's a drop in the bucket for me compared to days setting up wires. It took me probably at least a day of digging to dig the trench from the house to the office for my ethernet and phone cables, for instance. It was good exercise, but it was a day that I couldn't bill anything, so that "cost" me a lot. If your time is worth anything to you, setting up a wireless network can often be cheaper than a wired one, ESPECIALLY in a brick or stone house where it's hard to wire things too. Not to mention, that switches and ethernet cable cost money too. I probably spent $150 on cable alone although I have a lot left over.
I guess I wasn't responding directly to you about not using wireless, but there was another guy who said he just leaves wires in his living room so he can plug in. I thought that was your comment, which is why I wrote that here.
OK, I live in a 140 year old STONE house, with walls almost a metre thick. I ran gigabit ethernet where I could when I was renovating and was pulling off the old inner wall coverings anyway. I also ran ethernet out to my office which is an old train caboose about 40 metres from my house. I use ethernet for the computers in the basement, the switch in my office, the SageTV media extender beside the TV in the sitting room, and for the computer in front of the TV in the living room, and it all works great.
However...
I ALSO run wireless. I have an Airport Extreme in the basement, an Express on the main floor, and another Express in my office. Why? Becuase I have a laptop and so does my wife, and it's FREAKING STUPID to have them hooked up to ethernet when I can just open them anywhere and have them work. I even use wireless in my office. The reason is, if I have a whole bunch of network shares open, ssh tunnels, etc. and I decide I want to take the powerbook back into the house and I unplug my ethernet cable, I LOSE MY WHOLE SETUP. With wireless, I just pick up my computer and bring it into the house. I have wireless connectivity the whole way across the yard, and my computer just switches automatically from wireless AP to the next. Try that with ethernet.
Some people want wireless, some people want ethernet, and some of us find that using both for their own strengths works best. But if you want to wire an old house, or set up a brick/stone house with wireless, both are certainly possible.
ARGH!!! I'm getting so sick of people spouting this ridiculously narrowminded viewpoint! How's this for an idea: you still take your weekends off, or whatever, but Friday mornings you and your spouse go out for brunch together. Your spouse knows that he/she still gets "non-work" time with you, but your Friday morning date is shared with work. It's a win-win-win situation. Your spouse gets to feel EXTRA-special because you're taking time out of your work day to be with him/her, which you are.
I don't know your SO, if you have one, but my wife is nice and reasonable. She appreciates that when we're on vacation, the computer isn't there. She also appreciates that when I take time out of my work day to do something fun with her, sometimes the phone rings and I have to answer it. I'd still rather be out with her than sitting behind my desk, if my schedule will allow it.
You're looking at this from a very narrow perspective. Let me ask you this: if the only tools you needed to work were a laptop, internet connection and mobile phone, would you rather work your whole year in some windowless cubicle, or spend a few weeks of it in a luxury hotel by the beach, or at a ski resort, or whatever floats your boat?
I've been self employed for a few years. I've spent my time in various cafes for various reasons, and most of the time it was because I was going to be more productive there. Last year my wife took a course in Austria for 3 weeks. I could have stayed at home I suppose, but why? We just rented a hotel room with internet access, and I took my laptop and Vonage phone and it was business as usual. We now also got to write the whole trip off for both of us. I still got to get out hiking and exploring, I got to experience Austria to some extent, and we took 4 days or so off at the end of the trip to just have a mini vacation.
Are you seriously telling me that I should have stayed at home because going to Austria was a "bad vacation"? Come on. And no I don't take my work with me on every vacation; that was our second trip to Europe for the year. The first one was for 3 weeks and I left my laptop at home.
You're absolutely right, of course. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcicial aquatic ceremony! You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you! If I went 'round sayin' I was Emperor, just because some moistened bink lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!
I WISH they didn't plough the road here (southern Ontario). I just drove into a ditch this afternoon trying to avoid the snow plough. There's irony; being sent into the ditch by the very vehicle supposedly going around trying to keep us out.
Yeah, this is totally off-topic, so I'll bring it back on. I haven't received any threatening emails from the toothless tiger, despite having used a P2P client or three.
I'm with you on that. When I can get an actual, real-live "CD quality" download, or better yet, one ripped at an even higher bitrate from the master if it's available, I'll happily spend money on downloads. High-quality downloads without the physical CD and case are worth about as much to me as a purchased CD, which is to say $10-13 for a CD I really want. Which is why I buy most of my CDs used.
Seriously though, if I could get at least CD-quality music at iTunes pricing without DRM, I'd spend money on that. In the meantime, I'll keep downloading music off P2P to try things out, and then buying the music I like off Amazon, eBay or from a local used CD store.
Kinda like prescribing birth control pills "to normalize your hormones and get rid of that acne."
I tried this. Added bonuses were that I tried out and made second soprano in the Vienna Boys' Choir (at age 46), I don't have to shave any more, and my underwear doesn't fit as tightly either.
One downside was that my nipples are a lot more sensitive than they used to be.