"Imagine if you went to a bookstore, asked for `Heart of Darkness' and they said, `Sorry, it's a back issue,'"
Because of course, we know that books NEVER go out of print...:)
I guess the person doesn't realize that once the comic market became a *collectible* market (oh, say 20-30 years ago?), fans would never stand for continual reprint after reprint of old/rare issues. The odd trade paperback collection, or reprints of very old and unique issues perhaps. Also, the demand just isn't there for every comic to be in print continuously.
Virtual Boy made it out of Japan, I have one sitting behind me. They only lasted a year or 2 in stores tops, with a pitiful 12 or so games ever released. The biggest reason cited for the unit's failure is that most people develop splitting headaches after playing for more than 5 minutes. Also, it wasn't anything CLOSE to a headset. You needed to place the thing on a flat surface and move your face close to it.
Yes, the original Pong and also the Magnavox Odyssey (the first home system) were both entirely IC-free. Coming as they did in 1972, they pre-date microprocessors by a few(?) years anyway. Nothing like opening up my old Odyssey to see only transistors, caps, and resistors:) Oh, and the game cartridges were only fancy jumpers; programmable game carts were still 4 years away.
This entire article reminds me of what's finally turned me into a Microsoft hater:
For our C++ class, we've been using a freeware compiler (Dev-c++), but the profs wanted to introduce some MFC-based code. So they approached Microsoft, who will apparently let each student install Visual C++ on their home computer, free of charge, with the understanding that it will be deleted after the course ends. OK, so MS is basically agreeing that it's on good faith that I won't pirate their software.
So I go to get a disc to take home from the department, only to find out that for a course with almost 300 students in its various sections, MS has only authorized something like 10 copies of the software. And the department is forbidden from making any copies. Do the math, it'll take a MINIMUM of a month for every student to take it home, install, and bring it back the next day.
This is completely impractical, but as the course cirriculum is already set, we've been told that if we can't get a copy in time, well, it's already installed in the University's lab. And if we want it for home, just take our chances.
Why the hell did MS even bother? Almost anyone these days could rip and burn a copy of the CD in their home, or hell, just NOT UNINSTALL IT. Regardless of what happens, it's the USER who controls what happens with their software. By denying me the ability to take a CD home for my own use, all they've done is:
1. Assume that I plan on pirating it, but don't have the brains to burn a CD myself.
2. Ensure that if I want to do my school work at home, I have no alternative than to pirate their software.
I'm no saint. But I really, really tried here. I wanted to go the legitimate route, and use legal, licensed software this time. Unfortunately, corporate stupidity means that once again I am going to pirate their software.
What really kills me is that at least 75% of those students will graduate, and be in the workforce soon. If MS had the foresight to play nice, they could build huge numbers of people who want to use their tools for development. At least, I'm assuming that not every software company uses Visual Studio. Instead, they've ensured that until forced virtually at gunpoint, I will never pay for one of their products again.
In Canada (as in some other countries), we pay a levy on all blank CDs (something horrible like 50 cents per). The levy is sent, courtesy the Canadian gov't, to the members of RIAA. In exchange, we are allowed to copy a music CD legally. I can borrow Joe's copy of Brittany and make myself a copy without legal ramifications.
Firstly, the levy can't be anywhere close to 50 cents, as I buy blanks for $50/100 at Future Shop all the time. IIRC it's something in the range of 10-15 cents per unit.
Secondly, the levy was originally intended to fun Canadian musicians; if our government seriously sends the equivalent of OUR tax dollars to the US to pay record companies, well, perhaps we should stop repeatedly voting in the same party time and time again.
Also keep in mind, that while we are allowed to COPY a CD for personal use, DISTRIBUTION is NOT covered by this law - effectively stopping 99% of all music piracy (see: Napster).
`Users should be in control of how their data is used,'' Gates wrote. ``It should be easy for users to specify appropriate use of their information including controlling the use of e-mail they send.''
This is precisely what led to Outlook Express being such a useless piece of *&*#& to use: allowing the SENDER to specify how email is used. Sorry Bill, but allow the RECEIVER to control this. Spam, 4MB attachments, and OE viruses/trojans/worms are all a result of the sender being in control.
Just write me a damn email client that lets ME choose what to receive, and how to display it. Wow, amazingly 99% of the problems with OE disappear!
Ok, that has to be the coolest "you need this" hardware story I've ever heard:) Coming from an area with some of the lowest electricity costs in the world (bless Hydroelectricity), the power issue is never much of a point here, but I must admit, you got me on that one!
Why the hell is everything called a "solution" these days?!
Let's face it, the majority of consumer electronics never really take off, and manufacturers know this. In many cases (Commodore Amiga) it's because there IS no market for the product at present. Calling something a 'solution' immediately makes management think that 'well, if there's a solution, there MUST be a problem!'. And the buying spree commences...
Of course, the honest route of 'our goods are useless and can't sell themselves solely on their own merit' went the way of the Dodo several decades ago. LCD monitors are some of the worst offenders here: sure, some people need every available square inch of desk space. But guess what? Most offices do not. That extra space just ends up turning into a mess of unorganized filing space. So what does every 'modern' secretary have on his/her 3x5(ish) desk? A nice new LCD monitor, to save that precious square foot or so of space! All because we've become convinced that monitors are somehow 'space-wasting'. I guess that explains the slow adoption of PC hardware over the past 20 years:)
I think the odds of an extraterrestrial understanding english, and currently living on earth, are.. well about zero, hence the definition of the word 'extraterrestrial'. I also think scientists are aware of this.
When they want to send a message to you, they'll just put it on prime time.
Or at least just the box, with a description that clearly says, in bold, 28pt, THIS IS ONLY THE BOX. THERE IS NO XBOX^2 INSIDE. YOU ARE BIDDING ON A PIECE OF CARDBOARD.
Then, people can bid it up to $1,000, and whine when they don't get their new shiny XBOX^2 in the mail.
To those that think that video games *don't* influance kids in any way, all I have to say is..."all your base belong to us"
Yes, and to those that think violent Shakespeare doesn't affect kids in any way, all I have to say is..."to be or not to be". Amazingly enough, no one would disagree with either of our starements. Know why? Because children running around repeating catch phrases has little to do with them comitting violent acts bases on entertainment and literature.
Besides, for the most part, the AYB fad was created and much fostered by people for the most part over 20. Most children today were hardly out of their cribs (if in fact born) when Zero Wing originally came out.
I'm assuming you're from Saskatchewan, as Manitoba now has made MTS private, and in theory AT&T Canada is competing for local service with it.
Just so you know, it's only the auto insurance that's compulsory. Home insurance is an open market, but SGI happens to be a good deal. One of the few well-run government anythings that I've ever dealth with.
Go visit your local pawn shop, and ESPECIALLY places that deal in used video games, during the last week of December. Stores get absolutely flooded with stuff. Hell, one year I saw a kid selling 10 unopened SNES games that he received for xmas. He got all of 1/3 retail for them. I'm sure his aunts/grandmas/parents/etc would have been happy to know that 2/3 of their money went in the toilet.
Having said that, for those of us who hate paying full price for anything, the weeks immediately after xmas are a goldmine! Now am I part of the problem or what...:)
Yeah, besides the fact that Shaw can't seem to get their email servers to stay up more than an hour straight, it's still as good as the day I ordered it 3 years ago. I can still grab 500KBytes downstream (when and if I can find servers to accomodate:). There was a rumor that upstream was gonna be capped at 64KBytes, but so far I get the steady 128 I've always gotten.
Nice to see yet another reason not to leave this country, though:)
300 words for snow? Yup, if you are from the north
Actually, I'm from one of the snowier parts of Canada, and while we have several words to describe snow/snowy conditions, I really don't feel at a disadvantage to the Inuit. Reason? The english language is full of nice little things called adjectives. They may have 300 words for snow, but I can describe each of those 300 states and more, just by using word modifiers.
I've never felt english to be as limited as its detractors claim. Then again, I've yet to see an example of something that cannot actually be translated into english. It may lose its finer details, but I doubt anything is entirely untranslatable.
Re:Okay... so we can't fix the software or the use
on
Clever New Windows Worm
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
If a manager (Or a sales guy, or an accountant, whatever) is used to using IE at home and sending e-mails with pretty fonts and pictures attached, they'll demand that they can do it at work.
If any of these employees wore a bathrobe to the office, and sat all day watching television, I'd fire their ass in no time flat. Yet they do this at home all the time.
I don't mean to come off as a flame, as I agree for the most part with your post, but employees are paid to do a job, and to do as *I* the employer says with *my* equipment. A huge problem with email viruses is that because they're computer related, we somehow feel we shouldn't be able to hold employees accountable for their actions. If an employee doesn't want to lock his house door, fine. If he leaves my office door unlocked after hours, he's gone. When I tell an employee "DO NOT open email attachments" and they do, I'm sorry, but the employee is at fault.
"If A then B" logically implies "If not-B then not-A".
However, this is a moot point, as we're working with false premises here to begin with. Water does not necessarily imply life at all. Drill several thousand feet into a glacier and see what's living there. Or, seal a canister of pure water and shoot it into space. In either case, you can find water without life.
Arguing with false premises isn't even arguing at all.
Much like the russians did, eh? I don't recall any russian Mars colonies...
Socialism, or even moreso communism, relies too heavily on the assumption that people WANT to contribute to the government pot for its own sake. If people wanted to do that, we could easily finance a private (or government funded) space program, under any system of government.
The difference is, under socialism/communism, you don't have a CHOICE where your money goes. At least in theory, US citizens do. In russia, if you didn't like what the government did, you were shot.
Then again, there are a lot of people out there who don't like making their own minds up...
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Because of course, we know that books NEVER go out of print...
I guess the person doesn't realize that once the comic market became a *collectible* market (oh, say 20-30 years ago?), fans would never stand for continual reprint after reprint of old/rare issues. The odd trade paperback collection, or reprints of very old and unique issues perhaps. Also, the demand just isn't there for every comic to be in print continuously.
Virtual Boy made it out of Japan, I have one sitting behind me. They only lasted a year or 2 in stores tops, with a pitiful 12 or so games ever released. The biggest reason cited for the unit's failure is that most people develop splitting headaches after playing for more than 5 minutes. Also, it wasn't anything CLOSE to a headset. You needed to place the thing on a flat surface and move your face close to it.
You mean, as opposed to all the wooden houses that we currently live in, all produced from 100% inorganic trees?
For our C++ class, we've been using a freeware compiler (Dev-c++), but the profs wanted to introduce some MFC-based code. So they approached Microsoft, who will apparently let each student install Visual C++ on their home computer, free of charge, with the understanding that it will be deleted after the course ends. OK, so MS is basically agreeing that it's on good faith that I won't pirate their software.
So I go to get a disc to take home from the department, only to find out that for a course with almost 300 students in its various sections, MS has only authorized something like 10 copies of the software. And the department is forbidden from making any copies. Do the math, it'll take a MINIMUM of a month for every student to take it home, install, and bring it back the next day.
This is completely impractical, but as the course cirriculum is already set, we've been told that if we can't get a copy in time, well, it's already installed in the University's lab. And if we want it for home, just take our chances.
Why the hell did MS even bother? Almost anyone these days could rip and burn a copy of the CD in their home, or hell, just NOT UNINSTALL IT. Regardless of what happens, it's the USER who controls what happens with their software. By denying me the ability to take a CD home for my own use, all they've done is:
1. Assume that I plan on pirating it, but don't have the brains to burn a CD myself.
2. Ensure that if I want to do my school work at home, I have no alternative than to pirate their software.
I'm no saint. But I really, really tried here. I wanted to go the legitimate route, and use legal, licensed software this time. Unfortunately, corporate stupidity means that once again I am going to pirate their software.
What really kills me is that at least 75% of those students will graduate, and be in the workforce soon. If MS had the foresight to play nice, they could build huge numbers of people who want to use their tools for development. At least, I'm assuming that not every software company uses Visual Studio. Instead, they've ensured that until forced virtually at gunpoint, I will never pay for one of their products again.
Now come and arrest me, morons.
Firstly, the levy can't be anywhere close to 50 cents, as I buy blanks for $50/100 at Future Shop all the time. IIRC it's something in the range of 10-15 cents per unit.
Secondly, the levy was originally intended to fun Canadian musicians; if our government seriously sends the equivalent of OUR tax dollars to the US to pay record companies, well, perhaps we should stop repeatedly voting in the same party time and time again.
Also keep in mind, that while we are allowed to COPY a CD for personal use, DISTRIBUTION is NOT covered by this law - effectively stopping 99% of all music piracy (see: Napster).
This is precisely what led to Outlook Express being such a useless piece of *&*#& to use: allowing the SENDER to specify how email is used. Sorry Bill, but allow the RECEIVER to control this. Spam, 4MB attachments, and OE viruses/trojans/worms are all a result of the sender being in control.
Just write me a damn email client that lets ME choose what to receive, and how to display it. Wow, amazingly 99% of the problems with OE disappear!
Ah, so you want to exclude this new system from controlling
Let's face it, the majority of consumer electronics never really take off, and manufacturers know this. In many cases (Commodore Amiga) it's because there IS no market for the product at present. Calling something a 'solution' immediately makes management think that 'well, if there's a solution, there MUST be a problem!'. And the buying spree commences...
Of course, the honest route of 'our goods are useless and can't sell themselves solely on their own merit' went the way of the Dodo several decades ago. LCD monitors are some of the worst offenders here: sure, some people need every available square inch of desk space. But guess what? Most offices do not. That extra space just ends up turning into a mess of unorganized filing space. So what does every 'modern' secretary have on his/her 3x5(ish) desk? A nice new LCD monitor, to save that precious square foot or so of space! All because we've become convinced that monitors are somehow 'space-wasting'. I guess that explains the slow adoption of PC hardware over the past 20 years
When they want to send a message to you, they'll just put it on prime time.
Then, people can bid it up to $1,000, and whine when they don't get their new shiny XBOX^2 in the mail.
Yes, and to those that think violent Shakespeare doesn't affect kids in any way, all I have to say is..."to be or not to be". Amazingly enough, no one would disagree with either of our starements. Know why? Because children running around repeating catch phrases has little to do with them comitting violent acts bases on entertainment and literature.
Besides, for the most part, the AYB fad was created and much fostered by people for the most part over 20. Most children today were hardly out of their cribs (if in fact born) when Zero Wing originally came out.
Ok, and who's the first karma whore who can provide us an english translation of what he said?
Just so you know, it's only the auto insurance that's compulsory. Home insurance is an open market, but SGI happens to be a good deal. One of the few well-run government anythings that I've ever dealth with.
Having said that, for those of us who hate paying full price for anything, the weeks immediately after xmas are a goldmine! Now am I part of the problem or what...
Nice to see yet another reason not to leave this country, though
Actually, I'm from one of the snowier parts of Canada, and while we have several words to describe snow/snowy conditions, I really don't feel at a disadvantage to the Inuit. Reason? The english language is full of nice little things called adjectives. They may have 300 words for snow, but I can describe each of those 300 states and more, just by using word modifiers.
I've never felt english to be as limited as its detractors claim. Then again, I've yet to see an example of something that cannot actually be translated into english. It may lose its finer details, but I doubt anything is entirely untranslatable.
If any of these employees wore a bathrobe to the office, and sat all day watching television, I'd fire their ass in no time flat. Yet they do this at home all the time.
I don't mean to come off as a flame, as I agree for the most part with your post, but employees are paid to do a job, and to do as *I* the employer says with *my* equipment. A huge problem with email viruses is that because they're computer related, we somehow feel we shouldn't be able to hold employees accountable for their actions. If an employee doesn't want to lock his house door, fine. If he leaves my office door unlocked after hours, he's gone. When I tell an employee "DO NOT open email attachments" and they do, I'm sorry, but the employee is at fault.
A->B is logically equivalent to !B->!A.
Work it out in a truth table, if need be:
A B A->B
t t t
t f f
f t t
f f t
If B is false, the only time the statement works out to true is if A is also false.
From your definition (straight from the truth table):
If A then B" means only that "A and not(B)" is not true; "A and B", "not(A) and B", and "not(A) and not(B)" can all be true if "if A then B" is true.
Notice that if B is false, the only time the statement itself is true is if A is also false.
Then again, I only got a B in the course overall, so maybe I didn't understand the point of this at all
However, this is a moot point, as we're working with false premises here to begin with. Water does not necessarily imply life at all. Drill several thousand feet into a glacier and see what's living there. Or, seal a canister of pure water and shoot it into space. In either case, you can find water without life.
Arguing with false premises isn't even arguing at all.
Socialism, or even moreso communism, relies too heavily on the assumption that people WANT to contribute to the government pot for its own sake. If people wanted to do that, we could easily finance a private (or government funded) space program, under any system of government.
The difference is, under socialism/communism, you don't have a CHOICE where your money goes. At least in theory, US citizens do. In russia, if you didn't like what the government did, you were shot.
Then again, there are a lot of people out there who don't like making their own minds up...