counter-point to myself, to make this interesting -- MS does derive a significant portion of its income from pure investments because they have so much (oh, so much) cash, so
Clever point. You can make more cash from cash, so Microsoft could, in theory, keep making a profit every year even if they had absolutely no products and just made wise investments.
There's an idea.. they can give up software, and invest their money into Linux and cream the profits off of the next generation of computing!
Re:I think it's harder for single people
on
The Almighty Buck
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· Score: 2
Holy crap, I think I should! Now let's just see if the EU will let me;-)
.NET is not a typical MS proprietary technology
on
Microsoft Case Proceeds
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· Score: 3, Interesting
.NET is being considered serious by many groups who are not Microsoft advocates.
For example, it has been mentioned in the Parrot FAQ that Perl 6 may well be developed for.NET after the Parrot implementation is done.
Ximian's Mono project also goes a long way to demonstrate that there are plenty of people who want a.NET environment, but not necessarily be strapped to Microsoft's OS. Microsoft doesn't seem to disapprove of this, and in fact highlights how you can port.NET to other operating systems!
An interesting point, but one that is easily answered.
Microsoft has totally opened up the specs to.NET. Okay, some things like 'Windows Forms' are a bit proprietary, but there's still tons of documentation for it. The Ximian guys are even going to be spinning their own compatible version.
But it doesn't matter if the users aren't running Microsoft's VM. Unlike in the old days, Microsoft is not going to get rich by selling its platform anymore. It's going to stay rich by providing the best.NET solution.
Let's jump ahead 3 years. Let's say that Linux and MacOS X have a perfect compatible.NET framework on them. This means people can go out and buy Microsoft Office 2005, and it'll run on their PC, Mac, or Linux box. What has Microsoft lost here? Nothing really, infact, they're likely to gain market share.
Look it in terms of the browser war. Microsoft gave away the browser, but locked developers into its solution with proprietary coding styles. Many pages only appear correctly in IE nowadays! The same will happen with.NET. Microsoft will lock coders into.NET with its own development systems.. and Microsoft won't care what operating system the resultant programs work on, as long as Microsoft is making money on a) the dev tools, b) sales of its own software across multiple platforms, c) sales of its server software across multiple platforms, and d) the 'faithful' who will stick with Microsoft's own OS.
In essence,.NET allows Microsoft's software to dominate on EVERY PLATFORM
sed s/.NET/JAVA/ | sed s/Microsoft/Sun/
I don't think so Tim...
Microsoft has many advantages now over Sun in 1994.
For a start, Microsoft has an extremely large user base who are going to end up using.NET whether they like it or not. If you want to stick with Microsoft,.NET is not an option, it's what you'll have to use.
.NET is already being ported to other platforms. Ximian are working on something for GNU/Linux, and MS even released their own source code demonstrating a FreeBSD.NET implementation.
Java was on lots of platforms, but it was VERY limited in what it could do on each one..NET's virtual machine and class libraries can do WAY more than what Java can.
Java limited people to one language, a language that many coders didn't like..NET is just a VM/platform, whereas 'Java' was both the JVM *and* a language. This limited extension capabilities, as well as the conversion of older software. You couldn't load up your old C software, and get it working in Java.. with VB.NET, VC.NET etc.. this is a possibility. People have already created FORTH and COBOL compilers for.NET!
Either way,.NET may not be a success, but it has several very important things going for it, and Java had none of them. I mean.. come on.. Sun hardly had millions of users in 1994! Microsoft has got.NET out quickly, and is saturating the marketplace, ensuring their success into the future.
I might not love Microsoft, but I have to hand it to them.. they're speculating, and I think it's the right one.
Bad form to reply to one's own post, but.. just remembered.. there's a discussion about Microsoft and possible VM strategy from today here.
With .NET, this case might not worry MS much more.
on
Microsoft Case Proceeds
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Since the mid 80's, the 'operating system' has been extremely important to Microsoft. Making sure everyone adopted Windows 95 and 98 was extremely important for the success of the company, as it locked them into the current architecture (2000/XP etc). This has meant that operating systems are VERY important to MS.
This may not be the case for much longer. With the advent of Linux, operating systems have been somewhat commoditized. With.NET, the operating system is not as important as it once was.. in the future, a proper.NET program will run on any system that has a.NET compatible VM and the correct class libraries!
Believe it or not, in 5 years, you could see Mac/Linux people buying, and running natively, stuff like Office and Visual Basic.NET, thanks to Microsoft embracing the concept of the virtual machine.
I think Microsoft is going to bank on the success of its virtual machine (.NET) and this whole new platform-independant architecture. Even if Microsoft was forced out of the OS game.. it's not a disaster for them. They still have the critical mass of users to sell software to (Office, etc), and a critical mass of developers used to developing for their platforms.
In essence,.NET allows Microsoft's software to dominate on EVERY PLATFORM, and this is a great thing for them. A very clever move, and it may make all this antitrust case very irrelevant.
Because Perl is more powerful and faster than PHP? Perl is a far more developed language than PHP, Python, or Ruby.
Translating your question into client side programming speak:
"Why use Visual C++ when you can just use Visual Basic?"
Of course, thanks to.NET, VB.Net is as powerful as VC++.NET, but that never used to be the way;-)
Perl is a powerful language with far more backing than PHP, Python, or Ruby. The amount of modules you can get for Perl makes it a very wise language to use if you want to do anything advanced.. i.e. XML-RPC, SOAP, image manipulation on the fly, system integration, etc.
PHP cannot do many of these things well.. and it cannot do them very quickly. PHP is a toy language for kiddies who are still playing with MySQL databases;-)
My ISP has a transparent HTTP gateway/proxy.. and all HTTP traffic goes through it. Perhaps this is what is incompatible with HTTP 1.1 or pipelining. However, using HTTP 1.0 means you can't access virtual hosts on servers, AFAIR?
Anyway, thanks for the advice, hopefully it can help most people with proxies, transparent or not.
Once again we have to say well done to the Mozilla team for finally delivering a very usable product. It's great to jump between Linux and Windows and to have the same browser. Some people have complained about its memory use, but if your machine is halfway decent, it's really a simple Web browser that gets the job done.
However, there are several things that stop me from using it 100% of the time. I still stick to IE for about 25% of sites, because.. of all the little bugs! I'm hoping some have been cleared up in this Alpha. They include:
* Keyboard not responding sometimes when you open a new Mozilla window (this is in Bugzilla)
* When you click on some links, it doesn't go to the destination.. and it just displays a picture off of the current page! Hit Refresh and you finally go on your way.
* Mozilla is less system tolerant than IE. Mozilla is often the first application to lose its icons and its interface starts falling to pieces. This is probably because of my memory or the CPU overheating.. but IE remains stable until the last minute.
* Mozilla often bawks if you're loading large JPEGs into it direct from hard disk.. and it just displays a blank/white screen with scrollbars.
* Many sites still don't display well in Mozilla. This is the Web developer's fault, but still.. Mozilla can do all of those DHTML menus and stuff, yet I still run into problems on sites that use them. An optional 'IE compliancy' patch in Mozilla would be very very useful!
I don't understand why they keep offering me a card that could require several years of my net income to pay off.
With your income, you're likely to have assets which can be sold if you don't make the repayments... and that's on top of the things you bought with the money (i.e. a house - and they generally only go UP in value).
Also, if you buy a house on a credit card, they're getting mega interest on it. That's why credit cards kinda suck for large long term purchases, and why 99% of people get a mortgage instead.
Why? Because I think custom VMs are the next big mealticket, and I want in on the ground floor. Also.. it teaches you how to write compilers, assemblers, and what not.. so it'll be fun anyway.
Re:That civilization exists - it's called Europe
on
The Almighty Buck
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· Score: 2
When I lost my job I signed onto welfare and wrote freeware, does that make me a lazy asshole?
I'm not talking about people who lose their jobs because of redundancy. We should have a 401k style plan to cover that. Unemployment is much better in the US than it is here (where you get lumped in with everyone else on welfare).
This is what happens when you don't have a strong welfare system. If you force lazy people off welfare, they'll just go and rob banks.
So your rationale is.. some people will always be lazy, so let the tax of hard working decent people pay their way to keep them out of trouble? Ha!
Re:Cheap, low-crime area in the UK with DSL?
on
The Almighty Buck
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· Score: 1
I guess Trainspotting was not the most ideal advert for the city then;-)
Re:Cheap, low-crime area in the UK with DSL?
on
The Almighty Buck
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· Score: 1
The stereotype of Glasgow is that it's a drug ridden crime filled hellhole. How true is this?
Re:That civilization exists - it's called Europe
on
The Almighty Buck
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· Score: 2
In your eyes, the GPL coders and Linus Torvals are lazy assholes because they don't screw people that buy linux for every $$$ they're worth same as Micro$oft.
I've never sworn on Slashdot before, but.. what the fuck are you on about? Your post bears no relation to mine. I was bitching at the lazy assholes who claim welfare and do no work.
And why bitch at America? The USA is currently the most wealthy country in the world, and the majority of its citizens are amongst the most affluent people to have ever lived. If you're going to stay that the British system is better, you're speaking out of your arse.
P.S. There are more GPL/free software coders in the US than in Europe, so your point doesn't hold up there either.
Time required to load Red Hat on a P3 workstation - 5 minutes...
I only run Red Hat on my notebook, but it boots to a Gnome/Enlightenment desktop in just under three minutes (excluding time to type 'root' and my password).. and that's only a cranky old 266 Mhz!
Cheap, low-crime area in the UK with DSL?
on
The Almighty Buck
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· Score: 2
I've lived in Cambridge, south east England (one bedroom flat was £415 a month), Lancaster, north west England (Two bedroom house was £380) and I'm currently living in Cellardyke, west Scotland (3 bedroom house for £390). You have to go somewhere pretty expensive to have to pay £600 a month for a one bedroom flat.
£415 a month in Cambridge? Were you sharing or going through a housing association? That's pretty cheap for round that way.
The cheapest place I've found in the entire country is Lincolnshire. You can get a 2/3 bedroom house 15 miles outside of Lincoln for about £250/£300 a month. Ridiculously cheap, and low crime. Of course, no jobs (or broadband), but hey!
I'm interested in moving to North Devon or North Cornwall, but as you can expect, sky high prices.
What's your area of Scotland like? I've never really considered Scotland before for the stupid fact that I don't like the accent;-)
I guess I'm looking for the impossible. A cheap, low-crime area in the UK that has DSL.
That civilization exists - it's called Europe
on
The Almighty Buck
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· Score: 2
If we could come up with a civilization were nobody would end up on the street then money wouldn't be so important.
Europe is like this.
Okay, okay, there are people on the street, but rest assured, you can get a home from the government if you're really in the shit. Believe it or not, a lot of homeless people have ideals and don't want to live on government handouts, but the option is there.
Now, you're right, money isn't as important in Europe as it used to be. This is a bad thing. People are lazy. I know people who just can't be bothered to work, and claim benefits perpetually.
That's the problem with the socialist system. The lazy don't work, and the people who want to work end up paying shitloads of demoralizing taxes.
I think it's harder for single people
on
The Almighty Buck
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· Score: 2
I'm single and I still live with my parents. Granted, I'm only 20, but back in my parent's day, it was common to leave home at 18. Nowadays, none of my friends have left home. Why? Our society is not designed for single people.
In the UK, the average rent on a small 1 bedroom place is about £600 ($860) in most places, even in the quiet and jobless South West.
The average wage in the UK is reported as £20,000 (almost $30,000) a year. After tax, this equates to £15,000 a year, or £1250 ($1800) a month. So, bam, half of your wage has gone on your rent.
In the US, you have it a bit better. Your society is not geared towards single people either, but those who want somewhere cheap and safe to live can find it. I know that you can rent nice places in the South for $400/$500 a month, and I know that groceries are cheap, and gas is ridiculously cheap. Nice weather too. Sure, it's not a wealthy area, but if you telecommute (as I do) who cares?
Now, take a poor place in the UK. Crime (primarily street assault) is a major problem in the UK nowadays, so finding somewhere reasonably safe is key. You're looking at £500 ($750) minimum to rent a tiny shithole, and add to that that gas is US$4.50 a gallon. Plus, the weather's lousy.
The difference, however, is that there are housing associations for those who can't afford $750+ a month in rent. This is a rather socialist idea, and one of the reasons we pay so much tax. My pride kinda stops me from looking at this option. I'm a capitalist, and if I want something I have to damn well work for it. This view somewhat conflicts with the UK's 'welfare state' ideals.
To be honest, if I could haul my ass to Louisiana tomorrow, I would.. but unfortunately your visa system wouldn't let me in. This, despite the fact that I wouldn't be scraping off of welfare, and could keep working for exactly the same clients as I do now! Of course, Greece or the south of France are other options, but hello.. don't we want to live in a place that speaks English?;-)
I've been a techie for many years, but have shied away from Linux. Sure, I've used an old version of Slackware as a Web server or as an IP masquerader here and there, but never tried to use it as a workstation.
The other week, I decided to give it a go. I put a Redhat 7.0 (the latest Linux I had in the house at the time) CD in and got on with it. Very very easy setup! Less hassle than Windows, and certainly quicker. Copying files seemed to take longer, but, you've gotta remember that Windows spends at least 20 minutes restarting itself and setting up all sorts of crap after the files are copied.
So, yeah, I'm no Linux zealot, but they've come along in leaps and bounds on the interface front. Although.. I had to edit a few config files to get my network card working, so it's not for a typical user either JUST yet..
I can't stand 'fantasy' BS. I've never played or seen a D+D or WarHammer game. I've haven't seen Star Wars, I've haven't seen LOTR, etc etc. So I must be rare:-D I do quite like Star Trek though.
However, I do understand the language of hot babes, so I might see Episode II for Natalie Portman's hot bod.
Are you one of those pompous asses who can't tell the difference between a truly great movie and 90 minutes of entertainment while eating pizza? Legally Blonde was excellent entertainment. Hit all of the right comedy spots, effortless to watch, and Reese was looking gorgeous throughout.
Note that it got best COMEDY, and not best FILM. Are you saying that comedy films are meant to be serious now?
Slashdot Mirror
counter-point to myself, to make this interesting -- MS does derive a significant portion of its income from pure investments because they have so much (oh, so much) cash, so
Clever point. You can make more cash from cash, so Microsoft could, in theory, keep making a profit every year even if they had absolutely no products and just made wise investments.
There's an idea.. they can give up software, and invest their money into Linux and cream the profits off of the next generation of computing!
Holy crap, I think I should! Now let's just see if the EU will let me ;-)
.NET is being considered serious by many groups who are not Microsoft advocates.
.NET after the Parrot implementation is done.
.NET environment, but not necessarily be strapped to Microsoft's OS. Microsoft doesn't seem to disapprove of this, and in fact highlights how you can port .NET to other operating systems!
For example, it has been mentioned in the Parrot FAQ that Perl 6 may well be developed for
Ximian's Mono project also goes a long way to demonstrate that there are plenty of people who want a
An interesting point, but one that is easily answered.
.NET. Okay, some things like 'Windows Forms' are a bit proprietary, but there's still tons of documentation for it. The Ximian guys are even going to be spinning their own compatible version.
.NET solution.
.NET framework on them. This means people can go out and buy Microsoft Office 2005, and it'll run on their PC, Mac, or Linux box. What has Microsoft lost here? Nothing really, infact, they're likely to gain market share.
.NET. Microsoft will lock coders into .NET with its own development systems.. and Microsoft won't care what operating system the resultant programs work on, as long as Microsoft is making money on a) the dev tools, b) sales of its own software across multiple platforms, c) sales of its server software across multiple platforms, and d) the 'faithful' who will stick with Microsoft's own OS.
Microsoft has totally opened up the specs to
But it doesn't matter if the users aren't running Microsoft's VM. Unlike in the old days, Microsoft is not going to get rich by selling its platform anymore. It's going to stay rich by providing the best
Let's jump ahead 3 years. Let's say that Linux and MacOS X have a perfect compatible
Look it in terms of the browser war. Microsoft gave away the browser, but locked developers into its solution with proprietary coding styles. Many pages only appear correctly in IE nowadays! The same will happen with
In essence, .NET allows Microsoft's software to dominate on EVERY PLATFORM
.NET whether they like it or not. If you want to stick with Microsoft, .NET is not an option, it's what you'll have to use.
.NET implementation.
.NET's virtual machine and class libraries can do WAY more than what Java can.
.NET is just a VM/platform, whereas 'Java' was both the JVM *and* a language. This limited extension capabilities, as well as the conversion of older software. You couldn't load up your old C software, and get it working in Java.. with VB.NET, VC.NET etc.. this is a possibility. People have already created FORTH and COBOL compilers for .NET!
.NET may not be a success, but it has several very important things going for it, and Java had none of them. I mean.. come on.. Sun hardly had millions of users in 1994! Microsoft has got .NET out quickly, and is saturating the marketplace, ensuring their success into the future.
sed s/.NET/JAVA/ | sed s/Microsoft/Sun/
I don't think so Tim...
Microsoft has many advantages now over Sun in 1994.
For a start, Microsoft has an extremely large user base who are going to end up using
.NET is already being ported to other platforms. Ximian are working on something for GNU/Linux, and MS even released their own source code demonstrating a FreeBSD
Java was on lots of platforms, but it was VERY limited in what it could do on each one.
Java limited people to one language, a language that many coders didn't like.
Either way,
I might not love Microsoft, but I have to hand it to them.. they're speculating, and I think it's the right one.
Bad form to reply to one's own post, but.. just remembered.. there's a discussion about Microsoft and possible VM strategy from today here.
Since the mid 80's, the 'operating system' has been extremely important to Microsoft. Making sure everyone adopted Windows 95 and 98 was extremely important for the success of the company, as it locked them into the current architecture (2000/XP etc). This has meant that operating systems are VERY important to MS.
.NET, the operating system is not as important as it once was.. in the future, a proper .NET program will run on any system that has a .NET compatible VM and the correct class libraries!
.NET allows Microsoft's software to dominate on EVERY PLATFORM, and this is a great thing for them. A very clever move, and it may make all this antitrust case very irrelevant.
This may not be the case for much longer. With the advent of Linux, operating systems have been somewhat commoditized. With
Believe it or not, in 5 years, you could see Mac/Linux people buying, and running natively, stuff like Office and Visual Basic.NET, thanks to Microsoft embracing the concept of the virtual machine.
I think Microsoft is going to bank on the success of its virtual machine (.NET) and this whole new platform-independant architecture. Even if Microsoft was forced out of the OS game.. it's not a disaster for them. They still have the critical mass of users to sell software to (Office, etc), and a critical mass of developers used to developing for their platforms.
In essence,
Because Perl is more powerful and faster than PHP? Perl is a far more developed language than PHP, Python, or Ruby.
.NET, VB.Net is as powerful as VC++.NET, but that never used to be the way ;-)
;-)
Translating your question into client side programming speak:
"Why use Visual C++ when you can just use Visual Basic?"
Of course, thanks to
Perl is a powerful language with far more backing than PHP, Python, or Ruby. The amount of modules you can get for Perl makes it a very wise language to use if you want to do anything advanced.. i.e. XML-RPC, SOAP, image manipulation on the fly, system integration, etc.
PHP cannot do many of these things well.. and it cannot do them very quickly. PHP is a toy language for kiddies who are still playing with MySQL databases
If you're in Windows and you have Adobe Type Manager, you get it *g* I love Adobe Type Manager, it antialiases my fonts almost everywhere.
:-(
Of course, if you're on Linux.. not quite such a great font manager just yet
Although.. I'm sure I see antialiased fonts on my notebook in Mozilla.. (running Gnome 1.2, Enlightenment, under RedHat 7.0)
My ISP has a transparent HTTP gateway/proxy.. and all HTTP traffic goes through it. Perhaps this is what is incompatible with HTTP 1.1 or pipelining. However, using HTTP 1.0 means you can't access virtual hosts on servers, AFAIR?
Anyway, thanks for the advice, hopefully it can help most people with proxies, transparent or not.
Once again we have to say well done to the Mozilla team for finally delivering a very usable product. It's great to jump between Linux and Windows and to have the same browser. Some people have complained about its memory use, but if your machine is halfway decent, it's really a simple Web browser that gets the job done.
However, there are several things that stop me from using it 100% of the time. I still stick to IE for about 25% of sites, because.. of all the little bugs! I'm hoping some have been cleared up in this Alpha. They include:
* Keyboard not responding sometimes when you open a new Mozilla window (this is in Bugzilla)
* When you click on some links, it doesn't go to the destination.. and it just displays a picture off of the current page! Hit Refresh and you finally go on your way.
* Mozilla is less system tolerant than IE. Mozilla is often the first application to lose its icons and its interface starts falling to pieces. This is probably because of my memory or the CPU overheating.. but IE remains stable until the last minute.
* Mozilla often bawks if you're loading large JPEGs into it direct from hard disk.. and it just displays a blank/white screen with scrollbars.
* Many sites still don't display well in Mozilla. This is the Web developer's fault, but still.. Mozilla can do all of those DHTML menus and stuff, yet I still run into problems on sites that use them. An optional 'IE compliancy' patch in Mozilla would be very very useful!
I don't understand why they keep offering me a card that could require several years of my net income to pay off.
With your income, you're likely to have assets which can be sold if you don't make the repayments... and that's on top of the things you bought with the money (i.e. a house - and they generally only go UP in value).
Also, if you buy a house on a credit card, they're getting mega interest on it. That's why credit cards kinda suck for large long term purchases, and why 99% of people get a mortgage instead.
My summer read is Virtual Machine Design and Implementation (in C/C++) by Bill Blunden.
Why? Because I think custom VMs are the next big mealticket, and I want in on the ground floor. Also.. it teaches you how to write compilers, assemblers, and what not.. so it'll be fun anyway.
When I lost my job I signed onto welfare and wrote freeware, does that make me a lazy asshole?
I'm not talking about people who lose their jobs because of redundancy. We should have a 401k style plan to cover that. Unemployment is much better in the US than it is here (where you get lumped in with everyone else on welfare).
This is what happens when you don't have a strong welfare system. If you force lazy people off welfare, they'll just go and rob banks.
So your rationale is.. some people will always be lazy, so let the tax of hard working decent people pay their way to keep them out of trouble? Ha!
I guess Trainspotting was not the most ideal advert for the city then ;-)
The stereotype of Glasgow is that it's a drug ridden crime filled hellhole. How true is this?
In your eyes, the GPL coders and Linus Torvals are lazy assholes because they don't screw people that buy linux for every $$$ they're worth same as Micro$oft.
I've never sworn on Slashdot before, but.. what the fuck are you on about? Your post bears no relation to mine. I was bitching at the lazy assholes who claim welfare and do no work.
And why bitch at America? The USA is currently the most wealthy country in the world, and the majority of its citizens are amongst the most affluent people to have ever lived. If you're going to stay that the British system is better, you're speaking out of your arse.
P.S. There are more GPL/free software coders in the US than in Europe, so your point doesn't hold up there either.
Time required to load Red Hat on a P3 workstation - 5 minutes...
I only run Red Hat on my notebook, but it boots to a Gnome/Enlightenment desktop in just under three minutes (excluding time to type 'root' and my password).. and that's only a cranky old 266 Mhz!
I've lived in Cambridge, south east England (one bedroom flat was £415 a month), Lancaster, north west England (Two bedroom house was £380) and I'm currently living in Cellardyke, west Scotland (3 bedroom house for £390). You have to go somewhere pretty expensive to have to pay £600 a month for a one bedroom flat.
;-)
£415 a month in Cambridge? Were you sharing or going through a housing association? That's pretty cheap for round that way.
The cheapest place I've found in the entire country is Lincolnshire. You can get a 2/3 bedroom house 15 miles outside of Lincoln for about £250/£300 a month. Ridiculously cheap, and low crime. Of course, no jobs (or broadband), but hey!
I'm interested in moving to North Devon or North Cornwall, but as you can expect, sky high prices.
What's your area of Scotland like? I've never really considered Scotland before for the stupid fact that I don't like the accent
I guess I'm looking for the impossible. A cheap, low-crime area in the UK that has DSL.
If we could come up with a civilization were nobody would end up on the street then money wouldn't be so important.
Europe is like this.
Okay, okay, there are people on the street, but rest assured, you can get a home from the government if you're really in the shit. Believe it or not, a lot of homeless people have ideals and don't want to live on government handouts, but the option is there.
Now, you're right, money isn't as important in Europe as it used to be. This is a bad thing. People are lazy. I know people who just can't be bothered to work, and claim benefits perpetually.
That's the problem with the socialist system. The lazy don't work, and the people who want to work end up paying shitloads of demoralizing taxes.
I'm single and I still live with my parents. Granted, I'm only 20, but back in my parent's day, it was common to leave home at 18. Nowadays, none of my friends have left home. Why? Our society is not designed for single people.
;-)
In the UK, the average rent on a small 1 bedroom place is about £600 ($860) in most places, even in the quiet and jobless South West.
The average wage in the UK is reported as £20,000 (almost $30,000) a year. After tax, this equates to £15,000 a year, or £1250 ($1800) a month. So, bam, half of your wage has gone on your rent.
In the US, you have it a bit better. Your society is not geared towards single people either, but those who want somewhere cheap and safe to live can find it. I know that you can rent nice places in the South for $400/$500 a month, and I know that groceries are cheap, and gas is ridiculously cheap. Nice weather too. Sure, it's not a wealthy area, but if you telecommute (as I do) who cares?
Now, take a poor place in the UK. Crime (primarily street assault) is a major problem in the UK nowadays, so finding somewhere reasonably safe is key. You're looking at £500 ($750) minimum to rent a tiny shithole, and add to that that gas is US$4.50 a gallon. Plus, the weather's lousy.
The difference, however, is that there are housing associations for those who can't afford $750+ a month in rent. This is a rather socialist idea, and one of the reasons we pay so much tax. My pride kinda stops me from looking at this option. I'm a capitalist, and if I want something I have to damn well work for it. This view somewhat conflicts with the UK's 'welfare state' ideals.
To be honest, if I could haul my ass to Louisiana tomorrow, I would.. but unfortunately your visa system wouldn't let me in. This, despite the fact that I wouldn't be scraping off of welfare, and could keep working for exactly the same clients as I do now! Of course, Greece or the south of France are other options, but hello.. don't we want to live in a place that speaks English?
I've been a techie for many years, but have shied away from Linux. Sure, I've used an old version of Slackware as a Web server or as an IP masquerader here and there, but never tried to use it as a workstation.
The other week, I decided to give it a go. I put a Redhat 7.0 (the latest Linux I had in the house at the time) CD in and got on with it. Very very easy setup! Less hassle than Windows, and certainly quicker. Copying files seemed to take longer, but, you've gotta remember that Windows spends at least 20 minutes restarting itself and setting up all sorts of crap after the files are copied.
So, yeah, I'm no Linux zealot, but they've come along in leaps and bounds on the interface front. Although.. I had to edit a few config files to get my network card working, so it's not for a typical user either JUST yet..
Not only are you rare, but i am sure you have no friends
Of course I don't, if you mean geeky dungeon friends that is.
I can't stand 'fantasy' BS. I've never played or seen a D+D or WarHammer game. I've haven't seen Star Wars, I've haven't seen LOTR, etc etc. So I must be rare :-D I do quite like Star Trek though.
However, I do understand the language of hot babes, so I might see Episode II for Natalie Portman's hot bod.
Uh, Legally Blonde was great.
Are you one of those pompous asses who can't tell the difference between a truly great movie and 90 minutes of entertainment while eating pizza? Legally Blonde was excellent entertainment. Hit all of the right comedy spots, effortless to watch, and Reese was looking gorgeous throughout.
Note that it got best COMEDY, and not best FILM. Are you saying that comedy films are meant to be serious now?