It's quite mind Bogling. 30% of the US population have no medical cover, and far more have inadequate medical cover - and the federal government decides to reimburse a gun with no demonstrated (or even conceivable) health benefit.
Given the amount spent by the public sector on health care in the US, they could have universal health care - this is the sort of decision which leads to the health care mess that exists there.
Evidently in Europe and the US you have a different version of iTunes to the rest of us. I'm in England, and I don't recognised 'locked down' (any more than any other closed source software) or 'buy something or else' in iTunes.
With the taskbar I have an immediate view of all open windows, without any form of interaction
How?
To see what windows I have open using the taskbar in Windows XP I have to click one of the taskbar buttons to pop up a list of windows belonging to a programme. The alternative - each window having a button in the taskbar - means that the buttons are so narrow I haven't got a clue what they represent.
The taskbar is fine if you only have a few windows open (maybe less than 6 or 7 depending on your monitor) but is a dismal failure for identifying open windows at a glance if you actually have a few open windows.
It also encourages a good computing habit in not having a lot of open Windows
I see. What you mean is Windows has taught you not to open several windows because it doesn't have an adequate user interface for you to deal with them.
Just because you don't understand the bulk of left handed people there's no need to get abusive.
As a (yes) geek, a left hander a university lecturer and an epidemiologist I'm confident that the situation you describe is frankly wrong. A typical left-hander moves the mouse to the other side of the computer, then uses the left and right buttons in exactly the same way a right hander would, but pressing the left button with the middle finger, and the right with the index of the left hand. Swapping the role of the mouse buttons is independent of the hand the mouse is used with. This is a habit I'm interested in, and hence something I ask people (typically students) when I see them using the mouse on the left.
Left handers are used to adapting to a predominently right-handed world - and this is just one of the adaptations we make.
Don't tell me that telling a left-handed user to "right-click" on something isn't confusing. Come work with me for a day.
I guess you work in some kind of asylum for the terminally stupid, as the only left handed people I've met who couldn't tell left from right are either dyspraxic or unsafe to be allowed out on their own.
Telling a left hander to "right-click" is no more confusing than telling a right-hander to "left-click".
It's not been like that in the UK for years. Under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000, if someone sends you (as an individual) unsolicited good you may treat them as a gift - they are instantly yours. If they request payment they have committed an offence.
Only businesses still have to wait 6 months, or have to inform the sender that the goods are unwanted.
I'm sorry if I wasn't clear enough for you. If I might rephrase:
The excessive manual itervention needed to get a Topfield anywhere close to a TiVo in terms of functionality means that I may as well watch stuff live, or use a VCR for timeshifting. The TAPs which try to do it automatically don't come close. To even approach acceptible performance require processing schedules on a separate computer.
Whoever wrote the topfield software had examples available to him of how to do it right: TiVo and to a lesser extent Sky+ (and I'm sure there are other examples in the US market), and chose not to. Some of that reason is beyond his control - specifically the rubbish EPG - but there are many obvious poor design decisions in the Topfield software.
I'm glad your happy with your Topfield - it's a machine that I just can't be bothered to babysit.
I spent two months struggling with a Topfield, experimenting with TAPs (even having a go at writing one) and going through all the crap you've described. It comes down to more hastle than using a VCR and watching stuff live *ugh*.
TAPs, although part of what attracted me to the system in the first place, just aren't good enough. Essentially they are a way of getting round the big deficiencies in the Topfield software - but a TAP has to strugle against the system all the way.
It's a pity the freeview EPG is utterly rubbish. It doesn't have the metadata in it that a TiVo uses to make it a PVR, rather than a video recorder. The Topfield tries, but is crippled by i) a dire user interface and ii) lack of programme metadata.
Actually, it is the Government. The European Commision has nothing to do with metrification in the UK - something which was first recomended by Parliament in the 1800's.
In Europe,the USA and Canada the vast majority of HIV infected people are male homosexuals. There is no getting round this fact. Putting aside any other debate about homosexuality, Aids is still very much a "gay plague".
While the majority of HIV infected people in those places are homosexual or IV drug users, the majority of new infections happen through heterosexual transmission. Aids is no longer a "gay plague".
Slashdot Mirror
If you need to ask something like this on slashdot, I rather think they've hired the wrong IT support.
There's no such thing as a 'proven alternative treatment'. Once it's proven to work it's not alternative medicine any more, it's just medicine.
It's quite mind
Bogling. 30% of the US population have no medical cover, and far more have inadequate medical cover - and the federal government decides to reimburse a gun with no demonstrated (or even conceivable) health benefit.
Given the amount spent by the public sector on health care in the US, they could have universal health care - this is the sort of decision which leads to the health care mess that exists there.
Evidently in Europe and the US you have a different version of iTunes to the rest of us. I'm in England, and I don't recognised 'locked down' (any more than any other closed source software) or 'buy something or else' in iTunes.
With the taskbar I have an immediate view of all open windows, without any form of interaction
How?
To see what windows I have open using the taskbar in Windows XP I have to click one of the taskbar buttons to pop up a list of windows belonging to a programme. The alternative - each window having a button in the taskbar - means that the buttons are so narrow I haven't got a clue what they represent.
The taskbar is fine if you only have a few windows open (maybe less than 6 or 7 depending on your monitor) but is a dismal failure for identifying open windows at a glance if you actually have a few open windows.
It also encourages a good computing habit in not having a lot of open Windows
I see. What you mean is Windows has taught you not to open several windows because it doesn't have an adequate user interface for you to deal with them.
Just because you don't understand the bulk of left handed people there's no need to get abusive.
As a (yes) geek, a left hander a university lecturer and an epidemiologist I'm confident that the situation you describe is frankly wrong. A typical left-hander moves the mouse to the other side of the computer, then uses the left and right buttons in exactly the same way a right hander would, but pressing the left button with the middle finger, and the right with the index of the left hand. Swapping the role of the mouse buttons is independent of the hand the mouse is used with. This is a habit I'm interested in, and hence something I ask people (typically students) when I see them using the mouse on the left.
Left handers are used to adapting to a predominently right-handed world - and this is just one of the adaptations we make.
Don't tell me that telling a left-handed user to "right-click" on something isn't confusing. Come work with me for a day.
I guess you work in some kind of asylum for the terminally stupid, as the only left handed people I've met who couldn't tell left from right are either dyspraxic or unsafe to be allowed out on their own.
Telling a left hander to "right-click" is no more confusing than telling a right-hander to "left-click".
It's not been like that in the UK for years. Under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000, if someone sends you (as an individual) unsolicited good you may treat them as a gift - they are instantly yours. If they request payment they have committed an offence.
Only businesses still have to wait 6 months, or have to inform the sender that the goods are unwanted.
... because the Catholic church is oh so accurate on everything else it says.
An endorsement by the catholic church of anything I agree with encourages me to reconsider my position.
I'm sorry if I wasn't clear enough for you. If I might rephrase:
The excessive manual itervention needed to get a Topfield anywhere close to a TiVo in terms of functionality means that I may as well watch stuff live, or use a VCR for timeshifting. The TAPs which try to do it automatically don't come close. To even approach acceptible performance require processing schedules on a separate computer.
Whoever wrote the topfield software had examples available to him of how to do it right: TiVo and to a lesser extent Sky+ (and I'm sure there are other examples in the US market), and chose not to. Some of that reason is beyond his control - specifically the rubbish EPG - but there are many obvious poor design decisions in the Topfield software.
I'm glad your happy with your Topfield - it's a machine that I just can't be bothered to babysit.
I spent two months struggling with a Topfield, experimenting with TAPs (even having a go at writing one) and going through all the crap you've described. It comes down to more hastle than using a VCR and watching stuff live *ugh*.
TAPs, although part of what attracted me to the system in the first place, just aren't good enough. Essentially they are a way of getting round the big deficiencies in the Topfield software - but a TAP has to strugle against the system all the way.
I went back to a TiVo with relief.
It's a pity the freeview EPG is utterly rubbish. It doesn't have the metadata in it that a TiVo uses to make it a PVR, rather than a video recorder.
The Topfield tries, but is crippled by i) a dire user interface and ii) lack of programme metadata.
Actually, it is the Government. The European Commision has nothing to do with metrification in the UK - something which was first recomended by Parliament in the 1800's.
Metrification - Good
European Union - Bad
I'm afraid you're wrong. That statement counts acquisition by IV drug use, and acquisition through heterosexual activity as different events.
In Europe,the USA and Canada the vast majority of HIV infected people are male homosexuals. There is no getting round this fact. Putting aside any other debate about homosexuality, Aids is still very much a "gay plague".
While the majority of HIV infected people in those places are homosexual or IV drug users, the majority of new infections happen through heterosexual transmission. Aids is no longer a "gay plague".
(Source: UK phls ( http://www.phls.org.uk ))
1) There isn't any other sort of dying than irrevocably.
2) Everyone has the same chance of death, 100%
3) On average, in the western world, death comes later now than at any other time.