It is my opinion that unions have lost their purpose. Back before we had labour laws, employers could push unsafe working conditions on people, withhold pay, and fire them without severance. These kinds of things don't happen any more, or when they do, there's legal actions that can be taken against the company.
Imagine how stupid this argument would sound if you were talking about SEC violations, theft, murder, etc. "There's a law against it, that means we don't need anyone watching out for employees."
The only thing unions currently accomplish is to set the salaries too high, and make it impossible to fire anybody, even when they do a bad job. Look at any unionized organization and you will see evidence of this.
Salaries are too high for union workers? Before you heap any scorn on them, why don't you worry about the idiot boards of directors who pay CEOs insane amounts, especially those with a track record of failure. That is a true corruption of American-style meritocracy. And yes, unions make it harder to fire people in general (not just incompetents). That means that the supervisor must work with HR and carefully document every screw-up, thus guaranteeing no one will get fired without good reason.
The big donors to US political parties are not corporations. They are unions.
The US is controlled by UNIONS! Unions demanded the war in Iraq in order to produce more jobs with living wages! Unions required that we borrow trillions from China as a display of worker solidarity! Those in unions want to see jobs outsourced to India so we can have time to spend with our family during the week!
That's right folks, our country is run by a bunch of unions.
IPods don't work with non-apple drm infested crap.
Wrong again.
MacOSX only runs on 'apple' hardware.
True. The alternative is to go the way of DRDOS, OS/2, and BeOS. I know you'd enjoy that, but most people would say the technology world is more interesting with Apple around.
Did you just try to lump Texas in with the Deep South? Sorry, you're wrong on that one. We have our problems (poor social services and declining education system) but we also have one of the strongest economies and a healthy population growth. Fort Bend County is basically a middle-class suburb of Houston, which is pretty much the same as any other big city (swampier and more spread out, though;)).
What happened in Fort Bend is a fundamental misunderstanding-nontech people don't understand that making an FPS map is not a sign of aggression. I do not excuse this paranoid and ignorant behavior, but please realize that it could have happened anywhere.
Heck, I just talked with a friend of mine who is a graduate student in psychology, and he believed it was a warning sign and that the school was justified in giving him "special attention." It's very tough to fight these misconceptions.
And who paid for those studies that didn't find any health difference? I notice you didn't mention that in your writeup. Let me help everyone else...it was the Corn Refiners Association. Big surprise!
High fructose corn syrup (and the ethanol boondoggle, for that matter) wouldn't exist without the corn subsidies encouraging farmers to grow corn syrup. The stiff restrictions on sugar imports have something to do with it too.
But Coca-Cola had already switched most of its bottlers to high fructose corn syrup before the formula changed. So...the conspiracy theory about sugar vs. high fructose corn syrup really doesn't make sense.
A moderately crazy person may enter a school today in order to shoot the place up, but you'd have to be totally crazy to attempt such when you know that one out of ten students will be shooting back.
Yeah, using innocent people as targets is only "moderately" crazy. Again, it's sickening how low you gun nuts will sink to promote your agenda.
Perhaps I should make up a new acronym for pedants who get mad when I use the term HD improperly.
There's another term. 480p or EDTV. Don't get all self-righteous when you mislead others about the resolution of your recording, and someone calls you on it.
Plenty of DVDs are "mastered from high definition" and that DOES NOT EQUAL HDTV. DirecTV is being sued for falsely claiming HD resolution on their channels. Why should we hold you to any less of a standard? Hey, how about telling the truth? What a concept!
Could I ask you a little more about your system? Where does component get converted to VGA? At the projector, off of a VGA M to the component F cable? Or do you have an external scaler that's doing the conversion? Are you using a component switchbox or VGA switchbox?
I'm curious, as you are good on HDMI and bad on component-completely the opposite of most of the systems I've set up.
Theoretically, you are right about HDMI being able to describe the picture better...but-
You're in for a rude awakening if you try to run HDMI over about 10 feet. The inventors of DVI/HDMI simply did not consider those lengths. You'll find that with HDMI, those zeroes turn into ones in the wire.
I have done runs of 100+ feet with component or RGBHV with no interference multiple times. My advice to you, get some nice shielded RG6 and make the cables yourself (or pay someone to make them). Stay away from electrical outlets and you'll do just fine, unless you have a cheap switchbox, a poor connection at the wall or a projector with an extremely poor ADC. Try running the cables directly to the projector on the floor without any of that other stuff. You should not be running into those problems with coax cables.
HDMI has better quality and support for higher resolutions than VGA
Wrong. VGA is an analog signal and its resolution is not limited. The highest common for resolution for VGA displays is 1920x1200 (2-page, WUXGA).
HDMI incorporates error correction in the specs.
Again, wrong. And might I add, error correction is useful for data, useless for video. You're not going to re-send a video frame when it gets screwed up unless you're not worried about sync.
Finally, if you are using CRT then you should get with the fucking program and upgrade to a display technology that isn't 110 years old.
CRT still has the best black levels and colors.
It's obvious you don't know anything about video standards. Read up and compare HDMI to SDI for interfaces...it's not even close.
Why? Because it's digital? HDMI is a horrible connector and a horrible signal. If you need to run it past 10 feet, good luck. It's also prone to screwing up when you switch inputs. All in all, it's a huge step backwards from VGA...especially if you don't have a fixed-pixel display (LCoS or CRT).
Did you hear that whizzing sound? That was your credibility, dropping through the floor.
I'll admit, Mac OS took some steps backward in the UI department when they went to OS X, and GNOME is better than ever (closer to Classic Mac OS or BeOS now), but let's not kid ourselves.
Linux has a long way to go in UI, for the simple reason that Linux users don't even have a consistent graphics system besides the primitive X11.
I won't even respond to your other obtuse list of demands, except to say that if those are supposed to be Linux's only strengths over OS X, you're selling it WAAAAY short.
Microsoft doesn't want to provoke EA. EA support on the Xbox console is a major reason why the Xbox didn't fade out like the Dreamcast. Nearly all of the Xbox's library was PS2 or PC ports...and buying a publisher the size of Take Two would be a definite shot across EA's bow.
What would the Xbox 360's library look like if EA dropped it? Due to EA's exclusivity deal with the NFL, there wouldn't be anymore Madden football on 360. Microsoft is far more dependent on sports titles to perpetuate its image than Sony or Nintendo. They couldn't buy Take Two without provoking EA.
DirecTV is currently embroiled in a lawsuit for advertising 1080i channels, but compressing them down to a point where they can't be reasonably described as HD.
You didn't explain why Microsoft would want to purchase Take Two. But you did make a lot of references to shit, crap, and feces. I give your post a C-.
Your HDTV has no VGA inputs? Just get a VGA to component adapter from Key Digital!
You might have to tweak some timing settings with PowerStrip (Win) or DisplayConfigX(Mac) but you should be able to view your HTPC at a decent resolution that way.
It's a lost cause; they can't win. But they'll make lots of noise as they fight against inevitability.
They can't lose as long as they control the broadcast spectrum, all major production houses, movie studios, cinemas, syndication, cable systems, billboard advertising, etc. It's called a vertical monopoly. American legislators once realized how dangerous these types of monopoly can be for consumer choice, they've become toothless over the years.
Viacom isn't going away without government intervention. What they control is worth more than gold.
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I got a 36" sony CRT HDTV for $300 off of eBay. It has HDMI, QAM, ATSC, all the candy....1080i native.
It is my opinion that unions have lost their purpose. Back before we had labour laws, employers could push unsafe working conditions on people, withhold pay, and fire them without severance. These kinds of things don't happen any more, or when they do, there's legal actions that can be taken against the company.
Imagine how stupid this argument would sound if you were talking about SEC violations, theft, murder, etc. "There's a law against it, that means we don't need anyone watching out for employees."
The only thing unions currently accomplish is to set the salaries too high, and make it impossible to fire anybody, even when they do a bad job. Look at any unionized organization and you will see evidence of this.
Salaries are too high for union workers? Before you heap any scorn on them, why don't you worry about the idiot boards of directors who pay CEOs insane amounts, especially those with a track record of failure. That is a true corruption of American-style meritocracy. And yes, unions make it harder to fire people in general (not just incompetents). That means that the supervisor must work with HR and carefully document every screw-up, thus guaranteeing no one will get fired without good reason.
The big donors to US political parties are not corporations. They are unions.
The US is controlled by UNIONS! Unions demanded the war in Iraq in order to produce more jobs with living wages! Unions required that we borrow trillions from China as a display of worker solidarity! Those in unions want to see jobs outsourced to India so we can have time to spend with our family during the week!
That's right folks, our country is run by a bunch of unions.
So I'm paying $250 for a minor bump in speed, a shiny new box, and a new controller.
I guess you'd rather pay $400-$600 for "a minor bump in speed, a shiny new box, and a new controller?"
When I pay $250 for a new graphics card, I expect it to push more than 640x480.
The Wii is not a graphics card, so this statement is obtuse.
They decry whatever they want, and in my opinion, they can lose out. I just wish they wouldn't make claims they can't substantiate.
From the Michael Babcock phrasebook:
claims [they] can't substantiate: claims I don't agree with.
ITunes only works with IPods.
Wrong.
IPods don't work with non-apple drm infested crap.
Wrong again.
MacOSX only runs on 'apple' hardware.
True. The alternative is to go the way of DRDOS, OS/2, and BeOS. I know you'd enjoy that, but most people would say the technology world is more interesting with Apple around.
Apple killed of the attack of the clones.
No, that was George Lucas.
Did you just try to lump Texas in with the Deep South? Sorry, you're wrong on that one. We have our problems (poor social services and declining education system) but we also have one of the strongest economies and a healthy population growth. Fort Bend County is basically a middle-class suburb of Houston, which is pretty much the same as any other big city (swampier and more spread out, though;)).
What happened in Fort Bend is a fundamental misunderstanding-nontech people don't understand that making an FPS map is not a sign of aggression. I do not excuse this paranoid and ignorant behavior, but please realize that it could have happened anywhere.
Heck, I just talked with a friend of mine who is a graduate student in psychology, and he believed it was a warning sign and that the school was justified in giving him "special attention." It's very tough to fight these misconceptions.
And who paid for those studies that didn't find any health difference? I notice you didn't mention that in your writeup. Let me help everyone else...it was the Corn Refiners Association. Big surprise!
Believe me, coming back from the dead is no problem-I've lived for hundreds of years! The secret? Solomonic gold!
"The internet in China is diverging rapidly from the state that the rest of the world enjoys it."
How about: The Chinese "internet" becomes less and less like the rest of the world's internet every day.
High fructose corn syrup (and the ethanol boondoggle, for that matter) wouldn't exist without the corn subsidies encouraging farmers to grow corn syrup. The stiff restrictions on sugar imports have something to do with it too.
But Coca-Cola had already switched most of its bottlers to high fructose corn syrup before the formula changed. So...the conspiracy theory about sugar vs. high fructose corn syrup really doesn't make sense.
A moderately crazy person may enter a school today in order to shoot the place up, but you'd have to be totally crazy to attempt such when you know that one out of ten students will be shooting back.
Yeah, using innocent people as targets is only "moderately" crazy. Again, it's sickening how low you gun nuts will sink to promote your agenda.
When are we going to get some Led Zeppelin?
I'm sure it will be very expensive, but it would be quite thrilling to play "The Rain Song" and "Battle of Evermore." I can't wait!
Perhaps I should make up a new acronym for pedants who get mad when I use the term HD improperly.
There's another term. 480p or EDTV. Don't get all self-righteous when you mislead others about the resolution of your recording, and someone calls you on it.
Plenty of DVDs are "mastered from high definition" and that DOES NOT EQUAL HDTV. DirecTV is being sued for falsely claiming HD resolution on their channels. Why should we hold you to any less of a standard? Hey, how about telling the truth? What a concept!
I'm glad to hear that your cables are okay.
Could I ask you a little more about your system? Where does component get converted to VGA? At the projector, off of a VGA M to the component F cable? Or do you have an external scaler that's doing the conversion? Are you using a component switchbox or VGA switchbox?
I'm curious, as you are good on HDMI and bad on component-completely the opposite of most of the systems I've set up.
Theoretically, you are right about HDMI being able to describe the picture better...but-
You're in for a rude awakening if you try to run HDMI over about 10 feet. The inventors of DVI/HDMI simply did not consider those lengths. You'll find that with HDMI, those zeroes turn into ones in the wire.
I have done runs of 100+ feet with component or RGBHV with no interference multiple times. My advice to you, get some nice shielded RG6 and make the cables yourself (or pay someone to make them). Stay away from electrical outlets and you'll do just fine, unless you have a cheap switchbox, a poor connection at the wall or a projector with an extremely poor ADC. Try running the cables directly to the projector on the floor without any of that other stuff. You should not be running into those problems with coax cables.
HDMI has better quality and support for higher resolutions than VGA
Wrong. VGA is an analog signal and its resolution is not limited. The highest common for resolution for VGA displays is 1920x1200 (2-page, WUXGA).
HDMI incorporates error correction in the specs.
Again, wrong. And might I add, error correction is useful for data, useless for video. You're not going to re-send a video frame when it gets screwed up unless you're not worried about sync.
Finally, if you are using CRT then you should get with the fucking program and upgrade to a display technology that isn't 110 years old.
CRT still has the best black levels and colors.
It's obvious you don't know anything about video standards. Read up and compare HDMI to SDI for interfaces...it's not even close.
HDMI is certainly better than VGA on a decent TV
Why? Because it's digital? HDMI is a horrible connector and a horrible signal. If you need to run it past 10 feet, good luck. It's also prone to screwing up when you switch inputs. All in all, it's a huge step backwards from VGA...especially if you don't have a fixed-pixel display (LCoS or CRT).
Linux hasn't had dependency hell for years.
Did you hear that whizzing sound? That was your credibility, dropping through the floor.
I'll admit, Mac OS took some steps backward in the UI department when they went to OS X, and GNOME is better than ever (closer to Classic Mac OS or BeOS now), but let's not kid ourselves.
Linux has a long way to go in UI, for the simple reason that Linux users don't even have a consistent graphics system besides the primitive X11.
I won't even respond to your other obtuse list of demands, except to say that if those are supposed to be Linux's only strengths over OS X, you're selling it WAAAAY short.
Microsoft doesn't want to provoke EA. EA support on the Xbox console is a major reason why the Xbox didn't fade out like the Dreamcast. Nearly all of the Xbox's library was PS2 or PC ports...and buying a publisher the size of Take Two would be a definite shot across EA's bow.
What would the Xbox 360's library look like if EA dropped it? Due to EA's exclusivity deal with the NFL, there wouldn't be anymore Madden football on 360. Microsoft is far more dependent on sports titles to perpetuate its image than Sony or Nintendo. They couldn't buy Take Two without provoking EA.
DirecTV is currently embroiled in a lawsuit for advertising 1080i channels, but compressing them down to a point where they can't be reasonably described as HD.
You didn't explain why Microsoft would want to purchase Take Two. But you did make a lot of references to shit, crap, and feces. I give your post a C-.
Your HDTV has no VGA inputs? Just get a VGA to component adapter from Key Digital!
You might have to tweak some timing settings with PowerStrip (Win) or DisplayConfigX(Mac) but you should be able to view your HTPC at a decent resolution that way.
It's a lost cause; they can't win. But they'll make lots of noise as they fight against inevitability.
They can't lose as long as they control the broadcast spectrum, all major production houses, movie studios, cinemas, syndication, cable systems, billboard advertising, etc. It's called a vertical monopoly. American legislators once realized how dangerous these types of monopoly can be for consumer choice, they've become toothless over the years.
Viacom isn't going away without government intervention. What they control is worth more than gold.
Note to moderator:
Get some turpentine and try to at least dilute all that loc-tite holding your bunghole shut.