...and if Hillary Clinton won against Obama in the 2008 primaries instead, would you have said the same thing? After all, that one was fairly close for the longest time, and she would have been Clinton II administration-wise if she had won the job (and if it weren't for her husband's by-then-tarnished reputation, I daresay she would have won the primaries hands-down.)
Fact is, both parties do the derp factor - big-time. It's even a mainstream formula - you pander to the hard portion of your party during the primaries, then swing back and do your best to pander to everyone else after you get the nomination. If you don't do that, you don't win the primaries.
It's that big thing in the living room that I plug my HDMI cable into so I can get a sweet PC gaming experience, or to watch downloaded shows with the missus. Oh, it also plays my old DVD collection pretty nicely too.
Chatter amongst the conservative set paints McCain as a RINO (Republican in Name Only) these days, and he's not getting much love from the rank-and-file either.
Of course he could try, but I doubt he'd get past the primaries, especially with far stronger candidates (e.g. (Rand) Paul, Cruz, Rubio) already both emerging and getting their political 'street cred' going.
I'm shocked that Amazon's stock didn't go up more at the announcement as nook has been the only competition they've had in eReaders [...]
Well, except for that iPad thingy out there, which incidentally gets used as an e-Reader on occasion. May explain why Amazon didn't get much stockholder love. Mind you, when you also consider that Amazon itself has been recently positioning the Kindle brand against the iPad, I can see why no one is under the impression that Amazon/Kindle is the 'last man standing' in the market.
Other than that bit? Hell yes I agree with your post otherwise.
I always found it fascinating to see MSFT buy something, only to run it into the dirt, and you haven't even touched the enterprise space (...anyone else on/. know what DynamicsNAV used to be before MSFT bought it, fucked it all up, and then left it to rot?) If it weren't for the lingering inertia from the WinTel juggernaut, they'd have gone the way of Wang and DEC by now. OTOH, seeing my wife's reaction last night to Windows 8?** I'm kind of wondering why MSFT is even starting to screw up their cash cows now...
Jobs had his massive ego tied into his company, Bill has cashed out enough stock he could live like a God if MSFT burned to the ground. More likely he'll quietly cash out and walk away,he doesn't care about his old company anymore, its nothing like Jobs and Apple.
Jobs cared for two reasons: First, Apple was his baby (at least in his eyes). Second, he actually did have a good (initial) vision of making computers human-friendly, and knew how to make engineers (mostly) see things the same way.
Bill? I think you're close, but for a different reason: For Bill, it was/is all about winning, reputation, and money. His passion (and likely ability) for coding and engineering died sometime back in the mid 1990's.
--
** About that Win 8 thingy? The missus needed a new laptop, as the old one drowned in chocolate-flavored coffee. She tries Windows 8 at a Best Buy store, got frustrated, decided she hated it, wants Windows 7. The sales critters all said nobody sells Windows 7 boxen - I tried to correct the record, but I knew it was too late - she's now pissed. She says "let's go", as she walks briskly out of the store. Out of curiousity, I follow her to the Apple Store, and watched her buy a top-end iPad and a bluetooth keyboard for her (completely casual) online needs.
She's still gushing about the thing, though TBH for her online/computer needs it fills the bill perfectly. BTW - yes, I tried to tell her about Newegg and suchlike having Win7 laptops... she wasn't having any of it. Anyrate, I usually use her as a means of gauging typical user/use-case scenarios, as she is decidedly non-geek, and she's not the first non-geek that I've seen (or have told me they did) do this.
I thought it was even funnier when they were advertising some sort of futuristic break-dancing work environment that had a Netflix app prominently displayed on their alleged work tablets.
Microsoft won't justify themselves, they just have to threaten to take away the Windows licence form that company and thats probably why they won;t go after Google.
In a relatively short period of time, that may be irrelevant... Windows Phone isn't selling for shit, and even Microsoft knows it. That leaves threats and patent pseudo-trolling as their only real income option in the mobile space.
[...] it wouldn't make any difference; the monarch is ceremonial and has no real power.
Well, the current generations have none to speak of - at least since Edward or so. On the other hand, that's no guarantee of future monarchs, by any stretch. Imagine a monarch with enough political power and persuasion to take the reins and do it old-school...
I think I can help a bit on the contention, though...
I get the reason GP was so adamant about it - our governmental enterprise was founded on a tax revolt, against a king who had real life-or-death power and a rather powerful army at his disposal. The hatred of all things royal still lingers somewhat over here (in no small part thanks to the history books, etc), but now it's mostly against the institution, not the actors per se (which are often the subject of quite a bit of media).
All that said, I have a suspicion of leaving any monarch in place, even a figurehead. While I don't have the revulsion against it that, say, Lenin and his gang did? I don't see that the goodwill/tourism benefits outweigh the potential for abuse of the office by current or future generations. All it would take is an all-too-common combination of a weak parliament, a strong monarch, and a crisis that leaves the populace desperate for answers.
I did for DAZ|Studio and Poser. Performance was fair-to-middling for most functions (render times were sweet), but UI elements would go missing randomly, and responsiveness was a mess at times (especially in Poser).
I'm glad for this egotism. I hope MS stays the course and tells the users to fuck right off, and that they're going to get used to Metro whether they like it or not.
I have a few proprietary apps that unfortunately don't run in Linux, and Windows 8 looks like a shit sandwich that I do not want to eat (even if you wrapped it in a VM, like I do w/ Windows 7).
Fortunately, I was able to find a handy workaround (albeit that Linux is now in a VM instead of being the foundation OS, but I'm used to the VM thing by now).
Don't care - $60/mo for 30mb versus $70/mo for 3.(something)mb that breaks down all the time (and being billed as if it were a 6mb package)? No effing way.
Maybe in the "Enterprise" version, where corporations will either get such an option or they'll stick with Windows 7 until the end of time.
OTOH, for ordinary users, they've kind of made it clear; they want everyone in consumer-land to get used to the whole Metro (or whatever they call it now) thing.
I used to (had no choice at a previous place I was renting out on the Oregon Coast) - service was crap but usable. However, it was their billing department who turned a 'first two months free!' promotion into a 'I'm sorry sir, but you owe us $126 before we can re-instate your service', in spite of never missing a payment. The nanosecond Charter showed up in the neighborhood a month later, I switched so fast that I could have almost not dropped a packet.
All I can say is - never again. Compare Centurylink's $70/mo for 3.5 Mb/sec and maybe 70-75% uptime, with Charter's $30/mo 30 Mb/sec and 99.999% uptime.
If they reply in a negative fashion, then you sue the bastards.
Depends - if the negative reply is the truth (without embellishment), you can't sue them for a damned thing in most states. Mind you, this includes things like "we let him go because of successive negative performance reviews" and such.
Employers get the same protections from libel/slander suits that individuals do. If they have a paper trail and witnesses, they can and will prevail. By the way, there's another hazard of getting all lawyer-happy: The lawsuit makes that negative stuff public record, especially if they have a paper trail.
Overall though, most employers stick to the 'name|rank|serial-number' routine for negative terminations because they don't want all the bother and headache - it's cheaper and easier to let the guy become some other company's problem.
Not necessarily. Unlike, say, car insurance? Selling device insurance is predicated on the assumption of more than just percentage, but in timespan.
Consider that you pay something like $10/mo for your $200 smartphone - not even two years in, and the thing is paid for at original price. One year in, and the device is likely amortized down enough to get a replacement phone of the same make/model for what the customer paid into it so far.
I'm sure there are other aspects as well, but that one stood out for me.
Slashdot Mirror
Quick - define "moderate" without using your own ideology as a guide, and be intellectually honest when you try.
Fact is, you cannot do so, and neither can I.
...and if Hillary Clinton won against Obama in the 2008 primaries instead, would you have said the same thing? After all, that one was fairly close for the longest time, and she would have been Clinton II administration-wise if she had won the job (and if it weren't for her husband's by-then-tarnished reputation, I daresay she would have won the primaries hands-down.)
Fact is, both parties do the derp factor - big-time. It's even a mainstream formula - you pander to the hard portion of your party during the primaries, then swing back and do your best to pander to everyone else after you get the nomination. If you don't do that, you don't win the primaries.
Whats TV?
It's that big thing in the living room that I plug my HDMI cable into so I can get a sweet PC gaming experience, or to watch downloaded shows with the missus. Oh, it also plays my old DVD collection pretty nicely too.
Not likely.
Chatter amongst the conservative set paints McCain as a RINO (Republican in Name Only) these days, and he's not getting much love from the rank-and-file either.
Of course he could try, but I doubt he'd get past the primaries, especially with far stronger candidates (e.g. (Rand) Paul, Cruz, Rubio) already both emerging and getting their political 'street cred' going.
I'm shocked that Amazon's stock didn't go up more at the announcement as nook has been the only competition they've had in eReaders [...]
Well, except for that iPad thingy out there, which incidentally gets used as an e-Reader on occasion. May explain why Amazon didn't get much stockholder love. Mind you, when you also consider that Amazon itself has been recently positioning the Kindle brand against the iPad, I can see why no one is under the impression that Amazon/Kindle is the 'last man standing' in the market.
Other than that bit? Hell yes I agree with your post otherwise.
I always found it fascinating to see MSFT buy something, only to run it into the dirt, and you haven't even touched the enterprise space (...anyone else on /. know what DynamicsNAV used to be before MSFT bought it, fucked it all up, and then left it to rot?) If it weren't for the lingering inertia from the WinTel juggernaut, they'd have gone the way of Wang and DEC by now. OTOH, seeing my wife's reaction last night to Windows 8?** I'm kind of wondering why MSFT is even starting to screw up their cash cows now...
Jobs had his massive ego tied into his company, Bill has cashed out enough stock he could live like a God if MSFT burned to the ground. More likely he'll quietly cash out and walk away,he doesn't care about his old company anymore, its nothing like Jobs and Apple.
Jobs cared for two reasons: First, Apple was his baby (at least in his eyes). Second, he actually did have a good (initial) vision of making computers human-friendly, and knew how to make engineers (mostly) see things the same way.
Bill? I think you're close, but for a different reason: For Bill, it was/is all about winning, reputation, and money. His passion (and likely ability) for coding and engineering died sometime back in the mid 1990's.
--
** About that Win 8 thingy? The missus needed a new laptop, as the old one drowned in chocolate-flavored coffee. She tries Windows 8 at a Best Buy store, got frustrated, decided she hated it, wants Windows 7. The sales critters all said nobody sells Windows 7 boxen - I tried to correct the record, but I knew it was too late - she's now pissed. She says "let's go", as she walks briskly out of the store. Out of curiousity, I follow her to the Apple Store, and watched her buy a top-end iPad and a bluetooth keyboard for her (completely casual) online needs.
She's still gushing about the thing, though TBH for her online/computer needs it fills the bill perfectly. BTW - yes, I tried to tell her about Newegg and suchlike having Win7 laptops... she wasn't having any of it. Anyrate, I usually use her as a means of gauging typical user/use-case scenarios, as she is decidedly non-geek, and she's not the first non-geek that I've seen (or have told me they did) do this.
I thought it was even funnier when they were advertising some sort of futuristic break-dancing work environment that had a Netflix app prominently displayed on their alleged work tablets.
...and this is already reaching antitrust investigations.
From your lips to God's ears.
Problem is, I have yet to see any sane thing like that happen yet.
The only one named but not confirmed is about FAT, something easily avoided by using Ext3 or 4.
Well, until Joe Sixpack wants to pack his micro-SD card with stuff from his Windows laptop...
Microsoft won't justify themselves, they just have to threaten to take away the Windows licence form that company and thats probably why they won;t go after Google.
In a relatively short period of time, that may be irrelevant... Windows Phone isn't selling for shit, and even Microsoft knows it. That leaves threats and patent pseudo-trolling as their only real income option in the mobile space.
I'm curious - do you have a similar view about the lies of Bill Clinton? Did he empower all American men to lie as well?
Sadly, no - he only exemplified a common action that, to be honest, knows no borders.
Can you blame him? Dude's straight-up pug-ugly, and his perpetual girlfriend looks like she's been whacked repeatedly with a manhole cover.
[...] it wouldn't make any difference; the monarch is ceremonial and has no real power.
Well, the current generations have none to speak of - at least since Edward or so. On the other hand, that's no guarantee of future monarchs, by any stretch. Imagine a monarch with enough political power and persuasion to take the reins and do it old-school...
I think I can help a bit on the contention, though...
I get the reason GP was so adamant about it - our governmental enterprise was founded on a tax revolt, against a king who had real life-or-death power and a rather powerful army at his disposal. The hatred of all things royal still lingers somewhat over here (in no small part thanks to the history books, etc), but now it's mostly against the institution, not the actors per se (which are often the subject of quite a bit of media).
All that said, I have a suspicion of leaving any monarch in place, even a figurehead. While I don't have the revulsion against it that, say, Lenin and his gang did? I don't see that the goodwill/tourism benefits outweigh the potential for abuse of the office by current or future generations. All it would take is an all-too-common combination of a weak parliament, a strong monarch, and a crisis that leaves the populace desperate for answers.
Pretty enlightening... thank you!
The presence and use of /Library on my MBP says differently. ;)
I did for DAZ|Studio and Poser. Performance was fair-to-middling for most functions (render times were sweet), but UI elements would go missing randomly, and responsiveness was a mess at times (especially in Poser).
Indeed... this sentence:
The new package format has promised highlights of having no dependencies between applications
...tells me there's gonna be a whole shitload of bloat, duplicate binaries, and a performance hit from Hell.
I could be wrong, but...
I'm glad for this egotism. I hope MS stays the course and tells the users to fuck right off, and that they're going to get used to Metro whether they like it or not.
I have a few proprietary apps that unfortunately don't run in Linux, and Windows 8 looks like a shit sandwich that I do not want to eat (even if you wrapped it in a VM, like I do w/ Windows 7).
Fortunately, I was able to find a handy workaround (albeit that Linux is now in a VM instead of being the foundation OS, but I'm used to the VM thing by now).
Don't care - $60/mo for 30mb versus $70/mo for 3.(something)mb that breaks down all the time (and being billed as if it were a 6mb package)? No effing way.
Maybe in the "Enterprise" version, where corporations will either get such an option or they'll stick with Windows 7 until the end of time.
OTOH, for ordinary users, they've kind of made it clear; they want everyone in consumer-land to get used to the whole Metro (or whatever they call it now) thing.
...prediction: They'll lash in a start button but still try and force the user to go through Metro first.
Are the majority of /. readers using Centurylink?
I used to (had no choice at a previous place I was renting out on the Oregon Coast) - service was crap but usable. However, it was their billing department who turned a 'first two months free!' promotion into a 'I'm sorry sir, but you owe us $126 before we can re-instate your service', in spite of never missing a payment. The nanosecond Charter showed up in the neighborhood a month later, I switched so fast that I could have almost not dropped a packet.
All I can say is - never again. Compare Centurylink's $70/mo for 3.5 Mb/sec and maybe 70-75% uptime, with Charter's $30/mo 30 Mb/sec and 99.999% uptime.
Fuck Centurylink.
If they reply in a negative fashion, then you sue the bastards.
Depends - if the negative reply is the truth (without embellishment), you can't sue them for a damned thing in most states.
Mind you, this includes things like "we let him go because of successive negative performance reviews" and such.
Employers get the same protections from libel/slander suits that individuals do. If they have a paper trail and witnesses, they can and will prevail. By the way, there's another hazard of getting all lawyer-happy: The lawsuit makes that negative stuff public record, especially if they have a paper trail.
Overall though, most employers stick to the 'name|rank|serial-number' routine for negative terminations because they don't want all the bother and headache - it's cheaper and easier to let the guy become some other company's problem.
Not necessarily. Unlike, say, car insurance? Selling device insurance is predicated on the assumption of more than just percentage, but in timespan.
Consider that you pay something like $10/mo for your $200 smartphone - not even two years in, and the thing is paid for at original price. One year in, and the device is likely amortized down enough to get a replacement phone of the same make/model for what the customer paid into it so far.
I'm sure there are other aspects as well, but that one stood out for me.
...and tools like Active Directory aren't just in beta testing, you know?
Nope; just that it seems like it at times. ;/
Nothing beats hitting a printer with a baseball bat...
...unless it involves hitting a router or server with a baseball bat.