Isn't it unfair that many of these other countries offer FREE SCHOOL to students who score well? Here in the US, a few lucky folks get free scholarships, but that's tough to do and not the norm.
It's obvious: to balance things, Asia will have to switch to a money-based system of education. Besides, there's only so many jobs to go around anyways, so there's no reason to educate hoardes of poor children. Where is the WTO when you need them??
>Your situation points out one thing. What incentive do you have to switch to Linux or other open source operating system? The answer is none. As long as you are able to use open source software in windows you will never switch to linux.
Who says he hasn't 'switched', on another system? Maybe there's a couple of things about KDE/GNOME/etc he still finds annoying, and is holding off on Windows while getting ready with his apps... and more importantly his DATA.
I understand your 'take it or leave it' position, but it is useless dogma.
I myself work and live the same as the grandparent poster... I run open source apps on Windows: Cygwin, Dia, Sodipodi, Gimp, OpenOffice, FireFox, Opera, Audigy (the sound editor), PHP, Perl, Python etc. I prefer the GPL software in general, but I happen to work on Windows, Linux, and OS X. I try to use the same apps out of convenience. At home, I always have at least decent 1 Windows box and decent 1 Linux box.
I think the people who want to hold GPL apps to GPL OS's are misguided. You assume everyone is going to make an unemotional decision, A lot of people are SCARED to try Linux, but they're just trying OpenOffice now (if only for the 'free PDF maker' I get them excited about... it's a START).
>They are piping objects, we would need to do a lot of parsing to achief the same effect.
In the context you provide, UNIX commands are "objects" in much the same respect. Actually you are talking about filters but anyways..
You can do that in UNIX/Linux: you can invoke GUI programs via the command line, and NOT get a GUI window but instead get some output (which you can parse).
Not all programs support this, but if people want it, it will happen. Microsoft can decide to put all this into the latest Office release, and if it is popular (in demand) I'm sure a solution will appear for OpenOffice*.
* Technically, this already exists if you script it yourself... OO docs are XML that can be parsed via 'perl' or 'awk'. You can delete the tags then output the plain text, in the absence of a 'calc --dump' text only mode, or shell command 'copy file into X11 clipboard' (for quick pasting of new docs), etc.
>Wrapping the point source in a simple translucent bulb qualifies as a "real bitch"?
If you allow for real world factors, yes. For example the translucent shell may reduce efficency by 20%. It's not a roadblock, but it's one more disadvantage of LEDs in terms of manufacturing and economy, and one more source of cost.
I use flourescents, incandescents, and two LED sources at home. While I'd like to go all-LED -- the fact that these things wear down (less light) over time means eventually you're tossing them out, so you can't even think of these as one-time investments... yet.
>But the first time I saw this happen, it made me think: piracy in general can have more economic impact that you realize at first.
Let me get this straight: If your customers are being routinely hacked You know why this happens...
The link to piracy here is circumstancial. Your bandwidth could be misused in some other way just as easily... a Paris Hilton video, a very popular Linux ISO, or "anything" really.
Of course the customer is always 'right' and you let them use '1234' as a password, and the cycle repeats. Banks do NOT let their customers use '1234' or '9999' as a PIN!
The person holding you to this policy IS THE PROBLEM. They do not care about the loss of revenue or the distress to the customer, so long as their job is made easier.
There are little rules you can enforce on passwords: 8 characters at least, include at least 1 number, etc. Make it easy to resend the password automatically if they forget it, so you're not getting support calls on that either.
You do NOT need to make them use difficult random passwords to eliminate most of the problem.
> You can't write off study after study by saying "correlation does not imply causation."
Sure can. "Causation" (if you want to call it that) is the foundation fact upon a study is built around. If you can't prove a fact in such a way that the cause and the result are undeniably linked, then you have something worthwhile of a study. Otherwise, you're just WISHING it were true either consciously or subconsciously.
Bad studies are sloppy and don't show and proove cause. DELIBRATLY misleading studies are much the same, but include emotional "push button" issues designed to pull on you biggotry strings.
I could write a funny study that shows a corrolation between (FACT) increasing P2P downloading traffic and (FACT) rising ocean temperatures... it does not show the cause to be true does it, does it?
While I agree with just about everything you say, G4 is doing this for a reason.
G4 knows that a TV show like Arena costs NOTHING to produce. The players probably are compensated with little more than plane tickets, hotel accomodations, and free pizza. G4 relies heavily on interns. Their costs are far lower I bet than TechTV's was, and so they are more profitable.
They can survive alienating the TechTV's "core" of, well, techies, by pandering to 9 year olds who watch just for the reject chicks from the Hot Topic catalog.
All the G4 shows lack any educational or informational value. Where you used to hear of cool hacks, mods, and Linux/OSX stuff now you hear nothing about computers. G4 showcatses nothing if it is not shrinkwrapped and a potential advertiser. "Linux" stories do not woo more ads.
G4 is following the MTV model. Move from the roots and flood the airwaves with cheap production costs. Cater the stories to fit the advertisers not the viewers. They know they'll pick up more generic couch potatoes then they lost in core fans.
Sci-Fi channel has been following the same theme the last few years. Farscape didn't just die because the viewers were Amiga fanboys... the show had a real following, that was only surpassed recently by Battlestar. I can't diss the Battlestar effort, at least it is top notch. Then again, Battlestar had huge potential, as many older people (who never watch sci-fi nowadays) watch it for nostalgiac value.
Lets not kid ourselves here, the poor developers in India are exploited. The average salary is around $390/month, the kids down at the local fast food joint here in the US make more money than that. Sure the cost of living is a little lower over there, but things like books, computers etc, still cost the same or more than they do here.
I am no fan of offshoring/outsourcing, however I would disagree that computers and books are the same or more money there than here. From what I've read, if you get a good job in India there's no reason at all to move anywhere else these days. The low cost of living means that even these discounted (relative to the US) tech jobs are a king's income there.
In most markets, the price of an item is based on demand more than it is on production cost. I am confident books will be cheaper in any lower-cost country. We know for a fact that software IS cheaper in developing countries -- Microsoft and other vendors have no choice but to adjust to local pay scales and economies.
I'd bed that computer parts are slightly cheaper, being closer to the source, but maybe not that much since most vendors are scraping the margins. What IS the most expensive cost in a computer is the OS, and Microsoft makes concessions.
(Yeah I know they could all be running Linux for free, and some do, but most will be striving to run Windows same as in the US.)
google is violating the spirit of the GPL... "distributing" their software via a web server, but nobody gets to see the code behind the scenens[sp], improve it, or fix bugs, or anything else.
You are using a definition of 'distributing' that is out of context with the definition of distribution within the GPL.
You are talking about ACCESS not a copy. Were you given a "copy of Google"? Do you have Google, or just a single page output from the server? How do you know the manner that Google mixes proprietary and free software? There are legal ways to mix software, without violating the license. For example, I can use a non-GPL preprocessor to tweak images that I feed into Gimp... and say I give you remote VNC access to the Gimp install. Am I bound to give you the source for my proprietary work?
You completely misunderstand the GPL. If you have not been given a binary (on disk or in a PC installed, no matter..) then there is no sourcecode obligation.
At least wait until Google really does violate the GPL just once.
I loved the Warcraft games so much that I could never play WoW (major time sink!:-)
My question is, would your company encourage, allocate time for and generally nudge willing developers to blog?
It seems Blizzard has a bad name among some who used to like Blizzard. This is due to bugs, some bad moves by Blizzard legal, and a "black box" process for customer feedback (many comments here bemoan the 'handlers' on the Blizzard forums).
If anyone's worried about bad postings and replies to the blog, a good example to look at is the Microsoft IE7 bloggers. A public blog seems to have influenced Microsoft into fixing IE7 to a degree more than initally planned, which is a Good Thing for many.
A theory is their developers wanted to do the right thing, and the blog helped support that.
You had a chance at making a point, but you ruined it when you insisted on the point of "talking with a developer". You're just a single customer. Why dont you also insist on a game of tennis with the CEO?
You could have had a point if you simply stated that you believe Blizzard's wasting time here, when their support staff do not have consistent policies regarding Escalation of support issues, Closure, etc. You know, like what you might expect if you were paying your ISP and had a problem (AND assuming said ISP tried to have 'average' industry service).
I don't play WoW so I don't care, but, you blew it kid.
You're assuming that the STREET PRICE for oil will match the MARKET PRICE. It doesn't. It is all heavily subsidized, effectively RAISING TAXES somewhere else to pay for discounted oil.
The so-called Energy Bill TAKES money from your paycheck and gives it to the poor, starving energy companies... all of whom face record profits.
I don't see how subsidies reflect the market engine.
And I didn't even mention paying for the war. That money comes from an imaginary place (a source the US apparently never looked to when paying for WWII).
>How much are we going to have to pay for access to this hypothetical remote Photoshop? It's a beastly server than can do the image processing of thousands of clients at once as fast as they could do it themselves.
I don't believe the grandparent poster is right or wrong, and you have some good points... but the questions you ask look for examples, not theory.
I would agree that it's useless to waste effort FORCING a desktop app onto a web server, but I think we'll see an evolution over a long period of time. Long enough for people to admire what is happening, and come up with improvements that get us closer.
Your retort could have applied to pre-Google Earth": Wouldn't it be better to have a local EXE that simply queries the central database?" "How much are we going to pay for access to this remote database?". "Once you bookmark all your favorite locations in [google maps] how much is it going to cost to cancel and move to [some other map application]?". My parents still ask how people get paid if you can download software for free, or read content online for free.
>In the States, the problem isn't that environmentalists don't want nuclear power, the problem is that they don't trust the Bush administration with it.
That's just wrong.
The problem is no one wants one IN THEIR OWN BACKYARD. Let me shed some details with a specific example (partly backed up by opinion).
Consider Seabrook, NH (about 60 miles from me): * MOST of the protesters were locals, concerned about things like waste (which stays on-site). * Some folks just would not want ANY power plant in their backyard. Think of the resale values! * This is a tourist locale, and there is no public transportation system here. The highway system clogs every day during commute.
You might conclude that these points could be neutralized by locating the power plant somewhere else. My region gets a lot of electricity from Quebec, Canada. You can certainly do this stuff 1500 miles away.
I'd bet if you surveyed those against any nuke plant, a clear majority are locals who have no problem with plants in someone else's back yard, or 1500 miles away.
The founder of Greenpeace (whazzis name) is no less an 'environmentalist' for reversing his stance on Nuclear power. It's just common sense.
That today nuclear power is held back by a few environmentalists... is just a bunch of hooey promoted by conservatives... who want nothing more than to to blame global warming on their enemies.
I am 35 years old, but that's almost how I remember things.
I did not get my first computer until 1984 -- an Atari 1200XL with 64K and cassette drive. BASIC got boring quickly, and the only way to do anything interesting -- like graphical display list interrupts -- was to use Assembly. Assembly was pretty easy on a 6502.
In the pre-IBM PC clone days, you could get a REALLY nice computer for a few hundred dollars. Then for some reason everything went to the PC, and for over a decade computers cost way more than it should. It's funny how manufacturers are shooting for a $199 price point -- what many paid in the early 80's.
I don't think most people are really ready for serious science fiction right now.
You're absolutely right, but not in the way you intended.
Sci-Fi simply is topic matter that expects a lot from viewers, and so sci-fi is not for everyone. While it IS fiction, most sci-fi has its ROOTS in real (or possible, at least probable!) science.
It is elitist in that it assumes, as a prerequisite, you have read some sci-fi or scientific literature, AND YOU LIKE IT.
That's not deliberately elitist. You can't randomly drop terms like 'string theory', or deal with overpopulation issues or other cerebral topics.
It's all grossly watered down since the 80's... otherwise it won't get played in the megaplex. Blade Runner was the peak, and Stargate was the last decent sci-fi (nowhere near BR mind you but OK).
I can just imagine if/when they remake Logan's Run... it'll have either Tom Cruise or Will Smith, be loaded with stupid comedy, and violate one of the core rules of that movie (like when they remade Planet Of The Apes, with talking humans... or Dawn of the Dead with RUNNING zombies... because the NEW target audience is wider than the original script allowed for).
It's another way for a newbie user to accidentally right AND left click on a file or drive, and select "delete file" or "format C:". Then they get scared and call the Help Desk.
OK, not a true security risk. I don't think there is any that can be attributed to mouse buttons.
>Now if they'd only finally bring out a two button + scroll wheel mouse standard for their Macs!*:)
On MS and Linux, the user interface is largely inconsistent, so users acclimated to these OS's will memorize right clicks to locate context menus -- in order to save themselves from "hunting" or searching for commands under pull down menus.
Context menus are a band aid -- a decent one considering the circumstances.
Apple has rigidly defined how menus should lay out. Microsoft defines the "Edit" menu and that's about it. On Apple, applications strive to be consistent with Apple interface guidelines: you always know where "Preferences" are in the menu, even if you used a program for the first time.
Context menus usually mean "I want to do something with this selected thingy but I am lost".
I'd assume most of us here disagree with Apple's mouse system -- we've been using computers so long we just memorize things. Heck, I forget that a Linux newbie would maybe do better with 'nedit' (I use vi or emacs).
Just try teaching an old person to use Windows. Watch how they confuse right clicks with left clicks... when you're saying "no! no!" they managed to right-click, twitch the mouse and then left-click... and invoke "Format drive" in file explorer.
Hmm... context menus are like saying a Swiss army knife is all you need in the kitchen?
Disclaimer: I use a 3 button mouse on my G3. I tend to however run Linux on it, or applications with Linux-ported GUIs that NEED second buttons (OpenOffice, GTK ethereal, etc.)
Will the KDE library be available for windows now?
Wrong question. Nothing legally prevents a native, GPL, KDE for Windows.
The problem I bet is all the dependencies. I suspect someone will tackle native KDE/Win, but if so it will take a long time, because Windows coders won't get excited enough to help until it's far enough along development.
It'll take a while for Qt apps to get built for native Windows (longer than it did for GTK apps like Ethereal to be ported to Win32 native)
>I think Windows XP installer asks for a grand total for 3 inputs. Computer Name, User Name, and Time Zone.
My version of XP required no less than entering a ~24-digit UID to authenticate my hardware.
And official XP installation CD's WITH SP2 are EXCEEDINGLY RARE. They may exist (you can certainly create them..) but that's not what the average CD bought new today would be.
And even with SP2, there's a boatload of security updates and reboots required. I'm sure there's a lot of updates for a fresh FC3 install too. but FC3 is a whole 'nother release, not a service pack.
XP wouldn't be "easier" just because there's NO free upgrade to the next version, as there is with Fedora. Upgrades on a polished Linux distro are far easier than Windows. I know someone stuck with a $1000 UMAX 17x12 scanner, and they have to keep a Win98 box running for it, because the Win2000 update broke the drivers (manufacturers fault, but still part of the whole user experience).
XP won't let you download and install ALL updates at once, like Fedora does.
Most Windows users dont have access to "real" Windows CD's, just "system restore" CD's. Have fun upgrading THOSE systems after a fresh reinstall.
Umm, back to gub'mint class ya go. We are a REPUBLIC.
FYI, *everyone* knows the USA is a 'republic' form of government. 'Democracy' can refer to a particular type of representative government, or it can refer to ALL representative governments.
For example, it is not incorrect to call England a 'democracy'. Over there, they probably have your weenie counterpart spouting 'You know nothingt! We are NOT a democracy, we are a Constitutional Monarchy. Nyyyaaah! Phhhlllttt!'
You are rejecting common alternate definitions of the word democracy, to suit your argument.
I don't recall what the uPNP charter is, but it doesn't seem to support as much "zero configuration" as Bonjour does.
For example does uPNP function as peer-to-peer DNS?
Before you question the value of this, know that 99% of home network users have to run around th check local IP addresses, even for their router (which is ideally positioned to say, create a local DNS record of 'router' with 192.168.1.1!)
Some of us will run internal DNS because we know how. Some of us know how to configure internal DNS, but cant be bothered for a small network.
There are probably other differences -- I hope there would be -- but maybe not. I'll know at the end of this thread.:)
>It's not supposed to be a measure of how many tickets were sold, otherwise it would be measured in tickets sold.
The context here is measuring popularity of a movie. Popularity = people, no??
If I go to a luxury movie complex with tables and food, and paid 2x normal for my ticket, that SHOULD'T inflate ticket sales. Neither should inflation. Think of ticket sales as votes, and you can vote more than once (like Ohio and New Hampshire!)
One could argue that matinee sales contribute less $$ to a movie and so $$ *does* measure popularity. I can concede that point but it's not a huge impact.
I think you see SALES numbers for Star Wars simply because NO ONE KNOWS how many actual tickets were sold. Period.
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Isn't it unfair that many of these other countries offer FREE SCHOOL to students who score well?
Here in the US, a few lucky folks get free scholarships, but that's tough to do and not the norm.
It's obvious: to balance things, Asia will have to switch to a money-based system of education. Besides, there's only so many jobs to go around anyways, so there's no reason to educate hoardes of poor children. Where is the WTO when you need them??
>Your situation points out one thing. What incentive do you have to switch to Linux or other open source operating system? The answer is none. As long as you are able to use open source software in windows you will never switch to linux.
Who says he hasn't 'switched', on another system? Maybe there's a couple of things about KDE/GNOME/etc he still finds annoying, and is holding off on Windows while getting ready with his apps... and more importantly his DATA.
I understand your 'take it or leave it' position, but it is useless dogma.
I myself work and live the same as the grandparent poster... I run open source apps on Windows:
Cygwin, Dia, Sodipodi, Gimp, OpenOffice, FireFox, Opera, Audigy (the sound editor), PHP, Perl, Python etc.
I prefer the GPL software in general, but I happen to work on Windows, Linux, and OS X. I try to use the same apps out of convenience. At home, I always have at least decent 1 Windows box and decent 1 Linux box.
I think the people who want to hold GPL apps to GPL OS's are misguided. You assume everyone is going to make an unemotional decision, A lot of people are SCARED to try Linux, but they're just trying OpenOffice now (if only for the 'free PDF maker' I get them excited about... it's a START).
>>>ls -l | head -n 10 | sort size | excel
>They are piping objects, we would need to do a lot of parsing to achief the same effect.
In the context you provide, UNIX commands are "objects" in much the same respect.
Actually you are talking about filters but anyways..
You can do that in UNIX/Linux: you can invoke GUI programs via the command line, and NOT get a GUI window but instead get some output (which you can parse).
Not all programs support this, but if people want it, it will happen.
Microsoft can decide to put all this into the latest Office release, and if it is popular (in demand) I'm sure a solution will appear for OpenOffice*.
* Technically, this already exists if you script it yourself... OO docs are XML that can be parsed via 'perl' or 'awk'. You can delete the tags then output the plain text, in the absence of a 'calc --dump' text only mode, or shell command 'copy file into X11 clipboard' (for quick pasting of new docs), etc.
>Wrapping the point source in a simple translucent bulb qualifies as a "real bitch"?
If you allow for real world factors, yes. For example the translucent shell may reduce efficency by 20%.
It's not a roadblock, but it's one more disadvantage of LEDs in terms of manufacturing and economy, and one more source of cost.
I use flourescents, incandescents, and two LED sources at home. While I'd like to go all-LED -- the fact that these things wear down (less light) over time means eventually you're tossing them out, so you can't even think of these as one-time investments... yet.
>But the first time I saw this happen, it made me think: piracy in general can have more economic impact that you realize at first.
...
Let me get this straight:
If your customers are being routinely hacked
You know why this happens
The link to piracy here is circumstancial. Your bandwidth could be misused in some other way just as easily... a Paris Hilton video, a very popular Linux ISO, or "anything" really.
Of course the customer is always 'right' and you let them use '1234' as a password, and the cycle repeats.
Banks do NOT let their customers use '1234' or '9999' as a PIN!
The person holding you to this policy IS THE PROBLEM. They do not care about the loss of revenue or the distress to the customer, so long as their job is made easier.
There are little rules you can enforce on passwords: 8 characters at least, include at least 1 number, etc. Make it easy to resend the password automatically if they forget it, so you're not getting support calls on that either.
You do NOT need to make them use difficult random passwords to eliminate most of the problem.
'cat'.. LOL...
> You can't write off study after study by saying "correlation does not imply causation."
Sure can. "Causation" (if you want to call it that) is the foundation fact upon a study is built around. If you can't prove a fact in such a way that the cause and the result are undeniably linked, then you have something worthwhile of a study. Otherwise, you're just WISHING it were true either consciously or subconsciously.
Bad studies are sloppy and don't show and proove cause. DELIBRATLY misleading studies are much the same, but include emotional "push button" issues designed to pull on you biggotry strings.
I could write a funny study that shows a corrolation between (FACT) increasing P2P downloading traffic and (FACT) rising ocean temperatures... it does not show the cause to be true does it, does it?
While I agree with just about everything you say, G4 is doing this for a reason.
G4 knows that a TV show like Arena costs NOTHING to produce. The players probably are compensated with little more than plane tickets, hotel accomodations, and free pizza. G4 relies heavily on interns. Their costs are far lower I bet than TechTV's was, and so they are more profitable.
They can survive alienating the TechTV's "core" of, well, techies, by pandering to 9 year olds who watch just for the reject chicks from the Hot Topic catalog.
All the G4 shows lack any educational or informational value. Where you used to hear of cool hacks, mods, and Linux/OSX stuff now you hear nothing about computers. G4 showcatses nothing if it is not shrinkwrapped and a potential advertiser. "Linux" stories do not woo more ads.
G4 is following the MTV model. Move from the roots and flood the airwaves with cheap production costs. Cater the stories to fit the advertisers not the viewers. They know they'll pick up more generic couch potatoes then they lost in core fans.
Sci-Fi channel has been following the same theme the last few years. Farscape didn't just die because the viewers were Amiga fanboys... the show had a real following, that was only surpassed recently by Battlestar. I can't diss the Battlestar effort, at least it is top notch. Then again, Battlestar had huge potential, as many older people (who never watch sci-fi nowadays) watch it for nostalgiac value.
Lets not kid ourselves here, the poor developers in India are exploited. The average salary is around $390/month, the kids down at the local fast food joint here in the US make more money than that. Sure the cost of living is a little lower over there, but things like books, computers etc, still cost the same or more than they do here.
I am no fan of offshoring/outsourcing, however I would disagree that computers and books are the same or more money there than here. From what I've read, if you get a good job in India there's no reason at all to move anywhere else these days. The low cost of living means that even these discounted (relative to the US) tech jobs are a king's income there.
In most markets, the price of an item is based on demand more than it is on production cost. I am confident books will be cheaper in any lower-cost country. We know for a fact that software IS cheaper in developing countries -- Microsoft and other vendors have no choice but to adjust to local pay scales and economies.
I'd bed that computer parts are slightly cheaper, being closer to the source, but maybe not that much since most vendors are scraping the margins. What IS the most expensive cost in a computer is the OS, and Microsoft makes concessions.
(Yeah I know they could all be running Linux for free, and some do, but most will be striving to run Windows same as in the US.)
google is violating the spirit of the GPL... "distributing" their software via a web server, but nobody gets to see the code behind the scenens[sp], improve it, or fix bugs, or anything else.
You are using a definition of 'distributing' that is out of context with the definition of distribution within the GPL.
You are talking about ACCESS not a copy. Were you given a "copy of Google"? Do you have Google, or just a single page output from the server? How do you know the manner that Google mixes proprietary and free software? There are legal ways to mix software, without violating the license. For example, I can use a non-GPL preprocessor to tweak images that I feed into Gimp... and say I give you remote VNC access to the Gimp install. Am I bound to give you the source for my proprietary work?
You completely misunderstand the GPL. If you have not been given a binary (on disk or in a PC installed, no matter..) then there is no sourcecode obligation.
At least wait until Google really does violate the GPL just once.
I loved the Warcraft games so much that I could never play WoW (major time sink! :-)
My question is, would your company encourage, allocate time for and generally nudge willing developers to blog?
It seems Blizzard has a bad name among some who used to like Blizzard. This is due to bugs, some bad moves by Blizzard legal, and a "black box" process for customer feedback (many comments here bemoan the 'handlers' on the Blizzard forums).
If anyone's worried about bad postings and replies to the blog, a good example to look at is the Microsoft IE7 bloggers. A public blog seems to have influenced Microsoft into fixing IE7 to a degree more than initally planned, which is a Good Thing for many.
A theory is their developers wanted to do the right thing, and the blog helped support that.
You had a chance at making a point, but you ruined it when you insisted on the point of "talking with a developer". You're just a single customer. Why dont you also insist on a game of tennis with the CEO?
You could have had a point if you simply stated that you believe Blizzard's wasting time here, when their support staff do not have consistent policies regarding Escalation of support issues, Closure, etc. You know, like what you might expect if you were paying your ISP and had a problem (AND assuming said ISP tried to have 'average' industry service).
I don't play WoW so I don't care, but, you blew it kid.
Nah. A dedicated geek would have added a suggestion to use eLinks2 or w3m. :-)
You're assuming that the STREET PRICE for oil will match the MARKET PRICE. It doesn't. It is all heavily subsidized, effectively RAISING TAXES somewhere else to pay for discounted oil.
The so-called Energy Bill TAKES money from your paycheck and gives it to the poor, starving energy companies... all of whom face record profits.
I don't see how subsidies reflect the market engine.
And I didn't even mention paying for the war. That money comes from an imaginary place (a source the US apparently never looked to when paying for WWII).
>How much are we going to have to pay for access to this hypothetical remote Photoshop? It's a beastly server than can do the image processing of thousands of clients at once as fast as they could do it themselves.
I don't believe the grandparent poster is right or wrong, and you have some good points... but the questions you ask look for examples, not theory.
I would agree that it's useless to waste effort FORCING a desktop app onto a web server, but I think we'll see an evolution over a long period of time. Long enough for people to admire what is happening, and come up with improvements that get us closer.
Your retort could have applied to pre-Google Earth": Wouldn't it be better to have a local EXE that simply queries the central database?" "How much are we going to pay for access to this remote database?". "Once you bookmark all your favorite locations in [google maps] how much is it going to cost to cancel and move to [some other map application]?". My parents still ask how people get paid if you can download software for free, or read content online for free.
Just wait.
>In the States, the problem isn't that environmentalists don't want nuclear power, the problem is that they don't trust the Bush administration with it.
That's just wrong.
The problem is no one wants one IN THEIR OWN BACKYARD. Let me shed some details with a specific example (partly backed up by opinion).
Consider Seabrook, NH (about 60 miles from me):
* MOST of the protesters were locals, concerned about things like waste (which stays on-site).
* Some folks just would not want ANY power plant in their backyard. Think of the resale values!
* This is a tourist locale, and there is no public transportation system here. The highway system clogs every day during commute.
You might conclude that these points could be neutralized by locating the power plant somewhere else. My region gets a lot of electricity from Quebec, Canada. You can certainly do this stuff 1500 miles away.
I'd bet if you surveyed those against any nuke plant, a clear majority are locals who have no problem with plants in someone else's back yard, or 1500 miles away.
The founder of Greenpeace (whazzis name) is no less an 'environmentalist' for reversing his stance on Nuclear power. It's just common sense.
That today nuclear power is held back by a few environmentalists... is just a bunch of hooey promoted by conservatives... who want nothing more than to to blame global warming on their enemies.
I am 35 years old, but that's almost how I remember things.
I did not get my first computer until 1984 -- an Atari 1200XL with 64K and cassette drive. BASIC got boring quickly, and the only way to do anything interesting -- like graphical display list interrupts -- was to use Assembly. Assembly was pretty easy on a 6502.
In the pre-IBM PC clone days, you could get a REALLY nice computer for a few hundred dollars. Then for some reason everything went to the PC, and for over a decade computers cost way more than it should. It's funny how manufacturers are shooting for a $199 price point -- what many paid in the early 80's.
It'll be nice to see computers hit $50.
I don't think most people are really ready for serious science fiction right now.
You're absolutely right, but not in the way you intended.
Sci-Fi simply is topic matter that expects a lot from viewers, and so sci-fi is not for everyone. While it IS fiction, most sci-fi has its ROOTS in real (or possible, at least probable!) science.
It is elitist in that it assumes, as a prerequisite, you have read some sci-fi or scientific literature, AND YOU LIKE IT.
That's not deliberately elitist. You can't randomly drop terms like 'string theory', or deal with overpopulation issues or other cerebral topics.
It's all grossly watered down since the 80's... otherwise it won't get played in the megaplex. Blade Runner was the peak, and Stargate was the last decent sci-fi (nowhere near BR mind you but OK).
I can just imagine if/when they remake Logan's Run... it'll have either Tom Cruise or Will Smith, be loaded with stupid comedy, and violate one of the core rules of that movie (like when they remade Planet Of The Apes, with talking humans... or Dawn of the Dead with RUNNING zombies... because the NEW target audience is wider than the original script allowed for).
It's another way for a newbie user to accidentally right AND left click on a file or drive, and select "delete file" or "format C:". Then they get scared and call the Help Desk.
OK, not a true security risk. I don't think there is any that can be attributed to mouse buttons.
>Now if they'd only finally bring out a two button + scroll wheel mouse standard for their Macs!* :)
On MS and Linux, the user interface is largely inconsistent, so users acclimated to these OS's will memorize right clicks to locate context menus -- in order to save themselves from "hunting" or searching for commands under pull down menus.
Context menus are a band aid -- a decent one considering the circumstances.
Apple has rigidly defined how menus should lay out. Microsoft defines the "Edit" menu and that's about it. On Apple, applications strive to be consistent with Apple interface guidelines: you always know where "Preferences" are in the menu, even if you used a program for the first time.
Context menus usually mean "I want to do something with this selected thingy but I am lost".
I'd assume most of us here disagree with Apple's mouse system -- we've been using computers so long we just memorize things. Heck, I forget that a Linux newbie would maybe do better with 'nedit' (I use vi or emacs).
Just try teaching an old person to use Windows. Watch how they confuse right clicks with left clicks... when you're saying "no! no!" they managed to right-click, twitch the mouse and then left-click... and invoke "Format drive" in file explorer.
Hmm... context menus are like saying a Swiss army knife is all you need in the kitchen?
Disclaimer: I use a 3 button mouse on my G3. I tend to however run Linux on it, or applications with Linux-ported GUIs that NEED second buttons (OpenOffice, GTK ethereal, etc.)
Will the KDE library be available for windows now?
Wrong question. Nothing legally prevents a native, GPL, KDE for Windows.
The problem I bet is all the dependencies. I suspect someone will tackle native KDE/Win, but if so it will take a long time, because Windows coders won't get excited enough to help until it's far enough along development.
It'll take a while for Qt apps to get built for native Windows (longer than it did for GTK apps like Ethereal to be ported to Win32 native)
>I think Windows XP installer asks for a grand total for 3 inputs. Computer Name, User Name, and Time Zone.
My version of XP required no less than entering a ~24-digit UID to authenticate my hardware.
And official XP installation CD's WITH SP2 are EXCEEDINGLY RARE. They may exist (you can certainly create them..) but that's not what the average CD bought new today would be.
And even with SP2, there's a boatload of security updates and reboots required. I'm sure there's a lot of updates for a fresh FC3 install too. but FC3 is a whole 'nother release, not a service pack.
XP wouldn't be "easier" just because there's NO free upgrade to the next version, as there is with Fedora. Upgrades on a polished Linux distro are far easier than Windows. I know someone stuck with a $1000 UMAX 17x12 scanner, and they have to keep a Win98 box running for it, because the Win2000 update broke the drivers (manufacturers fault, but still part of the whole user experience).
XP won't let you download and install ALL updates at once, like Fedora does.
Most Windows users dont have access to "real" Windows CD's, just "system restore" CD's. Have fun upgrading THOSE systems after a fresh reinstall.
I agree... but check your pointers also!!
Yeah I know, bad pun. I'm a karma whore.
FYI, *everyone* knows the USA is a 'republic' form of government. 'Democracy' can refer to a particular type of representative government, or it can refer to ALL representative governments.
For example, it is not incorrect to call England a 'democracy'. Over there, they probably have your weenie counterpart spouting 'You know nothingt! We are NOT a democracy, we are a Constitutional Monarchy. Nyyyaaah! Phhhlllttt!'
You are rejecting common alternate definitions of the word democracy, to suit your argument.
I don't recall what the uPNP charter is, but it doesn't seem to support as much "zero configuration" as Bonjour does.
:)
For example does uPNP function as peer-to-peer DNS?
Before you question the value of this, know that 99% of home network users have to run around th check local IP addresses, even for their router (which is ideally positioned to say, create a local DNS record of 'router' with 192.168.1.1!)
Some of us will run internal DNS because we know how. Some of us know how to configure internal DNS, but cant be bothered for a small network.
There are probably other differences -- I hope there would be -- but maybe not. I'll know at the end of this thread.
>It's not supposed to be a measure of how many tickets were sold, otherwise it would be measured in tickets sold.
The context here is measuring popularity of a movie. Popularity = people, no??
If I go to a luxury movie complex with tables and food, and paid 2x normal for my ticket, that SHOULD'T inflate ticket sales. Neither should inflation. Think of ticket sales as votes, and you can vote more than once (like Ohio and New Hampshire!)
One could argue that matinee sales contribute less $$ to a movie and so $$ *does* measure popularity. I can concede that point but it's not a huge impact.
I think you see SALES numbers for Star Wars simply because NO ONE KNOWS how many actual tickets were sold. Period.