Microsoft has been shipping Services for Unix since 2000. It recently won the Open Source Product Excellence Award for Best System Integration Software at LinuxWorld.
...and Teddy Roosevelt once won a Nobel Peace Prize.
What if he submits his paper electronically to TAs who use Microsoft Office's word count feature?
I thought about that, but didn't think anyone would actually want electronic submissions except for an on-line class. I sure as hell prefer papers on paper -- I'm not going to mark them without printing them, and I spend enough on paper and toner without printing 300 pages of students' work for every assignment...
when I was using OO to type up my 5 page exam paper, I needed to make sure I had at least 1500 words...
Let me let you in on a little secret. Teaching assistants have much better things to do with their time than count the words in your paper by hand. If it feels about the right length and satisfactorily meets the requirements nobody is going to give a rat's arse about the exact word count. (Unless your university's teaching assistants have way too much time on their hands...)
I agree that euros feel very different, but I'm not sure if the quality really is inferior. I haven't found any info on the web, unfortunately. Maybe the note you have feels more 'paperish' because it's brand new?
They feel somewhat like cheaply-made third-world currency, honestly. And they're (who would've thought it possible!) even uglier than USD. But on topic, the reason AFAIK for the cheap production is that they anticipate frequently replacing the designs to foil counterfeiting. IIRC there was discussion of using Oz-style "plastic" notes, but it was decided instead to go the opposite direction, with cheap, easy-to-replace notes.
No, actually it isn't done because it is a pain to have multiple sizes of notes.
As I've mentioned elsewhere, it's really not a pain at all, and once I'd gotten used to it I missed it back in the States.
Like everything there are advantages and disadvantages, but the US (like many other nationjs) has decided they'd rather have a uniform size of banknote.
Like what other "nations"? I am not the world's most traveled man, but I certainly know of no other country that copies the same-size, same-color U.S. notes.
This is more like English measurement. There is no good, logical reason to retain it, except fear of change.
No doubt it would be trivial. In my 2 months in the US not one bloody shopkeeper bothered to even look at my signature against my credit card.
What I've been seeing here recently is being asked for ID to use a credit card. They don't care about the signature strip; they want to see a driver's license.
My guess is you grew up in Australia and not the US, and are familiar with multi-colored currency. I'm the other way around, and would probably find having different colors harder than single color.
I doubt it, unless you got hung up on a "this is different from what I'm accustomed to, therefore it is bad" kind of trip. I too grew up in the U.S. with same-size, same-color currency, and only lived abroad in my twenties. The different colors and sizes are not only not an inconvenience, they made me realize the idiocy of the way we do things here. Back in the States for four years now, I really miss easily-distinguishable (and visually interesting, but that's a different story) money.
The more difficult thing to get used to if you go to the Eurozone, and even more so the U.K., is that your pocketful of coins is real money. It is difficult for Americans (and people from high-inflation or otherwise paper-only countries) to make the mental transition to "coins are money too." It is also hard to think of leaving a one-coin tip as not insulting, even if that coin is worth USD 2.
I think countries like Italy had the right idea - make the currency unit fairly small and then there is no need to subdivide it.... the euro has euros and cents (and a special advertising campaign when it was launched in countries that previously had indivisible currencies).
Countries like Italy (and Greece, with which I am much more familiar) didn't choose to have low-value ("indivisible" as you called it) currencies, they had it inflicted on them by inflation. When I was a kid, the Greek drachma was worth about ten times (relative to the USD) what it was at euroization. Things were cheap enough that lepta (the drachma "cent" -- the term has come back to refer to eurocents in Greek) still circulted. No one decided to get rid of, for example, the 50 lepto coin, it just became pointlessly small in value. IIRC the smallest commonly circulating coin before euroization had become the 50 drachma...
The drawback to low-value currency isn't only low prestige, it's the pain-in-the-arse effect on large transactions. Any significant purchase involved millions of drachmai, and for nonengineers the math quickly got confusing (many people do not deal well with large numbers). The fact that there isn't a term for "million" in Greek (you use 100 myridad instead) didn't help, of course...
The solution to that "problem" is simple, if you don't want the pennies just don't take them.
The "problem" isn't just that pennies circulate. It's that the $x.99 disease combines with the inane practice of putting sales tax on top of the posted price to make all small purchases come to an inconvenient amount. The only places in the U.S. with rational prices are bars, for some reason. Everywhere else, you will never pay one dollar for something; it will be labeled $0.99, and with tax (depending on your location) will be $1.03 to $1.09. That is bloody annoying.
They teach people in business college here that they will go out of business if they don't price everything at $x.99, yet we claim that in a "free" economy people behave as "rational actors."
Opera is the greatest thing since sliced bread (thanks to the "free porn" industry).
Now, I have had (Mom, you don't read/., right?) some exposure to 'net porn. I have also used Opera a fair amount, though not for a couple of years, since Galeon got to be so usable.
I really don't seen the connection here. What makes Opera particularly friendly to ``the `free porn' industry''?
The sad part is that every time I've had a crummy professor and tried to do something about it I have gotten nowhere because noone would touch them because they had tenure.
They people in charge of that particular department almost admited that the particular teacher was worthless and wasn't doing their job.
Clearly I am not familiar with your particular cases, but have you considered the possibility that ``he has tenure'' is often just a convenient excuse for ignoring your complaint? If either they thought (for whatever reason) that your complaint was unjustified, or if the target of the complaint was a friend or someone they felt compelled to protect, ``he has tenure'' allows them to play the good-guy rôle and not have to argue with you, while still not acting on the complaint.
It is my understanding that British currency and presumably most other countries is legal tender forever.
I dunno about most countries, but I've got a drawer full of Greek notes that became worthless just a few months after Euroization. Already in June of last year I couldn't exchange them even at a bank.
Slashdot Mirror
scripsit spongman:
...and Teddy Roosevelt once won a Nobel Peace Prize.
It's a strange world we live in.
scripsit Minna Kirai:
I thought about that, but didn't think anyone would actually want electronic submissions except for an on-line class. I sure as hell prefer papers on paper -- I'm not going to mark them without printing them, and I spend enough on paper and toner without printing 300 pages of students' work for every assignment...
scripsit curious.corn:
Oh, c'mon. Nothing touches Tux!
scripsit Overly Critical Guy:
Ah, right, the majority of the tests. For example?
scripsit Overly Critical Guy:
Nah, most of 'em aren't real employees, they're just 1099 contractors...
scripsit Strudelkugel:
Neither would continuing to farm out euros.
That's why they chose SuSE, a German firm.
scripsit DarcSeed:
Let me let you in on a little secret. Teaching assistants have much better things to do with their time than count the words in your paper by hand. If it feels about the right length and satisfactorily meets the requirements nobody is going to give a rat's arse about the exact word count. (Unless your university's teaching assistants have way too much time on their hands...)
scripsit Planesdragon:
You filed a bug, right? I know complaining is easier, but that won't get things fixed.
scripsit Eric Damron:
Yeah, and you'd have to run it as root or it would refuse to execute... just so the macro viruses could do real damage...
scripsit Sycraft-fu:
OK, I forgot to add "outside of the Americas."
scripsit n3k5:
They feel somewhat like cheaply-made third-world currency, honestly. And they're (who would've thought it possible!) even uglier than USD. But on topic, the reason AFAIK for the cheap production is that they anticipate frequently replacing the designs to foil counterfeiting. IIRC there was discussion of using Oz-style "plastic" notes, but it was decided instead to go the opposite direction, with cheap, easy-to-replace notes.
scripsit Sycraft-fu:
As I've mentioned elsewhere, it's really not a pain at all, and once I'd gotten used to it I missed it back in the States.
Like what other "nations"? I am not the world's most traveled man, but I certainly know of no other country that copies the same-size, same-color U.S. notes.
This is more like English measurement. There is no good, logical reason to retain it, except fear of change.
scripsit muzzmac:
What I've been seeing here recently is being asked for ID to use a credit card. They don't care about the signature strip; they want to see a driver's license.
scripsit jeffy124:
I doubt it, unless you got hung up on a "this is different from what I'm accustomed to, therefore it is bad" kind of trip. I too grew up in the U.S. with same-size, same-color currency, and only lived abroad in my twenties. The different colors and sizes are not only not an inconvenience, they made me realize the idiocy of the way we do things here. Back in the States for four years now, I really miss easily-distinguishable (and visually interesting, but that's a different story) money.
The more difficult thing to get used to if you go to the Eurozone, and even more so the U.K., is that your pocketful of coins is real money. It is difficult for Americans (and people from high-inflation or otherwise paper-only countries) to make the mental transition to "coins are money too." It is also hard to think of leaving a one-coin tip as not insulting, even if that coin is worth USD 2.
scripsit Ed Avis:
Countries like Italy (and Greece, with which I am much more familiar) didn't choose to have low-value ("indivisible" as you called it) currencies, they had it inflicted on them by inflation. When I was a kid, the Greek drachma was worth about ten times (relative to the USD) what it was at euroization. Things were cheap enough that lepta (the drachma "cent" -- the term has come back to refer to eurocents in Greek) still circulted. No one decided to get rid of, for example, the 50 lepto coin, it just became pointlessly small in value. IIRC the smallest commonly circulating coin before euroization had become the 50 drachma...
The drawback to low-value currency isn't only low prestige, it's the pain-in-the-arse effect on large transactions. Any significant purchase involved millions of drachmai, and for nonengineers the math quickly got confusing (many people do not deal well with large numbers). The fact that there isn't a term for "million" in Greek (you use 100 myridad instead) didn't help, of course...
scripsit frovingslosh:
The "problem" isn't just that pennies circulate. It's that the $x.99 disease combines with the inane practice of putting sales tax on top of the posted price to make all small purchases come to an inconvenient amount. The only places in the U.S. with rational prices are bars, for some reason. Everywhere else, you will never pay one dollar for something; it will be labeled $0.99, and with tax (depending on your location) will be $1.03 to $1.09. That is bloody annoying.
They teach people in business college here that they will go out of business if they don't price everything at $x.99, yet we claim that in a "free" economy people behave as "rational actors."
scripsit homo qui Miguel de Icaza non est:
Gramen artificiosum certe odiosum est. Nihilominus, veritatem scribere non est gramen artificiosum.
Vale!
scripsit listen:
That's not really Miguel...
Admiral Burrito:
Hmm. One hates to be pendantic... no, who'm I kidding, this is /.! One loves to be pendantic!
Redmond is Mordor, BillG is Sauron. You know:
scripsit Jon E:
Now, I have had (Mom, you don't read /., right?) some exposure to 'net porn. I have also used Opera a fair amount, though not for a couple of years, since Galeon got to be so usable.
I really don't seen the connection here. What makes Opera particularly friendly to ``the `free porn' industry''?
scripsit El Nofx:
Clearly I am not familiar with your particular cases, but have you considered the possibility that ``he has tenure'' is often just a convenient excuse for ignoring your complaint? If either they thought (for whatever reason) that your complaint was unjustified, or if the target of the complaint was a friend or someone they felt compelled to protect, ``he has tenure'' allows them to play the good-guy rôle and not have to argue with you, while still not acting on the complaint.
scripsit frenchs:
Y'know, at 08:00 I'm much more likely to be able to speak coherent C than English.
scripsit RandyOo:
Indeed. That was the joke.
scripsit DrXym:
I dunno about most countries, but I've got a drawer full of Greek notes that became worthless just a few months after Euroization. Already in June of last year I couldn't exchange them even at a bank.
scripsit ImaLamer:
Jeez, just wait 'til I start running Red Flag...
BTW, anyone know of any good GPL'd nuke simulation software?