This is true. Taking the New York metro as an example, there has been no railroad development of any significant size for the last century. All our resources have gone to Mr. Robert Moses' parkway and expressway systems, which served as the inspiration for the Interstate program. And yet almost every town still has railway access which is used by the majority of commuters over the packed highways anyways, though it's century-old infrastructure. In places other than New York, like LA or LV, there is no ancient rail infrastructure and the cities are built entirely around highways. As a consequence, in rush hour, no one goes anywhere much.
Though it is not entirely new in North America: Vancouver's (British Columbia) SkyTrain system uses similar Bombardier technology and is the backbone of their transit system. Also, in New York City, both Newark and Kennedy airports (small towns in themselves) have Bombardier systems connecting the terminals to each other and to regional rail networks a few miles away from the airports.
I'm sorry, but I don't like my file manager forcing me to change the way I browse ('should' have a shallow directory structure, 'shouldn't' nest folders too deep, etc.). I think the spatial paradigm is pretty cool, but it should be an easily-disabled option.
As for the screen clutter, sure you can close the containing folder when opening a subfolder etc. with non-obvious keyboard shortcuts, but I shouldn't have to RTFM to get rid of simple annoyances like that!
'Real-life interfaces' are generally a bad idea. The vast majority of people have cluttered desks in which stuff is impossible to find quickly. Review the Interface Hall of Shame's critique of 'real-life' inspired UIs (IBM RealCD and RealPhone, Apple QuickTime Player 4). They're quite thorough and brutal.
Computers are not for the purpose of merely representing real-life objects electronically; they are there to aid us in improving productivity over 'real life' methods.
Actually, it's more like open the iBook, Stickies.app is already running, notebook wakes in 2-3 seconds, type, close lid, you're done. Now, that said, even an iBook (less than 5 lbs, very small footprint) is not 'pocketable'. But other mini-notebooks are, and have power management features as good as or better than PDAs.
I run a small (~50 users) e-mail system, using Ipswitch's IMail Server (yes, I hate it too, but am not able to migrate away for several reasons) on Windows 2000 Advanced Server. Does anyone know if DSPAM can be plugged into this kind of setup? I have a MySQL installation running on the same machine which could be used as the database backend required by DSPAM.
This is especially ironic considering the circumstances of the GNOME Project's foundation. Funny how GNOME is now being chosen since it is more 'accessible' to corporate developers because of its 'less Free' (in the spirit of Free software) nature as opposed to the GPLd KDE/Qt, while the initial argument against KDE/Qt was that it was non-Free and we needed a completely Free alternative. 'Lesser' GPL indeed.
The Australian electoral system is a different beast altogether. A much more advanced one. You guys have proportional representation, etc. The way you vote is so incredibly advanced compared to our first-past-the-post system that I'm not surprised if your balloting/counting systems are very advanced as well.
In a Canadian federal election, there is only one list of candidates on the ballot: you simply need to choose your Member of Parliament (MP). In a provincial election, you simply pick your area's representative to the Legislative Assembly (MLA). Municipal elections involve the selection of Board of Education trustees, councillors, and a mayor, but even these pale in comparison to the complexity of a US ballot.
In a typical US election, you have something like 15 different offices to vote for on the same ballot because all legislative houses and executives are directly elected: even a large portion of the judiciary is elected in many regions. US elections also have fixed terms of 2, 4 or 6 years and polls at all levels are unified because of that.
US voters may have to pick candidates in categories starting from town council representatives, judges and mayor/town supervisor; county legislators, judges, and executive; state legislators (both houses), judges and governor; to their US Representative, Senator and choice for Presidential ticket, all on one piece of paper.
The reason for these differences is that, in Canada, the federal government agency Elections Canada runs the federal election; they've been doing it for ages, they're good at it, and they have a simple ballot to work with. Provincial counterparts run the separate provincial and municipal elections at different times, since most levels of government in Canada have flexible terms with a maximum term of 5 years or so; it's not possible or desirable to have all polls on the same day. In the US, all elections are organized at the county level under 'guidelines' set out by the state / federal Constitutions. Often this means that your neighbor will volunteer to run the local polling station. This is admirable and noble, but it does not match the training or organizational capability of an outfit like Elections Canada.
Does that mean the US should adopt a Canadian-style approach to running elections? I don't think so. It's probably not possible given the completely different Constitutional frameworks the countries run on in the area of elections, and the US system's distrust of the central government running its own elections. However it is possible to fix the US system by using common sense techniques to simplify ballot design, using a paper trail, certified public source code, or the dumb terminal approach.
CUNY (the City University of New York system) has had its Honors College program for freshman students for about 2 years now. Full scholarship, $7500 expense account, iBook (get to keep it after 3 years, for $1), etc. I'm in the first year of the program; got a 500 Mhz / 256 / CD-RW model. This year's kids have a 700 Mhz/ 256 / Combo drive model. Free OS upgrades, including Jaguar (sweet...), etc.
Um. Maybe I'm missing something. But the guy mentions moving to a "Midwestern city". Then he mentions Blacksburg VA. Am I the only one who thinks something is wrong with the picture there? Since when is Virginia part of the Midwest?
Quite frankly, I have no idea what you are talking about either. I have never even heard this mentioned before, and went to school in Alberta (the most right-wing province) for 6 years. I've been in the US education system for 3 years now, and quite frankly, Judeo-Christianity has a bigger hold here. Evolution is still debated in 5-10 states, abstinence is taught in suburban New York school boards... Crosses in public school? Many areas have publicly funded Catholic AND 'secular' (NOT Protestant) school systems, because of Canada's large Catholic population. There is no such thing as Protestant schools. They don't teach religion, and if they do, it's a religion studies class, where you analyze world religions. Show me proof that a community exists in Canada that has Catholic and Protestant school boards, or a secular school that has crosses all over it. I'm a Muslim, so I'm sure it's not that I'm 'used' to it.
Uh, easy. Broadband. Twice the penetration in the US, 20-30% cheaper, generally available universally within metropolitan areas, will be available in most rural areas soon in Alberta (Calgary is in Alberta).
Oh, yeah, good tip. I live in the New York area, and I've tried them all: Dunkin' Donuts, Krispy Kreme, Twin Donut, local stores, even the supposedly famous NY bagel shoppes. Tim Horton's and the Great Canadian Bagel ROCK. I always bring bagels with me everytime I travel back home to Calgary.
It is a little known fact that Canada is the most diverse of all Western developed nations, and will be the first among them to become a country with less than 50% of its population being white. Not only are race relations in general a lot better (note that most Canadian cities don't have the US's trademark ethnic neighborhoods, even though they're often just as diverse), but the attitute of the population and the government towards homosexuals and other often sidelined groups is more than tolerant. It is acceptance. Even the most right-wing provinces (Alberta) generally have more liberal policies and attitudes than the US.
Lack of world-class cities? I'm a Calgarian living in New York. Calgary is small, very small, but their transit system, airport, schools, road network, planning, quality of life, nightlife, Stampede, proximity to the Rockies, access to '88 Olympic facilities, etc add up to a lot. It may not be world-scale, but it is certainly a world-class city. It is Canada's No. 2 corporate capital after Toronto (even though Montreal and Vancouver are much larger), has the best winters of any prairie city (which are still bad), gets the most sun of any region in North America (nothern Montana and southern Alberta share this distinction), and has a diverse population. Which, unlike in US cities, is not racially segregated by neighborhood. The University of Calgary has made quite a few important research breakthroughs in the last few years, and is very affordable, along with SAIT, and Mount Royal College.
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Just like ST:TNG... Hot redhead doctor is a key ingredient :)
This is true. Taking the New York metro as an example, there has been no railroad development of any significant size for the last century. All our resources have gone to Mr. Robert Moses' parkway and expressway systems, which served as the inspiration for the Interstate program. And yet almost every town still has railway access which is used by the majority of commuters over the packed highways anyways, though it's century-old infrastructure. In places other than New York, like LA or LV, there is no ancient rail infrastructure and the cities are built entirely around highways. As a consequence, in rush hour, no one goes anywhere much.
Though it is not entirely new in North America: Vancouver's (British Columbia) SkyTrain system uses similar Bombardier technology and is the backbone of their transit system. Also, in New York City, both Newark and Kennedy airports (small towns in themselves) have Bombardier systems connecting the terminals to each other and to regional rail networks a few miles away from the airports.
I'm sorry, but I don't like my file manager forcing me to change the way I browse ('should' have a shallow directory structure, 'shouldn't' nest folders too deep, etc.). I think the spatial paradigm is pretty cool, but it should be an easily-disabled option.
As for the screen clutter, sure you can close the containing folder when opening a subfolder etc. with non-obvious keyboard shortcuts, but I shouldn't have to RTFM to get rid of simple annoyances like that!
'Real-life interfaces' are generally a bad idea. The vast majority of people have cluttered desks in which stuff is impossible to find quickly. Review the Interface Hall of Shame's critique of 'real-life' inspired UIs (IBM RealCD and RealPhone, Apple QuickTime Player 4). They're quite thorough and brutal. Computers are not for the purpose of merely representing real-life objects electronically; they are there to aid us in improving productivity over 'real life' methods.
Actually, it's more like open the iBook, Stickies.app is already running, notebook wakes in 2-3 seconds, type, close lid, you're done.
Now, that said, even an iBook (less than 5 lbs, very small footprint) is not 'pocketable'. But other mini-notebooks are, and have power management features as good as or better than PDAs.
I run a small (~50 users) e-mail system, using Ipswitch's IMail Server (yes, I hate it too, but am not able to migrate away for several reasons) on Windows 2000 Advanced Server.
Does anyone know if DSPAM can be plugged into this kind of setup? I have a MySQL installation running on the same machine which could be used as the database backend required by DSPAM.
n/t
This is especially ironic considering the circumstances of the GNOME Project's foundation. Funny how GNOME is now being chosen since it is more 'accessible' to corporate developers because of its 'less Free' (in the spirit of Free software) nature as opposed to the GPLd KDE/Qt, while the initial argument against KDE/Qt was that it was non-Free and we needed a completely Free alternative. 'Lesser' GPL indeed.
Yes, he works for EA and is going to attend an advance LOTR:ROTK screening. Yes, the 'girlfriend' couldn't 'make it' :)
Damn. Just when I'd thought we'd reached the limits.
The Australian electoral system is a different beast altogether. A much more advanced one. You guys have proportional representation, etc. The way you vote is so incredibly advanced compared to our first-past-the-post system that I'm not surprised if your balloting/counting systems are very advanced as well.
In a Canadian federal election, there is only one list of candidates on the ballot: you simply need to choose your Member of Parliament (MP). In a provincial election, you simply pick your area's representative to the Legislative Assembly (MLA). Municipal elections involve the selection of Board of Education trustees, councillors, and a mayor, but even these pale in comparison to the complexity of a US ballot.
In a typical US election, you have something like 15 different offices to vote for on the same ballot because all legislative houses and executives are directly elected: even a large portion of the judiciary is elected in many regions. US elections also have fixed terms of 2, 4 or 6 years and polls at all levels are unified because of that.
US voters may have to pick candidates in categories starting from town council representatives, judges and mayor/town supervisor; county legislators, judges, and executive; state legislators (both houses), judges and governor; to their US Representative, Senator and choice for Presidential ticket, all on one piece of paper.
The reason for these differences is that, in Canada, the federal government agency Elections Canada runs the federal election; they've been doing it for ages, they're good at it, and they have a simple ballot to work with. Provincial counterparts run the separate provincial and municipal elections at different times, since most levels of government in Canada have flexible terms with a maximum term of 5 years or so; it's not possible or desirable to have all polls on the same day. In the US, all elections are organized at the county level under 'guidelines' set out by the state / federal Constitutions. Often this means that your neighbor will volunteer to run the local polling station. This is admirable and noble, but it does not match the training or organizational capability of an outfit like Elections Canada.
Does that mean the US should adopt a Canadian-style approach to running elections? I don't think so. It's probably not possible given the completely different Constitutional frameworks the countries run on in the area of elections, and the US system's distrust of the central government running its own elections. However it is possible to fix the US system by using common sense techniques to simplify ballot design, using a paper trail, certified public source code, or the dumb terminal approach.
I believe Rideau St is where Rideau Hall is located? The Governor-General's residence? Hey man, pick on Jean Chretien... Adrienne Clarkson's cool.
Yet another reason the USSR went down. IN SOVIET RUSSIA... You went down on the machines!
FP!
Check out http://www.engrish.com/
CUNY (the City University of New York system) has had its Honors College program for freshman students for about 2 years now. Full scholarship, $7500 expense account, iBook (get to keep it after 3 years, for $1), etc. I'm in the first year of the program; got a 500 Mhz / 256 / CD-RW model. This year's kids have a 700 Mhz/ 256 / Combo drive model. Free OS upgrades, including Jaguar (sweet...), etc.
Hehe. Nice to see Prof. Berman mentioned on /.. Had him last semester for a very interesting course.
Typical response from a US citizen, I presume? I am annoyed, therefore I shall shoot the source of annoyance :) Just kidding.
Um. Maybe I'm missing something. But the guy mentions moving to a "Midwestern city". Then he mentions Blacksburg VA. Am I the only one who thinks something is wrong with the picture there? Since when is Virginia part of the Midwest?
Quite frankly, I have no idea what you are talking about either. I have never even heard this mentioned before, and went to school in Alberta (the most right-wing province) for 6 years. I've been in the US education system for 3 years now, and quite frankly, Judeo-Christianity has a bigger hold here. Evolution is still debated in 5-10 states, abstinence is taught in suburban New York school boards... Crosses in public school? Many areas have publicly funded Catholic AND 'secular' (NOT Protestant) school systems, because of Canada's large Catholic population. There is no such thing as Protestant schools. They don't teach religion, and if they do, it's a religion studies class, where you analyze world religions. Show me proof that a community exists in Canada that has Catholic and Protestant school boards, or a secular school that has crosses all over it. I'm a Muslim, so I'm sure it's not that I'm 'used' to it.
Uh, easy. Broadband. Twice the penetration in the US, 20-30% cheaper, generally available universally within metropolitan areas, will be available in most rural areas soon in Alberta (Calgary is in Alberta).
Oh, yeah, good tip. I live in the New York area, and I've tried them all: Dunkin' Donuts, Krispy Kreme, Twin Donut, local stores, even the supposedly famous NY bagel shoppes. Tim Horton's and the Great Canadian Bagel ROCK. I always bring bagels with me everytime I travel back home to Calgary.
It is a little known fact that Canada is the most diverse of all Western developed nations, and will be the first among them to become a country with less than 50% of its population being white.
Not only are race relations in general a lot better (note that most Canadian cities don't have the US's trademark ethnic neighborhoods, even though they're often just as diverse), but the attitute of the population and the government towards homosexuals and other often sidelined groups is more than tolerant. It is acceptance. Even the most right-wing provinces (Alberta) generally have more liberal policies and attitudes than the US.
Lack of world-class cities? I'm a Calgarian living in New York. Calgary is small, very small, but their transit system, airport, schools, road network, planning, quality of life, nightlife, Stampede, proximity to the Rockies, access to '88 Olympic facilities, etc add up to a lot. It may not be world-scale, but it is certainly a world-class city. It is Canada's No. 2 corporate capital after Toronto (even though Montreal and Vancouver are much larger), has the best winters of any prairie city (which are still bad), gets the most sun of any region in North America (nothern Montana and southern Alberta share this distinction), and has a diverse population. Which, unlike in US cities, is not racially segregated by neighborhood. The University of Calgary has made quite a few important research breakthroughs in the last few years, and is very affordable, along with SAIT, and Mount Royal College.