except for the fact that I am required to have it for some of my classes, I would agree with you. And I used Open Office quite happily, with no need or want to download Office2003. I used my freinds disk, and a hack, then promptly uninstalled it at semester end.
It is a shame that Office is the standard, and that people are forced to use it. I haven't pirated anything before that since Doom ][ back in the day of renagade BBSes either.
Yeah, I get the marketing angle, the more features you have, the more likely your are to get some poor technophile to scream "shiny!". Overwhelm them. And Americans seem to be infected with technophilia.
I've just noticed that I'd rather live with the minimum, being that if I ask "them" to give me what I need, they will throw in so much crap to render whatever it is unuseable.
I just think the market should also try to go for the quality of features aspect instead of the quanity of features aspect, some times. I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting my cell-phone to do the phone thing real well, intead of doing millions of things "decently".
If you have to do a hard sell (like most cellphone companies) to sell your feature laden phones, couldn't you just sell a normal phone easier? I'm sure that I'm not the only person who wants something to perform its function, and nothing else, so there is a decent niche market.
I agree most/.ers don't look at the market perspective (as evident by the windows bashing, linux being better in theory, but not marketable, and not good for the "unwashed masses")
Wow, I'm not the only one with that tradition. For ever computer I've ever built, I've always bought a 6-pack of red strip, and a bottle of maker's mark. I was teaching a freind how to build their own compy, and I think I gave them a lesson in what not to do, like hunting for a dropped screw with a huge magnet, turning on the computer while it was completely unassembled, sitting on a card board box, smearing on the heat goop with my finger while ashing on the mobo.
It worked though. And thats all that counts. Never managed to mess up an installation yet.
That isn't really true. My silly old Voodoo3 worked fine up until about 2 years ago, when I bought a Radeon 7500, which worked just fine up until the last batch of games (mostly Deus Ex 2, and Far Cry). I even could play UT2kx on the highest graphic settings on it, not to mention Unreal 2.
I'd say there is about a 2 year video card turn-around.
I refuse to buy any car made after the mid 80's. Why? Because they look good (not like obnoxious bubbles, matching every other make and model made today), they lack all the extra features I don't want/care about, I can repair them myself (no silly diagnostic computers, complicated electronics), they don't have any silly automatic things (the more complex, the more there is to break).
My cell phone is a brick, no extra bells and whistles. My computer is completely swept of anything I don't use, completely minimal. I use a french press instead of a complex coffee maker.
Most features on new devices go completely unused, and exist only as selling gimicks, they just add another useless falible layer of complexity. There exists a happy balance between being a luddite and being tech savvy.
Tabbed browsing AND mouse gestures. When using IE (for my bank, or at my 'rents place) I always catch myself doing the rightclick-back thing, or rightclick-up for new tab. When that fails I try the context menu, and sit there confused for a couple seconds.
I tried Opera at some point (back in the day) to see what all this silly new-fangled tabbed browsing was about, and HATED it. Cumbersome, clunky, HATED it... Ah... the naivity of youth.
Er... Wasn't that HAPPINESS? Since when has property been the same as property? Also we're confusing Microsoft as an intelligent entity, it is a corporation, not a collective of right-granted individuals. Corporations are QUITE different from you or I, they are large entities comprised to provide service for capital, period. And for as long as they have existed (at least since us individual plebes learned how nasty and inhuman they are in the Industrial Revolution) thay have been regulated to be made compatable with individual rights, and the healthy functioning of society.
A government (ala Mill) is designed to MAXIMIZE the rights of all of their constituents, meaning balancing the intrinsic greed of corporations with the interests of the individual. Also governments (modern "enlightened" ones) have seen the fact that part of their responcibility is to PROMOTE COMPETITION within industry, being that leads to choice, and thus inovation.
By coupling IE with windows as a unremovable intrinsic part of the OS, they do stifle competition. Not to mention the fact that they limit individual choice. And the fact that this unfortunate coupling is a MASSIVE security problem, causeing a risk to my "right" to property.
Rampant capitalism isn't a solution to anything, it just leads to robber barons, a lesson that history should have taught all of us. It all is a matter of balance.
One problem I noticed about this though, is that books are getting VERY expensive. I've been trying to expand my library, and pick up all the books I've always wanted to own, and discover I could go buy a DVD movie for the same price.
And the library by my house has raised my ire, they installed nasty little automated check-out stands, thus fireing many nice employees, and cause much waiting and frustration to their patrons. That and they charged my for 20 items that do not exist.
That and 90% of books are no better than network television. Daniel Steele, Grisham, Harliquen, the Oprah Bookclub, oh-my!
Accordingly, we've explored far less of it than the oceans (as a percentage of total volume)
Thank you for that. Space is rather huge, so I don't think it is a fair comparison. And looking at indirect exploration we do know alot more about space than our own oceans.
Do I have to get a PAN firewall? What about random people touching me (a pat on the back, etc...), could random contact transmit unwanted information, or would information transfer have some form of consent? And what about just inserting info between the source and a perifal(sp)?
I can see a new PANdemic... sorry... couldn't resist.
Also, what about people with pacemakers? And doesn't people's skin change conductivity by condition, meaning if I get nervous my sweet new PAN network will stop working, or if I go out in the wonderful Phoenix sun and start to sweat, that changes conductivity.
Hmm...
Re:Let's not forget synthetics...and politics...
on
Out of Gas
·
· Score: 1
Sadly more and more people are being forced to move farther away from where they work, where the cost of living is less. Say you work in the middle of Big City, USA, and get laid off, say after the average 3 month job search you have to settle for one that pays less, now remember that the average American is one month away from the poor house, you have to downgrade your living expenses, meaning moving to the suburbs, meaning farther from the sources of employment... Wait... you have to spend more money on gas now!
This actually is a massive American problem, I read somewhere that the average American works 50 miles away from home, and this number is increasing.
Oh, in this specific case I find it dumb. I'd find limiting the "terrorist's" (if this was the 50's ammend with 'red menace') ability to communicate would be a better selling point. Their are plenty of ways to blow something up... EASIER ways than calling 1-800-DES-TROY.
As for the fist part, our race is fraught with Gov't intervention, our whole history I dare say.
Sometimes I wonder if censoring objectionable material might not be a good idea. Too much trash, to much noise, not enough content. But then again I would ban reality television too. People should look at how well we are doing in trashing our society, breeding a race of ADHD idiots. I digress.
I never claimed a right, but common good graces, respect for your fellow man. Being that people lack manners, they should be enforced. When I go to a good resturant, a movie, the theater, or classes, I'm paying good money for a certain experience, and quiet has a lot to do with this. When I go to a semi-upscale resturant I'm not expecting the noise I would get at Denny's or Chucky Cheese, I expect good service, and a nice quiet enviroment. When I go to a theater I expect some peace and quiet in which to enjoy a movie. When I pay hundreds of dollars for an education, I expect classrooms free of distractions. If you NEED a cellphone (which a VERY small percentage of people do), then stay away from places where they are jammed. If your not polite enough to turn them off, I see nothing wrong with turning them off for you, just to preserve the enviroment that my customers paid for.
People can use those things where ever they want, and I have the RIGHT then to annoy them as well (I've been yelled at for contributing to peoples cell conversations before, or making too much noise, OUTDOORS, and interupting their calls), I generally choose not to, since I beleive in being polite.
Fineing doesn't work as well, since some people really do forget to turn off those damned things, which is understandable.
But then again I am an elitest, who despised gadgetitus. People should look at the social consiquences of their actions, and superflous gadgets.
Yes, people can silence their cellphones, but how often do they remember to do so? Some girl in one of my classes NEVER silenced her phone, not even during finals, when she got hurt that the professor would not let her leave the room to answer her phone. Last week I was in a court room and some guys phone rang, he hurridly turned it off. People are so attached to these things that they never even think to silence them.
I had a job where I needed a cellphone, but I ditched the damn thing the second I quit the job, and refuse to own one ever again. I never remembered to pull it out, and turn in off either, so I can't blaim these people. I hate cellphones, so I'm 'slightly' biased here. I don't think that they are conductive to public health, public mental health, or intellectual clarity. That and the idea of always being chained kinda gets me, when I'm away from my phone, I'm away from my phone, if you need to talk to me, WAIT. I digress.
Do people keep forgetting that the human race survived perfectly fine without cellphones.
Remember this is going to be in limited areas with hightened security, meaning that if there is some RARE disaster, people will already be there on alert.
I'm sick of this reasoning that cellphone are NEEDED to save lives. Cellphones are a luxury, not a right.
People survived REALLY well before cellphones were invented, so I'm sure they could find a way to cope for 2 hours.
And most idiots in theaters aren't SOSing family members, their chatting inanely while I'm trying to watch a movie, or just ringing (with their obnoxious ringtones). Hell, I bet the Chechens were at least quite during the movie.
I never thought of the doctor/fire fighter angle on this issue. But I still think that blocking cell signals in theators, resturants, classrooms, and courtrooms is a good idea. It really is annoying. In most classes I have taken the instructor tells everyone to turn off the little buggers, but no one does, even during tests and finals.
At the last movie I went and saw, peoples phones were ringing nonstop, throughout the whole film. The guy two seats ahead of me stayed on the phone through the whole damn movie. I doubt he was a fire fighter.
I hope this does spread to theaters and such. If people live off of important calls, let someone figure a technology letting them get call on some special frequency, that wouldn't be jammed.
Sometimes I even wish I could just carry a jammer with me, I don't have to listen to peoples inane conversation. I look at it as protecting their privacy.
Yeah, Northern Az Uni has about 20 bars within walking distance. Brewing your own is cheaper, and more fun though, more geeky. Sadly nothing your gonna brew is gonna taste as good as Mogollons or Flagstaff Brewery, though. Hmmm... sasquatch stout...
Funny thing is, UT2004 runs perfectly at full everything on my Radeon 7500, and a measly 1.2ghz AMD.
I will only upgrade one component for HL2 and Doom3, and that will not be the graphics card, I don't have 300 to shell out for something that does me no good except for gaming. Now a faster processor....
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except for the fact that I am required to have it for some of my classes, I would agree with you. And I used Open Office quite happily, with no need or want to download Office2003. I used my freinds disk, and a hack, then promptly uninstalled it at semester end.
It is a shame that Office is the standard, and that people are forced to use it. I haven't pirated anything before that since Doom ][ back in the day of renagade BBSes either.
Damn sacraficing my ability to mod you (up or down) to post a silly observation...
Ever notice how anyone who says "don't mod me down because..." always gets a +5? I've always giggled about this, but now it's getting scary...
point conceded... Must have misread...
Yeah, I get the marketing angle, the more features you have, the more likely your are to get some poor technophile to scream "shiny!". Overwhelm them. And Americans seem to be infected with technophilia.
/.ers don't look at the market perspective (as evident by the windows bashing, linux being better in theory, but not marketable, and not good for the "unwashed masses")
I've just noticed that I'd rather live with the minimum, being that if I ask "them" to give me what I need, they will throw in so much crap to render whatever it is unuseable.
I just think the market should also try to go for the quality of features aspect instead of the quanity of features aspect, some times. I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting my cell-phone to do the phone thing real well, intead of doing millions of things "decently".
If you have to do a hard sell (like most cellphone companies) to sell your feature laden phones, couldn't you just sell a normal phone easier? I'm sure that I'm not the only person who wants something to perform its function, and nothing else, so there is a decent niche market.
I agree most
Philosophy is my thing, sorry.
Wow, I'm not the only one with that tradition. For ever computer I've ever built, I've always bought a 6-pack of red strip, and a bottle of maker's mark. I was teaching a freind how to build their own compy, and I think I gave them a lesson in what not to do, like hunting for a dropped screw with a huge magnet, turning on the computer while it was completely unassembled, sitting on a card board box, smearing on the heat goop with my finger while ashing on the mobo.
It worked though. And thats all that counts. Never managed to mess up an installation yet.
That isn't really true. My silly old Voodoo3 worked fine up until about 2 years ago, when I bought a Radeon 7500, which worked just fine up until the last batch of games (mostly Deus Ex 2, and Far Cry). I even could play UT2kx on the highest graphic settings on it, not to mention Unreal 2.
I'd say there is about a 2 year video card turn-around.
I refuse to buy any car made after the mid 80's. Why? Because they look good (not like obnoxious bubbles, matching every other make and model made today), they lack all the extra features I don't want/care about, I can repair them myself (no silly diagnostic computers, complicated electronics), they don't have any silly automatic things (the more complex, the more there is to break).
My cell phone is a brick, no extra bells and whistles. My computer is completely swept of anything I don't use, completely minimal. I use a french press instead of a complex coffee maker.
Most features on new devices go completely unused, and exist only as selling gimicks, they just add another useless falible layer of complexity. There exists a happy balance between being a luddite and being tech savvy.
I hate to post things like this but...
Man, you made my day.
Tabbed browsing AND mouse gestures. When using IE (for my bank, or at my 'rents place) I always catch myself doing the rightclick-back thing, or rightclick-up for new tab. When that fails I try the context menu, and sit there confused for a couple seconds.
I tried Opera at some point (back in the day) to see what all this silly new-fangled tabbed browsing was about, and HATED it. Cumbersome, clunky, HATED it... Ah... the naivity of youth.
life liberty and the pursuit of property
Er... Wasn't that HAPPINESS? Since when has property been the same as property? Also we're confusing Microsoft as an intelligent entity, it is a corporation, not a collective of right-granted individuals. Corporations are QUITE different from you or I, they are large entities comprised to provide service for capital, period. And for as long as they have existed (at least since us individual plebes learned how nasty and inhuman they are in the Industrial Revolution) thay have been regulated to be made compatable with individual rights, and the healthy functioning of society.
A government (ala Mill) is designed to MAXIMIZE the rights of all of their constituents, meaning balancing the intrinsic greed of corporations with the interests of the individual. Also governments (modern "enlightened" ones) have seen the fact that part of their responcibility is to PROMOTE COMPETITION within industry, being that leads to choice, and thus inovation.
By coupling IE with windows as a unremovable intrinsic part of the OS, they do stifle competition. Not to mention the fact that they limit individual choice. And the fact that this unfortunate coupling is a MASSIVE security problem, causeing a risk to my "right" to property.
Rampant capitalism isn't a solution to anything, it just leads to robber barons, a lesson that history should have taught all of us. It all is a matter of balance.
One problem I noticed about this though, is that books are getting VERY expensive. I've been trying to expand my library, and pick up all the books
I've always wanted to own, and discover I could go buy a DVD movie for the same price.
And the library by my house has raised my ire, they installed nasty little automated check-out stands, thus fireing many nice employees, and cause much waiting and frustration to their patrons. That and they charged my for 20 items that do not exist.
That and 90% of books are no better than network television. Daniel Steele, Grisham, Harliquen, the Oprah Bookclub, oh-my!
Accordingly, we've explored far less of it than the oceans (as a percentage of total volume)
Thank you for that. Space is rather huge, so I don't think it is a fair comparison. And looking at indirect exploration we do know alot more about space than our own oceans.
Do I have to get a PAN firewall? What about random people touching me (a pat on the back, etc...), could random contact transmit unwanted information, or would information transfer have some form of consent? And what about just inserting info between the source and a perifal(sp)?
I can see a new PANdemic... sorry... couldn't resist.
Also, what about people with pacemakers? And doesn't people's skin change conductivity by condition, meaning if I get nervous my sweet new PAN network will stop working, or if I go out in the wonderful Phoenix sun and start to sweat, that changes conductivity.
Hmm...
Sadly more and more people are being forced to move farther away from where they work, where the cost of living is less. Say you work in the middle of Big City, USA, and get laid off, say after the average 3 month job search you have to settle for one that pays less, now remember that the average American is one month away from the poor house, you have to downgrade your living expenses, meaning moving to the suburbs, meaning farther from the sources of employment... Wait... you have to spend more money on gas now!
This actually is a massive American problem, I read somewhere that the average American works 50 miles away from home, and this number is increasing.
Oh, in this specific case I find it dumb. I'd find limiting the "terrorist's" (if this was the 50's ammend with 'red menace') ability to communicate would be a better selling point. Their are plenty of ways to blow something up... EASIER ways than calling 1-800-DES-TROY.
As for the fist part, our race is fraught with Gov't intervention, our whole history I dare say.
Sometimes I wonder if censoring objectionable material might not be a good idea. Too much trash, to much noise, not enough content. But then again I would ban reality television too. People should look at how well we are doing in trashing our society, breeding a race of ADHD idiots. I digress.
I never claimed a right, but common good graces, respect for your fellow man. Being that people lack manners, they should be enforced. When I go to a good resturant, a movie, the theater, or classes, I'm paying good money for a certain experience, and quiet has a lot to do with this. When I go to a semi-upscale resturant I'm not expecting the noise I would get at Denny's or Chucky Cheese, I expect good service, and a nice quiet enviroment. When I go to a theater I expect some peace and quiet in which to enjoy a movie. When I pay hundreds of dollars for an education, I expect classrooms free of distractions. If you NEED a cellphone (which a VERY small percentage of people do), then stay away from places where they are jammed. If your not polite enough to turn them off, I see nothing wrong with turning them off for you, just to preserve the enviroment that my customers paid for.
People can use those things where ever they want, and I have the RIGHT then to annoy them as well (I've been yelled at for contributing to peoples cell conversations before, or making too much noise, OUTDOORS, and interupting their calls), I generally choose not to, since I beleive in being polite.
Fineing doesn't work as well, since some people really do forget to turn off those damned things, which is understandable.
But then again I am an elitest, who despised gadgetitus. People should look at the social consiquences of their actions, and superflous gadgets.
I think that some of them are.
Yes, people can silence their cellphones, but how often do they remember to do so? Some girl in one of my classes NEVER silenced her phone, not even during finals, when she got hurt that the professor would not let her leave the room to answer her phone. Last week I was in a court room and some guys phone rang, he hurridly turned it off. People are so attached to these things that they never even think to silence them.
I had a job where I needed a cellphone, but I ditched the damn thing the second I quit the job, and refuse to own one ever again. I never remembered to pull it out, and turn in off either, so I can't blaim these people. I hate cellphones, so I'm 'slightly' biased here. I don't think that they are conductive to public health, public mental health, or intellectual clarity. That and the idea of always being chained kinda gets me, when I'm away from my phone, I'm away from my phone, if you need to talk to me, WAIT. I digress.
I hope there is one of my fellow luddites there then, with a cheap Wallmart disposable camera.
Do people keep forgetting that the human race survived perfectly fine without cellphones.
Remember this is going to be in limited areas with hightened security, meaning that if there is some RARE disaster, people will already be there on alert.
I'm sick of this reasoning that cellphone are NEEDED to save lives. Cellphones are a luxury, not a right.
People survived REALLY well before cellphones were invented, so I'm sure they could find a way to cope for 2 hours.
And most idiots in theaters aren't SOSing family members, their chatting inanely while I'm trying to watch a movie, or just ringing (with their obnoxious ringtones). Hell, I bet the Chechens were at least quite during the movie.
I never thought of the doctor/fire fighter angle on this issue. But I still think that blocking cell signals in theators, resturants, classrooms, and courtrooms is a good idea. It really is annoying. In most classes I have taken the instructor tells everyone to turn off the little buggers, but no one does, even during tests and finals.
At the last movie I went and saw, peoples phones were ringing nonstop, throughout the whole film. The guy two seats ahead of me stayed on the phone through the whole damn movie. I doubt he was a fire fighter.
I hope this does spread to theaters and such. If people live off of important calls, let someone figure a technology letting them get call on some special frequency, that wouldn't be jammed.
Sometimes I even wish I could just carry a jammer with me, I don't have to listen to peoples inane conversation. I look at it as protecting their privacy.
God, I'm becoming a luddite.
Yeah, Northern Az Uni has about 20 bars within walking distance. Brewing your own is cheaper, and more fun though, more geeky. Sadly nothing your gonna brew is gonna taste as good as Mogollons or Flagstaff Brewery, though. Hmmm... sasquatch stout...
A signifigant portion of the subjects did this. Meaning that you have a good chance of being a sheep too. Thats the scary part...
baaa...
Funny thing is, UT2004 runs perfectly at full everything on my Radeon 7500, and a measly 1.2ghz AMD.
I will only upgrade one component for HL2 and Doom3, and that will not be the graphics card, I don't have 300 to shell out for something that does me no good except for gaming. Now a faster processor....