I'm happy with the iPhone as it is - completely independently of whether Steve Jobs has a psychological condition or not.
I'd still prefer the iPhone over Android, no matter whether Steve would be healthy or sick, black or white, saint or sinner, started selling crack or even Android phones,...
Does the company CEOs health or personality have ANY impact on what the device itself does or how well it works? Maybe it has - maybe it's become a lot better BECAUSE of his personality 'defects'. But then again, without the iPhone, do you really think you'd get an Android phone?
It doesn't matter - the phone does what I want from a phone, it has the apps I'd want on the phone, it looks good, I luckily don't have to turn every cent over twice before buying a phone, so the higher price tag doesn't touch me (enough),......maybe I would draw a line if he endorsed Palin, but that's a whole different issue...;-)
The iPhone would be FAR better, if it could brew coffee on demand at any time and place...
Yet, I think the extra weight of the coffee maker might not make the device quite as portable as it is without.
The same goes for keyboards - I wouldn't type long texts on my iPhone or even iPad. But for most of the time when I'm out of the house, for the limited things I do when 'on the road', the onscreen keyboard helps. And it's certainly making the device lighter and with less moving-parts that could break, than if it HAD a keyboard.
If I'm on a longer trip, I tend to have my laptop with me - keyboard problem solved.
Just because YOUR usage pattern makes a slide keyboard THE thing to have, does not make it so for most people. I don't think most people are sharing the exact usage patterns I have, but if XYZdevice doesn't match the functionality I need, I just wouldn't buy it - instead of ranting on about Steve Jobs's irrational side (or anyone else's for that matter).
Indeed - though - better not split screen, though...
The best times with multiplayer have been with some oldies
MIDI Maze (late 80s; Atari ST) - up to 16 players multi-player via MIDI network on the Atari ST. Very simple game - also graphically very simple, but tons of fun to play; particularly if you can also see other player's 'outburst' after you caught em...
Robo Sport (early/mid 90s; Windows 3) - while technically it would have supported networked play on WfW 3.11; I only ever played it in hotseat mode - but still just as good, as everyone enters their turns, and THEN the computer executes them all at the same time. When it would come up to your turn, you would get to see a replay of what YOUR figures saw and did...
In terms of graphics, neither comes even close to 'modern' games. No wonder - the younger of the two is just under two decades old (Man, I'm old now) - but the game play in both is just wonderful.
Gameplay beats graphics in 6 cases out of every 5...;-)
This still leaves an important caveat - the original security council was a good representation for its time.
This is no longer the case - the world has changed.
If you wanted to restructure the security council, how about a setup like this:
1. 1 seat each to the two most populous countries on the planet. 2. 1 seat each to largest economic powers that are not also in 1. (not the most populous) 3. 1 seat each to the two poorest countries (that are not in 1. and 2. - as unlikely as it is that one would be) 4. 1 seat each (annually rotating) for every continent (Australia + Island nations to count as one).
1. -> democratic aspect, representation of the many 2./3. -> economic aspect richest/poorest nations 4. -> geographical aspect
Seats should be re-checked/re-assigned annually for changes (say for changes in relative economic power)
Well - if you want to give the UN teeth - take away veto powers from the original members of the security council.
Most of the careful wordings are only to prevent those countries from vetoing resolutions.
The vetos were a thing to make it workable in the beginning - but they have outlived their usefulness. They should be replaced by some rules protecting the basic values, i.e. no resolution can be passed that would suppress human rights (and other basic protections) - or give different minimal pass rates to allow such motions to go through (from simple majority, 2/3 majority, 3/4 majority, and as far as restrictions very basic rights of ethnic groups go 98% majority...
But - ORCL is hard at work at trying to alienate people away from java...;-)
What do you think makes google want to donate the code to the public? Is it the insight that the market might be dying if Oracle doesn't finally get a clue...?
...and the next problem - with the potentially bad clicks not going to google - how is google going to find out how discerning you are?...unless they rewrote all clicks to be proxied through a google web-service, in which case google would get massive data protection enforcement issues.
I bet you - within a year of 'net ninjas' becoming an acceptable term for those 'good' hackers, the media will start using it for those that stealthily attack systems, and - say - post something on twitter. (Just so that the media will use the latest slang available).
There have been 'improvements' on what Nintendo did - but I wouldn't really call yet another motion sensor an 'innovation'. (Think how many MSFT 'innovations' you just yawned at, as they were things that existed elsewhere long ago).
Nintendo innovated the console market by bringing those controllers.
It was Sony/Microsoft who jumped on it later - to claw back marketshare lost to Nintendo.
In much the same way - in the phone world, the iPhone was the innovation. There is virtually no new phone that doesn't just try and piggy back on the path paved by the iPhone. Even if there are Android phones that have more CPU power, cheaper,... They weren't the innovators. Someone else (at Apple) had the big idea on how to revolutionize the market, all the others came years later - then touting other features.
Take it - the fact that Android was multitasking before the iPhone wasn't as much of an 'innovation', as the iPhone itself was to any phone preceeding it.
The über-powerful PS3 or XBox 360 primarily introduced newer hardware - something that was expected to happen - everyone does it.
The Wii brought something new, something unexpected to the market - hence THEY were the innovators, and even if they aren't on the forefront now - those that are are 'optimisers' at best, but not innovators, not pioneers, not people trying something NEW.
Please tell me - do we get ANYTHING out of e-voting apart from a time saving between closing the polling stations and declaring the result?
For elections regarding terms of more than 4 years - forget it. The potential lack of trust in e-voting (as opposed to regular paper voting), because conspiracy theorists will immediately claim any election was stolen, which is a lot harder to do if there are actual people counting the votes publicly...
Just think about how much time is still being wasted discussing whether Obama is a muslim, or whether he is a naturally born US citizen -- think about how much time will be wasted afterwards in endless discussions brought by conspiracy theorists of the 'losing side' in ANY poll....
For the rest of us with some common sense this is just hilarious.
You're making a bad judgment here - there is a lack of common sense in both IT geeks like 'us' und normal users (anyone outside IT).
The issue with facebook and security has nothing to do with common sense per se, but with IT training. You and I may know a few things about security, which may lead us to accept some things, but reject others. People outside IT do not have this type of training, nor would it be easy to bestow it on them. It IS the kind of people (the 90+% of the planet) which can not easily follow what's going on.
You can partially try and explain it to them, saying that Facebook's login is akin to a 'secret knock' at the kids secret hideout (you know - when we were kids and actually played outside, meeting each other). The password is like the secret knock letting you in. This secret knock has the problem that anyone within earshot will hear it and will likely be able to reproduce it. And - as you may have learnt as a kid, you don't knock on the secret club house door if you see anyone within earshot (who you know doesn't belong).
It's easy to explain, and a workable analogy. The problem for people now is, that their facebook cookie is a secret knock that needs to be transported halfway around the world in order to 'let you in'/'let you have the data you want'. And this is where the problem sets in - as a kid you may have learnt that anyone at a greater distance can't hear you knock.
On the Internet, potentially anyone along the way can - and from your home to facebooks servers can be quite a distance.
The most likely point where your data may be intercepted is still at your own home - and again, you may feel safe, as you don't see anyone you don't know sitting in your own living room with his laptop running (and potentially listening in). The fact that your neighbour can, is already difficult enough to grasp for most people outside IT...
Living in the UK a few years back, I had started using it to mark belongings of mine, after a friend working for the police recommended it.
The stuff is almost transparent - but, when I applied it to a grey camera lens - it's still easily visible on it -- on black or white lenses it's not much of a problem.
On the greyish lens, I tried to wash it off - and have found that I couldn't (wet wipes,...).
The stuff sticks fairly well - I can't even say I managed to get a noticable amount of it off.
As far as marking belongings goes - you literally only need a very small spot of it; and you can pick some place where it isn't too obvious. On my Nikon lenses, I sometimes put the spot on the 'o' in the Nikon logo. Trying to get this off would probably seriously (cosmetically) harm the lens; scratch off part of the logo - and the resale value will drop massively: No point trying to call it 'near mint condition' afterwards.
Under UV light, the spot is easily visible - under normal light, it's near invisible.
From another friend who works as a shop fitter for jewellers, he's tried it in alarm systems, and he told me, that it will take a few days/weeks before you get all of it off (i.e. small amounts still lodged in skin pores are almost impossible to get out easily).
For me as a 'geek', I have no problem with even a dozen app stores, different styles of the same user interface,...
For NORMAL, everyday users - the 90+% of people that aren't working in IT, there IS an advantage in integration, of having only ONE appstore which is neatly integrated into the device,...
Last weekend was the first time my mother has held an iPad - and she got a lot of things after me showing her the basic gestures (tapping, sliding the finger over the screen, and pinching) and she could navigate her way through the device very easily.
On the normal PC, I don't know how often I had to tell her of how to even open the chat window in Skype, how to copy links,...
That said - the iPhone/iPad is still not 'perfect' either (iBooks alone has a number of stupid little quirks). On the other hand, I've seen some workmates wait for Android, and then switch to an iPhone within months of having had their Android phones. There might be people switching in the opposite direction - I just don't know any in our work environment (an otherwise completely non-Apple outfit).
It's actually something I quite liked as an idea - taking a look at Stelios' Easy Internet Cafes in the UK - when the user logs off, the PC becomes unavailable for about 6-7 mins, while it completely restores the harddrive, from a multicast broadcast on the local network. The storage on the machine is strongly limited - but you're sure that unless someone were to infect the master (difficult) that noone could leave anything on the machine that you don't like.
Combine that with user network storage, and the PCs themselves stay safe, while your data stays 'safe' on the network drive.
What are you using stockings for? I (a guy) have never understood what problem a pair of stockings is trying to solve. A good looking pair of women's legs looks great without them.
Sorry - if that seemed a bit off topic, but I hope it will show you that if there if a thing that doesn't solve a problem for you, then don't go out looking for a problem to fit the thing; just don't buy the thing. Period.
That said - personally, I am an iPad user - one who actually stood in a queue for one the day it was released here. For ME it solves the "problem" to have a device I can read (mostly tech/business type) books on, but also run apps, like mind mapping tools.
A Kindle would be better for the former, but can't do the latter.
A laptop could do both, but really - commuting to work on public transport, I can read on the iPad, I wouldn't really be able to read on a laptop.
Your mileage will vary on this one. If you were in a similar situation, you might have come to the conclusion that the iPad would be the tool for you as well. As it stands, if it doesn't solve an obvious need in your life - don't buy it - but don't bitch about it either -- there are myriads of things out there which I guess you don't use either - but for which you don't feel the need to let slashdot know, that you just personally do not have a use for, like, say: citrine icosahedrons, a cd of central pennsylvania marriages 1700-1896, a brass duck sitting un umbrella (all random items of ebay).
To sum up: If you can't see a use for Funny Novelty Pirate Print Toilet Paper - just plain don't buy it.
Having lived in London for a few years, and having been to NY for a few weeks, I would like to offer these advantages:
a) The rectangular layout actually makes traffic worse - in London, a lot of people won't drive a car, simply because you can get lost easily. In NY, even someone with severely impaired navigation skills can find a place by car - and many of them do. (In London, if more and more people get satnav, it might end up in a similar fashion
b) The amount of car horn honking in NY is just unbelievable. Does anybody think it actually HELPS, when the roads are congested? (On the positive side - the honking won me dinner in a bet - when I bet a colleague I travelled to NY with, that you'd probably still hear the honking on the viewing platform of the Empire State Building... Answer: EASILY)
c) The air quality along roads going in wind direction is good - the air quality in roads perpendicular to the direction of the wind gets horrible in no time at all (thanks to all the gas guzzlers on the road).
At the end of my first trip to NY, one of those prod american work mates (the kind that will tell you exactly whatever the f*ck they think) got fairly pissed at me - he asked me how I liked NY, and (with the high pound exchange rate at the time) I told him that I had finally learnt why living in London was more expensive than in NY: Because it's bl**dy worth it! (That said, within many of my friends, most of them love NY, and don't understand why I don't love it......but for me - it's just not the city I'd ever wish to live in.)
On the positive - not just Nasa will have 'Vomit Comets' afterwards... Competition is good!;-)
On a more serious note - I do think that some people might actually barf, piss in their pants,...
Most transparent surfaces that I could think of right now have one thing in common - their surface is smooth. Now, a smooth, wet floor in the plane - what could possibly go wrong? Say, trying to safely get out of the plane again, without slipping on a wet slippery floor?
The other thing - airlines are trying to cut costs - a transparent floor only really works if it's really CLEAN. Airbus wants airlines to spend more on ongoing cleaning efforts? (Having seen some planes, this might not be entirely bad, though).
The Streisand effect is about something that is public, for which someone claiming to be the owner wishes to suppress it.
This is the opposite - it's blatant hate speech someone wants public, but rackspace declining to be the podium for this.
See it from this point of view - it's nice for you to sit home and complain about rackspaces actions.
If a US soldier dies as a result of someone killing him because of hatespeech published via rackspace......someone with deep pockets... I could smell a lawsuit.
Also, rackspace might lose customers that do not wish to be associated with such hate-speech. (much in the same way that if you host a party and Terry Jones comes round burning copies of the Quran, guests might leave. Or - you as the host might toss him out because you value the other guests more).
(this is not even looking at the possible issue of some 'radical' seeing this as the last straw and bombing rackspaces HQ for carrying the hatespeech... Again - something YOU might not mind - but I guess rackspace DOES).
I mean, short of publishing it right on the front page of the UAE Times (or whatever newspapers, news media they may have), what bigger ways are there to let the authorities KNOW that there is a hole in their censorship software...
I wonder, how long pirate bay or similar sites may still be accessed from there; and how long it will be, before mentioning a filter-free proxy becomes a severe flogging-worthy offence in the country?
As great as it is letting the people know how to circumvent censorship, you should think of finding a way to 'spread the news' of those 'holes' in a way that bypasses the authorities in charge of said filters...
Slashdot Mirror
So? How is that relevant to me?
I'm happy with the iPhone as it is - completely independently of whether Steve Jobs has a psychological condition or not.
I'd still prefer the iPhone over Android, no matter whether Steve would be healthy or sick, black or white, saint or sinner, started selling crack or even Android phones, ...
Does the company CEOs health or personality have ANY impact on what the device itself does or how well it works? Maybe it has - maybe it's become a lot better BECAUSE of his personality 'defects'.
But then again, without the iPhone, do you really think you'd get an Android phone?
It doesn't matter - the phone does what I want from a phone, it has the apps I'd want on the phone, it looks good, I luckily don't have to turn every cent over twice before buying a phone, so the higher price tag doesn't touch me (enough), ... ...maybe I would draw a line if he endorsed Palin, but that's a whole different issue... ;-)
The iPhone would be FAR better, if it could brew coffee on demand at any time and place...
Yet, I think the extra weight of the coffee maker might not make the device quite as portable as it is without.
The same goes for keyboards - I wouldn't type long texts on my iPhone or even iPad. But for most of the time when I'm out of the house, for the limited things I do when 'on the road', the onscreen keyboard helps. And it's certainly making the device lighter and with less moving-parts that could break, than if it HAD a keyboard.
If I'm on a longer trip, I tend to have my laptop with me - keyboard problem solved.
Just because YOUR usage pattern makes a slide keyboard THE thing to have, does not make it so for most people. I don't think most people are sharing the exact usage patterns I have, but if XYZdevice doesn't match the functionality I need, I just wouldn't buy it - instead of ranting on about Steve Jobs's irrational side (or anyone else's for that matter).
How about a first-post button?
The lack of which - obviously - made my post show up this late...
Indeed - though - better not split screen, though...
The best times with multiplayer have been with some oldies
MIDI Maze (late 80s; Atari ST) - up to 16 players multi-player via MIDI network on the Atari ST. Very simple game - also graphically very simple, but tons of fun to play; particularly if you can also see other player's 'outburst' after you caught em...
Robo Sport (early/mid 90s; Windows 3) - while technically it would have supported networked play on WfW 3.11; I only ever played it in hotseat mode - but still just as good, as everyone enters their turns, and THEN the computer executes them all at the same time. When it would come up to your turn, you would get to see a replay of what YOUR figures saw and did...
In terms of graphics, neither comes even close to 'modern' games. No wonder - the younger of the two is just under two decades old (Man, I'm old now) - but the game play in both is just wonderful.
Gameplay beats graphics in 6 cases out of every 5... ;-)
This still leaves an important caveat - the original security council was a good representation for its time.
This is no longer the case - the world has changed.
If you wanted to restructure the security council, how about a setup like this:
1. 1 seat each to the two most populous countries on the planet.
2. 1 seat each to largest economic powers that are not also in 1. (not the most populous)
3. 1 seat each to the two poorest countries (that are not in 1. and 2. - as unlikely as it is that one would be)
4. 1 seat each (annually rotating) for every continent (Australia + Island nations to count as one).
1. -> democratic aspect, representation of the many
2./3. -> economic aspect richest/poorest nations
4. -> geographical aspect
Seats should be re-checked/re-assigned annually for changes (say for changes in relative economic power)
Well - if you want to give the UN teeth - take away veto powers from the original members of the security council.
Most of the careful wordings are only to prevent those countries from vetoing resolutions.
The vetos were a thing to make it workable in the beginning - but they have outlived their usefulness. They should be replaced by some rules protecting the basic values, i.e. no resolution can be passed that would suppress human rights (and other basic protections) - or give different minimal pass rates to allow such motions to go through (from simple majority, 2/3 majority, 3/4 majority, and as far as restrictions very basic rights of ethnic groups go 98% majority...
Strictly speaking, it doesn't need replacement...
But - ORCL is hard at work at trying to alienate people away from java... ;-)
What do you think makes google want to donate the code to the public? Is it the insight that the market might be dying if Oracle doesn't finally get a clue...?
Exactly, it will be a handful of big farmers - and the cost of food will rise, as in any good monopoly / oligopoly...
Is the group really that organized that you if someone says "we're not going to ', that (nearly) everyone will follow?
...and the next problem - with the potentially bad clicks not going to google - how is google going to find out how discerning you are? ...unless they rewrote all clicks to be proxied through a google web-service, in which case google would get massive data protection enforcement issues.
Quite a geocentric view of creation, you're taking...
And that helps - HOW?
I bet you - within a year of 'net ninjas' becoming an acceptable term for those 'good' hackers, the media will start using it for those that stealthily attack systems, and - say - post something on twitter. (Just so that the media will use the latest slang available).
It's an exercise in futility...
There have been 'improvements' on what Nintendo did - but I wouldn't really call yet another motion sensor an 'innovation'. (Think how many MSFT 'innovations' you just yawned at, as they were things that existed elsewhere long ago).
Nintendo innovated the console market by bringing those controllers.
It was Sony/Microsoft who jumped on it later - to claw back marketshare lost to Nintendo.
In much the same way - in the phone world, the iPhone was the innovation. There is virtually no new phone that doesn't just try and piggy back on the path paved by the iPhone. Even if there are Android phones that have more CPU power, cheaper, ... They weren't the innovators. Someone else (at Apple) had the big idea on how to revolutionize the market, all the others came years later - then touting other features.
Take it - the fact that Android was multitasking before the iPhone wasn't as much of an 'innovation', as the iPhone itself was to any phone preceeding it.
The über-powerful PS3 or XBox 360 primarily introduced newer hardware - something that was expected to happen - everyone does it.
The Wii brought something new, something unexpected to the market - hence THEY were the innovators, and even if they aren't on the forefront now - those that are are 'optimisers' at best, but not innovators, not pioneers, not people trying something NEW.
After that, you might hold your (albeit maybe slightly yellowy tinged) iPhone 4 in such an awkward way as to completely eliminate the antenna issue...
Please tell me - do we get ANYTHING out of e-voting apart from a time saving between closing the polling stations and declaring the result?
For elections regarding terms of more than 4 years - forget it. The potential lack of trust in e-voting (as opposed to regular paper voting), because conspiracy theorists will immediately claim any election was stolen, which is a lot harder to do if there are actual people counting the votes publicly...
Just think about how much time is still being wasted discussing whether Obama is a muslim, or whether he is a naturally born US citizen -- think about how much time will be wasted afterwards in endless discussions brought by conspiracy theorists of the 'losing side' in ANY poll....
It's not worth it.
For the rest of us with some common sense this is just hilarious.
You're making a bad judgment here - there is a lack of common sense in both IT geeks like 'us' und normal users (anyone outside IT).
The issue with facebook and security has nothing to do with common sense per se, but with IT training. You and I may know a few things about security, which may lead us to accept some things, but reject others.
People outside IT do not have this type of training, nor would it be easy to bestow it on them. It IS the kind of people (the 90+% of the planet) which can not easily follow what's going on.
You can partially try and explain it to them, saying that Facebook's login is akin to a 'secret knock' at the kids secret hideout (you know - when we were kids and actually played outside, meeting each other). The password is like the secret knock letting you in. This secret knock has the problem that anyone within earshot will hear it and will likely be able to reproduce it. And - as you may have learnt as a kid, you don't knock on the secret club house door if you see anyone within earshot (who you know doesn't belong).
It's easy to explain, and a workable analogy. The problem for people now is, that their facebook cookie is a secret knock that needs to be transported halfway around the world in order to 'let you in'/'let you have the data you want'. And this is where the problem sets in - as a kid you may have learnt that anyone at a greater distance can't hear you knock.
On the Internet, potentially anyone along the way can - and from your home to facebooks servers can be quite a distance.
The most likely point where your data may be intercepted is still at your own home - and again, you may feel safe, as you don't see anyone you don't know sitting in your own living room with his laptop running (and potentially listening in). The fact that your neighbour can, is already difficult enough to grasp for most people outside IT...
I would guess, the product in question is http://smartwater.com/
Living in the UK a few years back, I had started using it to mark belongings of mine, after a friend working for the police recommended it.
The stuff is almost transparent - but, when I applied it to a grey camera lens - it's still easily visible on it -- on black or white lenses it's not much of a problem.
On the greyish lens, I tried to wash it off - and have found that I couldn't (wet wipes, ...).
The stuff sticks fairly well - I can't even say I managed to get a noticable amount of it off.
As far as marking belongings goes - you literally only need a very small spot of it; and you can pick some place where it isn't too obvious. On my Nikon lenses, I sometimes put the spot on the 'o' in the Nikon logo. Trying to get this off would probably seriously (cosmetically) harm the lens; scratch off part of the logo - and the resale value will drop massively: No point trying to call it 'near mint condition' afterwards.
Under UV light, the spot is easily visible - under normal light, it's near invisible.
From another friend who works as a shop fitter for jewellers, he's tried it in alarm systems, and he told me, that it will take a few days/weeks before you get all of it off (i.e. small amounts still lodged in skin pores are almost impossible to get out easily).
For me as a 'geek', I have no problem with even a dozen app stores, different styles of the same user interface, ...
For NORMAL, everyday users - the 90+% of people that aren't working in IT, there IS an advantage in integration, of having only ONE appstore which is neatly integrated into the device, ...
Last weekend was the first time my mother has held an iPad - and she got a lot of things after me showing her the basic gestures (tapping, sliding the finger over the screen, and pinching) and she could navigate her way through the device very easily.
On the normal PC, I don't know how often I had to tell her of how to even open the chat window in Skype, how to copy links, ...
That said - the iPhone/iPad is still not 'perfect' either (iBooks alone has a number of stupid little quirks).
On the other hand, I've seen some workmates wait for Android, and then switch to an iPhone within months of having had their Android phones. There might be people switching in the opposite direction - I just don't know any in our work environment (an otherwise completely non-Apple outfit).
It's actually something I quite liked as an idea - taking a look at Stelios' Easy Internet Cafes in the UK - when the user logs off, the PC becomes unavailable for about 6-7 mins, while it completely restores the harddrive, from a multicast broadcast on the local network.
The storage on the machine is strongly limited - but you're sure that unless someone were to infect the master (difficult) that noone could leave anything on the machine that you don't like.
Combine that with user network storage, and the PCs themselves stay safe, while your data stays 'safe' on the network drive.
What are you using stockings for? I (a guy) have never understood what problem a pair of stockings is trying to solve. A good looking pair of women's legs looks great without them.
Sorry - if that seemed a bit off topic, but I hope it will show you that if there if a thing that doesn't solve a problem for you, then don't go out looking for a problem to fit the thing; just don't buy the thing. Period.
That said - personally, I am an iPad user - one who actually stood in a queue for one the day it was released here. For ME it solves the "problem" to have a device I can read (mostly tech/business type) books on, but also run apps, like mind mapping tools.
A Kindle would be better for the former, but can't do the latter.
A laptop could do both, but really - commuting to work on public transport, I can read on the iPad, I wouldn't really be able to read on a laptop.
Your mileage will vary on this one. If you were in a similar situation, you might have come to the conclusion that the iPad would be the tool for you as well. As it stands, if it doesn't solve an obvious need in your life - don't buy it - but don't bitch about it either -- there are myriads of things out there which I guess you don't use either - but for which you don't feel the need to let slashdot know, that you just personally do not have a use for, like, say: citrine icosahedrons, a cd of central pennsylvania marriages 1700-1896, a brass duck sitting un umbrella (all random items of ebay).
To sum up: If you can't see a use for Funny Novelty Pirate Print Toilet Paper - just plain don't buy it.
Well - at least the hostname abyss looks appropriate now:
When you look into the abyss, the abyss will also look at you...
Having lived in London for a few years, and having been to NY for a few weeks, I would like to offer these advantages:
a) The rectangular layout actually makes traffic worse - in London, a lot of people won't drive a car, simply because you can get lost easily. In NY, even someone with severely impaired navigation skills can find a place by car - and many of them do. (In London, if more and more people get satnav, it might end up in a similar fashion
b) The amount of car horn honking in NY is just unbelievable. Does anybody think it actually HELPS, when the roads are congested? (On the positive side - the honking won me dinner in a bet - when I bet a colleague I travelled to NY with, that you'd probably still hear the honking on the viewing platform of the Empire State Building... Answer: EASILY)
c) The air quality along roads going in wind direction is good - the air quality in roads perpendicular to the direction of the wind gets horrible in no time at all (thanks to all the gas guzzlers on the road).
At the end of my first trip to NY, one of those prod american work mates (the kind that will tell you exactly whatever the f*ck they think) got fairly pissed at me - he asked me how I liked NY, and (with the high pound exchange rate at the time) I told him that I had finally learnt why living in London was more expensive than in NY: Because it's bl**dy worth it! ...but for me - it's just not the city I'd ever wish to live in.)
(That said, within many of my friends, most of them love NY, and don't understand why I don't love it...
On the positive - not just Nasa will have 'Vomit Comets' afterwards... Competition is good! ;-)
On a more serious note - I do think that some people might actually barf, piss in their pants, ...
Most transparent surfaces that I could think of right now have one thing in common - their surface is smooth.
Now, a smooth, wet floor in the plane - what could possibly go wrong? Say, trying to safely get out of the plane again, without slipping on a wet slippery floor?
The other thing - airlines are trying to cut costs - a transparent floor only really works if it's really CLEAN. Airbus wants airlines to spend more on ongoing cleaning efforts? (Having seen some planes, this might not be entirely bad, though).
The Streisand effect is about something that is public, for which someone claiming to be the owner wishes to suppress it.
This is the opposite - it's blatant hate speech someone wants public, but rackspace declining to be the podium for this.
See it from this point of view - it's nice for you to sit home and complain about rackspaces actions.
If a US soldier dies as a result of someone killing him because of hatespeech published via rackspace... ...someone with deep pockets...
I could smell a lawsuit.
Also, rackspace might lose customers that do not wish to be associated with such hate-speech. (much in the same way that if you host a party and Terry Jones comes round burning copies of the Quran, guests might leave. Or - you as the host might toss him out because you value the other guests more).
(this is not even looking at the possible issue of some 'radical' seeing this as the last straw and bombing rackspaces HQ for carrying the hatespeech... Again - something YOU might not mind - but I guess rackspace DOES).
I mean, short of publishing it right on the front page of the UAE Times (or whatever newspapers, news media they may have), what bigger ways are there to let the authorities KNOW that there is a hole in their censorship software...
I wonder, how long pirate bay or similar sites may still be accessed from there; and how long it will be, before mentioning a filter-free proxy becomes a severe flogging-worthy offence in the country?
As great as it is letting the people know how to circumvent censorship, you should think of finding a way to 'spread the news' of those 'holes' in a way that bypasses the authorities in charge of said filters...