Wow. A complete and total geek response. A totally useless geek response. It's very very obvious that's you've never dealt with large numbers of "ordinary" users. RSS means they have to a) install new software b) configure new software c) remember to launch the new software and check for new messages.
Actually, it's not talking on the phone that's the major distraction, it's holding it up to your ear. We're not really wired to do two entirely different tasks with different hands at the same time.
Actually, the first part of that wikipedia article is wrong. While the first slaves in the Jamestown colony were treated as a sort of second-class indentured servant (they could eventually buy their contract out, just as any other colonist could) they were the remains of a load of slaves that didn't sell in the West Indies sugar plantations. Slavery was pretty well established on Spanish plantations by that time. Think about the economics of it - why go all the way to Africa to grab some poor souls who don't speak the language and don't know how to farm in the environment you will be transporting them to when there's plenty of people lining the docks in your home port?
On the other hand, if you can go to africa and buy people as property, and their descendents remain property...the economics starts to make sense.
Most of the dating is off minerals that are present and teeth and bones. They aren't always transmitted through soft-tissue. On top of that - it takes a long time for this stuff to build up. Cannibalism is not really a factor.
Even if it were - so what? Whether they're from North or South Africa they're still from Africa, and likely to be slaves.
The techniques that are being used to identify where these individuals came from are fairly common and well researched in the field of biological anthropology.
It's not as obviously a laptop bag as say a Targus, but it's really well put together with a discrete padded laptop pouch. A nice plus - you can open the main compartment without flashing the laptop, which you can't do with a lot of bags. Plenty of pockets and organizer space. I use it for my everyday work/school bag. Around $50 or so.
Ogio makes several other models as well.
I also have a boblbee backpack. I've never really been happy with it. It's excellent protection but it put *way* too much pressure on the laptop (I have a "widescreen" laptop) and crushed the rubber screen bumpers. It also doesn't have enough pockets - just a large main compartment with a cd/pen/pencil organizer. It's also a unique enough bag where it would conceivably be stolen just because of the way it looks. It is a great, protective bag for average or smaller laptops, but it by the time you add the options to make it usuable it's gonna be way over your $50 limit.
and satellite wins (at least in my area). It's cheaper, has more available channels, and more reliable.
As far as the "losing signal when the wind blows" - the only time I ever lost signal on satellite was during a *severe* thunderstorm when the clouds were directly overhead. Generally the signal loss didn't last very long (30 minutes was the longest ever). It would happen 2-3 times a year.
In contrast my cable did, in fact, go out every time the wind blew *AND* every time there was a storm. See, the cable offices receive the signal they're broadcasting through...a satellite dish! But when the wind started blowing and moving the cable on the poles it cause problems and I usually either totally lost signal or had something totally unwatchable. Another problem is that, in general, the digital cable boxes seem to be lagging behind the satellite boxes so I saw a *lot* more artifacting on cable whereas I rarely saw it on satellite.
Do yourself a favor and go w/ satellite. I used DirecTV and didn't have any problems but Dish seems to be OK as well.
Ok, while I'm generally against most of the more stupid copyright plans your argument has some rather frightful holes in it.
There is nothing morally wrong with this activity in and of itself, only the economic argument that some unpaid copies might have been paid copies otherwise. The moral argument is on the other side, where I'm forced to refuse to help to a friend or neighbor when asked, just so someone else can make economic gain off of them. I don't say this as a hypocritical lawbreaker, but as someone who actually tries to comply with the law, and is sick of constantly annoying friends and family members to do so.
So, a friend wants to buy the new [Insert Artist Here] cd. You say "don't buy it, just make a copy of what I have". You're friend does just that. How is that not theft. Did your friend pay for what they have received? Nope. Trying to say "it's inconvenient to abide by the laws so I won't" isn't much of a argument either.
I don't think the "moral argument" is on your side either since "your side" appears to boil down to "copyright laws are inconvient to me so I won't follow them". You're friend isn't likely to die if he can't play GTA3 or listen to Britney Spears, nor is he likely to develop mental problems. That would tend to defeat your argument that copyright makes you "refuse to help a friend or neighbor".
Creating a book, movie, game, song, whatever takes time and effort that is difficult if not impossible for another person to duplicate (could anybody other than Faulkner have written "Absolom Absolom" for example). In return for the person spending this time and effort they ask that you provide with them some money in exchange for the work they have done. There is expense involved in distributing these works as well - in return for providing these copies the companies that make them ask you to pay for them. How is this different from making furniture? Or cars?
If you were making the argument that current copyright laws need review and revamping I'd agree. If you were making the argument that the large media companies are too powerful and are actively abusing that power to raise prices and limit competition I'd agree. Instead you seem to be arguing that musicians, writers, movie makers and artists should not be paid for their work because it's inconvient to you and that I can't agree with.
If Omniweb supported the features I use then I might try it. Yes, it looks nice and yes, indeed, it does render most pages but Mozilla will render more, is as fast, and has more features - chief among them tabbed browsing. I'm not giving up tabbed browsing for blurry text that gives me a headache.
Don't be stupid and start bombarding macmall with tons of calls and e-mails. They seem to have *nothing* to do with this - somebody is trying to take advantage of them as well as the users of macslash - they've managed to grab a popular domain name and they're redirecting it to a site that pays them for (most likely) banner ad referrals.
Write a polite e-mail informing MacMall of the problems that the company (http://www.merc-net.com et al) is causing. I'm sure MacMall will be very unhappy to have their name linked to this.
You can also write up some nice reviews about how unreliable, underhanded, and all around bad this merc-net place is and post them to the web - make sure google can hit them. That way if their potential customers bother to do any research on the web they'll find some, ahem, interesting information.
Generally schools are more concerned about teaching concepts (or should be). StarOffice and KDE/Gnome can be set up to be quite Windows-like. The kids need to know how to use a modern operating system and apps - not how to use MS WIndows.
Actually - I don't know that's it fair to entirely compare the two different trilogies. The original films tell of the successful rebellion - lots of excitement, good triumphing over evil, etc.
The new trilogy is the fall of the republic and the rise of the Sith. Good has languished, evil is destroying the Republic in order to control it and anybody who stands against it will die. The next film is going to be dark - it's got to be. These are the tales of how all hope died and the world looked grim until A New Hope came along.
I probably won't be standing in line Wed. night in order to see this. I will probably see it in a theater though. I won't be looking for the fun, bright, hopeful atmosphere of the first three movies though - 'cause hope dying, remember?:)
They are your ISP and you are using THEIR machines,
No - they're your ISP but you are paying them for access to the internet through their machines. There's a difference.
If you are using Yahoo or another free service it is normally spelled out in the TOS - and you can reasonably assume - that they will insert information into your e-mail and usenet posts in order to to advertise. This advertising pays for the service you are getting.
However, RoadRunner sells access. One could make a reasonably strong argument that without a clearly stated clause in the EUA or TOS (End User Agreement and Terms of Service, respectively) the end user has a reasonable expectation of not having their data tampered with. Clearly RoadRunner is tampering with the data so the question becomes "why am I paying for this service from what appears to be a provider of questionable ethics?"
How about looking into a local ISP and supporting bills which require cable companies to allow competitors in the same way the phone companies are regulated? Instead of only Roadrunner if you want broadband you'd have a couple of choices.
just a thought:)
The article is interesting - but that's not the results I've been seeing. My Mac seems to load/render pages as fast as any of the PCs I've used. I've found that browsers on OS X seem to load/render considerably faster than on OS 9, especially if there are frames and/or PNG graphics involved. I don't use IE (IE is rather slow - it crashes *much* less often than it did on 9 or on Windows though) but even comparing "Apples to Apples" by using the latest build of iCab or Mozilla on comparable machines running 9 vs. X I don't see the results the article talks about.
However, he is primarily talking about the new iMacs (even though the article states that the problem is OS related across the whole line). The new iMacs use nVidia based graphics systems and the nVidia drivers for OS X are still playing "catch up" with ATI. They're slowly improving but a Radeon is going to be faster because ATI has a lot more experience in writing Mac drivers. I think that's probably the culprit - the author of the article is blaming OS X when it's actually a video driver issue - the nVidia driver may not be as mature as the ATI driver so on nVidia based systems you're going to get more of a performance hit.
At any rate, this may very well be a non-issue within a couple of months. nVidia is working on it's drivers and they are steadily improving and OS 10.2 is due out by the end of the summer(?). There are supposed to be some major performance enhancements rolled into that release.
The newer revs of OS X are much faster - did you try the original 10.0 (which was a dog)?
10.1 and 10.1.2 are *much* faster. They actually
run reasonably well on an Imac 366 w/ plenty of
ram (300 something megs). Ram is cheap.
FWIW - My next laptop is probably going to be a Titanium Powerbook - fast, quiet, and with a beautiful display.
Have you checked out OX 10.1? There are X servers for it - no reason you can't get solaris managment going. (Well, if it requires Solaris you've got a problem). You could run Solaris X86
under VirtualPC though.:>
Well, the writer (and performer) in many cases wrote or performed that piece expecting a monetary reward. By not paying them you are depriving them of their livelihood. If you think they can "go out and get a day job" you really don't know a lot about writing or performning - it takes a lot of time and energy.
How is descrambling radio waves, stealing cable?
Once again - this is a service the company is providing *at extra cost* because it costs them extra. Rather than pass the cost on to every user when not every user wants it, they provide the opportunity to pay for it individually. How is it not theft?
How is downloading e-books for free, piracy?
Do I really have to type all the above again? If the author giving it away as an introduction to his works, fine. If not - it's theft. You are stealing time from his (or her) life - time which he (or she) expected to be compensated for.
Non-physical objects, people - what does the artist lose? By your standards, it is wrong for me to listen to music cds from the library, or read
books from the library, or listen to music but not commercials on the radio.
Libraries are a different matter - there are a limited number of copies that can be checked out for a limited time. While I'm sure that there may be some over-zealous execs who would love to see the end of libraries, you are overlooking the fact that libraries have *paid* for the copies they own. Music on the radio is a similar deal - the artist has been paid (at least in theory - more often the record company gets it all:>) by the radio station. While I don't think you are under any moral obligation to listen to the commercials, the important thing is that the person who made the music has been paid for it.
It's really interesting watching the sort of "consumer" ethics and morals being pushed on Slashdot - basically "if it's not a physical thing, it can't be stolen". So following that logic - it has no value. So all the Slashdotters who are making their living by writing software or creating web pages or doing graphic design or *anything that doesn't produce a physical object* (a printout doesn't count btw) shouldn't get paid since their work has no value. Cool - I don't have to pay my web designer any more.:>
I don't agree with everything the RIAA and MPAA does - they seem to be far more concerned with protecting the recording and movie companies bottom lines than any artist's rights. I definately don't agree with their methods and attitudes in the various cases they've brought against file sharing agencies. However, I don't think that copyright laws should be abolished. By and large they serve a worthwhile purpose. They aren't always used as they should be - and we should be aware of this and attempt to stop it. However, they are often the *only* protection an artists or author has. If the artists or author chooses to give away the fruits of their labors, that's fine. That's their right. However, if they wish to be paid for it - that's their right too.
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>Finally someone whose used Linux for awhile and knows it admits that it does have flaws and is not for the average user.</BLOCKQUOTE></I>
Anybody who's used it knows that there are flaws in some of the applications - but that's true of just about *every* piece of software in existence.
There's something wrong when you have the problems described above - either something is not configured correctly or there's a hardware problem somewhere.
Let us analyse this sentiment a little. The hallmark of the open source philosophy is that there be a group, or bazaar, of developers who all work at a project as they see fit.
I mostly agree with the statement above - although I think you need to differentiate between a
"commercial" Open Source Project and a more "hard core" Open Source project. For example, there are commercial projects which are released entirely or in part as "Open Source".
The problem with this is that they are suspect to all the usual forces that affect humans in normal society. In a company, programmers have to follow the dictacts of those above, and 'those above' have to follow the dictacts of the shareholder and the consumer. This forces them to do be innovative.
No. It forces programmers to produce products that will be profitable. They may or may not be innovative. Arguably Open Source projects are generally more innovative than "purely commercial" projects since they have more freedom to innovate - it's not what marketing wants you to do, it's what you want to do. For the most part the backbone technologies of Microsofts "next generation".NET strategy were developed by Open Source (or equivalent) projects. They've built a structure on that foundation, but they didn't lay the foundation. Now they want to claim the foundation by legislating it's developers out of business - business by Might, not Market Pressure.
Interesting that this comes so soon after the elections - looks like they think they've gained some sympathy in D.C.
However, in Open Source, people are subject to a whole gamut of other forces. "what is cool (enlightenment), what is uncool, peer pressure, any of the myriad forces of petty jealousy and human strife, in a chaotic environment. An open source programmer is like a cowboy in the wild west, trying to stake out his claim to some land. He is not conserned with being
innovative in this context, but in stealing land from those already present, be it other cowboys or native americans.
Nice attempted use of emotion, but your analogy is wrong. While there are Open Source projects that are to some degree "reinventing the wheel" (any GUI project, for example) they are doing so because of a perceived lack of features - so they're blazing totally new territory that no human has seen before, not "stealing from the native americans". Your analogy really fits some of Microsoft's strategies better than any Open Source project - MS has an unfortunate history of "if we can't develop it, we'll crush the company then buy the technology cheap" (an excellent reason to avoid developing MS only software - you might as well just hand them your business, you've placed all the control in their hands - at least with multiplatform you and your customers have a choice).
Write your lawmakers (state and federal) *now*. If you are near a capitol (state or D.C.) make an appointment with your representative if possible. Give some money to organizations like the FSF - overall they're doing more good than harm! The *only* thing Microsoft really has that most Open Source projects don't is money. They can pay lots of people to sit in Washington and cram their views down the lawmakers throats 24/7. If you will take 10 minutes to type out a letter, print it, and mail it you can help give the lawmakers both sides of the issue.
One thing I have always wondered about historical computing is the "what if" question. In this case, what if Babbage had got commercial
success with his difference engine? I have wondered just how advanced a purely mechanical computer could be. What if the Victorians had
thrown boundless cash at mechanical computers. Just how advanced could we reasonably hope these computers to be? I am most interested
Check out "Of Tangible Ghosts" by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. It's set in an alternate past where Babbage's Engine sparked a "technology explosion" - but with mechanical computers. I believe he's got some other novels set in the same universe, but I haven't had time to read them (so many books, so little time).
If I'm following your the "reasoning" correctly,
Bush won due to "a plitical bias that for historical reasons became lodged in our laws" that "is a bias toward the rural states, which tend to be more conservative" - therfore "a bias towards conservatives". There's a major flaw with your the argument thus stated - the constitution pre-dates the existing two party system and their identification as "liberal" and "conservative".
It *may* have been their intent to use the "free" 2 votes in the EC as a sort of governor - a weight to keep the country plunging into an out-of-control free for all. They weren't radicals - the system of government of the USA is similar to other systems that had lasted for hundreds of years (Rome for one, Switzerland was a Republic then as well I think - I'll have to check that:> Maybe it was Finland...). They were trying to keep a stable system of goverment that would last as long as possible - it had to be strong enough to stand up to sudden blows but flexible enough to change under pressure. In general they seem to have done a good job. While there might be an argument for modifying the EC system (splitting the EC votes in a state based on the same "lines" used to elect Representatives - basically giving the EC more of a "fine grained" approach) good arguments for eliminating it entirely are few and far between.
Instead of spending a lot of energy on trying to fix a system that isn't broken (the EC), spend it trying to fix one that obviously is - the method of voting itself. Purely electronic voting is very scary - it's way too easy for "accidents" to occur and the records of them to dissapear, but there are better alternatives to the punchcard and "pull lever" systems in use. The county I live in uses a system rather like the "scantron" system used in many schools and standardized tests. You fill in a round blank with a soft lead pencil - if you make a mistake you get a new ballot sheet - no erasures, that way it's obvious if the vote has been changed. This method has three advantages - fast counting, accurate results, and a "paper trail". It may not be the absolute best, but is an effective system that's currently in use - so it's proven.
-Has to compete with Palm...This may be
overcame, but it will be hard.
Maybe, maybe not. I like my Palm, but it doesn't offer wireless networking, and it costs a *lot* more than $50.:>
-Major mods needed; the Linux kernel
just isn't meant for these
kinds of systems.
The kernel mods have already been developed - they seem to be using the DragonBall in this version, but mention it could easily be adapted to Arm or ColdFusion (Motorola). Linux is already supported on all of these platforms. Anyway, since when has "major mods needed" stopped any linux project?:>
-You've gotta pay for all this. Even if
major effort comes free, it will still cost a whole lot. You've got to not
only equal the competition, but surpass
it enough to stand out.
No real argument here, but manufacturing costs are relatively cheap - there's plenty of places that can put together something like this with minimal retooling. There's nothing exotic in the design - a custom plastic case (cheap to design and implement), a custom motherboard (not too bad to manufacture, already designed and it uses "off the shelf" components), and a bunch of off-the-shelf chips and components.
-Can you imagine recompiling the kernel
for you palmtop?
Why would you want to? This is a dedicated device - once it works don't mess with it. Upgrades can be easily downloaded. You could develop for it/tinker w/ the software if you want; but it's not a requirement. That's a good thing - this isn't a "geektoy", it's a consumer device with the potential to be a "geektoy".:>
Until recently I worked for a consulting firm. 90% of our clients with email servers used exchange. Of these, *maybe* 10% actually used it for anything other than simple e-mail. The consulting company used Netscape Netcenter (or whatever it's called)+Lotus notes for all of our scheduling and billing - worked great and was much more reliable. Fortunately we had a very good Unix guy who set the system up and maintained it.
It sounds like the "vocal minority" you are referring to either: a) want the scheduling features that Exchange can provide or b) have "heard from a friend/asscociate/whatever that Exchange+Outlook is great. They're running it, why aren't we?! We won't be competitive, the worlds gonna end, aieeeeeeeee!". Perhaps a web based scheduling program of some kind, or maybe you need to add something like Lotus Notes.
Reasons why not to use Exchange in your case:
1) It's going to cost you big time - you're going to buy Exchange, new servers to run it, lots of licenses, lots of copies of Outlook, install said copies of Outlook, copy everything over to the new servers, have your admins trained and certified (yes, if they make you switch they are paying for cert courses). In addition there's the higher maintenance involved w/ Exchange+Outlook - lots of new vulnerabilities to viruses. And then there's the price of the NT or 2000 licenses for the servers. And the overtime involved in getting the system operational. And the downtime involved for the switchover. And the raises your people will demand since the demands on them are now higher.
2) As mentioned above, you've just opened up a whole new security nightmare.
3) Retraining burden for all other employees to use the new e-mail system - potentially substantial.
Try to find out what Exchange offers that your users want - if anything. They might just think "we need it 'cause XYZ has it". They might have a legitimate need you can fill through some other solution that will work w/ what you have.
Amen.:> You could probably count C.S. Lewis as well (definately a Christian, arguably a geek). There's a little bit of everything in the Geek Global Village.:>
Is it intolerant to promote the idea that racists are dim-witted rednecks?
Well, yeah. You apparently don't even know what a redneck is. (Hint: It refers to residents of a geographic area, so by using it you're being quite intolerant).
that my female friends should be submissive
How about some specifices? You're painting w/ a broad brush here. Who said this? I'm sure there are some groups that push the "barefoot and pregnant" idealogy, but that doesn't make them the majority.
And then they get snippy when you criticize them for it!
No doubt. After all, it's your duty to inform anybody who admits to being a Christian that they're "[not] really over that racism thing" and
"act like jerks". Congratulations. You've successfully imaged a false stereotype. You've taken a few wrong and/or overzealous people and used them to paint the whole group of people as bullying fools. And you don't see anything wrong w/ this. You've taken the things that can (and do) happen in any religious group and assigned them to Christianity, because everybody knows that "Christians are all just stupid bigots anyway". And you still don't see anything wrong w/ this.
Congratulations again, you've hit on a pet peeve.:> If I offended you, sorry. I'm just trying to get you to think about what you're actually saying, not what you think you are saying.
Slashdot Mirror
Wow. A complete and total geek response. A totally useless geek response. It's very very obvious that's you've never dealt with large numbers of "ordinary" users. RSS means they have to a) install new software b) configure new software c) remember to launch the new software and check for new messages.
It's not a solution, it's just a new problem.
Actually, it's not talking on the phone that's the major distraction, it's holding it up to your ear. We're not really wired to do two entirely different tasks with different hands at the same time.
Actually, the first part of that wikipedia article is wrong. While the first slaves in the Jamestown colony were treated as a sort of second-class indentured servant (they could eventually buy their contract out, just as any other colonist could) they were the remains of a load of slaves that didn't sell in the West Indies sugar plantations. Slavery was pretty well established on Spanish plantations by that time. Think about the economics of it - why go all the way to Africa to grab some poor souls who don't speak the language and don't know how to farm in the environment you will be transporting them to when there's plenty of people lining the docks in your home port?
On the other hand, if you can go to africa and buy people as property, and their descendents remain property...the economics starts to make sense.
Most of the dating is off minerals that are present and teeth and bones. They aren't always transmitted through soft-tissue. On top of that - it takes a long time for this stuff to build up. Cannibalism is not really a factor.
Even if it were - so what? Whether they're from North or South Africa they're still from Africa, and likely to be slaves.
The techniques that are being used to identify where these individuals came from are fairly common and well researched in the field of biological anthropology.
http://www.ogio.com/products/display.cfm?catid=5&U ID=411109&color=1
It's not as obviously a laptop bag as say a Targus, but it's really well put together with a discrete padded laptop pouch. A nice plus - you can open the main compartment without flashing the laptop, which you can't do with a lot of bags. Plenty of pockets and organizer space. I use it for my everyday work/school bag. Around $50 or so.
Ogio makes several other models as well.
I also have a boblbee backpack. I've never really been happy with it. It's excellent protection but it put *way* too much pressure on the laptop (I have a "widescreen" laptop) and crushed the rubber screen bumpers. It also doesn't have enough pockets - just a large main compartment with a cd/pen/pencil organizer. It's also a unique enough bag where it would conceivably be stolen just because of the way it looks. It is a great, protective bag for average or smaller laptops, but it by the time you add the options to make it usuable it's gonna be way over your $50 limit.
and satellite wins (at least in my area). It's cheaper, has more available channels, and more reliable.
As far as the "losing signal when the wind blows" - the only time I ever lost signal on satellite was during a *severe* thunderstorm when the clouds were directly overhead. Generally the signal loss didn't last very long (30 minutes was the longest ever). It would happen 2-3 times a year.
In contrast my cable did, in fact, go out every time the wind blew *AND* every time there was a storm. See, the cable offices receive the signal they're broadcasting through...a satellite dish! But when the wind started blowing and moving the cable on the poles it cause problems and I usually either totally lost signal or had something totally unwatchable. Another problem is that, in general, the digital cable boxes seem to be lagging behind the satellite boxes so I saw a *lot* more artifacting on cable whereas I rarely saw it on satellite.
Do yourself a favor and go w/ satellite. I used DirecTV and didn't have any problems but Dish seems to be OK as well.
So, a friend wants to buy the new [Insert Artist Here] cd. You say "don't buy it, just make a copy of what I have". You're friend does just that. How is that not theft. Did your friend pay for what they have received? Nope. Trying to say "it's inconvenient to abide by the laws so I won't" isn't much of a argument either.
I don't think the "moral argument" is on your side either since "your side" appears to boil down to "copyright laws are inconvient to me so I won't follow them". You're friend isn't likely to die if he can't play GTA3 or listen to Britney Spears, nor is he likely to develop mental problems. That would tend to defeat your argument that copyright makes you "refuse to help a friend or neighbor".
Creating a book, movie, game, song, whatever takes time and effort that is difficult if not impossible for another person to duplicate (could anybody other than Faulkner have written "Absolom Absolom" for example). In return for the person spending this time and effort they ask that you provide with them some money in exchange for the work they have done. There is expense involved in distributing these works as well - in return for providing these copies the companies that make them ask you to pay for them. How is this different from making furniture? Or cars?
If you were making the argument that current copyright laws need review and revamping I'd agree. If you were making the argument that the large media companies are too powerful and are actively abusing that power to raise prices and limit competition I'd agree. Instead you seem to be arguing that musicians, writers, movie makers and artists should not be paid for their work because it's inconvient to you and that I can't agree with.
If Omniweb supported the features I use then I might try it. Yes, it looks nice and yes, indeed, it does render most pages but Mozilla will render more, is as fast, and has more features - chief among them tabbed browsing. I'm not giving up tabbed browsing for blurry text that gives me a headache.
Don't be stupid and start bombarding macmall with tons of calls and e-mails. They seem to have *nothing* to do with this - somebody is trying to take advantage of them as well as the users of macslash - they've managed to grab a popular domain name and they're redirecting it to a site that pays them for (most likely) banner ad referrals.
Write a polite e-mail informing MacMall of the problems that the company (http://www.merc-net.com et al) is causing. I'm sure MacMall will be very unhappy to have their name linked to this.
You can also write up some nice reviews about how unreliable, underhanded, and all around bad this merc-net place is and post them to the web - make sure google can hit them. That way if their potential customers bother to do any research on the web they'll find some, ahem, interesting information.
Generally schools are more concerned about teaching concepts (or should be). StarOffice and KDE/Gnome can be set up to be quite Windows-like. The kids need to know how to use a modern operating system and apps - not how to use MS WIndows.
Actually - I don't know that's it fair to entirely compare the two different trilogies. The original films tell of the successful rebellion - lots of excitement, good triumphing over evil, etc.
:)
The new trilogy is the fall of the republic and the rise of the Sith. Good has languished, evil is destroying the Republic in order to control it and anybody who stands against it will die. The next film is going to be dark - it's got to be. These are the tales of how all hope died and the world looked grim until A New Hope came along.
I probably won't be standing in line Wed. night in order to see this. I will probably see it in a theater though. I won't be looking for the fun, bright, hopeful atmosphere of the first three movies though - 'cause hope dying, remember?
If you are using Yahoo or another free service it is normally spelled out in the TOS - and you can reasonably assume - that they will insert information into your e-mail and usenet posts in order to to advertise. This advertising pays for the service you are getting. However, RoadRunner sells access. One could make a reasonably strong argument that without a clearly stated clause in the EUA or TOS (End User Agreement and Terms of Service, respectively) the end user has a reasonable expectation of not having their data tampered with. Clearly RoadRunner is tampering with the data so the question becomes "why am I paying for this service from what appears to be a provider of questionable ethics?"
How about looking into a local ISP and supporting bills which require cable companies to allow competitors in the same way the phone companies are regulated? Instead of only Roadrunner if you want broadband you'd have a couple of choices. just a thought :)
The article is interesting - but that's not the results I've been seeing. My Mac seems to load/render pages as fast as any of the PCs I've used. I've found that browsers on OS X seem to load/render considerably faster than on OS 9, especially if there are frames and/or PNG graphics involved. I don't use IE (IE is rather slow - it crashes *much* less often than it did on 9 or on Windows though) but even comparing "Apples to Apples" by using the latest build of iCab or Mozilla on comparable machines running 9 vs. X I don't see the results the article talks about.
However, he is primarily talking about the new iMacs (even though the article states that the problem is OS related across the whole line). The new iMacs use nVidia based graphics systems and the nVidia drivers for OS X are still playing "catch up" with ATI. They're slowly improving but a Radeon is going to be faster because ATI has a lot more experience in writing Mac drivers. I think that's probably the culprit - the author of the article is blaming OS X when it's actually a video driver issue - the nVidia driver may not be as mature as the ATI driver so on nVidia based systems you're going to get more of a performance hit.
At any rate, this may very well be a non-issue within a couple of months. nVidia is working on it's drivers and they are steadily improving and OS 10.2 is due out by the end of the summer(?). There are supposed to be some major performance enhancements rolled into that release.
The newer revs of OS X are much faster - did you try the original 10.0 (which was a dog)?
10.1 and 10.1.2 are *much* faster. They actually
run reasonably well on an Imac 366 w/ plenty of
ram (300 something megs). Ram is cheap.
FWIW - My next laptop is probably going to be a Titanium Powerbook - fast, quiet, and with a beautiful display.
Have you checked out OX 10.1? There are X servers for it - no reason you can't get solaris managment going. (Well, if it requires Solaris you've got a problem). You could run Solaris X86 :>
under VirtualPC though.
It's really interesting watching the sort of "consumer" ethics and morals being pushed on Slashdot - basically "if it's not a physical thing, it can't be stolen". So following that logic - it has no value. So all the Slashdotters who are making their living by writing software or creating web pages or doing graphic design or *anything that doesn't produce a physical object* (a printout doesn't count btw) shouldn't get paid since their work has no value. Cool - I don't have to pay my web designer any more. :>
I don't agree with everything the RIAA and MPAA does - they seem to be far more concerned with protecting the recording and movie companies bottom lines than any artist's rights. I definately don't agree with their methods and attitudes in the various cases they've brought against file sharing agencies. However, I don't think that copyright laws should be abolished. By and large they serve a worthwhile purpose. They aren't always used as they should be - and we should be aware of this and attempt to stop it. However, they are often the *only* protection an artists or author has. If the artists or author chooses to give away the fruits of their labors, that's fine. That's their right. However, if they wish to be paid for it - that's their right too.
<BLOCKQUOTE><I>Finally someone whose used Linux for awhile and knows it admits that it does have flaws and is not for the average user.</BLOCKQUOTE></I>
Anybody who's used it knows that there are flaws in some of the applications - but that's true of just about *every* piece of software in existence.
There's something wrong when you have the problems described above - either something is not configured correctly or there's a hardware problem somewhere.
Check out "Of Tangible Ghosts" by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. It's set in an alternate past where Babbage's Engine sparked a "technology explosion" - but with mechanical computers. I believe he's got some other novels set in the same universe, but I haven't had time to read them (so many books, so little time).
If I'm following your the "reasoning" correctly,
:> Maybe it was Finland...). They were trying to keep a stable system of goverment that would last as long as possible - it had to be strong enough to stand up to sudden blows but flexible enough to change under pressure. In general they seem to have done a good job. While there might be an argument for modifying the EC system (splitting the EC votes in a state based on the same "lines" used to elect Representatives - basically giving the EC more of a "fine grained" approach) good arguments for eliminating it entirely are few and far between.
Bush won due to "a plitical bias that for historical reasons became lodged in our laws" that "is a bias toward the rural states, which tend to be more conservative" - therfore "a bias towards conservatives". There's a major flaw with your the argument thus stated - the constitution pre-dates the existing two party system and their identification as "liberal" and "conservative".
It *may* have been their intent to use the "free" 2 votes in the EC as a sort of governor - a weight to keep the country plunging into an out-of-control free for all. They weren't radicals - the system of government of the USA is similar to other systems that had lasted for hundreds of years (Rome for one, Switzerland was a Republic then as well I think - I'll have to check that
Instead of spending a lot of energy on trying to fix a system that isn't broken (the EC), spend it trying to fix one that obviously is - the method of voting itself. Purely electronic voting is very scary - it's way too easy for "accidents" to occur and the records of them to dissapear, but there are better alternatives to the punchcard and "pull lever" systems in use. The county I live in uses a system rather like the "scantron" system used in many schools and standardized tests. You fill in a round blank with a soft lead pencil - if you make a mistake you get a new ballot sheet - no erasures, that way it's obvious if the vote has been changed. This method has three advantages - fast counting, accurate results, and a "paper trail". It may not be the absolute best, but is an effective system that's currently in use - so it's proven.
Why would you want to? This is a dedicated device - once it works don't mess with it. Upgrades can be easily downloaded. You could develop for it/tinker w/ the software if you want; but it's not a requirement. That's a good thing - this isn't a "geektoy", it's a consumer device with the potential to be a "geektoy". :>
It sounds like the "vocal minority" you are referring to either: a) want the scheduling features that Exchange can provide or b) have "heard from a friend/asscociate/whatever that Exchange+Outlook is great. They're running it, why aren't we?! We won't be competitive, the worlds gonna end, aieeeeeeeee!". Perhaps a web based scheduling program of some kind, or maybe you need to add something like Lotus Notes.
Reasons why not to use Exchange in your case: 1) It's going to cost you big time - you're going to buy Exchange, new servers to run it, lots of licenses, lots of copies of Outlook, install said copies of Outlook, copy everything over to the new servers, have your admins trained and certified (yes, if they make you switch they are paying for cert courses). In addition there's the higher maintenance involved w/ Exchange+Outlook - lots of new vulnerabilities to viruses. And then there's the price of the NT or 2000 licenses for the servers. And the overtime involved in getting the system operational. And the downtime involved for the switchover. And the raises your people will demand since the demands on them are now higher.
2) As mentioned above, you've just opened up a whole new security nightmare.
3) Retraining burden for all other employees to use the new e-mail system - potentially substantial.
Try to find out what Exchange offers that your users want - if anything. They might just think "we need it 'cause XYZ has it". They might have a legitimate need you can fill through some other solution that will work w/ what you have.
Amen. :> You could probably count C.S. Lewis as well (definately a Christian, arguably a geek). There's a little bit of everything in the Geek Global Village. :>
How about some specifices? You're painting w/ a broad brush here. Who said this? I'm sure there are some groups that push the "barefoot and pregnant" idealogy, but that doesn't make them the majority.
No doubt. After all, it's your duty to inform anybody who admits to being a Christian that they're "[not] really over that racism thing" and "act like jerks". Congratulations. You've successfully imaged a false stereotype. You've taken a few wrong and/or overzealous people and used them to paint the whole group of people as bullying fools. And you don't see anything wrong w/ this. You've taken the things that can (and do) happen in any religious group and assigned them to Christianity, because everybody knows that "Christians are all just stupid bigots anyway". And you still don't see anything wrong w/ this.
Congratulations again, you've hit on a pet peeve. :> If I offended you, sorry. I'm just trying to get you to think about what you're actually saying, not what you think you are saying.
By the way, it's "Christianity" and "Judaism". We're not speaking Greek, so the "x" is inappropriate.