With this "hardcover first, paperback later" philosophy, they are losing customers. I hear about the new book of an author I like, but I NEVER buy hardcovers (too expensive, and living in a foreign place, it's expensive to have it sent from the US), so I decide to wait. 3 to 6 months later when the soft cover comes out, in 90% of the cases I've already forgotten. Rinse, lather, repeat and you just lost many sales.
I suspect we've been so indoctrinated into getting discounts if we buy multiples, that we don't even check to see if we're saving money.
Yes. There was a recent test by a consumer agency: in supermarkets many large packet of cereals were more expensive (weight for weight) than the identical smaller ones. When confronting the producers, they confirmed what you wrote above and nobody checks the price per weight anyway (it might involve a multiplication and that's too damn complicated, only intellectual liberals do that).
Why do they sell those mini PCs and think people will want to either install the latest Vista on it or run it with the provided OS (whatever that is, including Linux in many cases) where the support stops as soon as it's past your mailbox and into which most of the drivers have hardly any examples. You want to sell them ? Simple, provide open-source drivers and documentation for them.
We turned it extra useless at work (300 science guys) by putting upside-down-ternet in action... People were in fear of complaining. Those who did were told that they should check if they were using a crossover cable. Fun for the whole day.
[BE is] arguably better than Mission Earth (which was a 10 book series that I think violates the UN Human Rights Charter to make someone read)
Having read both, I still want to defend BE (the book) like the GP did. It may not be deep but it IS entertaining. On the other hand I fully agree with your assessment on Mission Earth: that thing is guantanamesque torture. I kept hoping for something to happen but only the 1st and 10th book have anything that can remotely be called situation development (and let's not even talk about character development). It's a perfect example of starting with one (bad) book and saying: "so, now, how can we extend it to 10 volumes without adding any extra content?"
I think it's in the Shetlands that sheep have gotten used to grazing alga by swimming in the ocean shore. Probably a baby step to becoming cousins with dolphins.
Currency is one example: there is enough political will and a real-world need to prevent counterfeiting (fraud). Government puts a good deal of effort into preventing counterfeiting
You haven't picked the best example: the US dollar is the easiest money to counterfeit out of all the countries (more or less). That with being just 2 colors on basically plain paper. Look at the Euro or any developing nation banknotes and you'll see bases of paper+fabric+metal+plastic printed in multiple colors, with holograms, transparencies, 3D thickness, etc... Why the dollar is so 'cheap' to make I have no idea.
Suggestions have been made, by frustrated sysadmins, for a "destructive" counter-virus, a large-scale attack that cripples botnets by destroying infected computers. That's not only morally wrong but also just impractical - the average computer user just buys a new computer, and all the virus does is destroy property to satisfy lust for vengeance. Value is lost.
Your argument sounds wrong and trite. If Billy-Bob's computer gets knocked out by a well-placed grey-hat command, for instance a MBR format, he will then either: go buy a new computer (with a more recent and hopefully less hole-ridden version of Windows on it). It may not be very ecological, but it's a WIN against the botnet. Or he'll get his brother in law to reinstall on his old hardware, hopefully better this time. His precious collection of prOn is not lost in either case so I really don't see the argument against this.
Think, if a politician routinely votes against your wishes you don't vote for him right?
Party A votes against 50% of your wishes. Party B votes against 50% of some other of your wishes (some overlap here). Ooops, there are only 2 parties in this rigged game. What do you do now ?!?
Yeah, it's like the turkey predicting that tomorrow it will go to sleep well fed. It will be wrong only once after all. Just before thankgiving. Not a bad score, right ?
I always wondered why this line of reasoning is not followed more often. Assuming we found a less evolved alien specie and we want to avoid to repeat the errors of the past (war for land, genocide, cultural extinction, etc...), I assume we'd still be curious and want to observe them discreetly. So why don't we assume others are doing this to us ?
Well, I used to be very pro-organ donation, but having seen 'the market' at work in the US, I now feel pretty disgusted. Larry Hagman (a known alcoholic) getting a new liver thanks to his money while others wait in line ? What about Steve jobs, did he have to wait for years in line ? If all it takes is to be rich and famous, then no, I'm sorry, I don't want to participate. Let natural selection run its course.
In the discussion on whether it's better for the economy to give money to the rich or the poor (via tax cuts or other means), the answer is so simple that pundits who still argue for the 'trickle-down theory' should be required to copy it 100 times on a blackboard. If you give money to the poor, they'll spend it immediately to eat, fix their car, pay back a loan or rent a bigger apartment so their kids don't all live in the same room. It goes straight back into the economy. If you give it to the rich they'll put it in numbered Swiss bank accounts, foreign investments, art purchases (just exchanging bragging rights between rich people)... In many cases nothing makes it back to the local economy.
I'm kinda puzzled by the youth alcohol situation in France vs the UK vs the US
Having been in teenager in all 3 places, I can see the relevance of this paper. In France if you wanted a beer with friend you could go to a bar, sit, take your time chewing the fat in front of a beer and leave whenever you felt like it, which meant there was no feeling of hurry or pressure. On the other hand in the US, whenever someone managed to get hold of a 12-pack / bottle of rum / keg / etc, we'd drink it as fast as possible in order to minimize the risk of being found out, and also to leave more time for 'alcohol breath' to get down before going home in front of mom. Stupid, yes, but very real consequences: more alcohol and faster.
I'm in the market for a tablet/notebook too, so this device looks very interesting and original, but this video is about as exciting to watch as drying paint. It shows the device only as a tool to put pictures and quick notes in what amounts to PDF documents. Can you watch videos with it ? And does the dead zone in the middle interfere much ? Can you run standard PC.exe on it ? What can you do without the touch screen (any buttons) ? Can you, gasp, run Linux on it ?
It's also the way I archive my mass of digital images: with the date in the filename as I cannot rely only on the filesystem timestamp. I also add some basic keywords in the filenames, something like 20091012_105445-SkiDescentEcrins.jpg. Then searching becomes a breeze, because you always remember more or less the date and adding a keywords results in you finding the right files.
Last month in France there was a story of a video camera found by the side of the road by a cop, containing images of speeding from a motorbike. The cop stood around for a while until he saw a slow-going motorbike obviously looking for something. He asked the guy who said he was looking for his camera... bingo.
Slashdot Mirror
With this "hardcover first, paperback later" philosophy, they are losing customers. I hear about the new book of an author I like, but I NEVER buy hardcovers (too expensive, and living in a foreign place, it's expensive to have it sent from the US), so I decide to wait. 3 to 6 months later when the soft cover comes out, in 90% of the cases I've already forgotten. Rinse, lather, repeat and you just lost many sales.
I suspect we've been so indoctrinated into getting discounts if we buy multiples, that we don't even check to see if we're saving money.
Yes. There was a recent test by a consumer agency: in supermarkets many large packet of cereals were more expensive (weight for weight) than the identical smaller ones. When confronting the producers, they confirmed what you wrote above and nobody checks the price per weight anyway (it might involve a multiplication and that's too damn complicated, only intellectual liberals do that).
Why do they sell those mini PCs and think people will want to either install the latest Vista on it or run it with the provided OS (whatever that is, including Linux in many cases) where the support stops as soon as it's past your mailbox and into which most of the drivers have hardly any examples. You want to sell them ? Simple, provide open-source drivers and documentation for them.
Make the Internet Useless Day
We turned it extra useless at work (300 science guys) by putting upside-down-ternet in action... People were in fear of complaining. Those who did were told that they should check if they were using a crossover cable. Fun for the whole day.
...are getting more elaborate by the minute. First the iPad is described as 'working according to marketing promises'. And now that ?!?
Thanks, that single 'feature' was the reason I switched all my machines to KDE ! Ctrl-L you say ? Too Ctrl-Late.
So, who has invitations for newzbin so we can evaluate if those piracy claims have any validity in them, heh ?!?
[BE is] arguably better than Mission Earth (which was a 10 book series that I think violates the UN Human Rights Charter to make someone read)
Having read both, I still want to defend BE (the book) like the GP did. It may not be deep but it IS entertaining. On the other hand I fully agree with your assessment on Mission Earth: that thing is guantanamesque torture. I kept hoping for something to happen but only the 1st and 10th book have anything that can remotely be called situation development (and let's not even talk about character development). It's a perfect example of starting with one (bad) book and saying: "so, now, how can we extend it to 10 volumes without adding any extra content?"
I think it's in the Shetlands that sheep have gotten used to grazing alga by swimming in the ocean shore. Probably a baby step to becoming cousins with dolphins.
"I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself [...]" -- Col. Jessup
Yeah, another fucker who considers himself above the law. Good thing this particular one only exists in a movie.
Currency is one example: there is enough political will and a real-world need to prevent counterfeiting (fraud). Government puts a good deal of effort into preventing counterfeiting
You haven't picked the best example: the US dollar is the easiest money to counterfeit out of all the countries (more or less). That with being just 2 colors on basically plain paper. Look at the Euro or any developing nation banknotes and you'll see bases of paper+fabric+metal+plastic printed in multiple colors, with holograms, transparencies, 3D thickness, etc... Why the dollar is so 'cheap' to make I have no idea.
Suggestions have been made, by frustrated sysadmins, for a "destructive" counter-virus, a large-scale attack that cripples botnets by destroying infected computers. That's not only morally wrong but also just impractical - the average computer user just buys a new computer, and all the virus does is destroy property to satisfy lust for vengeance. Value is lost.
Your argument sounds wrong and trite. If Billy-Bob's computer gets knocked out by a well-placed grey-hat command, for instance a MBR format, he will then either: go buy a new computer (with a more recent and hopefully less hole-ridden version of Windows on it). It may not be very ecological, but it's a WIN against the botnet. Or he'll get his brother in law to reinstall on his old hardware, hopefully better this time. His precious collection of prOn is not lost in either case so I really don't see the argument against this.
Alexander Fraser Tytler
Too bad there wasn't a big [Citation Needed] at the time.
Think, if a politician routinely votes against your wishes you don't vote for him right?
Party A votes against 50% of your wishes. Party B votes against 50% of some other of your wishes (some overlap here). Ooops, there are only 2 parties in this rigged game. What do you do now ?!?
Yeah, it's like the turkey predicting that tomorrow it will go to sleep well fed. It will be wrong only once after all. Just before thankgiving. Not a bad score, right ?
I always wondered why this line of reasoning is not followed more often. Assuming we found a less evolved alien specie and we want to avoid to repeat the errors of the past (war for land, genocide, cultural extinction, etc...), I assume we'd still be curious and want to observe them discreetly. So why don't we assume others are doing this to us ?
If you're not a donor, you're a douche bag
Well, I used to be very pro-organ donation, but having seen 'the market' at work in the US, I now feel pretty disgusted. Larry Hagman (a known alcoholic) getting a new liver thanks to his money while others wait in line ? What about Steve jobs, did he have to wait for years in line ? If all it takes is to be rich and famous, then no, I'm sorry, I don't want to participate. Let natural selection run its course.
In the discussion on whether it's better for the economy to give money to the rich or the poor (via tax cuts or other means), the answer is so simple that pundits who still argue for the 'trickle-down theory' should be required to copy it 100 times on a blackboard. If you give money to the poor, they'll spend it immediately to eat, fix their car, pay back a loan or rent a bigger apartment so their kids don't all live in the same room. It goes straight back into the economy. If you give it to the rich they'll put it in numbered Swiss bank accounts, foreign investments, art purchases (just exchanging bragging rights between rich people)... In many cases nothing makes it back to the local economy.
I'm kinda puzzled by the youth alcohol situation in France vs the UK vs the US
Having been in teenager in all 3 places, I can see the relevance of this paper. In France if you wanted a beer with friend you could go to a bar, sit, take your time chewing the fat in front of a beer and leave whenever you felt like it, which meant there was no feeling of hurry or pressure. On the other hand in the US, whenever someone managed to get hold of a 12-pack / bottle of rum / keg / etc, we'd drink it as fast as possible in order to minimize the risk of being found out, and also to leave more time for 'alcohol breath' to get down before going home in front of mom. Stupid, yes, but very real consequences: more alcohol and faster.
I'm in the market for a tablet/notebook too, so this device looks very interesting and original, but this video is about as exciting to watch as drying paint. It shows the device only as a tool to put pictures and quick notes in what amounts to PDF documents. Can you watch videos with it ? And does the dead zone in the middle interfere much ? Can you run standard PC .exe on it ? What can you do without the touch screen (any buttons) ? Can you, gasp, run Linux on it ?
Yeah, and good luck putting an iPhone under the mat so that your friends come come feed the cat and water the plants...
It's also the way I archive my mass of digital images: with the date in the filename as I cannot rely only on the filesystem timestamp. I also add some basic keywords in the filenames, something like 20091012_105445-SkiDescentEcrins.jpg. Then searching becomes a breeze, because you always remember more or less the date and adding a keywords results in you finding the right files.
Last month in France there was a story of a video camera found by the side of the road by a cop, containing images of speeding from a motorbike. The cop stood around for a while until he saw a slow-going motorbike obviously looking for something. He asked the guy who said he was looking for his camera... bingo.
Going for the funny moderation ?
The term "Kafkaesque" usually refers to Kafka's "The Trial", where a man is arrested and prosecuted without ever being told what the crime is.
Maybe we should update the vocabulary to 'Guantanamesque', like 9 years without trial. Or 'ACTAesque', like secret laws you are not allowed to know.