Perhaps requiring several rounds of them, but the point remains.
Further, governmental powers aren't limited by the constitution at all. They're limited by the interpretation of the constitution by the courts. (and not, as so many libertarians seem to believe, by them personally)
They don't believe in letting people decide democratically what the state should or shouldn't do. They want to enforce their own views on the matter on everyone else.
You're always welcome to avail yourself to the free market of nations if you don't like the one you're in.
What gives you the right to tell the rest of us what government is "supposed" to do?
Libertarians and their totalitarian fantasies can fuck right off. If people want the government to give everyone rainbows and blowjobs, you have no business telling them it shouldn't.
Was forcing the three laws in. The story had absolutely nothing to do with the book, which was a psuedobiographical series of short stories about Dr. Calvin.
Corporations don't pass expenses on to their customers. Period.
If competition allows them to raise their prices without losing (too much) business they will, regardless of costs. They charge the highest price they can get away with.
Is attaching names to the data really so valuable to justify likely persecution of the participants, as well as introducing selection bias to the sample?
I think a lot of the anti-Apple sentiment comes from people like me who would like the opportunity to use OS X, if only Apple would deign to take our money. It generates a lot of frustration and disagreement between people who don't really have any substantive differences.
For me, the Mac tax really hits hard and that makes Apple hardware a non-option. I bought a Core Duo laptop for $500 a few years ago, and only use it as a portable. I put together a quad core desktop together about a year ago for $1,200.
If I'd bought Macs, I'd have had to buy a MacBook Pro (13" is too small for me), and the closest thing Apple offers to my desktop is $3,100. (Full disclosure: Apple gouges Canadians for an extra couple hundred.)
I'd be happy to give them a couple hundred dollars for an OS X license, but not a 100% plus "Mac tax".
Even if the prices were comparable and the configurations suited me, I still wouldn't want to tie myself inextricably to a single hardware vendor.
As for presentations on Linux, it works fine, provided you've made sure to set X up to handle the VGA output. I use Gentoo though, a more user friendly distro like Ubuntu might handle more automatically.
OS X (with fink) would probably be more suitable for my laptop (and maybe my desktop). It drives me nuts that Apple won't let me have it. I've been happily cheering Psystar on from the sidelines:P
I should have mentioned that I rarely give presentations, but it is sometimes necessary. For you I'm sure remembering that little dongle is a no brainer; you need it all the time. For me it isn't; I rarely need it at all and so it's likely to get tossed in a side pocket and easily forgotten or lost.
A Mac without that adaptor is incompatible with projection systems, period.
As for durability, a PC laptop only has one point of failure; the VGA port itself. I've never seen one of those break. I've seen the cabling between the projector and the podium go wonky many times, and the Mac adaptor just doubles that risk.
The only common factor I can come up with is that all problems that couldn't be blamed on the facility were with Macs, but Macs are 100% of the population with those silly dongles.
The real crux of the matter, and Macinistas seem to really miss this, is that Apple hardware simply isn't suitable for me. If it works for you, that's awesome. I'm happy for you. My needs are different.
I run Linux on my systems, so OS X doesn't offer any security advantages. There are certainly other advantages, and I'd very seriously consider it for some of my systems if Apple would sell me a license to use it.
I can't count the number of presentations I've seen with a Mac that have gone green or pink due to the dodgy adaptor they're forced to use. Maybe if you're extremely careful it's fine, but you're out to lunch if you don't acknowledge that it's fragile.
If you lose any of those other things on your list, you can get by. The only one that'd be any more than a mild inconvenience would be the AC adaptor, and if you use a common brand like a Dell or Lenovo, odds are someone will be able to spot you during the presentation. Or you could just make sure to save enough battery power.
If you lose the special Mac only VGA adaptor, you're SOL. Good luck getting one from anyone but Apple, and I don't think your audience will wait a week or two for the delivery.
You misunderstood me with regard to the darkened room comment. The new Macbook models are only available with glossy screens. While those are nice for artists, they're absolute pants for anyone else.
Comparing apples to apples (no pun intended) only reveals a fraction of the mac tax.
The simple fact is that any one apple product is only ideal for a very small segment of the market.
The best way to put a dollar figure on the mac tax is to just subtract the price of the next model down, because everything in between is available to PC buyers.
Further, there are some parts of the tax that can't really be expressed in dollars. Mac laptops are not compatible with essentially all projectors installed in the field without a fragile and easily losable adaptor that must be purchased separately. They tend to lack useful features like SD card readers in place of frivolous ones like firewire. There's no longer an option for a matte lcd, so they can only be used in a darkened room.
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Perhaps requiring several rounds of them, but the point remains.
Further, governmental powers aren't limited by the constitution at all. They're limited by the interpretation of the constitution by the courts. (and not, as so many libertarians seem to believe, by them personally)
Your constitution has a dispute resolution mechanism; the courts.
Libertarians don't want to do this because they know they're wrong. They don't really respect the constitution and want to place their whims above it.
You're perfectly free to avail yourself to the free market of nations at any point of your choosing.
They don't believe in letting people decide democratically what the state should or shouldn't do. They want to enforce their own views on the matter on everyone else.
You're always welcome to avail yourself to the free market of nations if you don't like the one you're in.
The documents that give government it's authority (ballots) have whatever people want on them. Everything else is mutable.
Those options are on you ballot in a democracy.
What gives you the right to tell the rest of us what government is "supposed" to do?
Libertarians and their totalitarian fantasies can fuck right off. If people want the government to give everyone rainbows and blowjobs, you have no business telling them it shouldn't.
Was forcing the three laws in. The story had absolutely nothing to do with the book, which was a psuedobiographical series of short stories about Dr. Calvin.
In the main thread she was old, but the book covered most her whole life.
It was based on the earlier Eando Binder short story.
Raise your hand, and ask for an explanation of supply, demand, and equilibrium thereof.
Corporations don't pass expenses on to their customers. Period.
If competition allows them to raise their prices without losing (too much) business they will, regardless of costs. They charge the highest price they can get away with.
Budding is not a natural process, even for the loneliest geek.
Conclusion: Sun stopped paying.
Other obvious paid inclusions are the Norton and Realplayer malware.
File format and other predatory lock in techniques are far more powerful than straight out application competition.
It's going to be really hard for hulu to gain acceptance outside the US after telling everyone to fuck off.
Oh, and I certainly can buy Scott paper towels here in Canada.
Is attaching names to the data really so valuable to justify likely persecution of the participants, as well as introducing selection bias to the sample?
If you aren't American, so they can go fuck themselves.
Thank you as well. Your writing style is strangely similar to a friend of mine who's going off to work for them.
I think a lot of the anti-Apple sentiment comes from people like me who would like the opportunity to use OS X, if only Apple would deign to take our money. It generates a lot of frustration and disagreement between people who don't really have any substantive differences.
For me, the Mac tax really hits hard and that makes Apple hardware a non-option. I bought a Core Duo laptop for $500 a few years ago, and only use it as a portable. I put together a quad core desktop together about a year ago for $1,200.
If I'd bought Macs, I'd have had to buy a MacBook Pro (13" is too small for me), and the closest thing Apple offers to my desktop is $3,100. (Full disclosure: Apple gouges Canadians for an extra couple hundred.)
I'd be happy to give them a couple hundred dollars for an OS X license, but not a 100% plus "Mac tax".
Even if the prices were comparable and the configurations suited me, I still wouldn't want to tie myself inextricably to a single hardware vendor.
As for presentations on Linux, it works fine, provided you've made sure to set X up to handle the VGA output. I use Gentoo though, a more user friendly distro like Ubuntu might handle more automatically.
OS X (with fink) would probably be more suitable for my laptop (and maybe my desktop). It drives me nuts that Apple won't let me have it. I've been happily cheering Psystar on from the sidelines :P
I should have mentioned that I rarely give presentations, but it is sometimes necessary. For you I'm sure remembering that little dongle is a no brainer; you need it all the time. For me it isn't; I rarely need it at all and so it's likely to get tossed in a side pocket and easily forgotten or lost.
A Mac without that adaptor is incompatible with projection systems, period.
As for durability, a PC laptop only has one point of failure; the VGA port itself. I've never seen one of those break. I've seen the cabling between the projector and the podium go wonky many times, and the Mac adaptor just doubles that risk.
The only common factor I can come up with is that all problems that couldn't be blamed on the facility were with Macs, but Macs are 100% of the population with those silly dongles.
The real crux of the matter, and Macinistas seem to really miss this, is that Apple hardware simply isn't suitable for me. If it works for you, that's awesome. I'm happy for you. My needs are different.
I run Linux on my systems, so OS X doesn't offer any security advantages. There are certainly other advantages, and I'd very seriously consider it for some of my systems if Apple would sell me a license to use it.
I can't count the number of presentations I've seen with a Mac that have gone green or pink due to the dodgy adaptor they're forced to use. Maybe if you're extremely careful it's fine, but you're out to lunch if you don't acknowledge that it's fragile.
If you lose any of those other things on your list, you can get by. The only one that'd be any more than a mild inconvenience would be the AC adaptor, and if you use a common brand like a Dell or Lenovo, odds are someone will be able to spot you during the presentation. Or you could just make sure to save enough battery power.
If you lose the special Mac only VGA adaptor, you're SOL. Good luck getting one from anyone but Apple, and I don't think your audience will wait a week or two for the delivery.
You misunderstood me with regard to the darkened room comment. The new Macbook models are only available with glossy screens. While those are nice for artists, they're absolute pants for anyone else.
Comparing apples to apples (no pun intended) only reveals a fraction of the mac tax.
The simple fact is that any one apple product is only ideal for a very small segment of the market.
The best way to put a dollar figure on the mac tax is to just subtract the price of the next model down, because everything in between is available to PC buyers.
Further, there are some parts of the tax that can't really be expressed in dollars. Mac laptops are not compatible with essentially all projectors installed in the field without a fragile and easily losable adaptor that must be purchased separately. They tend to lack useful features like SD card readers in place of frivolous ones like firewire. There's no longer an option for a matte lcd, so they can only be used in a darkened room.
So you're still wrong.
There's absolutely nothing in any OS license I'm aware of that restricts resale of code.