You are what you negotiate. Actors didn't used to get residuals - they negotiated them. Set workers or studio engineers have contracts that define their maximum workweek, when they get overtime, requirements for hot meals, etc., along with pension and health plans that they can take from job to job, thanks to collective baraining. In this world, a computer programmers are absolutely at the whim of their employers, unless they've negotiated contracts that grant them specific benefits.
Thanks for the correction. I remembered the quotes, but not the quoted, and relied on a google search (mea culpa!). Nice to know that peer review still counts in the age of the internet:)
Read the website. Although this test was conducted with a monopropellant engine, they have been testing bi-propellant mixtures for some time, exactly for the reasons you specify (although, what kinds of propellant with sufficent energy to give you a good weight to lift ratio AREN'T dangerous to some degree?)
BTW, he publicizes what his group does every week on the website. I think the only difference is that, in the week leading up to the SpaceShipOne launch, there's been more commercial media coverage of what Rutan's competitors have been up to.
That sounds extremely noble in writing, but I doubt many people including yourself would actually be willing to die in order to prevent a law such as this one from being passed.
That's what makes laws like this so insidious. Nibble rights away in small pieces - none of them so outrageous as to provoke a strong enough reaction (ie, nobody wants to be a martyr over a small infringement of rights). It's the frog being slowly roasted alive - you turn the flame up too high, and the frog jumps out. Gradually turn up the heat, and the frog acclimates until he starts cooking.
Someone with a lot of money, media power, and connections could point to all those spoiled ballots and say "Wow, there's room for a 3rd party. Let's find somebody who can appeal to this disenfranchised portion of the voter population, and make life hell for the established parties." That's what happened here in the states with Ross Perot, and he managed to dictate a lot of campaign issues simply for the fact that he was grabbing voters left and right who were sick of the established parties ignoring them.
Not to throw too many "Amen, brothers!" to the chorus, but I'm still using my original Pilot5000 (which shipped with 512k memory, back in 1996), albeit with the 2mb upgrade (with IR), and a replacement of the plastic case (innards are still original) with the exterior remains of a PalmPro unit that was up on eBay, minus the screen.
I did buy a backup Pilot 5000 (along with the same kind of 2mb + IR upgrade) as a spare for about $50, and I recently purchased a used Sony Clie for about $160, which I use for MP3s and eBooks.
I think the biggest problem was that none of the device manufacturers had the guts to innovate beyond the basic PDA form (other than say Sony, which gave us those fabulous flip-screen Clies, and that company that gave us the PalmOS based wristwatch). This might have had something to do with the previous PDAs in the early 90's not finding a market (ie, the Newton, the MagicLink, etc.) Cell-phone palm units are still basically the same handheld block, just smaller and with an antenna for the cellphone and the number keypad. I would have liked to see PDA-based word processors (I have one from Alphasmart, which could have used a bigger screen, but has a nice full-sized keyboard), PDA-based intercom and communications units (think the intercom from Star Trek, but with a screen), etc.
If you're a self-starter, college will be a great place (quarter system is my recommendation for those who want to cram more classes into a year without the possibility of getting stuck in a class you hate for half the year.) Hopefully you've been smart enough to get all the boring classes out of the way by taking as many AP tests as you can get your hands on. Nothing worse than realizing that your first two years of college will be spent taking classes you could have gotten out of the way in High School. That's my opinion, having avoided almost all of those non-major core classes by taking about a dozen AP tests before graduating (that's tests, not classes - you're allowed to take the test without taking the class...) Community college credits usually transfer if you're going to a state school, so you might want to make good use of your time this summer.
Drop out and start an Internet company. I hear that's the way to go these days.
Although that was probably meant as a +1 funny, the venture capital activity is heating up on the internet front, and people are starting to come out of the woodwork with internet-based business plans. I wouldn't advocate dropping out, but you can probably make some good money consulting with your PHP skills.
Even worse, junk faxers will use the same distributed mass fax services legit faxers use. The most annoying thing is when you only use your fax machine occasionally on your voice line, but the bastards wardial you, discover the fax machine, and then persist in calling you all times of day and night with junk faxes - EVEN WHEN YOUR MACHINE ISN'T EVEN CONNECTED!!!
If there ever was a situation where junk faxes were exactly like e-mail spam (ie, you get to the point where you have to change e-mails/phone numbers) this is it! Unfortunately my success rate in tracking down junk faxers is the same of that in tracking down telemarketers using autodialers with recorded messages (ie, no live person to tell em that this is a Do Not Call number) - 0%. We need to put out a bounty on these bastards...
As someone who made the transition to AA from CounterStrike (and never looked back) here are some keys to success:
Use your sights. Stop before shooting. If in doubt, use a grenade (unless using a grenade is going to bring a pack of opfor on you, or unless there are friendlies or civilians around the target.)
The most important thing about AA is that kills are secondary to completing your mission objective. I've got multiple rounds without even encountering enemy soldiers, working to support my fireteam (ie, deploying smoke grenades, taking secondary objectives, covering the rear, working as a medic, spotting for snipers, observing enemy movement and reporting their deployment, etc.) Patience helps - if you can't handle waiting out rounds 6-10 min long, and you get yourself killed in the first minute, you might want to try something else.
A wire transfer is different from an ACH transfer, also known as EFT (electronic funds transfer), direct deposit, or direct debit. To give an example, when drawing funds into a PayPal account, you use ACH transfers - the only way that they know that the account belongs to you is when you identify the sums deposited into your account during the setup process.
Like the poster before me noted, what's to prevent someone from simply looking at your check and copying the data?
Nothing.
Attempts to defraud corporations almost always start with someone getting account information off a check. Electronic funds transfer (EFT) advocates argue that ACH security will improve only when more companies stop writing checks and start using ACH transactions exclusively.
Businesses are not the only ones affected by this type of fraud. See this Federal Reserve case study for an example of how a bank customers can be defrauded by someone who has a presence within the banking system, and is able to initiate ACH (automated clearinghouse) transfers. Almost all checks are now processed electronically - there is no difference between a check and an ACH transfer from the point of view of the banking system. You can read more about how ACH fraud is replacing check fraud.
If you don't trust someone with your financial information, don't write them a personal check - use a money order.
Many banks now have bill pay services, and some of the more poorly constructed ones (I won't mention names because I have an account with one of em:P), actually display your social security number when you log into the bill pay section. Most banks aren't that stupid, but you still run the risk of someone "paying" a bill that you didn't authorize, or cleaning out your bank account by transferring funds into your credit card, and then spending that dry.
Keep in mind folks, that in the US, electronic funds transfers just require your account number, and bank routing number. Someone armed with those two numbers, and a cooperative banking service, can drain your accounts dry, just as if someone got a hold of a blank check and forged your signature. In either case, you're in trouble unless someone at your bank puts up a red flag and stops it.
Correction. Realbasic is apparently offering a linux version of their software as well, although they're a bit skimpier with their demo time (10 days, vs. Runtime's 30 days.) Both sell licenses for about $150-$160 for individual users...
Have you tried Realbasic? It seems to be powerful enough for people to use for "real" programming (and it's crossplatform, well, at least it runs on Macs and PCs.) You can also try introducing her to a stack-oriented scripting language (similar to Hypercard.) There's one called Runtime Revolution and it runs on Macs, PCs, and Linux (according to their website.)
I'd personally find stack-oriented scripting languages easier to pick up (from a newbie's perspective) because the process of dealing with event-driven loops is automatically built into the environment - you just have to tell the stack how to interpret button presses, etc. Also, it's easy to keep things segmented - individual scripts live on their own cards, and you can link the cards together in any particular order you want.
Since we all have guns here in the good ol' USA, no one is ever mugged.*
* Exceptions include California, Massachusetts, Maryland, District of Columbia, where ordinary citizens** are considered incapable of excercising good judgement with respect to their rights under the constitution.
** Ordinary citizens exclude prominent judges, politicians, and celebrities.
Yes, I know that you CAN legally own concealable firearms in some of the above, but it isn't easy.
The problem with this is even though you may now be anchored with the same relative "weight" on Mars as you would be on Earth, you now have to contend with moving and controlling 3 times the amount of mass.
The other problem is that while this plan might be able to stave off bone loss in high-load areas of your skeleton (ie, legs, portions of spine), it doesn't affect the acceleration felt by muscles and bones not directly impacted by a higher load from where the suit contacts your body. It also doesn't affect how low gravity reduces load on your heart to get the blood from your feet to your lungs.
Although, now that I think about it, the increased physical demands of trying to move and control 3 times your body mass (even in a low grav-planet like Mars) might prove to have certain benefits - no more need for exercise sessions...
I was watching Motorweek the other day on PBS, and they were running a segment on hybrids. Several companies were designing heavy trucks (think diesel platforms for garbage trucks and buses) that used high and low pressure hydraulic tanks to store and then release energy generated by the engine during operation. This enables the truck to avoid idling the engine at stops (similar to an electric hybrid) and allows the truck to get up to speed (hydraulic launch assist) based on the hydraulic pump (which is coupled to the driveshaft, similar to a motor) before kicking in the diesel engine. When operating or braking, fluid stored in the low pressure tank is pumped back into the high pressure tank (each tank is filled with nitrogen gas - that's what is being compressed to store energy.) When starting up from a stop or accelerating, the gas is used to shunt hydraulic fluid through the pump to spin the driveshaft.
Those in Silicon Valley are going to either buy back they Democrats from the Unions (and they have tons of money to fight back) or vote for Republicans.
It's more likely that they will move out of state, to more tech-friendly areas that tax less, and have cheaper cost-of-living. A lot of talent is still concentrated in California, but it's mainly momentum - we're benefiting from earlier investments in technology and education, and all of our research universities.
They are charging and enforcing a huge use tax on all internet purchases.
Of course, how else are they going to save face and keep their bloated pork-barrel programs/bureaucracies in place? The alternative is to scrap them, and they're not ready to admit that they're spending more than Californians can afford to pay. Between the chain that starts at the local level, percolating all of your tax dollars up to the top, then back right down, there's a lot of friction - many departments take their cut up and down the line. To fund that many mouths requires a LOT of money, money that comes from you and me. And this is just state and local taxes - federal taxes (including FICA, Medicare, and SDI) are another story!
Mind you, I appreciate it when my tax money goes to fund important things, like health and safety (ie, disease control, mosquito abatement, proper street signage, maintaining sewers and storm runoff channels). It's all of the crap that I don't want, like having to spend money on enforcement of stupid laws, for example, asset taxes, processing and court/jury time for frivolous lawsuits (enabled by stupid laws), the endless committies that publish multiple binders that must be distributed, printed, revised, and updated - that nobody ever reads, politicians getting paid to grandstand (ie, passing stupid laws in a very public manner) in order to get reelected, and the DMV with their multi-million dollar, decade-long computer upgrade, that still doesn't work.
Politicians should be penalized for stuff they promised, they either doesn't work, or that they didn't deliver. In the same way employees get performance reviews that IMPACT THEIR PAY, we, the residents of the state, should be allowed to do reviews of our elected officials, which determine how they're paid. Too bad that this will never happen, and that the "servants of the people" will continue authorizing pay raises for themselves in order to "attract top talent", to DO NOTHING.
Sorry, having to pay more than half my paycheck in taxes during the year (property taxes, asset taxes, sales taxes, employment taxes, retirement taxes, phone taxes, city taxes on utilities, use taxes) just because I'm working tends to make me a bit bitter. As the rules are set up, I'd be happier, healthier, and making almost as much money (after taxes) if I did half the work I did now and took a pay cut. Not a great incentive to try and be successful...
Most of our laws are set up to protect the unaware from their own actions.
And in doing so, justify the taxes that go to fund the bureaucracies that "protect" us from ourselves, and the time and money spent on paying the politicians and their staff members to pass more laws to do the same.
At a certain point, we're going to have a society of idiots being catered to, cradle-to-grave by the government, with the few of us who aren't idiots, being taxed to death to support them. Is it any wonder that people are fleeing across state lines to places like Nevada?
Every once in a while, you have to wipe a Windows machine, for whatever reason (usually, because the registry is so bloated with crap, it's easier to start over fresh.) At work we just finished doing just that - installing a fresh copy of Win2K (patches galore to get it from SP2 to SP4, joy...) The first thing I did (after installing a firewall, antivirus software, THEN jacking the machine into the network to download updates) was to install Firefox and set it as the default browser. Then, just for good measure, I hid IE (you can't remove Explorer, but there is an option to hide the toolbar icon and desktop shortcuts.)
Basically, Microsoft might have control over the machine after it ships from the factory, but only up to the point where it ends up in the local tech's hands. There, when you start customizing it for the end user, you can easily de-Microsoftize at the same time.
I can't be mad at any secretary 'cause she uses IE instead of Mozilla/Netscape. Of course of political reasons she shouldn't, but practically?
Well, if you use Firefox, you can be much more productive after customizing the browser interface, and tabs alone are a good reason to switch. There are some really nifty extensions for Firefox, like session save, where even if you have to quit the browser, upon relaunch it will re-open all of the browser windows that were up the last time you were running Firefox. Another great extension is Live HTTP Headers - I use that one quite a bit when debugging code from webservers that I administer.
Early 90's Disney was iffy already... Disney's been coasting for decades ever since ol' Walt passed on.
Disney (as in the company) had one near-death experience in the early 80's, which resulted in Frank Wells being brought in, along with Eisner and a bunch of young executives from Paramount (remember, this was 20 years ago - they were all relatively young.) They managed to turn the company around, and by luck, skill, whatever, built a big animation franchise - The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King. Look at the box office and cumulative merchandising/video sales, and you'll see why everybody else in the industry wanted to get a piece of the animation business.
Read the parent of my post. He said that Disney had gotten out of the animation biz altogether. I pointed out that they may have tossed out the 2D Feature Animation department, they have a 3D unit in place to still make animated films.
It is successful due to it's storytelling skills.
You, me, and hundreds of other animators agree on this point. Too bad most of Pixar's imitators don't realize this, or choose to ignore this fact.
Get FDB (fluid dynamic bearing) drives. I have several of them in my ReplayTV units, which sit outside my TV cabinet, and I can't hear anything unless I put my ear to the case. This is a big deal because when I'm watching a movie on DVD, the last thing I want to be aware of is the whine of a drive that chewing on a bearing, in my living room. I don't know if they'll end up like my bearing drives, and finally start emitting horrible noises when they age, but if they do, it'll be time to replace, hopefully with something totally solid state...
Re:*Disney* came out ahead when they dumped Pixar
on
Welcome To Planet Pixar
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· Score: 3, Insightful
The question is, does Disney want to be in the animation business or not? Letting Pixar go suggests to me that they don't - otherwise, there's really no price that would have been too high to pay.
Disney wants to be in the animation business - but on their terms. You can see this kind of thinking with their live action films, where they refuse to pay big-name star salaries, or authorize large budgets. This can bite them in the ass (ie, The Alamo) but Disney is able to exert tight control over production costs.
Ironically, Disney's failures in animation stem from NOT exerting tight control over production costs, and allowing them to run high on films that lacked the story to bring in the blockbuster revenues that Disney was counting on. This lead to films like Lilo and Stitch, which had good story, but had to make do with a relatively shoestring budget, as compared to say, Treasure Planet.
Disney has a 3D unit. They've been working feverishly the past year on a couple of films (one of which was scrapped, if I remember correctly.) Disney also tried to get into the business a few years ago by buying Secret Labs, and using that core to build a production team that they used on Dinosaur. They've since assembled a new team, with some animators being pulled from the ashes of what was once Disney Feature Animation. The problem is, if they don't get their script and storyboard down pat, not even the novelty of 3D (which is getting less novel as time passes) is going to save them. They've just wasted too much of their goodwill for audiences to go to a Disney film on brand name alone.
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You are what you negotiate. Actors didn't used to get residuals - they negotiated them. Set workers or studio engineers have contracts that define their maximum workweek, when they get overtime, requirements for hot meals, etc., along with pension and health plans that they can take from job to job, thanks to collective baraining. In this world, a computer programmers are absolutely at the whim of their employers, unless they've negotiated contracts that grant them specific benefits.
Thanks for the correction. I remembered the quotes, but not the quoted, and relied on a google search (mea culpa!). Nice to know that peer review still counts in the age of the internet :)
Read the website. Although this test was conducted with a monopropellant engine, they have been testing bi-propellant mixtures for some time, exactly for the reasons you specify (although, what kinds of propellant with sufficent energy to give you a good weight to lift ratio AREN'T dangerous to some degree?)
BTW, he publicizes what his group does every week on the website. I think the only difference is that, in the week leading up to the SpaceShipOne launch, there's been more commercial media coverage of what Rutan's competitors have been up to.
Should it really be necessary for each generation to fight the battle for democracy?
Two quotes:
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
"The tree of liberty must from time to time be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots."
Both are quotes from Thomas Jefferson.
That sounds extremely noble in writing, but I doubt many people including yourself would actually be willing to die in order to prevent a law such as this one from being passed.
That's what makes laws like this so insidious. Nibble rights away in small pieces - none of them so outrageous as to provoke a strong enough reaction (ie, nobody wants to be a martyr over a small infringement of rights). It's the frog being slowly roasted alive - you turn the flame up too high, and the frog jumps out. Gradually turn up the heat, and the frog acclimates until he starts cooking.
Someone with a lot of money, media power, and connections could point to all those spoiled ballots and say "Wow, there's room for a 3rd party. Let's find somebody who can appeal to this disenfranchised portion of the voter population, and make life hell for the established parties." That's what happened here in the states with Ross Perot, and he managed to dictate a lot of campaign issues simply for the fact that he was grabbing voters left and right who were sick of the established parties ignoring them.
Not to throw too many "Amen, brothers!" to the chorus, but I'm still using my original Pilot5000 (which shipped with 512k memory, back in 1996), albeit with the 2mb upgrade (with IR), and a replacement of the plastic case (innards are still original) with the exterior remains of a PalmPro unit that was up on eBay, minus the screen.
I did buy a backup Pilot 5000 (along with the same kind of 2mb + IR upgrade) as a spare for about $50, and I recently purchased a used Sony Clie for about $160, which I use for MP3s and eBooks.
I think the biggest problem was that none of the device manufacturers had the guts to innovate beyond the basic PDA form (other than say Sony, which gave us those fabulous flip-screen Clies, and that company that gave us the PalmOS based wristwatch). This might have had something to do with the previous PDAs in the early 90's not finding a market (ie, the Newton, the MagicLink, etc.) Cell-phone palm units are still basically the same handheld block, just smaller and with an antenna for the cellphone and the number keypad. I would have liked to see PDA-based word processors (I have one from Alphasmart, which could have used a bigger screen, but has a nice full-sized keyboard), PDA-based intercom and communications units (think the intercom from Star Trek, but with a screen), etc.
If you're a self-starter, college will be a great place (quarter system is my recommendation for those who want to cram more classes into a year without the possibility of getting stuck in a class you hate for half the year.) Hopefully you've been smart enough to get all the boring classes out of the way by taking as many AP tests as you can get your hands on. Nothing worse than realizing that your first two years of college will be spent taking classes you could have gotten out of the way in High School. That's my opinion, having avoided almost all of those non-major core classes by taking about a dozen AP tests before graduating (that's tests, not classes - you're allowed to take the test without taking the class...) Community college credits usually transfer if you're going to a state school, so you might want to make good use of your time this summer.
Drop out and start an Internet company. I hear that's the way to go these days.
Although that was probably meant as a +1 funny, the venture capital activity is heating up on the internet front, and people are starting to come out of the woodwork with internet-based business plans. I wouldn't advocate dropping out, but you can probably make some good money consulting with your PHP skills.
Even worse, junk faxers will use the same distributed mass fax services legit faxers use. The most annoying thing is when you only use your fax machine occasionally on your voice line, but the bastards wardial you, discover the fax machine, and then persist in calling you all times of day and night with junk faxes - EVEN WHEN YOUR MACHINE ISN'T EVEN CONNECTED!!!
If there ever was a situation where junk faxes were exactly like e-mail spam (ie, you get to the point where you have to change e-mails/phone numbers) this is it! Unfortunately my success rate in tracking down junk faxers is the same of that in tracking down telemarketers using autodialers with recorded messages (ie, no live person to tell em that this is a Do Not Call number) - 0%. We need to put out a bounty on these bastards...
As someone who made the transition to AA from CounterStrike (and never looked back) here are some keys to success:
Use your sights. Stop before shooting. If in doubt, use a grenade (unless using a grenade is going to bring a pack of opfor on you, or unless there are friendlies or civilians around the target.)
The most important thing about AA is that kills are secondary to completing your mission objective. I've got multiple rounds without even encountering enemy soldiers, working to support my fireteam (ie, deploying smoke grenades, taking secondary objectives, covering the rear, working as a medic, spotting for snipers, observing enemy movement and reporting their deployment, etc.) Patience helps - if you can't handle waiting out rounds 6-10 min long, and you get yourself killed in the first minute, you might want to try something else.
It'd be easy enough to write a CGI (in AppleScript, no less) to take a HTTP frontend, and have it send commands to iTunes, and to feed the data back.
Like the poster before me noted, what's to prevent someone from simply looking at your check and copying the data?
Nothing. (from a Treasury & Risk Management article.)
Businesses are not the only ones affected by this type of fraud. See this Federal Reserve case study for an example of how a bank customers can be defrauded by someone who has a presence within the banking system, and is able to initiate ACH (automated clearinghouse) transfers. Almost all checks are now processed electronically - there is no difference between a check and an ACH transfer from the point of view of the banking system. You can read more about how ACH fraud is replacing check fraud.
If you don't trust someone with your financial information, don't write them a personal check - use a money order.
Many banks now have bill pay services, and some of the more poorly constructed ones (I won't mention names because I have an account with one of em :P), actually display your social security number when you log into the bill pay section. Most banks aren't that stupid, but you still run the risk of someone "paying" a bill that you didn't authorize, or cleaning out your bank account by transferring funds into your credit card, and then spending that dry.
Keep in mind folks, that in the US, electronic funds transfers just require your account number, and bank routing number. Someone armed with those two numbers, and a cooperative banking service, can drain your accounts dry, just as if someone got a hold of a blank check and forged your signature. In either case, you're in trouble unless someone at your bank puts up a red flag and stops it.
Correction. Realbasic is apparently offering a linux version of their software as well, although they're a bit skimpier with their demo time (10 days, vs. Runtime's 30 days.) Both sell licenses for about $150-$160 for individual users...
Have you tried Realbasic? It seems to be powerful enough for people to use for "real" programming (and it's crossplatform, well, at least it runs on Macs and PCs.) You can also try introducing her to a stack-oriented scripting language (similar to Hypercard.) There's one called Runtime Revolution and it runs on Macs, PCs, and Linux (according to their website.)
I'd personally find stack-oriented scripting languages easier to pick up (from a newbie's perspective) because the process of dealing with event-driven loops is automatically built into the environment - you just have to tell the stack how to interpret button presses, etc. Also, it's easy to keep things segmented - individual scripts live on their own cards, and you can link the cards together in any particular order you want.
Since we all have guns here in the good ol' USA, no one is ever mugged.*
* Exceptions include California, Massachusetts, Maryland, District of Columbia, where ordinary citizens** are considered incapable of excercising good judgement with respect to their rights under the constitution.
** Ordinary citizens exclude prominent judges, politicians, and celebrities.
Yes, I know that you CAN legally own concealable firearms in some of the above, but it isn't easy.
The problem with this is even though you may now be anchored with the same relative "weight" on Mars as you would be on Earth, you now have to contend with moving and controlling 3 times the amount of mass.
The other problem is that while this plan might be able to stave off bone loss in high-load areas of your skeleton (ie, legs, portions of spine), it doesn't affect the acceleration felt by muscles and bones not directly impacted by a higher load from where the suit contacts your body. It also doesn't affect how low gravity reduces load on your heart to get the blood from your feet to your lungs.
Although, now that I think about it, the increased physical demands of trying to move and control 3 times your body mass (even in a low grav-planet like Mars) might prove to have certain benefits - no more need for exercise sessions...
I was watching Motorweek the other day on PBS, and they were running a segment on hybrids. Several companies were designing heavy trucks (think diesel platforms for garbage trucks and buses) that used high and low pressure hydraulic tanks to store and then release energy generated by the engine during operation. This enables the truck to avoid idling the engine at stops (similar to an electric hybrid) and allows the truck to get up to speed (hydraulic launch assist) based on the hydraulic pump (which is coupled to the driveshaft, similar to a motor) before kicking in the diesel engine. When operating or braking, fluid stored in the low pressure tank is pumped back into the high pressure tank (each tank is filled with nitrogen gas - that's what is being compressed to store energy.) When starting up from a stop or accelerating, the gas is used to shunt hydraulic fluid through the pump to spin the driveshaft.
Hydraulic hybrids.
Those in Silicon Valley are going to either buy back they Democrats from the Unions (and they have tons of money to fight back) or vote for Republicans.
It's more likely that they will move out of state, to more tech-friendly areas that tax less, and have cheaper cost-of-living. A lot of talent is still concentrated in California, but it's mainly momentum - we're benefiting from earlier investments in technology and education, and all of our research universities.
They are charging and enforcing a huge use tax on all internet purchases.
Of course, how else are they going to save face and keep their bloated pork-barrel programs/bureaucracies in place? The alternative is to scrap them, and they're not ready to admit that they're spending more than Californians can afford to pay. Between the chain that starts at the local level, percolating all of your tax dollars up to the top, then back right down, there's a lot of friction - many departments take their cut up and down the line. To fund that many mouths requires a LOT of money, money that comes from you and me. And this is just state and local taxes - federal taxes (including FICA, Medicare, and SDI) are another story!
Mind you, I appreciate it when my tax money goes to fund important things, like health and safety (ie, disease control, mosquito abatement, proper street signage, maintaining sewers and storm runoff channels). It's all of the crap that I don't want, like having to spend money on enforcement of stupid laws, for example, asset taxes, processing and court/jury time for frivolous lawsuits (enabled by stupid laws), the endless committies that publish multiple binders that must be distributed, printed, revised, and updated - that nobody ever reads, politicians getting paid to grandstand (ie, passing stupid laws in a very public manner) in order to get reelected, and the DMV with their multi-million dollar, decade-long computer upgrade, that still doesn't work.
Politicians should be penalized for stuff they promised, they either doesn't work, or that they didn't deliver. In the same way employees get performance reviews that IMPACT THEIR PAY, we, the residents of the state, should be allowed to do reviews of our elected officials, which determine how they're paid. Too bad that this will never happen, and that the "servants of the people" will continue authorizing pay raises for themselves in order to "attract top talent", to DO NOTHING.
Sorry, having to pay more than half my paycheck in taxes during the year (property taxes, asset taxes, sales taxes, employment taxes, retirement taxes, phone taxes, city taxes on utilities, use taxes) just because I'm working tends to make me a bit bitter. As the rules are set up, I'd be happier, healthier, and making almost as much money (after taxes) if I did half the work I did now and took a pay cut. Not a great incentive to try and be successful...
Most of our laws are set up to protect the unaware from their own actions.
And in doing so, justify the taxes that go to fund the bureaucracies that "protect" us from ourselves, and the time and money spent on paying the politicians and their staff members to pass more laws to do the same.
At a certain point, we're going to have a society of idiots being catered to, cradle-to-grave by the government, with the few of us who aren't idiots, being taxed to death to support them. Is it any wonder that people are fleeing across state lines to places like Nevada?
Every once in a while, you have to wipe a Windows machine, for whatever reason (usually, because the registry is so bloated with crap, it's easier to start over fresh.) At work we just finished doing just that - installing a fresh copy of Win2K (patches galore to get it from SP2 to SP4, joy...) The first thing I did (after installing a firewall, antivirus software, THEN jacking the machine into the network to download updates) was to install Firefox and set it as the default browser. Then, just for good measure, I hid IE (you can't remove Explorer, but there is an option to hide the toolbar icon and desktop shortcuts.)
Basically, Microsoft might have control over the machine after it ships from the factory, but only up to the point where it ends up in the local tech's hands. There, when you start customizing it for the end user, you can easily de-Microsoftize at the same time.
I can't be mad at any secretary 'cause she uses IE instead of Mozilla/Netscape. Of course of political reasons she shouldn't, but practically?
Well, if you use Firefox, you can be much more productive after customizing the browser interface, and tabs alone are a good reason to switch. There are some really nifty extensions for Firefox, like session save, where even if you have to quit the browser, upon relaunch it will re-open all of the browser windows that were up the last time you were running Firefox. Another great extension is Live HTTP Headers - I use that one quite a bit when debugging code from webservers that I administer.
Early 90's Disney was iffy already... Disney's been coasting for decades ever since ol' Walt passed on.
Disney (as in the company) had one near-death experience in the early 80's, which resulted in Frank Wells being brought in, along with Eisner and a bunch of young executives from Paramount (remember, this was 20 years ago - they were all relatively young.) They managed to turn the company around, and by luck, skill, whatever, built a big animation franchise - The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King. Look at the box office and cumulative merchandising/video sales, and you'll see why everybody else in the industry wanted to get a piece of the animation business.
Read the parent of my post. He said that Disney had gotten out of the animation biz altogether. I pointed out that they may have tossed out the 2D Feature Animation department, they have a 3D unit in place to still make animated films.
It is successful due to it's storytelling skills.
You, me, and hundreds of other animators agree on this point. Too bad most of Pixar's imitators don't realize this, or choose to ignore this fact.
Get FDB (fluid dynamic bearing) drives. I have several of them in my ReplayTV units, which sit outside my TV cabinet, and I can't hear anything unless I put my ear to the case. This is a big deal because when I'm watching a movie on DVD, the last thing I want to be aware of is the whine of a drive that chewing on a bearing, in my living room. I don't know if they'll end up like my bearing drives, and finally start emitting horrible noises when they age, but if they do, it'll be time to replace, hopefully with something totally solid state...
The question is, does Disney want to be in the animation business or not? Letting Pixar go suggests to me that they don't - otherwise, there's really no price that would have been too high to pay.
Disney wants to be in the animation business - but on their terms. You can see this kind of thinking with their live action films, where they refuse to pay big-name star salaries, or authorize large budgets. This can bite them in the ass (ie, The Alamo) but Disney is able to exert tight control over production costs.
Ironically, Disney's failures in animation stem from NOT exerting tight control over production costs, and allowing them to run high on films that lacked the story to bring in the blockbuster revenues that Disney was counting on. This lead to films like Lilo and Stitch, which had good story, but had to make do with a relatively shoestring budget, as compared to say, Treasure Planet.
Disney has a 3D unit. They've been working feverishly the past year on a couple of films (one of which was scrapped, if I remember correctly.) Disney also tried to get into the business a few years ago by buying Secret Labs, and using that core to build a production team that they used on Dinosaur. They've since assembled a new team, with some animators being pulled from the ashes of what was once Disney Feature Animation. The problem is, if they don't get their script and storyboard down pat, not even the novelty of 3D (which is getting less novel as time passes) is going to save them. They've just wasted too much of their goodwill for audiences to go to a Disney film on brand name alone.