From my personal experience I have to say I see the problem from a different perspective. Though keep in mind that I am not an American so my situation might be a completely different one.
See, when I tried to get my first job it was the year 2002. IT staff was fired left and right and I decided I was lucky to get a job at all just after one month.
The job was crap. They hired me because I would work for the least money (being so young) but expected me to run their complete IT including fixing a newly introduced business software that had been more like forced into the environment rather than introduced into it.
When they started expecting that not only should I be on call 24/7, do the consulting, learn to handle the whole business software, do user support and actually code some equivalents to things the software should have done in the frickin' first place in Access but also, on top of all that, I was to fix hardware problems without any money I knew it was time to go.
My next job was to be just user support and 'low level' IT work such as deploying workstations and fixing them and such. Then, during the interview, I got offered to work together with the consultant and be the one to actually build the support foundation for the new business software they were introducing. I had never worked in such an environment before, I didn't know the old software and I certainly diddn't know the new one but I thought to give it a go. After all I was offered the fall-back to the original offer of supporter.
A few weeks later they had hired another supporter and I was called into the boss' office and told that some people didn't like some stuff about how I was doing my work. I was neither told what exactly was the problem nor was I told who had complained so I could have discussed the problem with them. I was just told to do stuff differently.
Then I got the job I'm working at now. It is a good job because I like my coworkers and the stuff I do. But until this year, I was 20% underpayed (meaning you had to add another 20% to my actual salary to get to toe average salary). I was told that getting the 10% I asked for would be hard. Usually people in that company had to be happy with raises around one or two percent if they got anything at all. I was lucky since two IT people had left shortly before so they were in something of a tight spot.
But my experience thus far has been as follows: It doesn't matter whether you have managers as your boss or the owner of the company, they're all trying to screw you over and unless you are willing to risk being laughed at because you have such high demands you will NEVER get fair conditions on your job.
If companies started to actually treat us workers like we were trying to help get our company along instead of just an expense on the budget then perhaps we might start to have realistic demands in the first place. I am just unwilling to be treated as slave that has the bonus of being paid. If you think I'm unreasonable to ask that then, frankly, screw you.
Seriously people, mentioning Hitler in a factual statement does not invoke Godwin's Law. This is not a comparison, it's a statement. A fact (which should be checked for truth, of course) is not the same as comparing someone to Hitler because he doesn't agree with you.
...when these things actually start looking like cars. Yes, I know that when I drive to work I usually don't have to have room for groceries and the whole family but if that thing doesn't cost below 10k bucks then I don't see myself having an extra car sitting in the garage just for getting family and stuff to places twice a week.
I want to see a car that has the same range, power and space and a comparable price as today's cars. THEN I will GLADLY buy one... new even.
Fuck modern special effects! If they could just get into the same vibe they had in the 80s I'd be willing to pay bucks for the cinema release AND the DVD.
No seriously, who cares about modern special effects? What was wrong with the ones they used back then? The Marshmallow-Man and the Statue of Liberty look cool to this day, the streams weren't that badly done either. I'd rather see them invest in the story than the special effects. I'm going to the cinema to be entertained, not blitzed with effects left, right and center. If I want that, I'm going to buy myself a stroboscope.
Or am I the only one who started to understand "modernize" as "do it again but worse and more expensive"?
Interestingly, while I really enjoy my daily dose of porn, that oversexed Vulcan was the reason I stopped watching the show. And I didn't even think that it sucked that much.
When the next draft comes around, how many of you will run to canada and claim you're a Consienance Objector (sp?). How many of you will encourage your children, if they're of age, to go fight for this country? Well, I'm not an American but I believe this is somewhat universal:
The effing day someone actually gives a fuck about my in my government is the day I might start considering serving for the country. As it stands now, everything I have comes from personal struggle or through our combined efforts to exploit others. There is nothing to be proud of of your country. Patriotism is a plague.
Seriously? The kids we lose because they're just dumb fuckwads who think a few beer (as in ten) and some shots of vodka won't do anything to decrease their ability to drive are good for two reasons:
1: The more intelligent ones think twice about copying that 2: We're rid of some morons.
Now if we could get them to kill themselves without hurting others... that would be efficient.
Sometimes people die. Losing freedom over a bit of security is plain stupid.
So and because of that, you want to forbid Iran to have a nuclear programme?
If I went by the same reasoning we'd have to forbid the US from having one, too. The hard truth is that a sizeable part of the world's population doesn't trust you as far as they can throw you. A sizeable part of the world's population also is unsure of which leader of the two countries in question is the more evil dictator.
There's alsways a lot of emotion in such arguments. The real problem about it is the feeling that you have the RIGHT to forbid another country from having a nuclear programme.
Basically, if we hadn't fucked with them arabs for years I'd bet we wouldn't have to be scared of them now. It's like the school bully who torments those weaker than him for two years and hiding the third when the others are fed up with him and start working together to pay him back.
Well, while I basically agree with your sentiment I feel the need to point out that you wouldn't come across as such an idiot if you had actually mentioned exactly how his points are so glaringly invalid.
But I guess it's asking a little much of a troll, eyh?
So, taking shots at my wife's character albeit you have never even exchanged a single line with her is your way of dealing with this? Well, I say thank you. Thank you for disqualifying yourself so soundly that I'm in awe.
It's moments like this that show me that once again I'm obviously just too bad-ass for certain kinds of people to have the guts to stand up to me with facts.
Well, it's way too late, but who knows perhaps someone stumbles across this and in that case:
You sound pretty knowledgeable... but I think it remains right there.
For one, I never stated that NFP is actually as secure as hormonal products. Although it almost is. Because it's not the Rhythm Method. It's the Symptothermal method. It has a Pearl Index of 0.8% while the pill has 0.16%. That's pretty damn close, don't you think? Especially since I'm not sure whether this index takes faulty execution of the method into account. And the Pearl index has thousands of cycles behind it of dozens of women so I think while my wife might not be the end of all examples, the Pearl index is not that bad of an indicator.
Furthermore, you've fallen into the trap of thinking that my wife must be some alternative-lifestyle idiot because she has responded better to some alternative methods. That is very arrogant of you. Just FYI, she works in the chemical field and she's been working with Roche for years. She KNOWS how stuff works, okay? She has been there, in the same room, as people have discussed how a product could be marketed to sell to people with ailments for which this product provides questionable treatment at best.
I find it funny how some people have disqualified themselves by taking shots at my wifes character here. Just because I post a very valid argument: That nothing should be viewed as impossible just because it has not yet been proven. I know that Americans have developed a habit of taking this approach from their courts but it's exactly what will give the creationists ammunition. When science stops using scientific methods.
An example: Go an try to prove to a colour blind person that the heaven is blue. Does that make it less blue for you because you can't? Would the earth have been flat because some idiot before Galileo didn't have the means to prove it was round?
Someone dismissing that there are people who have a better life after being treated by fraudsters is no better than church making Galileo take back his observation. And while the method might not be clear, the results are what count in my opinion. Just because people try to throw poo at my wife's character doesn't make the truth go away.
Oh and I'd like to add... the baboon is not the one who got the poo in his face. It's the one who started throwing it.
And remember all the people who stole his music, think he's so fucking cool and go to see him in concert thereafter and buy a t-shirt.... remember where they really make the money, those bloody artists.
a) It is assuming that people are rational beings and that all actions are well premeditated. It's pretty well known by now that people are irrational (hey, how's that for a slashdot audience, this is a blog entry by the gmail creator!). Basically, in a surge of emotion (think domestic fights, a depressed / severely stressed kid (say a highschool shooting)), if one can easily have access to guns (by opening the local cabinet, going to a store, etc.), they can cause massively more damage, significantly more easily.
b) That the massive number of guns going around in a society will always be used by the people they were intended in the way they were intended. This is patently not true, as demonstrated by kids getting access to their grandfather's gun, or various people we (the west) have massively funded and provided guns to (think Bin Laden and the Mujahideen's in Afganistan vs the Soviets, or Saddam versus the Iranians).
Likewise, your counterarguments have holes, too:
a) In such a situation, where rational thought isn't a factor anymore, everything can be turned into a weapon. You can slice the other party open with a kitchen knive, throw the acidic cleaner in his face, break his spine with a chair carefully applied just at the right spot and so on. Remember, the person is being irrational. Chances are he's not going to kill with the first bullet. So he has to shoot a second time. So you can't even argue that using a knive or a chair is less dangerous because the other has a chance to survive the first attack. What good does that do you when you're lying on the floor with a broken back and the other guy takes a second swing at your head?
b) And you think Bin Laden wouldn't have gotten any guns if you hadn't given them to him? Do you think 9/11 wouldn't have happened if they hadn't had any guns? Really? And by your logic, since the kids got to guns they were not supposed to wield in the first place, that the same argument couldn't be applied to screwdrivers, kitchen knives, scissors and the like? Accidents, and that's what they remain, happen because people don't know how to handle the tools. Yes, tools. They are all tools. Of course a gun is meant to kill... or shoot at round circles on a piece of paper. Do you want to outlaw my longbow too? Or axes? Remember, those can be thrown as well. Scary, dangerous stuff, that. Or chainsaws! Don't forget those bastards, we've seen in horror movies that they can kill as well!
See, the problem is not that normal citizens have guns. If they didn't, then it would be very possible to become a police state. With all the crap that's going on lately you can't possibly want to tell me that that scenario isn't a frighteningly close possibility. No, the problem is that every crackhead can have a semi-automatic or even automatic gun to "shoot deer". It's the fact that people aren't required to go through extensive training to obtain a license to own a weapon. I mean seriously, a car can be dangerous but it is not inherently produced to kill stuff. But that takes some training to get a license to handle. Why not guns?
Just for clarification, I am Swiss. We can't buy automatic guns under any circumstance but every male Swiss has an obligation to join the army and gets issued a gun that can be turned into a fully automatic rifle. It's just illegal. And we get issued a small pack of ammo, too. Both the auto function and the ammo are sealed but once you're over the point where you care about law... And yes, we've had a few happenings with army issued weapons and yes they're thinking about stopping giving them out. But seriously the seldomly get used in crimes where the culprit wants to remain hidden. And for good reason. Those guns are traceable.
So imagine taking away those guns. The next time someone goes on a rampage in tha parliament of Zug (a state in Switzerland) he doesn't wield an army issued weapon but an Uzi he got from shady sources... makes stuff so much better, doesn't it?
Well, it's time to get on the bad side of Slashdot again...
Let me state one thing: Just because something can't be proven doesn't make it impossible, you science-nazis. It's the other way round. Only once something can be clearly dismissed is it okay to see it as a fraud.
It's a fact that a lot of things can prove to work for one person and not for another. So what if it is a placebo effect? In the end, isn't the most important thing about any "medicine" that it helps cure people from ailments or at least helps them live better in spite of it?
That's the whole problem. Medicine isn't there to help people anymore... it's just another money machine. The pill is a very good example of this. The pill often leads to vein problems but the doctors told my wife she wouldn't have to worry about it even though her mother had a genetic vein problem and she herself works in a field that is notorious for creating even more trouble. It wasn't even the doctor telling her about it! she had to read the fucking package insert and specifically ask him about it and then had to "endure" a miffed doctor who acted as if she just questioned his knowledge. Also did you know that the pill can kill (yes, kill. Not lessen, fucking KILL) a womens sex drive? My wife had this problem. Either she wasn't in the mood anymore or she was horny like hell and her body just didn't want to cooperate. She was a psychological mess at the time. And you know what? she isn't alone. BATALLIONS of other women had exactly the same issues until they got rid of... well guess what, the pill.
So what did I learn out of this: Only when she switched to natural birth control (taking temperature combined with some other factors), which I believed to be a fraud because "science" always told us so, did the problem go away and oh boy did it go away... Oh and she's without a baby and she's actually in her eighth month with the NFP method. So much for fraud. She's also had cystits, I think it's called, several times and got antibiotics for that. The antibiotics messed with her body big time. She got plenty sick of that. And a month after the whole mess she got cystitis again. Didn't keep the doctor from trying the same fucking product again. So rinse and repeat another two or three times... until she got fed up. So what did she do? She drank a lot as she did while taking antibiotics (about 3 to 5 litres a day) and drank natural teas and stuff which are known to have a desinfectant property. And lookie lookie the problem was solved in no time with no sickness due to the antibiotics.
So seriously, all science and medicine nazis can go fuck themselves for all I care. From our combined experience it is clear that a lot of the "professionals" are only geared towards selling you the most expensive therapie not the one that is best for you. Thanks, but no thanks. Then I rather fall for the fraudsters and try acupuncture, magnet resonance therapy and the likes. If it helps I don't care whether it's just my brain doing the work and the therapy is crap. Because before, my brain obviously didn't do the work and now it does. If my problem goes away without more problems being created then that's EXACTLY what I want.
Well, depends on how many different jobs are available, your chances to get one and how much help you get from the state in the meantime. Remember, majority of people is seldomly the highly educated top industry kind of people. It's usually the "lower class" and for them losing their job can be a sentence to poverty or in some cases death.
So just because I probably won't have as much of a problem doesn't mean most other people won't either.
Well, if we're talking about enslaving people, I've got two words for ya: Corporate America. Or Corporate Europe... Doesn't really matter but as it stands right now, corporations are taking over in the west. Now I don't know which one will be worse.
This whole thing is twisted... if someone's daughter needs protection when going online at the age of 13 I say neuter the parents so they don't get a second chance to fuck up.
If you need to monitor your 13 year old kid like that you're incompetent.
So that's what Microsoft says, right? I thought half the board is bitching about how Microsoft tries weaseling out of admitting that they produced crap with Vista. That's why I'd like to know whether this can be confirmed by the people who pointed out the problem in the first place.
It's been about a frickin' week but I just can't let this stand like that...
I am still a more or less average user. Yes, I have watercooling. I bought it second hand. I bought it to reduce the noise level to near zero. So what does this have to do with my choice of CPU or graphics card? Both were mid-range when bought and neither os overclocked. I don't see how my using watercooling changes anything about the points I've listed.
While I might not be average, the uses I put my computer through still are.
So the interesting question would be this: Does this happen only on Vista machines in gigabit environments or also on 10/100 cards?
I was of the impression that it happens with both types. But trying to remember what leads me to believe that I'll have to admit that I obviously only assumed it to be so. So is there anyone who can give us a definite answer to this?
Well, you COULD vote for an independant candidate but gee, who wants to be so stupid as to throw away their vote, right?
This is not intended as flamebait but I do realise its potential to become exactly that so if you feel the need to mod it flamebait I won't blame you...
Fact is, America is the most powerful country on this planet right now. Fact is, the people of that fine piece of earth for one are being oppressed and two they don't give a shit making it their own damn fault... don't worry, you're in good company... we Europeans aren't better one bit.
So we have these facts... the logical conclusion would be thus: "Well, if they can't get their shit together and if their failure to get their shit together directly affects us we should get rid of them altogether before it does..."
Fortunately, we don't get our shit together either. So what's basically left is holding hands, singing Kumbaya, My Lord and waiting for the end to come.
I don't quite understand why people link AMD's demise with benchmarks all the time. That's just a small part of the whole truth.
Fact is, there are several types of clients in the computer market. Some are early adopters/hardcore users. They buy whatever earns them the highest benchmark scores. They are willing to pay 5 grand plus for a system just to have one sick fucker of a computer under their desk. I'd say they're a minority. Then there's those who listen to the commercials. I don't know how it is in America but in Switzerland I have yet to see a tv commercial for AMD CPUs. So who's wondering why people still think there's only one CPU manufacturer? A lot of people who know AMD isn't just a cheap chinese copy that will probably have trouble adding two and two in calc.exe will want to build a somewhat up to date system they can rely on to do its job for the next two or three years. They use some graphics tools, they run a few games, they browse the web, the skype from time to time and they watch their porn. Those people don't need the V12 1000 hp equivalents in the computer world. They need a midrange machine with reliable hardware. Overclocking? What for? People like that, which includes me, buy what gives them a balance of most bang and reliability for the buck. I'll admit, I deviated from that path with my current system. I am running a Core2Duo. Why? Because AMD couldn't sell me a CPU when I needed one. And I am actually happy with my Intel. Do I see more power? Hell no. My stuff runs. Command and Conquer Tiberium Wars runs. World of Warcraft ran... until I got fed up with it.
I don't care for labels. I'll select the third or fourth newest chip unless it's only like ten bucks to the next faster one. I'll select like two gigs of memory upwards. I'll select a board that will work with my watercooling and be of agreeable quality. I'll select a somewhat actual but cheap video card. Somewhere in the middle of the range of available cards from my vendor of choice.
The point where about any PC made of parts from the last two years would run everything I need has been crossed years ago. Today reliability, noise, power consumption and such are factors... and the price. And I don't see Intel beating AMD in that regard anytime soon.
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From my personal experience I have to say I see the problem from a different perspective. Though keep in mind that I am not an American so my situation might be a completely different one.
See, when I tried to get my first job it was the year 2002. IT staff was fired left and right and I decided I was lucky to get a job at all just after one month.
The job was crap. They hired me because I would work for the least money (being so young) but expected me to run their complete IT including fixing a newly introduced business software that had been more like forced into the environment rather than introduced into it.
When they started expecting that not only should I be on call 24/7, do the consulting, learn to handle the whole business software, do user support and actually code some equivalents to things the software should have done in the frickin' first place in Access but also, on top of all that, I was to fix hardware problems without any money I knew it was time to go.
My next job was to be just user support and 'low level' IT work such as deploying workstations and fixing them and such. Then, during the interview, I got offered to work together with the consultant and be the one to actually build the support foundation for the new business software they were introducing. I had never worked in such an environment before, I didn't know the old software and I certainly diddn't know the new one but I thought to give it a go. After all I was offered the fall-back to the original offer of supporter.
A few weeks later they had hired another supporter and I was called into the boss' office and told that some people didn't like some stuff about how I was doing my work. I was neither told what exactly was the problem nor was I told who had complained so I could have discussed the problem with them. I was just told to do stuff differently.
Then I got the job I'm working at now. It is a good job because I like my coworkers and the stuff I do. But until this year, I was 20% underpayed (meaning you had to add another 20% to my actual salary to get to toe average salary). I was told that getting the 10% I asked for would be hard. Usually people in that company had to be happy with raises around one or two percent if they got anything at all. I was lucky since two IT people had left shortly before so they were in something of a tight spot.
But my experience thus far has been as follows: It doesn't matter whether you have managers as your boss or the owner of the company, they're all trying to screw you over and unless you are willing to risk being laughed at because you have such high demands you will NEVER get fair conditions on your job.
If companies started to actually treat us workers like we were trying to help get our company along instead of just an expense on the budget then perhaps we might start to have realistic demands in the first place. I am just unwilling to be treated as slave that has the bonus of being paid. If you think I'm unreasonable to ask that then, frankly, screw you.
If I mention Stalin, do I get a cookie?
Seriously people, mentioning Hitler in a factual statement does not invoke Godwin's Law. This is not a comparison, it's a statement. A fact (which should be checked for truth, of course) is not the same as comparing someone to Hitler because he doesn't agree with you.
...when these things actually start looking like cars. Yes, I know that when I drive to work I usually don't have to have room for groceries and the whole family but if that thing doesn't cost below 10k bucks then I don't see myself having an extra car sitting in the garage just for getting family and stuff to places twice a week.
I want to see a car that has the same range, power and space and a comparable price as today's cars. THEN I will GLADLY buy one... new even.
Fuck modern special effects! If they could just get into the same vibe they had in the 80s I'd be willing to pay bucks for the cinema release AND the DVD.
No seriously, who cares about modern special effects? What was wrong with the ones they used back then? The Marshmallow-Man and the Statue of Liberty look cool to this day, the streams weren't that badly done either. I'd rather see them invest in the story than the special effects. I'm going to the cinema to be entertained, not blitzed with effects left, right and center. If I want that, I'm going to buy myself a stroboscope.
Or am I the only one who started to understand "modernize" as "do it again but worse and more expensive"?
Interestingly, while I really enjoy my daily dose of porn, that oversexed Vulcan was the reason I stopped watching the show. And I didn't even think that it sucked that much.
The effing day someone actually gives a fuck about my in my government is the day I might start considering serving for the country. As it stands now, everything I have comes from personal struggle or through our combined efforts to exploit others. There is nothing to be proud of of your country. Patriotism is a plague.
Seriously? The kids we lose because they're just dumb fuckwads who think a few beer (as in ten) and some shots of vodka won't do anything to decrease their ability to drive are good for two reasons:
1: The more intelligent ones think twice about copying that
2: We're rid of some morons.
Now if we could get them to kill themselves without hurting others... that would be efficient.
Sometimes people die. Losing freedom over a bit of security is plain stupid.
So and because of that, you want to forbid Iran to have a nuclear programme?
If I went by the same reasoning we'd have to forbid the US from having one, too. The hard truth is that a sizeable part of the world's population doesn't trust you as far as they can throw you. A sizeable part of the world's population also is unsure of which leader of the two countries in question is the more evil dictator.
There's alsways a lot of emotion in such arguments. The real problem about it is the feeling that you have the RIGHT to forbid another country from having a nuclear programme.
Basically, if we hadn't fucked with them arabs for years I'd bet we wouldn't have to be scared of them now. It's like the school bully who torments those weaker than him for two years and hiding the third when the others are fed up with him and start working together to pay him back.
Well, while I basically agree with your sentiment I feel the need to point out that you wouldn't come across as such an idiot if you had actually mentioned exactly how his points are so glaringly invalid.
But I guess it's asking a little much of a troll, eyh?
So, taking shots at my wife's character albeit you have never even exchanged a single line with her is your way of dealing with this? Well, I say thank you. Thank you for disqualifying yourself so soundly that I'm in awe.
It's moments like this that show me that once again I'm obviously just too bad-ass for certain kinds of people to have the guts to stand up to me with facts.
Well, it's way too late, but who knows perhaps someone stumbles across this and in that case:
You sound pretty knowledgeable... but I think it remains right there.
For one, I never stated that NFP is actually as secure as hormonal products. Although it almost is. Because it's not the Rhythm Method. It's the Symptothermal method. It has a Pearl Index of 0.8% while the pill has 0.16%. That's pretty damn close, don't you think? Especially since I'm not sure whether this index takes faulty execution of the method into account. And the Pearl index has thousands of cycles behind it of dozens of women so I think while my wife might not be the end of all examples, the Pearl index is not that bad of an indicator.
Furthermore, you've fallen into the trap of thinking that my wife must be some alternative-lifestyle idiot because she has responded better to some alternative methods. That is very arrogant of you. Just FYI, she works in the chemical field and she's been working with Roche for years. She KNOWS how stuff works, okay? She has been there, in the same room, as people have discussed how a product could be marketed to sell to people with ailments for which this product provides questionable treatment at best.
I find it funny how some people have disqualified themselves by taking shots at my wifes character here. Just because I post a very valid argument: That nothing should be viewed as impossible just because it has not yet been proven. I know that Americans have developed a habit of taking this approach from their courts but it's exactly what will give the creationists ammunition. When science stops using scientific methods.
An example: Go an try to prove to a colour blind person that the heaven is blue. Does that make it less blue for you because you can't? Would the earth have been flat because some idiot before Galileo didn't have the means to prove it was round?
Someone dismissing that there are people who have a better life after being treated by fraudsters is no better than church making Galileo take back his observation. And while the method might not be clear, the results are what count in my opinion. Just because people try to throw poo at my wife's character doesn't make the truth go away.
Oh and I'd like to add... the baboon is not the one who got the poo in his face. It's the one who started throwing it.
And remember all the people who stole his music, think he's so fucking cool and go to see him in concert thereafter and buy a t-shirt.... remember where they really make the money, those bloody artists.
Likewise, your counterarguments have holes, too:
a) In such a situation, where rational thought isn't a factor anymore, everything can be turned into a weapon. You can slice the other party open with a kitchen knive, throw the acidic cleaner in his face, break his spine with a chair carefully applied just at the right spot and so on.
Remember, the person is being irrational. Chances are he's not going to kill with the first bullet. So he has to shoot a second time. So you can't even argue that using a knive or a chair is less dangerous because the other has a chance to survive the first attack. What good does that do you when you're lying on the floor with a broken back and the other guy takes a second swing at your head?
b) And you think Bin Laden wouldn't have gotten any guns if you hadn't given them to him? Do you think 9/11 wouldn't have happened if they hadn't had any guns? Really?
And by your logic, since the kids got to guns they were not supposed to wield in the first place, that the same argument couldn't be applied to screwdrivers, kitchen knives, scissors and the like? Accidents, and that's what they remain, happen because people don't know how to handle the tools. Yes, tools. They are all tools. Of course a gun is meant to kill... or shoot at round circles on a piece of paper. Do you want to outlaw my longbow too? Or axes? Remember, those can be thrown as well. Scary, dangerous stuff, that. Or chainsaws! Don't forget those bastards, we've seen in horror movies that they can kill as well!
See, the problem is not that normal citizens have guns. If they didn't, then it would be very possible to become a police state. With all the crap that's going on lately you can't possibly want to tell me that that scenario isn't a frighteningly close possibility. No, the problem is that every crackhead can have a semi-automatic or even automatic gun to "shoot deer". It's the fact that people aren't required to go through extensive training to obtain a license to own a weapon. I mean seriously, a car can be dangerous but it is not inherently produced to kill stuff. But that takes some training to get a license to handle. Why not guns?
Just for clarification, I am Swiss. We can't buy automatic guns under any circumstance but every male Swiss has an obligation to join the army and gets issued a gun that can be turned into a fully automatic rifle. It's just illegal. And we get issued a small pack of ammo, too. Both the auto function and the ammo are sealed but once you're over the point where you care about law... And yes, we've had a few happenings with army issued weapons and yes they're thinking about stopping giving them out. But seriously the seldomly get used in crimes where the culprit wants to remain hidden. And for good reason. Those guns are traceable.
So imagine taking away those guns. The next time someone goes on a rampage in tha parliament of Zug (a state in Switzerland) he doesn't wield an army issued weapon but an Uzi he got from shady sources... makes stuff so much better, doesn't it?
Well, it's time to get on the bad side of Slashdot again...
Let me state one thing: Just because something can't be proven doesn't make it impossible, you science-nazis. It's the other way round. Only once something can be clearly dismissed is it okay to see it as a fraud.
It's a fact that a lot of things can prove to work for one person and not for another. So what if it is a placebo effect? In the end, isn't the most important thing about any "medicine" that it helps cure people from ailments or at least helps them live better in spite of it?
That's the whole problem. Medicine isn't there to help people anymore... it's just another money machine. The pill is a very good example of this. The pill often leads to vein problems but the doctors told my wife she wouldn't have to worry about it even though her mother had a genetic vein problem and she herself works in a field that is notorious for creating even more trouble. It wasn't even the doctor telling her about it! she had to read the fucking package insert and specifically ask him about it and then had to "endure" a miffed doctor who acted as if she just questioned his knowledge.
Also did you know that the pill can kill (yes, kill. Not lessen, fucking KILL) a womens sex drive? My wife had this problem. Either she wasn't in the mood anymore or she was horny like hell and her body just didn't want to cooperate. She was a psychological mess at the time. And you know what? she isn't alone. BATALLIONS of other women had exactly the same issues until they got rid of... well guess what, the pill.
So what did I learn out of this: Only when she switched to natural birth control (taking temperature combined with some other factors), which I believed to be a fraud because "science" always told us so, did the problem go away and oh boy did it go away... Oh and she's without a baby and she's actually in her eighth month with the NFP method. So much for fraud.
She's also had cystits, I think it's called, several times and got antibiotics for that. The antibiotics messed with her body big time. She got plenty sick of that. And a month after the whole mess she got cystitis again. Didn't keep the doctor from trying the same fucking product again. So rinse and repeat another two or three times... until she got fed up. So what did she do? She drank a lot as she did while taking antibiotics (about 3 to 5 litres a day) and drank natural teas and stuff which are known to have a desinfectant property. And lookie lookie the problem was solved in no time with no sickness due to the antibiotics.
So seriously, all science and medicine nazis can go fuck themselves for all I care. From our combined experience it is clear that a lot of the "professionals" are only geared towards selling you the most expensive therapie not the one that is best for you. Thanks, but no thanks. Then I rather fall for the fraudsters and try acupuncture, magnet resonance therapy and the likes. If it helps I don't care whether it's just my brain doing the work and the therapy is crap. Because before, my brain obviously didn't do the work and now it does. If my problem goes away without more problems being created then that's EXACTLY what I want.
"Do it our way or else go find a different job"
Well, depends on how many different jobs are available, your chances to get one and how much help you get from the state in the meantime. Remember, majority of people is seldomly the highly educated top industry kind of people. It's usually the "lower class" and for them losing their job can be a sentence to poverty or in some cases death.
So just because I probably won't have as much of a problem doesn't mean most other people won't either.
Well, if we're talking about enslaving people, I've got two words for ya: Corporate America. Or Corporate Europe... Doesn't really matter but as it stands right now, corporations are taking over in the west. Now I don't know which one will be worse.
If you got pulled over for driving 600 MPH the cop should get insta-fired.
If the ensuing violence was the reason to not mess with Islam, I'd start thinking again about making fun of Christianity reeeaaally hard now.
This whole thing is twisted... if someone's daughter needs protection when going online at the age of 13 I say neuter the parents so they don't get a second chance to fuck up.
If you need to monitor your 13 year old kid like that you're incompetent.
No orthography among ACs, eh?
So that's what Microsoft says, right? I thought half the board is bitching about how Microsoft tries weaseling out of admitting that they produced crap with Vista. That's why I'd like to know whether this can be confirmed by the people who pointed out the problem in the first place.
It's been about a frickin' week but I just can't let this stand like that...
I am still a more or less average user. Yes, I have watercooling. I bought it second hand. I bought it to reduce the noise level to near zero. So what does this have to do with my choice of CPU or graphics card? Both were mid-range when bought and neither os overclocked. I don't see how my using watercooling changes anything about the points I've listed.
While I might not be average, the uses I put my computer through still are.
So the interesting question would be this: Does this happen only on Vista machines in gigabit environments or also on 10/100 cards?
I was of the impression that it happens with both types. But trying to remember what leads me to believe that I'll have to admit that I obviously only assumed it to be so. So is there anyone who can give us a definite answer to this?
Well, you COULD vote for an independant candidate but gee, who wants to be so stupid as to throw away their vote, right?
This is not intended as flamebait but I do realise its potential to become exactly that so if you feel the need to mod it flamebait I won't blame you...
Fact is, America is the most powerful country on this planet right now. Fact is, the people of that fine piece of earth for one are being oppressed and two they don't give a shit making it their own damn fault... don't worry, you're in good company... we Europeans aren't better one bit.
So we have these facts... the logical conclusion would be thus: "Well, if they can't get their shit together and if their failure to get their shit together directly affects us we should get rid of them altogether before it does..."
Fortunately, we don't get our shit together either. So what's basically left is holding hands, singing Kumbaya, My Lord and waiting for the end to come.
I don't quite understand why people link AMD's demise with benchmarks all the time. That's just a small part of the whole truth.
Fact is, there are several types of clients in the computer market. Some are early adopters/hardcore users. They buy whatever earns them the highest benchmark scores. They are willing to pay 5 grand plus for a system just to have one sick fucker of a computer under their desk. I'd say they're a minority.
Then there's those who listen to the commercials. I don't know how it is in America but in Switzerland I have yet to see a tv commercial for AMD CPUs. So who's wondering why people still think there's only one CPU manufacturer?
A lot of people who know AMD isn't just a cheap chinese copy that will probably have trouble adding two and two in calc.exe will want to build a somewhat up to date system they can rely on to do its job for the next two or three years. They use some graphics tools, they run a few games, they browse the web, the skype from time to time and they watch their porn. Those people don't need the V12 1000 hp equivalents in the computer world. They need a midrange machine with reliable hardware. Overclocking? What for?
People like that, which includes me, buy what gives them a balance of most bang and reliability for the buck. I'll admit, I deviated from that path with my current system. I am running a Core2Duo. Why? Because AMD couldn't sell me a CPU when I needed one. And I am actually happy with my Intel. Do I see more power? Hell no. My stuff runs. Command and Conquer Tiberium Wars runs. World of Warcraft ran... until I got fed up with it.
I don't care for labels. I'll select the third or fourth newest chip unless it's only like ten bucks to the next faster one. I'll select like two gigs of memory upwards. I'll select a board that will work with my watercooling and be of agreeable quality. I'll select a somewhat actual but cheap video card. Somewhere in the middle of the range of available cards from my vendor of choice.
The point where about any PC made of parts from the last two years would run everything I need has been crossed years ago. Today reliability, noise, power consumption and such are factors... and the price. And I don't see Intel beating AMD in that regard anytime soon.