Therefore I conclude that most users are not intelligent, are not acting in good faith (ie they don't care about the quality of the products they use), or are too lazy to spend five minutes gathering information.
Elitism and simplistic conclusions won't help. It isn't that easy. Just maybe:
1. IE, security Swiss cheese that it is, works well enough for most people so that they see no reason to look elsewhere...OR...
2. Some users (like me) depend on a particular industry-specific web site (such as a Multiple Listing Service site for realtors) that won't function with any other browser on any platform except IE on Windows. That is really the only reason I even have Windows at all, and I have no choice in the matter if I want to get my job done.
Sorry, but viable alternatives are NOT always available, and proponents of alternatives can't excuse themselves by claiming users are stupid. The creators of alternative tools are responsible for making them suitable as alternatives.
A few years ago I picked up a little hand-held touch tone generator from Radio Shack. In those situations where you must have touch tone, just hold this device up to the mouthpiece and punch away.
Talk about naive. Try taking a tour of all the US towns with deserted factories. See how many people are on unemployment or have taken service jobs at a fraction of the pay they made previously. We have had entire industries leave this country. And this does not help workers in low-wage countries. They are just as poor as they were. The companies make more money or sometimes just break even.
The US now mostly exports raw materials and imports finished goods. Our balance of trade gets into the red more every year. We have a term for a nation like that - banana republic.
A service economy creates no wealth - it just shuffles it around.
The United States is home to more elite colleges and universities than any other country in the world. Is that a sign of a lacking educational system?
True, but it misses the point. Most comments about low educational performance in the US are about high school level and below.
If you were referring to primary and secondary schooling, public schools in particular, yeah the US school system cranks out a lot of idiots. But this is because most people ARE idiots.
No, it is because we put control in the hands of NEA educrats who care more about their own little empires and building their budgets than they do about education. Private schools do quite well here. So do charter schools, which are public, but much more independent. Home schools do a great job, also. Look at the typical public school and see the problems: low standards, terrible discipline (entrenched by teachers who cannot enforce order in the classroom because of spoiled and opportunistic parents who sue at the drop of a hat, and school systems that settle out of court just as quickly), and lots of money being siphoned off for the bureaucracy.
Not to mention pervasive political correctness culture that values teaching kids about proper condom use more than about reading and writing.
While we may not have the best scores of all the first-world nations, we're not THAT far below the rest either.
That puts us at the top of the pits. Once, back when kids were educated with 12 grades in a single room (or at home), we were at the top. Some of our kids still are, but most of them are not in the public school system.
The US is a New World nation. There is an Old World, a New World, and a Third World.
No, it has already expired. The original post is correct. Twenty years from application date is the law now. Before mid-1995 it was 17 years from issue. This thing is already dead.
Ok, IANAL, but I am the holder of a patent applied for in 1994 and issued in 1996. I was VERY aware of the change in patent lifetime back then. This one is GONE.:D
Well, physics has nothing to do with law, either, but the Law School Admissions Test is loaded with it.
Just another example of how, "The goal of education is to teach you how to think, not what to think."
My Dad uses AOL because they provide local dial-in numbers in a large number of countries. He travels a LOT for business, to places like Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, etc. All those places have local numbers where he can dial in and get his email on his laptop.
He should look into AT&T Global Network (not WorldNet)...formerly owned by IBM. They have numbers all over the world also.
A lot of companies stipulate in their employee contracts that employees can't moonlight in the same line of work that their employers pay them to do. I doubt the US is unique in that.
1. If I throw away all the junk flyers I find in my (snail)mailbox everyday, am I stealing from those advertisers?
2. Why am I obligated to read anything I didn't ask for? How is rejecting something that is shoved in my face stealing? It takes really twisted logic to make an argument that it is.
3. How many casino ads do these "advertisers" really need me to see? Casino ads make up about 3/4 of the pop-ups I get. This is why I now have popups turned off in Mozilla.
I also reject 3rd party cookies. Better swear out a warrant on me now.
If companies that use popups depend on them to stay in business, I suggest they write a new business plan.
Slashdot Mirror
Lawyers get all the money!
Film at 11:00.
Therefore I conclude that most users are not intelligent, are not acting in good faith (ie they don't care about the quality of the products they use), or are too lazy to spend five minutes gathering information.
Elitism and simplistic conclusions won't help. It isn't that easy. Just maybe:
1. IE, security Swiss cheese that it is, works well enough for most people so that they see no reason to look elsewhere...OR...
2. Some users (like me) depend on a particular industry-specific web site (such as a Multiple Listing Service site for realtors) that won't function with any other browser on any platform except IE on Windows. That is really the only reason I even have Windows at all, and I have no choice in the matter if I want to get my job done.
Sorry, but viable alternatives are NOT always available, and proponents of alternatives can't excuse themselves by claiming users are stupid. The creators of alternative tools are responsible for making them suitable as alternatives.
Most of the latency you experience is because of rust.
Sounds like BellSouth's phone lines.
Sure. Opera (7.04) is the only browser I have seen that can screw up a CGI script. Opera isn't there yet.
A few years ago I picked up a little hand-held touch tone generator from Radio Shack. In those situations where you must have touch tone, just hold this device up to the mouthpiece and punch away.
Not necessarily. A lot of people think AOL is the Internet, and are shocked to learn this isn't true.
Oh, great. A posting gecko.
Talk about naive. Try taking a tour of all the US towns with deserted factories. See how many people are on unemployment or have taken service jobs at a fraction of the pay they made previously. We have had entire industries leave this country. And this does not help workers in low-wage countries. They are just as poor as they were. The companies make more money or sometimes just break even.
The US now mostly exports raw materials and imports finished goods. Our balance of trade gets into the red more every year. We have a term for a nation like that - banana republic.
A service economy creates no wealth - it just shuffles it around.
That depends on the geeks who perpetuate this stigma by telling Joe that he can't handle Linux because he is just a dumb Windoze luser.
True, but it misses the point. Most comments about low educational performance in the US are about high school level and below.
If you were referring to primary and secondary schooling, public schools in particular, yeah the US school system cranks out a lot of idiots. But this is because most people ARE idiots.No, it is because we put control in the hands of NEA educrats who care more about their own little empires and building their budgets than they do about education. Private schools do quite well here. So do charter schools, which are public, but much more independent. Home schools do a great job, also. Look at the typical public school and see the problems: low standards, terrible discipline (entrenched by teachers who cannot enforce order in the classroom because of spoiled and opportunistic parents who sue at the drop of a hat, and school systems that settle out of court just as quickly), and lots of money being siphoned off for the bureaucracy.
Not to mention pervasive political correctness culture that values teaching kids about proper condom use more than about reading and writing.
While we may not have the best scores of all the first-world nations, we're not THAT far below the rest either.That puts us at the top of the pits. Once, back when kids were educated with 12 grades in a single room (or at home), we were at the top. Some of our kids still are, but most of them are not in the public school system.
The US is a New World nation. There is an Old World, a New World, and a Third World.
There never was a First World.
There never was a low-density floppy, either.
I've heard that station: Radio Sux! WSUX in Salisbury, Maryland.
No, it has already expired. The original post is correct. Twenty years from application date is the law now. Before mid-1995 it was 17 years from issue. This thing is already dead.
:D
Ok, IANAL, but I am the holder of a patent applied for in 1994 and issued in 1996. I was VERY aware of the change in patent lifetime back then. This one is GONE.
Avoid MS lawyers. Call it BSDows.
Well, physics has nothing to do with law, either, but the Law School Admissions Test is loaded with it. Just another example of how, "The goal of education is to teach you how to think, not what to think."
And the command line would have this prompt: C:\If you really knew me you would know what to type here >
Calculus isn't bad. I found I and II bearable. Multivariable calculus is hell on earth, however.
My Dad uses AOL because they provide local dial-in numbers in a large number of countries. He travels a LOT for business, to places like Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, etc. All those places have local numbers where he can dial in and get his email on his laptop. He should look into AT&T Global Network (not WorldNet)...formerly owned by IBM. They have numbers all over the world also.
What company???
Steal or buy? MS has always been this way:
FoxPro
FrontPage
Stacker
The list goes on and on...
This comment was "insightful??"
A lot of companies stipulate in their employee contracts that employees can't moonlight in the same line of work that their employers pay them to do. I doubt the US is unique in that.
1. If I throw away all the junk flyers I find in my (snail)mailbox everyday, am I stealing from those advertisers?
2. Why am I obligated to read anything I didn't ask for? How is rejecting something that is shoved in my face stealing? It takes really twisted logic to make an argument that it is.
3. How many casino ads do these "advertisers" really need me to see? Casino ads make up about 3/4 of the pop-ups I get. This is why I now have popups turned off in Mozilla.
I also reject 3rd party cookies. Better swear out a warrant on me now.
If companies that use popups depend on them to stay in business, I suggest they write a new business plan.
Popups are just another form of spam.
Great! Where can I find an XP-oriented programming langauge?
They say the .NET runtime is an alternative to the JVM?? The day .NET runs Java applets, then it will become an alternative. So far, I don't think so.
Its worse than dead. They turned it into a newt!
I wonder how many domains they will lose (besides mine) over that scam letter they sent out. Isn't "unethical advertising" redundant today?
"Gun Control" is actually victim disarmament.It is also hitting what you aim at!