Downside for Esquire is that with a web image of the front cover (or of Gillian Jacob's page, etc.) viewed on my iPhone, I could trigger the AR event in their Mac software and enjoy the content without buying Esquire.
I'll still buy the magazine anyway since a) my iPhone's reflective glass screen is not optimum for recognition and b) I'd like to support their ingenuity and effort.
It's a gimmick. Obviously. Meant to generate sales. And it will work for some people and not work for others. It's not meant to be new technology to people such as slashdotters who are generally on the cutting edge. Magazines using marketing gimmicks to boost sales isn't news. However, it is a use of technology that we haven't seen magazines do before. As e-ink becomes more affordable and viable, we'll see more magazines trying to stay in business with interactive gimmicks, perhaps even on the page itself. Where's the harm in it? I only hope they sell enough magazines to recoup their investment.
Esquire most likely paid RDJ and other actors to produce video content for a special edition magazine. They had software for both PCs and Macs produced. And they're advertising it on the web. It's all pretty slick, even if it IS limited. Has your favorite blog produced something like this lately? Personally, I'd like to see more ad campaigns using current technology in creative ways.
A degree isn't everything. All it does is prove you took a certain number of units at some universityâ¦
You're absolutely correct. I couldn't agree with you more. However, it still doesn't change the fact that degrees are used to filter out applicants. If you're able to get the jobs and experience without a degree that look good on a resume then more power to you, but not having the degree will make that a harder task, as well as affect your pay scale.
without having actually seen some of the videos being posted. I'm coming into this conversation a day late so my comment will most likely languish unnoticed, but I feel compelled to speak up so here goes.
I'm a pro Flickr user and I'm quite excited about the addition of video. The Flickr community, like any community, has a lot of bad with the good, but there's a greater amount of beautiful work available on the site. The interestingness algorithm is what makes Flickr stand out from the other sites, IMO. Youtube is a cornucopia of good and bad, but overall a dung heap of video, and the commenters are worse. Flickr video will be limited to 90 seconds and promoted by the enigmatic interestingness algorithm and the results will be of a higher caliber. The community, whose comments are mostly upbeat and helpful, will reward quality submissions and let poor submissions languish unnoticed (much like my comment will be;). Yes, there will undoubtedly be home movies of kids with bunnies rolling about on the lawn while the cameraman snuffles into the mic, but there will be more videos like this or creative memes like Fridgets - the "long photos" Flickr is hoping to promote.
Who cares!?! Obviously people who care about style and class, silly. Not everybody wants a big ole gray brick in their pocket. I have an old Palm (I use it as a universal remote) so I can attest that it looks downright silly stuffed in my tux when I'm driving my Prius.
Wish I had mod points to reward you. Today I saw: "Teenage girl suffering from allergies 'was killed by brushing her teeth'..."
Without clicking I just knew it was on the Daily Mail. I hovered my mouse over the link and sure enough it was. (No, I didn't bother clicking through.)
One just can't emphasize enough how much of a yellow rag that news source is.
It really depends on your usage. For instance, I rarely tether my MacBook to a ethernet cable. I need to put a CD/DVD into my optical drive once every few months. I don't need the Time Capsule because I've already got Time Machine working across the WiFi network doing hourly backups. My MacBook's built-in mic works for my recording needs. I've never needed access to more than one USB port. The MacBook Air is perfect for my needs. Then when one considers how light the thing is, my shoulder is already telling me what my next laptop purchase is going to be.
BTW, the battery issue is a non-issue. Apple service centers will replace the battery for the standard price and not charge for labor. This means to me that the battery is replaceable by hackers and will within weeks have how-tos available on the internet from multiple locations.
My question is: Why don't people understand that Apple's tight and tiny designs don't allow for battery hatches? Either you like the slick form factor and the trade-offs that come with it, or you buy another vendor's product.
I thought 'climate change' was preferred because AWG proponents were tired of the weather not cooperating with their doomsday predictions and they needed to hedge their bets just in case things went the other way. I'm not being cynical. I think THEY are!
I encountered this error last month. I lost 195gb of data.
I was moving an 8gb folder from my iBook to my external drive. The drive was connected to my iBook via firewire. I'm not sure what went wrong because I was hurrying but I noticed that the transfer wasn't working so I cancelled it. I tried it again and after a while it began moving 195gb of data, but I was only transferring a 8gb folder. I immediately hit cancel and 195gb on my DESTINATION drive disappeared.
I spent a week and a half using every tool known to Mac to get that data back, but it was gone. I believe these bugs are related, but unlike this one I was never able to recreate the other bug. I had always attributed it to user error because I was rushing or hard drive read/write errors. The drive was totaled after this. Bad blocks everywhere. Now I wonder if the bug caused the hard drive errors. It would be nice to have Apple to blame. I lost a big video project when that drive failed.
I realize we take our chances with ephemeral digital media, and I certainly backup all my personal data, but this project was enormous. I didn't have room to duplicate it on another drive. Sure hope all this attention gets the fire under Apple's butt to look into this problem and fix it.
Then, in late September, Apple "nuked" the renegade developers by issuing an update to the iPhone firmware that required all data to be signed and encrypted. Anything not put there by Apple was wiped out. Because signed and encrypted data couldn't have anything to do with security, or that a clean wipe of the firmware was more advantageous to security because the underpinnings of the iPhone had been changed. No, it's easier to believe that Apple "nuked the renegade developers" out of spite.
I want an iCal-synced To Do List program and iChat on my iPhone, but I'm not so paranoid to believe that Apple saw the inclusion of the iTunes store as an opportunity for malice. Frankly, I'd rather have a secure phone with encrypted data than fancy wallpaper and a gameboy emulator on my iPhone.
You touch upon some great points. I've been an eMusic subscriber at two different times and have left both times because of the following reasons:
1) As you mention, 128kbps compression. It is terrible. I don't compress lower than 256kbps for my own rips so the low quality eMusic files are a big issue for me. I've even downloaded a few songs with audio level issues. Customer support did not care. Despite the fact the audio levels faded then came back up in the song, CS claimed the file was fine. It was the last time I used their service.
2) Album art. I like album art and even though I can use iTunes and other utilities to hunt it down, it is not worth my time because many of the songs I download from eMusic are not mainstream and do not have hires album art online anywhere.
3) 30 songs per month. Not only am I disappointed that they dropped the amount of songs I could download monthly, but as you mentioned, keeping track of albums across months is a pain. I've also missed a month or two when I did not remember to buy music. I just don't buy music that way. I like it a la cart - piecemeal - as the whim hits me.
In the end, I just found myself enjoying the iTunes shopping experience more than the eMusic experience. I'll give Amazon's service a try and see how it compares.
I'm sorry to disagree with you, but I asked for real options. The Tesla car looks promising, but it's not even available yet. Not only that, but I'll have a hard time fitting my family in it. Nevermind how much the thing is going to cost. As for state subsidies to big oil, you flatter me if you think I have any control over that. My Senator is Hatch. He's hellbent to faithfully lock up new tech to protect the RIAA and MPAA business model no matter how impassioned my letter writing.
I would, however, like to see those same subsidies shared with new energy solutions. Just like the corn industry has done with ethanol. Oh, nevermind. That hasn't worked out so well.
The free market supports companies like Tesla Motors in making new solutions. I may not be able to be an early adopter but if the solution is ground breaking enough, there will be a swift change in the industry, relatively speaking. In the meantime, gas prices are killing me so I'm hard pressed to wish for the end of "artificially low" oil prices.
...will I see lower gas prices due to this change?
It seems to me that with the cost of oil banging on $80-a-barrel's door, Venezuela driving out American oil interests, and with no truly efficient alternative in sight, we will have little choice but to enable more production State side. The downside to more production will always be more pollution, but the upside will theoretically be lower costs for oil and, consequently, gasoline.
I realize the green flag is a popular one to wave around here, but what are our real options? I hate to see natural resources contaminated, but I hate to pay such high gas prices, too.
I'm not saying pollution is a good thing, but unless there are viable alternatives to refined oil for energy we are going to see more of this sort of news in the future. Either except pollution as the fee we will pay for lower gas prices, or propose new energy sources. The demand for low cost fuel isn't going to wait for anybody, green or otherwise.
Exactly. I meant to add that part, but it slipped my mind. It's the hazard of typing while under the influence of AD/HD.
With the Divx codec installed, and with a registered version of Quicktime, I can view all those British shows I download within Front Row. I'm able to view Xvid files the same way, but cannot recall which plugin enables that. Flip4Mac allows me to do this same trick with wmv and asf files (provided they are not WinDRM encoded).
As for AppleTV, it most likely works as you state, but since it's a Mac of sorts I'm going to go on the limb here and predict that one day soon someone will figure out how to get these plugins into it. Do you know if anybody can telnet into it? Does it show up as a mountable volume on the network?
Still no word on whether or not it plays DivX files. That will be the key to me purchasing one.
By opening a Divx file into a registered version of Quicktime you can save a reference file of the movie that is loadable into iTunes and Front Row. Works with Xvid as well. I haven't tested this on an AppleTV but since it's the conduit for iTunes into your TV, I don't see why it wouldn't work.
ISPs don't bother monitoring you. They don't bother sniffing your packets for sensitive data. Do you realize how much storage it would cost to keep all that data for all their customers? If each customer has gigabytes of data every few days they'd need to buy new hard drives constantly to keep up with the flow. Why would they do that? Their aversion to wasteful costs is what the film and music industries count on to get them to pass on all those neat little infringement notices without any fuss.
With each new ISP I ask them how much data they keep for each user and they laugh. It's not worth their time or trouble.
I'm not sure what there is not to buy. People can be jerks. Why is it so hard to believe some intellectually challenged individuals cannot deal with his opinion differing from theirs and turn verbally abusive and violent?
As for your questions, there is much that you have been mislead about:
I was in school when we were taught to fear the oncoming Ice Age. The media was just as hysterical then as it is now. Several decades of dropping temperature will do that to them. Now we have the opposite. Several decades of climbing temperature have people apoplectic with media induced frenzy. Thousands will go without water! Florida will be submerged! It's all just noise to me. I've lived through the oncoming Ice Age. I've lived through the fear of nuclear winter. But just because those theories were possible didn't mean they were true.
The more political this Global Warming issue gets and the more shrill the proponents get to be heard and obeyed, the more it turns me off. Let's worry about things we can control like pollution in our environments and alternative energy sources beyond oil. Let's find ways to feed the hungry and allow third world countries to develop their resources. This is not to you specifically, but let's ratchet the rhetoric and hysteria down. Please?
Marked insightful only by users without any parenting experience... Nice going turning the issue from one of poor mechanical design to that of poor parenting skills.
So stick it to the lousy parent! How dare he wish he could just leave his Blackberry on the coffee table without worrying about his two year old (they still explore the world with their mouths, btw) trying to get his hands on that nifty toy Daddy always plays with and accidentally calling 911. Daddy needs to wire that Blackberry with high voltage to show his boy who's boss. That'll teach him to be inquisitive and explore his environment ever again...
Sometimes I feel so inadequate reading slashdot comments. Apparently, I was the only child born in America to disobey my parents by watching what I wasn't supposed to watch and touch what I wasn't supposed to touch. I see the light now, however. It was all my parent's fault. Thanks, boys. You saved me $75 and an hour on the couch.
At any rate, the issue at hand here is should 911 be so easy to dial that any two year old or rambunctious shirt pocket can do it? IMO, that's a bad product design.
Your comment is filled with so many mistruths about Bill O'Reilly that it is evident you glean your information about him from forums and not reality.
If you listened to him you'd realize that although he may be a blowhard, he's very informed concerning political events. I would say his greatest flaw is his disdain for pop culture which results in a severe disconnect from younger generations and even his peers. I don't think it occurs to him that he's paid to stay on top of political events whereas everybody else is just working 40-60 hours a week to pay the bills and might like to kick back with some entertainment to relax.
However, to dispute some of your points:
O'Reilly doesn't believe we are winning in Iraq. He constantly calls the war a mess and has for years. However, he wants us to win in Iraq and feels Rumsfeld has failed in that regard. You're confusing Rush Limbaugh's vocal stance against global warming with O'Reilly's own. O'Reilly tends to avoid the subject. O'Reilly believes the Bible is allegorical. Your comments regarding religion are ignorant, elitist, and typical of so many people here and on Digg. I find your contempt for people with religious beliefs saddening.
If you want to voice the opinion that you don't like O'Reilly or care for his views, fine. But it would behoove you to be familiar with his actual views before you dismiss them.
This may look political on the surface, but it was always about business. When an artist voices their opinion consumers get to voice theirs. In the case of the Dixie Chicks many consumers were upset about their political stance during a time of war and threatened to stop listening to the radio if the Chicks weren't pulled. For wrong or right, when enough people clamor about the same point radio stations listen. If people stop listening, then their ratings go down (Arbitron, eg. measures those ratings). If ratings go down, the radio station has to lower their prices for ads. Obviously, that hurts revenue and quarterly earnings. There was also the case of advertisers complaining when their ads ran bumper to Dixie Chicks' music (I don't have a source to cite for that at the moment). So the impetus all around may have been political, but in the end it was only about money. Clear Channel pulled the songs to keep listeners and please advertisers. If people don't like that, they are welcome to start their own radio stations, provided they can raise the capital...
I read on a forum (which I cannot recall the URL of) a comment by a radio programmer concerning the Dixie Chicks. This programmer lamented that the Dixie Chicks made it hard for her radio station to play their music because the girls kept riling up the listener base. FUTK and "Not ready to play nice" were examples of the Dixie Chicks ire and need to thumb their nose at people. Hey, they're welcome to do it. They have freedom of speech. That's what makes our nation strong, but the Dixie Chicks seem to think they can say whatever they want without reprisal. Wouldn't it be nice if Freedom of Speech worked that way, but it doesn't. I always thought they were making a poor business decision to alienate their fan base with their hostile attitudes. At any rate, CC needed to do something to prevent a problem in the revenue stream. And with so many country acts to play the choice was really simple. Good bye, Dixie Chicks.
Slashdot Mirror
Downside for Esquire is that with a web image of the front cover (or of Gillian Jacob's page, etc.) viewed on my iPhone, I could trigger the AR event in their Mac software and enjoy the content without buying Esquire.
I'll still buy the magazine anyway since a) my iPhone's reflective glass screen is not optimum for recognition and b) I'd like to support their ingenuity and effort.
It's a gimmick. Obviously. Meant to generate sales. And it will work for some people and not work for others. It's not meant to be new technology to people such as slashdotters who are generally on the cutting edge. Magazines using marketing gimmicks to boost sales isn't news. However, it is a use of technology that we haven't seen magazines do before. As e-ink becomes more affordable and viable, we'll see more magazines trying to stay in business with interactive gimmicks, perhaps even on the page itself. Where's the harm in it? I only hope they sell enough magazines to recoup their investment.
Esquire most likely paid RDJ and other actors to produce video content for a special edition magazine. They had software for both PCs and Macs produced. And they're advertising it on the web. It's all pretty slick, even if it IS limited. Has your favorite blog produced something like this lately? Personally, I'd like to see more ad campaigns using current technology in creative ways.
A degree isn't everything. All it does is prove you took a certain number of units at some universityâ¦
You're absolutely correct. I couldn't agree with you more. However, it still doesn't change the fact that degrees are used to filter out applicants. If you're able to get the jobs and experience without a degree that look good on a resume then more power to you, but not having the degree will make that a harder task, as well as affect your pay scale.
Mark Zuckerberg recognizes their TOS scared the pants off of people and posts this public reply: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=54434097130
By logging into Facebook to read the reply you signify that Mark can have your wife and sell your children.
without having actually seen some of the videos being posted. I'm coming into this conversation a day late so my comment will most likely languish unnoticed, but I feel compelled to speak up so here goes.
;). Yes, there will undoubtedly be home movies of kids with bunnies rolling about on the lawn while the cameraman snuffles into the mic, but there will be more videos like this or creative memes like Fridgets - the "long photos" Flickr is hoping to promote.
I'm a pro Flickr user and I'm quite excited about the addition of video. The Flickr community, like any community, has a lot of bad with the good, but there's a greater amount of beautiful work available on the site. The interestingness algorithm is what makes Flickr stand out from the other sites, IMO. Youtube is a cornucopia of good and bad, but overall a dung heap of video, and the commenters are worse. Flickr video will be limited to 90 seconds and promoted by the enigmatic interestingness algorithm and the results will be of a higher caliber. The community, whose comments are mostly upbeat and helpful, will reward quality submissions and let poor submissions languish unnoticed (much like my comment will be
Who cares!?! Obviously people who care about style and class, silly. Not everybody wants a big ole gray brick in their pocket. I have an old Palm (I use it as a universal remote) so I can attest that it looks downright silly stuffed in my tux when I'm driving my Prius.
Wish I had mod points to reward you. Today I saw: "Teenage girl suffering from allergies 'was killed by brushing her teeth'..."
Without clicking I just knew it was on the Daily Mail. I hovered my mouse over the link and sure enough it was. (No, I didn't bother clicking through.)
One just can't emphasize enough how much of a yellow rag that news source is.
It really depends on your usage. For instance, I rarely tether my MacBook to a ethernet cable. I need to put a CD/DVD into my optical drive once every few months. I don't need the Time Capsule because I've already got Time Machine working across the WiFi network doing hourly backups. My MacBook's built-in mic works for my recording needs. I've never needed access to more than one USB port. The MacBook Air is perfect for my needs. Then when one considers how light the thing is, my shoulder is already telling me what my next laptop purchase is going to be.
BTW, the battery issue is a non-issue. Apple service centers will replace the battery for the standard price and not charge for labor. This means to me that the battery is replaceable by hackers and will within weeks have how-tos available on the internet from multiple locations.
My question is: Why don't people understand that Apple's tight and tiny designs don't allow for battery hatches? Either you like the slick form factor and the trade-offs that come with it, or you buy another vendor's product.
I thought 'climate change' was preferred because AWG proponents were tired of the weather not cooperating with their doomsday predictions and they needed to hedge their bets just in case things went the other way. I'm not being cynical. I think THEY are!
I encountered this error last month. I lost 195gb of data.
I was moving an 8gb folder from my iBook to my external drive. The drive was connected to my iBook via firewire. I'm not sure what went wrong because I was hurrying but I noticed that the transfer wasn't working so I cancelled it. I tried it again and after a while it began moving 195gb of data, but I was only transferring a 8gb folder. I immediately hit cancel and 195gb on my DESTINATION drive disappeared.
I spent a week and a half using every tool known to Mac to get that data back, but it was gone. I believe these bugs are related, but unlike this one I was never able to recreate the other bug. I had always attributed it to user error because I was rushing or hard drive read/write errors. The drive was totaled after this. Bad blocks everywhere. Now I wonder if the bug caused the hard drive errors. It would be nice to have Apple to blame. I lost a big video project when that drive failed.
I realize we take our chances with ephemeral digital media, and I certainly backup all my personal data, but this project was enormous. I didn't have room to duplicate it on another drive. Sure hope all this attention gets the fire under Apple's butt to look into this problem and fix it.
I want an iCal-synced To Do List program and iChat on my iPhone, but I'm not so paranoid to believe that Apple saw the inclusion of the iTunes store as an opportunity for malice. Frankly, I'd rather have a secure phone with encrypted data than fancy wallpaper and a gameboy emulator on my iPhone.
You touch upon some great points. I've been an eMusic subscriber at two different times and have left both times because of the following reasons:
1) As you mention, 128kbps compression. It is terrible. I don't compress lower than 256kbps for my own rips so the low quality eMusic files are a big issue for me. I've even downloaded a few songs with audio level issues. Customer support did not care. Despite the fact the audio levels faded then came back up in the song, CS claimed the file was fine. It was the last time I used their service.
2) Album art. I like album art and even though I can use iTunes and other utilities to hunt it down, it is not worth my time because many of the songs I download from eMusic are not mainstream and do not have hires album art online anywhere.
3) 30 songs per month. Not only am I disappointed that they dropped the amount of songs I could download monthly, but as you mentioned, keeping track of albums across months is a pain. I've also missed a month or two when I did not remember to buy music. I just don't buy music that way. I like it a la cart - piecemeal - as the whim hits me.
In the end, I just found myself enjoying the iTunes shopping experience more than the eMusic experience. I'll give Amazon's service a try and see how it compares.
I'm sorry to disagree with you, but I asked for real options. The Tesla car looks promising, but it's not even available yet. Not only that, but I'll have a hard time fitting my family in it. Nevermind how much the thing is going to cost. As for state subsidies to big oil, you flatter me if you think I have any control over that. My Senator is Hatch. He's hellbent to faithfully lock up new tech to protect the RIAA and MPAA business model no matter how impassioned my letter writing.
I would, however, like to see those same subsidies shared with new energy solutions. Just like the corn industry has done with ethanol. Oh, nevermind. That hasn't worked out so well.
The free market supports companies like Tesla Motors in making new solutions. I may not be able to be an early adopter but if the solution is ground breaking enough, there will be a swift change in the industry, relatively speaking. In the meantime, gas prices are killing me so I'm hard pressed to wish for the end of "artificially low" oil prices.
...will I see lower gas prices due to this change?
It seems to me that with the cost of oil banging on $80-a-barrel's door, Venezuela driving out American oil interests, and with no truly efficient alternative in sight, we will have little choice but to enable more production State side. The downside to more production will always be more pollution, but the upside will theoretically be lower costs for oil and, consequently, gasoline.
I realize the green flag is a popular one to wave around here, but what are our real options? I hate to see natural resources contaminated, but I hate to pay such high gas prices, too.
I'm not saying pollution is a good thing, but unless there are viable alternatives to refined oil for energy we are going to see more of this sort of news in the future. Either except pollution as the fee we will pay for lower gas prices, or propose new energy sources. The demand for low cost fuel isn't going to wait for anybody, green or otherwise.
Thank you for that. I needed a laugh. You saved me from posting an angry diatribe against the ignorance of consensus science.
;)
I typed more, but then I realized I went ahead and typed up that angry diatribe anyway. I'll spare you all by deleting it now.
Here's an answer to that question. Xvid and other codecs now up and running on AppleTV
Exactly. I meant to add that part, but it slipped my mind. It's the hazard of typing while under the influence of AD/HD.
With the Divx codec installed, and with a registered version of Quicktime, I can view all those British shows I download within Front Row. I'm able to view Xvid files the same way, but cannot recall which plugin enables that. Flip4Mac allows me to do this same trick with wmv and asf files (provided they are not WinDRM encoded).
As for AppleTV, it most likely works as you state, but since it's a Mac of sorts I'm going to go on the limb here and predict that one day soon someone will figure out how to get these plugins into it. Do you know if anybody can telnet into it? Does it show up as a mountable volume on the network?
By opening a Divx file into a registered version of Quicktime you can save a reference file of the movie that is loadable into iTunes and Front Row. Works with Xvid as well. I haven't tested this on an AppleTV but since it's the conduit for iTunes into your TV, I don't see why it wouldn't work.
ISPs don't bother monitoring you. They don't bother sniffing your packets for sensitive data. Do you realize how much storage it would cost to keep all that data for all their customers? If each customer has gigabytes of data every few days they'd need to buy new hard drives constantly to keep up with the flow. Why would they do that? Their aversion to wasteful costs is what the film and music industries count on to get them to pass on all those neat little infringement notices without any fuss.
With each new ISP I ask them how much data they keep for each user and they laugh. It's not worth their time or trouble.
I'm not sure what there is not to buy. People can be jerks. Why is it so hard to believe some intellectually challenged individuals cannot deal with his opinion differing from theirs and turn verbally abusive and violent?
As for your questions, there is much that you have been mislead about:
Polar bears may be listed as an endangered species, but their population is thriving. As to why they are listed as endangered, that could be political. It certainly doesn't match with the facts.
Ice glaciers may be melting up north but there is no melting occuring in the Himalayas according to local experts and the South Pole is actually growing mass.
I was in school when we were taught to fear the oncoming Ice Age. The media was just as hysterical then as it is now. Several decades of dropping temperature will do that to them. Now we have the opposite. Several decades of climbing temperature have people apoplectic with media induced frenzy. Thousands will go without water! Florida will be submerged! It's all just noise to me. I've lived through the oncoming Ice Age. I've lived through the fear of nuclear winter. But just because those theories were possible didn't mean they were true.
The more political this Global Warming issue gets and the more shrill the proponents get to be heard and obeyed, the more it turns me off. Let's worry about things we can control like pollution in our environments and alternative energy sources beyond oil. Let's find ways to feed the hungry and allow third world countries to develop their resources. This is not to you specifically, but let's ratchet the rhetoric and hysteria down. Please?
Marked insightful only by users without any parenting experience... Nice going turning the issue from one of poor mechanical design to that of poor parenting skills.
So stick it to the lousy parent! How dare he wish he could just leave his Blackberry on the coffee table without worrying about his two year old (they still explore the world with their mouths, btw) trying to get his hands on that nifty toy Daddy always plays with and accidentally calling 911. Daddy needs to wire that Blackberry with high voltage to show his boy who's boss. That'll teach him to be inquisitive and explore his environment ever again...
Sometimes I feel so inadequate reading slashdot comments. Apparently, I was the only child born in America to disobey my parents by watching what I wasn't supposed to watch and touch what I wasn't supposed to touch. I see the light now, however. It was all my parent's fault. Thanks, boys. You saved me $75 and an hour on the couch.
At any rate, the issue at hand here is should 911 be so easy to dial that any two year old or rambunctious shirt pocket can do it? IMO, that's a bad product design.
I'm sure Lauren appreciates having his email address linked on the front page of Slashdot. All the spammers appreciate it too.
Thanks for the laugh. I'm afraid many people aren't going to get your sarcasm, however.
Personally, Dashboard on a toaster sounds very handy. I could store my jelly and butter in it then tuck it away with a keystroke.
Your comment is filled with so many mistruths about Bill O'Reilly that it is evident you glean your information about him from forums and not reality.
If you listened to him you'd realize that although he may be a blowhard, he's very informed concerning political events. I would say his greatest flaw is his disdain for pop culture which results in a severe disconnect from younger generations and even his peers. I don't think it occurs to him that he's paid to stay on top of political events whereas everybody else is just working 40-60 hours a week to pay the bills and might like to kick back with some entertainment to relax.
However, to dispute some of your points:
O'Reilly doesn't believe we are winning in Iraq. He constantly calls the war a mess and has for years. However, he wants us to win in Iraq and feels Rumsfeld has failed in that regard.
You're confusing Rush Limbaugh's vocal stance against global warming with O'Reilly's own. O'Reilly tends to avoid the subject.
O'Reilly believes the Bible is allegorical. Your comments regarding religion are ignorant, elitist, and typical of so many people here and on Digg. I find your contempt for people with religious beliefs saddening.
If you want to voice the opinion that you don't like O'Reilly or care for his views, fine. But it would behoove you to be familiar with his actual views before you dismiss them.
This may look political on the surface, but it was always about business. When an artist voices their opinion consumers get to voice theirs. In the case of the Dixie Chicks many consumers were upset about their political stance during a time of war and threatened to stop listening to the radio if the Chicks weren't pulled. For wrong or right, when enough people clamor about the same point radio stations listen. If people stop listening, then their ratings go down (Arbitron, eg. measures those ratings). If ratings go down, the radio station has to lower their prices for ads. Obviously, that hurts revenue and quarterly earnings. There was also the case of advertisers complaining when their ads ran bumper to Dixie Chicks' music (I don't have a source to cite for that at the moment). So the impetus all around may have been political, but in the end it was only about money. Clear Channel pulled the songs to keep listeners and please advertisers. If people don't like that, they are welcome to start their own radio stations, provided they can raise the capital...
I read on a forum (which I cannot recall the URL of) a comment by a radio programmer concerning the Dixie Chicks. This programmer lamented that the Dixie Chicks made it hard for her radio station to play their music because the girls kept riling up the listener base. FUTK and "Not ready to play nice" were examples of the Dixie Chicks ire and need to thumb their nose at people. Hey, they're welcome to do it. They have freedom of speech. That's what makes our nation strong, but the Dixie Chicks seem to think they can say whatever they want without reprisal. Wouldn't it be nice if Freedom of Speech worked that way, but it doesn't. I always thought they were making a poor business decision to alienate their fan base with their hostile attitudes. At any rate, CC needed to do something to prevent a problem in the revenue stream. And with so many country acts to play the choice was really simple. Good bye, Dixie Chicks.