The young and the naive at least have an excuse for credulous optimism. Those old enough to know better usually *do* know better, but have a vested interest in the whole bubble boosterism.
What worries me most about this seemingly neverending digital progress is that it depends on the fickleness of youth and their spending patterns.
This won't go on forever, as even kids tend to realize the cost/benefit reality.
Was that the one where Kari(sp?) mugged and did things for the camera in the cutesy, girly way? Stupid me, that pretty much describes every episode she's been in.
Scotty was a no-bullshit welder (and very attractive, to boot). Bring her back, she's a *real* babe.
It's all about squeezing the last possible penny out of copyrighted material. Apparently, the TV show Freaks and Geeks cannot be released on DVD because of music licensing issues.
Instead of thinking, "Hey, this might generate more interest in the music", they think, "It's mine, mine, mine!".
As for people providing lyrics to songs and getting slapped for it, that is the ultimate insult.
Can they guarantee at least a 50 year lifespan (I have "old skool" pictures older than that) for my photos and videos? I really don't see the point of transferring family pictures and video to yet another format that will likely be useless in 20 years. Oh, wait, I forgot: who cares about priceless images, it's all about the upgrading so we can keep the economy going.
It'll be classified as a software glitch and nobody will have to account for it. After all, software is perpetually in beta, just read the EULAs.
Refinery blows up? The software was faulty. Good luck assigning resposibility these days -everyone has an "out" by blaming Windows or some hard-to-find obscure programmer.
Uh, which fighter planes got cancelled? The people working on "Project A" just get absorbed into the new program and subcontracts even out things for the losing bidders.
The STM site is very useful, especially for bus arrival times (which change seasonally and for special events). The point-to-point instructions' ("Tous Azimuts") data entry method can be confusing though. Each bus stop features a unique phone number that can be called to find out when the next bus is to arrive.
www.metrodemontreal.com/index-e.html is a quite nice site about the Metro, but it has a poor presentation (frames, horizontal scrolling, dead links).
I don't know about you, but every line I get in goes slower than the other, more appealing lines. I'm just waiting to check out 4 chunky soups and pop-in-the-bag popcorn, and guess what? The little old lady two people in front of me wants to check her store account. Once that's done, Bob the homeless person has picked an item that doesn't have a digital tag, causing a further delay while an available price-checker runs down the aisle. Then Bob realizes that he doesn't have enough cash to pay and the cashier puts that "cash closed, see next" thingamajig.
I hate dealing with humans, they are often dumb and smelly and get in my way.
You (and I) have lightning-quick access to information. Does this makes us both experts in a variety of fields? Some people think that compiling 10 good-looking Google results makes them some sort of expert on a subject they have never even touched the surface of.
Real world problems are solved by engineers, not by information junkies.
It's always so simple to dismiss legitimate concerns with a flip of the luddite name-calling (this attitude usually comes from the software people who have never actually built anything).
The automobile replaced the horse - do you have a replacement for the automobile? Could you even begin to start studying a replacement for the automobile without a few dozens of millions of dollars?
In the model T days, a few smart guys could get together and tinker and come up with a half-decent horseless carriage.
Try a bit of perspective before you trot out the old buggy whip analogy - the world has changed drastically over the past 20 years and knowledge (and regulations related to the use of knowledge) has concentrated.
If you're going to help people remember that pushing the gas pedal right now may not be the best of ideas, then the least distracting and most direct way to do it is to rig the gas pedal in this manner.
Did your mommy never graduate you from spork usage? OK, that was unfair...are you nervous around people that don't use sporks?
Computerized enforcement of laws is only going to get worse.
In the past, punishment for illegal parking/speeding was overly harsh so as to make an example of those caught. Now that "they" are gaining the ability to catch/fine *all* infractions, do we see the penalties decreasing? Nope.
Just something to think about as we rush headlong into the great 21st century with computers and stuff.
I remember seeing this project going up, quite an impressive civil engineering job (photos show the entire church up on piles while they worked underneath). Naturally, they tied-it into the pre-existing underground city.
BB advertises the price to be $19.99, but with tiny lettering about rebates. Now idiot consumer goes into the store, lured in by the ad, buys the item for $69.99, and forgets to mail in the rebate.
Would same customer have paid forty cash bucks out of his/her pocket if s/he found out that it now cost extra?
75 times out of 100, no. Customer behaviour has been very well studied by people that have more degrees than you. It's an entire field of sociology, and that's probably what twists people the wrong way. Once study groups realize that they are being artificially manipulated, all bets are out the window.
Slashdot Mirror
The young and the naive at least have an excuse for credulous optimism. Those old enough to know better usually *do* know better, but have a vested interest in the whole bubble boosterism.
What worries me most about this seemingly neverending digital progress is that it depends on the fickleness of youth and their spending patterns.
This won't go on forever, as even kids tend to realize the cost/benefit reality.
Once there are enough subscribers, commercials will sneak in. Just watch.
Was that the one where Kari(sp?) mugged and did things for the camera in the cutesy, girly way? Stupid me, that pretty much describes every episode she's been in.
Scotty was a no-bullshit welder (and very attractive, to boot). Bring her back, she's a *real* babe.
It's all about squeezing the last possible penny out of copyrighted material. Apparently, the TV show Freaks and Geeks cannot be released on DVD because of music licensing issues.
Instead of thinking, "Hey, this might generate more interest in the music", they think, "It's mine, mine, mine!".
As for people providing lyrics to songs and getting slapped for it, that is the ultimate insult.
Morons.
Can they guarantee at least a 50 year lifespan (I have "old skool" pictures older than that) for my photos and videos? I really don't see the point of transferring family pictures and video to yet another format that will likely be useless in 20 years. Oh, wait, I forgot: who cares about priceless images, it's all about the upgrading so we can keep the economy going.
Monkeys entering data provide a great source of "I was not aware" situations for managers. Isn't that convenient?
It'll be classified as a software glitch and nobody will have to account for it. After all, software is perpetually in beta, just read the EULAs.
Refinery blows up? The software was faulty. Good luck assigning resposibility these days -everyone has an "out" by blaming Windows or some hard-to-find obscure programmer.
Mod parent up, oops, too late, it's already at 5.
If you *have* to go into the military, choose the air force or navy.
Uh, which fighter planes got cancelled? The people working on "Project A" just get absorbed into the new program and subcontracts even out things for the losing bidders.
It all doesn't matter much, the US military is going to have it's ass handed to them soon:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20051124/bs_prweb/p
Please mod parent up.
The STM site is very useful, especially for bus arrival times (which change seasonally and for special events). The point-to-point instructions' ("Tous Azimuts") data entry method can be confusing though. Each bus stop features a unique phone number that can be called to find out when the next bus is to arrive.
www.metrodemontreal.com/index-e.html is a quite nice site about the Metro, but it has a poor presentation (frames, horizontal scrolling, dead links).
Smells like a spammer.
I don't know about you, but every line I get in goes slower than the other, more appealing lines. I'm just waiting to check out 4 chunky soups and pop-in-the-bag popcorn, and guess what? The little old lady two people in front of me wants to check her store account. Once that's done, Bob the homeless person has picked an item that doesn't have a digital tag, causing a further delay while an available price-checker runs down the aisle. Then Bob realizes that he doesn't have enough cash to pay and the cashier puts that "cash closed, see next" thingamajig.
I hate dealing with humans, they are often dumb and smelly and get in my way.
You (and I) have lightning-quick access to information. Does this makes us both experts in a variety of fields? Some people think that compiling 10 good-looking Google results makes them some sort of expert on a subject they have never even touched the surface of.
Real world problems are solved by engineers, not by information junkies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Carbide
Doesn't matter anymore, the facts are irrellevant.
Ain't it great how easy it is to twist wrong information and get a + rating?
Seems like rational ideas are just an illision now a days
And why not? Sit an elderly person in front of a screen and keyboard and tell them all the wonderful things you can do on the internets.
"I have to click the Start button to stop it?"
"Am I supposed to click OK all the time?"
This is probably the single biggest change in history (if you weight it with how long it has taken to happen).
This is a BIG DEAL for people that saw the touch-tone telephone as a technological marvel. They have to re-learn everything.
It's easy for us and we can be smuggy.
I'm always amused by these buggy whip analogies.
It's always so simple to dismiss legitimate concerns with a flip of the luddite name-calling (this attitude usually comes from the software people who have never actually built anything).
The automobile replaced the horse - do you have a replacement for the automobile? Could you even begin to start studying a replacement for the automobile without a few dozens of millions of dollars?
In the model T days, a few smart guys could get together and tinker and come up with a half-decent horseless carriage.
Try a bit of perspective before you trot out the old buggy whip analogy - the world has changed drastically over the past 20 years and knowledge (and regulations related to the use of knowledge) has concentrated.
You provide input X, it responds in manner Y.
Doint the Z thing (plus or minus) is RIGHT OUT!
If you're going to help people remember that pushing the gas pedal right now may not be the best of ideas, then the least distracting and most direct way to do it is to rig the gas pedal in this manner.
Did your mommy never graduate you from spork usage? OK, that was unfair...are you nervous around people that don't use sporks?
If the behavior of the gas pedal suddenly changes in the middle of a crisis, it could CAUSE an accident.
Yeah, yeah, move along/shut up. You'll have to take this issue up with the mayor.
Computerized enforcement of laws is only going to get worse.
In the past, punishment for illegal parking/speeding was overly harsh so as to make an example of those caught. Now that "they" are gaining the ability to catch/fine *all* infractions, do we see the penalties decreasing? Nope.
Just something to think about as we rush headlong into the great 21st century with computers and stuff.
http://www.answers.com/topic/christ-church-cathedr al-montreal
I remember seeing this project going up, quite an impressive civil engineering job (photos show the entire church up on piles while they worked underneath). Naturally, they tied-it into the pre-existing underground city.
Nah-nah-naah, not listening, hearing or comprehending. NIH, nah, nah, nah...
The merkins are still struggling with nuklear power, what did you expect?
BB advertises the price to be $19.99, but with tiny lettering about rebates. Now idiot consumer goes into the store, lured in by the ad, buys the item for $69.99, and forgets to mail in the rebate.
Would same customer have paid forty cash bucks out of his
75 times out of 100, no. Customer behaviour has been very well studied by people that have more degrees than you. It's an entire field of sociology, and that's probably what twists people the wrong way. Once study groups realize that they are being artificially manipulated, all bets are out the window.