I threw Kubuntu onto an Asus laptop just before school started. Laptop shipped with Vista (shudder). Tried putting a 64bit version of XP on it, ran slower than molasses in January, lousy video, couldn't get the sound card working, etc. Threw on Kubuntu... video ran smoothly out of the box, had to fight with the sound (but only until I found a post in the Ubuntu forums about the well-known problem), got my bluetooth working and was able to sync up my palmpilot, and my iPod with very little trouble.
Asus hardware is just fine, Kubuntu/Ubuntu is just fine. Windows is proving more trouble than it is worth.
All that said, I'll be checking my recovery disk (which I kept, of course) for any interesting files tonight!
Westjet would be OK if it weren't for the "thank god we landed in one piece" applause upon touch down EVERY TIME.
I don't enjoy flying, though I do it for both personal and professional reasons. I really dislike flying when people treat it like a miracle that we didn't all die in a flaming wreck.
"the advertiser wants you to like their products. so their game is about seduction, not force"
Only, apparently, if I like being seduced with a baseball bat. As the multitudes before me have shouted, it isn't discrete, targetted text-based ads that are causing many of us conniptions, it is pop-up/pop-under/flash/animated gif/noisy/hit-the-monkey/moving-around-the-screen- blocking-actual-content ads. Ad Block and others can be set/customized so that not all ad content is blocked, only the really annoying stuff (to be determined, of course, by the user). I recommend doing this, personally, as hopefully this will register with the people who make marketing decision.
Until something registers with those people, however, I decline the baseball bat "seduction" and block bandwidth-chewing ads that make my eyes water and my head spin.
"The ad blocker extensions usually ignore the ads entirely, so the browser doesn't generate any hits for the ad, and the site owner loses money."
No, he/she does not lose money. They don't gain money. That said, most ad revenue is for click-through, so even if the ads were to appear on my screen, they wouldn't be getting any revenue from me.
They don't have a right to push content I didn't ask for to my computer, whether it be spam to my INBOX, ads to my browser, or anything else.
Don't forget, in addition to selling you a car with the key taped to the door, and telling you that driving it without permission is Very Bad (TM), they are ALSO saying that if you lose the key for any reason, the car doesn't belong to you any more (and you aren't allowed to make copies of the key for safe-keeping).
Getting away from the analogy, I REQUIRE of the media I purchase that I can use it on any of a number of devices (my car stereo, my computer, my home stereo, my mp3 player, my PDA, etc.). None of these uses is illegal. Many of them are actually advertised by the media companies. Several of them will not work, guaranteed, should I walk into a store, buy a CD and pop it into the CD tray (ignoring the mp3 player and PDA for a moment, since those are genuine examples of needing to copy the media).
For a while, I purchased CDs, then went and downloaded them also (thereby supporting bands I liked, while ensuring that I could move my media onto whatever device I wanted). I have stopped doing this because I feel it is likely to encourage the RIAA/MPAA's thinking that DRM is somehow OK.
"If you want to work for me, I want to know everything about you. Including credit history."
"Like I said, if you aren't responsible in your personal and financial lives, I don't trust you to be responsible enough to show up to work, do a good job, and not steal shit."
I don't want to work for you. I don't want to work for anyone like you. I would strongly advise friends and family NOT to work for you or do business with you because your attitude would suggest that you don't trust anyone and treat people you don't even know as criminals and/or deadbeats.
I would like to know what company you work for, just so that I can ensure I don't do business with it either.
I am quite sure that you won't care about any of this (and that is your prerogative), just as it is mine to work for/do business with companies who will treat me in a respectful (and respectable) manner. Do you treat your clients the same way you treat your employees or potential employees?
Same here. Bought a computer for the dear old parents with Vista pre-installed (Dell wouldn't sell me a computer with no OS and they wouldn't put XP on at the time). Dell even sold me a system that couldn't possibly have run Vista efficiently (if at all, since I swapped in a video card, sound card and modem from their old system...whoops, new computer license probably required!). (Note: I know I know Dell = teh eval...I needed a cheap system fast.) Enter perfectly legal copy of XP and bye bye Vista!
I am pro-free speach. I strongly support the idea that (with the usual exceptions, like shouting "fire" in a crowded theatre when there is no fire) people should be allowed to say pretty much what they want. Should someone use this freedom to preach hatred for a specific group (or theory or person or whatever), my position that they should be allowed to say whatever they want DOES NOT TRANSLATE to me believing that whatever they say is right.
You could be the world's loudest holocaust denyier. I would think you were at best a dupe and a fool, or at worst an out-and-out anti-semitic lier, but I wouldn't stop you from having your say.
I cannot foresee any circumstances under which I would choose to have an abortion (and I would never want to make that decision). That said, if someone else IS in that position, and DOES have to make that decision, I firmly believe that they should make it based on their specific circumstances and morals, not mine.
Thankfully, many of the MMORPG companies are releasing versions of their software for the Mac. I haven't tried this yet (I'm running a dual-boot Linux/Windows XP box with the "phone home" features firewalled). If the game companies don't start releasing for Linux, I will probably switch to a Mac when I absolutely must switch. I don't know when that might be (I just replaced the video card, mobo and CPU in my existing box....god-knows what MS would want to do to me over that one), but I am preparing myself for the day.
But can't parents legally allow their children to drink alcohol at home anyway? Here in Canada, the drinking age legislation applies to the ability to legally purchase alcohol, or consume it in public (bars, restaurants, etc.). Anyone can serve their kids at home, any time. I have plenty of friends whose parents firmly believed that a drink or two with dinner was pretty much mandatory (and healthy). The kids started getting a half-glass of wine with dinner when they were 10 or 11. Strangely enough, none of them developed "issues" when they headed off to university, and none of them were even remotely tempted to drink and drive.
My parents were essentially teetotallers, and my first year of university was damn near enough to mean that I didn't get a second year. I got over it, but I really envy those friends who had some experience ahead of time, who knew what booze was and what it could do to you and how to take it in moderation.
I have been waiting to see a rationally-written comment like this.
I know far too many people who "live paycheque to paycheque", pay outrageous rents (or are mortgaged well beyond their means) to live in high-end neighbourhoods, have brand new leased cars, expensive consumer electronics (sometimes on monthly payment plans), are sending their kids to Montessori schools, run up multiple credit cards, etc.
Good money sense is sorely lacking in far too many people (note: I am NOT talking about people who earn next to nothing, some of these people make more than I do and cry poor because they can't afford the $700 pricetag for a new PS3 here - or worse: get the PS3 then complain that their credit card minimum payments are too high). I don't understand how anyone could grow up without learning *something* about how to handle money, but apparently it is a really common problem.
You seem to be assuming that networks *deserve* to exist. Like any other company, if the business model is no longer self-supporting, it is time to switch to a new business model. Pay-per-view is one example. I am not saying that every network should go pay-per-view, but if they cannot bring in sufficient income to support themselves through, for example, the sale of commercial time, maybe they need to look at other ways of doing so.
Of course, the MPAA and RIAA don't agree with me...
You can explain to your grandmother about using anti-virus software, not opening attachments from strangers and all the other basic prophylactic methods to avoid catching these viruses, but you can't do everything long distance and some of these suckers don't need to you open anything for them to do their worst.
Some basic education in the mass media means that when Grandma sees it in the paper, it will reinforce what I have told him. This sort of regular reminder helps a lot of newbies who would otherwise be on the phone screaming to their ISPs, their more knowledgeable friends and relatives, and anyone else who will listen.
Heck, the first time one of my relatives deleted a suspicious email (that they had heard about from me and later the mass media) they felt they had really LEARNED something. 1 less total newbie in the world, at the cost of a warning from me, some basic anti-virus software, and a newspaper article. I can live with that.
The postmaster@ account on our personal (home) network is getting more and more SPAM every day. Probably due to the spam complaints we have sent from that account to abuse@fill_in_the_blank who don't strip the headers before showing the complaint to the spammers.
People ignore SPAMCop (which does strip the headers), and we can't simply block all the domains from which this stuff is coming (yes, most of Asia is already blocked).
People who don't want to see SPAM are running out of options.
To add to your comment, here are some useful "filters" to use when looking at scientific stories. Caveat: they are not perfect, they are not 100% complete, and they should NEVER be used as a final assessment of the work in question. Just a useful way of considering science news.
1 - was the work in question released via accredited, peer-reviewed publications or through a big media splash? 2 - is the work in question based on previous studies in some way, or a completely new approach? 3 - did the author(s) claim sole responsibility for the breakthrough or acknowledge the work of others? 4 - did the author(s) make personal attacks on those who disagreed with them? 5 - did the author(s) provide sufficient information for the experiment(s) to be duplicated by another party?
Science needs a balanced approach; splashy media releases of work heralded as "totally new", in which the authors claim sole responsibility for major advances while disparaging the work of their peers and not providing their methods to others for confirmation is not balanced, and can be should be considered carefully before you throw that big party to celebrate.
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I threw Kubuntu onto an Asus laptop just before school started. Laptop shipped with Vista (shudder). Tried putting a 64bit version of XP on it, ran slower than molasses in January, lousy video, couldn't get the sound card working, etc. Threw on Kubuntu... video ran smoothly out of the box, had to fight with the sound (but only until I found a post in the Ubuntu forums about the well-known problem), got my bluetooth working and was able to sync up my palmpilot, and my iPod with very little trouble.
Asus hardware is just fine, Kubuntu/Ubuntu is just fine. Windows is proving more trouble than it is worth.
All that said, I'll be checking my recovery disk (which I kept, of course) for any interesting files tonight!
Westjet would be OK if it weren't for the "thank god we landed in one piece" applause upon touch down EVERY TIME.
I don't enjoy flying, though I do it for both personal and professional reasons. I really dislike flying when people treat it like a miracle that we didn't all die in a flaming wreck.
"the advertiser wants you to like their products. so their game is about seduction, not force"
- blocking-actual-content ads. Ad Block and others can be set/customized so that not all ad content is blocked, only the really annoying stuff (to be determined, of course, by the user). I recommend doing this, personally, as hopefully this will register with the people who make marketing decision.
Only, apparently, if I like being seduced with a baseball bat. As the multitudes before me have shouted, it isn't discrete, targetted text-based ads that are causing many of us conniptions, it is pop-up/pop-under/flash/animated gif/noisy/hit-the-monkey/moving-around-the-screen
Until something registers with those people, however, I decline the baseball bat "seduction" and block bandwidth-chewing ads that make my eyes water and my head spin.
Small correction:
"The ad blocker extensions usually ignore the ads entirely, so the browser doesn't generate any hits for the ad, and the site owner loses money."
No, he/she does not lose money. They don't gain money. That said, most ad revenue is for click-through, so even if the ads were to appear on my screen, they wouldn't be getting any revenue from me.
They don't have a right to push content I didn't ask for to my computer, whether it be spam to my INBOX, ads to my browser, or anything else.
Don't forget, in addition to selling you a car with the key taped to the door, and telling you that driving it without permission is Very Bad (TM), they are ALSO saying that if you lose the key for any reason, the car doesn't belong to you any more (and you aren't allowed to make copies of the key for safe-keeping).
Getting away from the analogy, I REQUIRE of the media I purchase that I can use it on any of a number of devices (my car stereo, my computer, my home stereo, my mp3 player, my PDA, etc.). None of these uses is illegal. Many of them are actually advertised by the media companies. Several of them will not work, guaranteed, should I walk into a store, buy a CD and pop it into the CD tray (ignoring the mp3 player and PDA for a moment, since those are genuine examples of needing to copy the media).
For a while, I purchased CDs, then went and downloaded them also (thereby supporting bands I liked, while ensuring that I could move my media onto whatever device I wanted). I have stopped doing this because I feel it is likely to encourage the RIAA/MPAA's thinking that DRM is somehow OK.
"If you want to work for me, I want to know everything about you. Including credit history."
"Like I said, if you aren't responsible in your personal and financial lives, I don't trust you to be responsible enough to show up to work, do a good job, and not steal shit."
I don't want to work for you. I don't want to work for anyone like you. I would strongly advise friends and family NOT to work for you or do business with you because your attitude would suggest that you don't trust anyone and treat people you don't even know as criminals and/or deadbeats.
I would like to know what company you work for, just so that I can ensure I don't do business with it either.
I am quite sure that you won't care about any of this (and that is your prerogative), just as it is mine to work for/do business with companies who will treat me in a respectful (and respectable) manner. Do you treat your clients the same way you treat your employees or potential employees?
Same here. Bought a computer for the dear old parents with Vista pre-installed (Dell wouldn't sell me a computer with no OS and they wouldn't put XP on at the time). Dell even sold me a system that couldn't possibly have run Vista efficiently (if at all, since I swapped in a video card, sound card and modem from their old system...whoops, new computer license probably required!). (Note: I know I know Dell = teh eval...I needed a cheap system fast.) Enter perfectly legal copy of XP and bye bye Vista!
I am pro-free speach. I strongly support the idea that (with the usual exceptions, like shouting "fire" in a crowded theatre when there is no fire) people should be allowed to say pretty much what they want. Should someone use this freedom to preach hatred for a specific group (or theory or person or whatever), my position that they should be allowed to say whatever they want DOES NOT TRANSLATE to me believing that whatever they say is right.
You could be the world's loudest holocaust denyier. I would think you were at best a dupe and a fool, or at worst an out-and-out anti-semitic lier, but I wouldn't stop you from having your say.
I cannot foresee any circumstances under which I would choose to have an abortion (and I would never want to make that decision). That said, if someone else IS in that position, and DOES have to make that decision, I firmly believe that they should make it based on their specific circumstances and morals, not mine.
Thankfully, many of the MMORPG companies are releasing versions of their software for the Mac. I haven't tried this yet (I'm running a dual-boot Linux/Windows XP box with the "phone home" features firewalled). If the game companies don't start releasing for Linux, I will probably switch to a Mac when I absolutely must switch. I don't know when that might be (I just replaced the video card, mobo and CPU in my existing box....god-knows what MS would want to do to me over that one), but I am preparing myself for the day.
But can't parents legally allow their children to drink alcohol at home anyway? Here in Canada, the drinking age legislation applies to the ability to legally purchase alcohol, or consume it in public (bars, restaurants, etc.). Anyone can serve their kids at home, any time. I have plenty of friends whose parents firmly believed that a drink or two with dinner was pretty much mandatory (and healthy). The kids started getting a half-glass of wine with dinner when they were 10 or 11. Strangely enough, none of them developed "issues" when they headed off to university, and none of them were even remotely tempted to drink and drive.
My parents were essentially teetotallers, and my first year of university was damn near enough to mean that I didn't get a second year. I got over it, but I really envy those friends who had some experience ahead of time, who knew what booze was and what it could do to you and how to take it in moderation.
Thank you.
I have been waiting to see a rationally-written comment like this.
I know far too many people who "live paycheque to paycheque", pay outrageous rents (or are mortgaged well beyond their means) to live in high-end neighbourhoods, have brand new leased cars, expensive consumer electronics (sometimes on monthly payment plans), are sending their kids to Montessori schools, run up multiple credit cards, etc.
Good money sense is sorely lacking in far too many people (note: I am NOT talking about people who earn next to nothing, some of these people make more than I do and cry poor because they can't afford the $700 pricetag for a new PS3 here - or worse: get the PS3 then complain that their credit card minimum payments are too high). I don't understand how anyone could grow up without learning *something* about how to handle money, but apparently it is a really common problem.
I tried:
l r=&nojs=0&q=tiananmen+square+protest&btnG=%E6%90%9 C%E7%B4%A2
http://images.google.cn/images?svnum=10&hl=zh-CN&
1 picture. The organizers. At a home somewhere... Nicely done!
You seem to be assuming that networks *deserve* to exist. Like any other company, if the business model is no longer self-supporting, it is time to switch to a new business model. Pay-per-view is one example. I am not saying that every network should go pay-per-view, but if they cannot bring in sufficient income to support themselves through, for example, the sale of commercial time, maybe they need to look at other ways of doing so.
Of course, the MPAA and RIAA don't agree with me...
Some basic education in the mass media means that when Grandma sees it in the paper, it will reinforce what I have told him. This sort of regular reminder helps a lot of newbies who would otherwise be on the phone screaming to their ISPs, their more knowledgeable friends and relatives, and anyone else who will listen.
Heck, the first time one of my relatives deleted a suspicious email (that they had heard about from me and later the mass media) they felt they had really LEARNED something. 1 less total newbie in the world, at the cost of a warning from me, some basic anti-virus software, and a newspaper article. I can live with that.
The postmaster@ account on our personal (home) network is getting more and more SPAM every day. Probably due to the spam complaints we have sent from that account to abuse@fill_in_the_blank who don't strip the headers before showing the complaint to the spammers.
People ignore SPAMCop (which does strip the headers), and we can't simply block all the domains from which this stuff is coming (yes, most of Asia is already blocked).
People who don't want to see SPAM are running out of options.
Great points!
To add to your comment, here are some useful "filters" to use when looking at scientific stories. Caveat: they are not perfect, they are not 100% complete, and they should NEVER be used as a final assessment of the work in question. Just a useful way of considering science news.
1 - was the work in question released via accredited, peer-reviewed publications or through a big media splash?
2 - is the work in question based on previous studies in some way, or a completely new approach?
3 - did the author(s) claim sole responsibility for the breakthrough or acknowledge the work of others?
4 - did the author(s) make personal attacks on those who disagreed with them?
5 - did the author(s) provide sufficient information for the experiment(s) to be duplicated by another party?
Science needs a balanced approach; splashy media releases of work heralded as "totally new", in which the authors claim sole responsibility for major advances while disparaging the work of their peers and not providing their methods to others for confirmation is not balanced, and can be should be considered carefully before you throw that big party to celebrate.