No, don't tell me, let me guess: you run Windows, right?
I've heard about these virus thingies, but I've never seen any. Could you send me a few? I'm starting to feel deprived. That's what comes of not using Windows.
The article says that Americans don't get the gadgets because we
1) don't really want them very badly, and
2) don't have the infrastructure to support most of them (see (1)).
The Japanese are largely status-seeking early-adopters, says the article, while most Americans just don't care. Fewer Americans are early adopters, and those of us who are into conspicuous consumption prefer non-technological money wasters, like big houses, Persian rugs, and so on.
I'd say that most Americans I've met resemble those remarks.
There. Now you don't have to waste any time reading the article.
How many languages does the average (UK) Englishman speak? One?
I don't know about what languages Englishmen learn nowadays (used to be English, Latin and French, in that order), but I have learned a language which will let me get by almost anywhere in the world. Where ever I travel, I can expect to meet someone, eventually, who will speak this language I've learned, even if he's in the next village over.
It's the most common second language in the world, learned by everyone who hopes to participate in trade, travel, government or science. It's the basis for many of the world's creoles, jargons and pidgins. It's become the language of science, surpassing Latin and German. It's become the language of opportunity. On the Indian subcontinent, it has surpassed Gudjerati as the language of trade. In the Far East, in the Middle East, in Europe and in the Americas, it's the language that every parent wants his child to learn. It's English.
If your first language is everybody's second language, do you really need another?
Why should I have to care about formats? My computer should be able to play pretty much anything that can make a noise. If I have some special device, like an iPod or a Palmpilot, the software that deals with that device should be able to take any format and make it work on the device (probably by transmogrifying it to whatever the device favors).
For me, that pretty well sums up the present: everything just works, and I don't have to worry too much what format AV files are in. I don't know if it's because I don't use them much, or because the Debian packagers have done a really nifty job of getting things set up.
I suppose that if it were my hobby, I'd want to know all about those file formats, but I shouldn't have to know to have things just work.
I can think of one site that won't let me shop with Firefox -- Pitney Bowes
Look into Neopost, Hasler and Postalia (now Francotype?). The secret is to switch from one to another every few years, so that you are always getting their low, introductory rates. If you're using the small, one-piece machines, that's eminently practical.
Pirates should be hung in chains, so the birds can pick their bones. These guys should maybe get a fine and a slap on the wrist. Or maybe we should just change a silly law. It's not piracy.
... Federal authorities... arrested two people for modifying video game consoles to play pirated video games...
and
The modified consoles, some holding 15 or more games already copied to the hard drive, were on open display in the stores.
It doesn't sound to me as if the reporter knew what he was talking about. Unfortunately, that's the norm. They have deadlines, and they get in a lot more trouble for being late than for stupidly misleading us.
I'd guess that the arrests were for copyright violations, and not for the chipped xboxes, which were just the tool the ``criminals'' used.
It's still pretty sad to think that with real criminals, and real terrorists, able to go about their work unhindered, that our government is concentrating on these silly, artificial technicalities. The problem lies with our Congress, of course: it's the best legislature Big Money can buy.
... i have seen many chinese newcomers who surprisingly hold similar viewpoints as the old guard.
I've met a few of them here, too. The mainlanders we meet here are generally from wealthy or politically-connected families, I think, so that may have something to do with it. Another point to remember is that a lot of the mainlanders we meet here won't be going back, ever, if they have any choice in the matter.
Makes good sense that way. None of my inlaws seem to worry about it much, but they're farmers, and don't seem to worry much about things outside their control, like weather and war.
This discovery leads to one of the more unintentionally amusing lines in the book if you're an adult:
Everything seems to be like that: slow and sticky -- but I figured it out: if you rub it and heat it up, it comes loose and then you can use it." She beamed.
Sorry, I just don't see the double-entendre the reviewer finds there. I thought I had a filthy, corrupt mind, too.
Back on topic, I'd say it's a good review. I probably won't read the book, and probably won't give it to my kids. It doesn't sound like my style, and it doesn't sound suitable for the under-10 set. I might not have decided that from the cover blurb.
Please remind why America is not at war with China?
They'll just have to wait their turn. They had a turn once, when we were supporting Chang Kai Shek, and then they went to the end of the line. It'll be a while before they work their way up to the head of the line again.
I have been to taiwan as a tourist and have felt the hostility...
Which hostility is that?
The Taiwanese aren't hostile towards China, though they are threatened by it.
Many of the city folk came over from the mainland with Chang Kai Shek in the late '40s, and don't like the government on the other side of the straights. Many of the earlier immigrants resented the newcomers, particularly since they behaved like bandit warlords in their first few years on Taiwan. There's a new generation running the show now, and most of those old strains are gone.
The Taiwanese seem to be slowly realising that culture and nationality are separable; thus the independence movement. Someday, maybe, they'll have that same epiphany about culture and nationality and race. The Mainlander government still doesn't distinguish between culture, race and nationality. More to the point, they need an external enemy on which to focus their populace's hatred and discontent. Separatists in Taiwan serve that purpose wonderfully.
A friend of mine who teaches in a military college in Taiwan says that the tensions between the two countries will die out with the passing of the current old guard, in about 20 years. I guess that assumes that they don't go to war in the mean time.
As for the other side of the straights, I'm sure that the people believe whatever they hear on their radio and TV. If their government believes that they need to channel some public dis-satisfaction into a harmless-to-the-government direction, the people of the Mainland will hate the Taiwanese for a few weeks. The rest of the time, if they think about Taiwan at all, they're probably scheming how to get across the straights and blend in.
... bad spelling and grammar can severely impact the coherency of any message, as well as hurting the credibility of the author.
When I was teaching econ, I several times made the mistake of setting an essay test. It showed that the American students couldn't write. When I marked them down for incomprehensiblity, they were shocked! ``You should grade the econ, not the grammer.'' they said. Unfortunately, the grammer and organization was bad enough that there wasn't any coherent content to grade.
Some of them did know the material, but it doesn't matter what you know, if you can't communicate it clearly to others. If you can't communicate, you might as well know nothing, because that's what everyone will assume.
By contrast, some students for whom English was a second language had grammer problems, but their writing was coherent enough that I could figure out what they meant.
What it all boils down to is that American schools do their job very well, but that job is not providing the kind of education which makes good citizens for our republic: that job is to churn out docil workers for the 19th century industrialists, and cannon fodder for the 19th century armies.
If it weren't for a great many good teachers doing what they can in spite of the system, our educational system would be far more destructive than it is.
The important point here isn't whether or not there was fraud (though if there was, it whould be detected and punished). The important point here is that electronic voting machines are conducive to fraud, and to covering up the fraud.
Folks, we need paper ballots. Counting them by bubblesheet scanner may be acceptable, but we need that paper trail.
If there was fraud in Florida, that's our opportunity to spread the word: that kind of fraud could be prevented by paper ballots.
Paper ballots are cheaper and more reliable than electronic machines, but the huge savings in money is nothing compared to the transparency, the paper trail and the difficulty in committing fraud that only paper ballots can deliver.
How many other people here get the feeling that powell is not qualified for his position.
The guy's a political appointee (appointed by Clinton, initially, too). I'd say that he's there because somebody who likes him has political pull. That makes him perfectly qualified for this position, since that's the only qualification for these political appointee jobs.
He's taking an interest, and he's trying to get the bureaucracy to do what he thinks is right. That kind of tilting at windmills takes courage. It's more than a lot of political appointees do. M. Powell has been taking the technocrats' advice at least part of the time; in particular, I'm thinking about some of the bandwidth auctions, which were highly recommended by some economists. I'd say that he's not just mindlessly following a party line, neither the line of the Democrats who first put him there, nor the line of the Republicans who put him in nominal charge.
If you don't like what he's doing, well, that doesn't make him wrong, just as your approval wouldn't make him right.
Open Source solutions will never gain the market share they deserve if media never gives them the attention they deserve. And the media will never give them attention until they get market share.
How about:
``Open Source solutions will never gain the market share they deserve if media never gives them the attention they deserve. And the media will never give them attention until they [the Open Source solutions] start spending big bucks advertising with the media''.
No chicken-and-egg stuff here: I would bet that ZDNet is following thier long-standing policy of reward^H^H^H^Hviewing their advertisers' products.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't care about what the box can play. When I want to play, I don't use a computer.
No, don't tell me, let me guess: you run Windows, right?
I've heard about these virus thingies, but I've never seen any. Could you send me a few? I'm starting to feel deprived. That's what comes of not using Windows.
1) don't really want them very badly, and
2) don't have the infrastructure to support most of them (see (1)).
The Japanese are largely status-seeking early-adopters, says the article, while most Americans just don't care. Fewer Americans are early adopters, and those of us who are into conspicuous consumption prefer non-technological money wasters, like big houses, Persian rugs, and so on.
I'd say that most Americans I've met resemble those remarks.
There. Now you don't have to waste any time reading the article.
I don't know about what languages Englishmen learn nowadays (used to be English, Latin and French, in that order), but I have learned a language which will let me get by almost anywhere in the world. Where ever I travel, I can expect to meet someone, eventually, who will speak this language I've learned, even if he's in the next village over.
It's the most common second language in the world, learned by everyone who hopes to participate in trade, travel, government or science. It's the basis for many of the world's creoles, jargons and pidgins. It's become the language of science, surpassing Latin and German. It's become the language of opportunity. On the Indian subcontinent, it has surpassed Gudjerati as the language of trade. In the Far East, in the Middle East, in Europe and in the Americas, it's the language that every parent wants his child to learn. It's English.
If your first language is everybody's second language, do you really need another?
Havng taken Chinese, you should know that even having a Latin-based script like Pin-Yin doesn't help you pronounce Chinese.
Let's see: un means not, while heimlich comes from the Heimlich manuver, used to dislodge food from a choking person's throat.
Therefore, unheimlich means to choke a person by lodging (expecially by re-lodging) food in his throat.
I don't do AV files at work, and I don't do Windows at home.
For me, that pretty well sums up the present: everything just works, and I don't have to worry too much what format AV files are in. I don't know if it's because I don't use them much, or because the Debian packagers have done a really nifty job of getting things set up.
I suppose that if it were my hobby, I'd want to know all about those file formats, but I shouldn't have to know to have things just work.
Look into Neopost, Hasler and Postalia (now Francotype?). The secret is to switch from one to another every few years, so that you are always getting their low, introductory rates. If you're using the small, one-piece machines, that's eminently practical.
10^6 wolves can't be wrong -- eat moose.
100*10^6 Microsoft customers can't be wrong -- eat shit.
8*10^9 people in graveyards can't be wrong -- drop dead.
If I'm going to go with the majority, I'll go with the wolves.
Quoth the article:
The modified consoles, some holding 15 or more games already copied to the hard drive, were on open display in the stores.
Sorry, that's not piracy. This is piracy.
Pirates should be hung in chains, so the birds can pick their bones. These guys should maybe get a fine and a slap on the wrist. Or maybe we should just change a silly law. It's not piracy.
and
The modified consoles, some holding 15 or more games already copied to the hard drive, were on open display in the stores.
It doesn't sound to me as if the reporter knew what he was talking about. Unfortunately, that's the norm. They have deadlines, and they get in a lot more trouble for being late than for stupidly misleading us.
I'd guess that the arrests were for copyright violations, and not for the chipped xboxes, which were just the tool the ``criminals'' used.
It's still pretty sad to think that with real criminals, and real terrorists, able to go about their work unhindered, that our government is concentrating on these silly, artificial technicalities. The problem lies with our Congress, of course: it's the best legislature Big Money can buy.
I've met a few of them here, too. The mainlanders we meet here are generally from wealthy or politically-connected families, I think, so that may have something to do with it. Another point to remember is that a lot of the mainlanders we meet here won't be going back, ever, if they have any choice in the matter.
Makes good sense that way. None of my inlaws seem to worry about it much, but they're farmers, and don't seem to worry much about things outside their control, like weather and war.
Everything seems to be like that: slow and sticky -- but I figured it out: if you rub it and heat it up, it comes loose and then you can use it." She beamed.
Sorry, I just don't see the double-entendre the reviewer finds there. I thought I had a filthy, corrupt mind, too.
Back on topic, I'd say it's a good review. I probably won't read the book, and probably won't give it to my kids. It doesn't sound like my style, and it doesn't sound suitable for the under-10 set. I might not have decided that from the cover blurb.
They'll just have to wait their turn. They had a turn once, when we were supporting Chang Kai Shek, and then they went to the end of the line. It'll be a while before they work their way up to the head of the line again.
Which hostility is that?
The Taiwanese aren't hostile towards China, though they are threatened by it.
Many of the city folk came over from the mainland with Chang Kai Shek in the late '40s, and don't like the government on the other side of the straights. Many of the earlier immigrants resented the newcomers, particularly since they behaved like bandit warlords in their first few years on Taiwan. There's a new generation running the show now, and most of those old strains are gone.
The Taiwanese seem to be slowly realising that culture and nationality are separable; thus the independence movement. Someday, maybe, they'll have that same epiphany about culture and nationality and race. The Mainlander government still doesn't distinguish between culture, race and nationality. More to the point, they need an external enemy on which to focus their populace's hatred and discontent. Separatists in Taiwan serve that purpose wonderfully.
A friend of mine who teaches in a military college in Taiwan says that the tensions between the two countries will die out with the passing of the current old guard, in about 20 years. I guess that assumes that they don't go to war in the mean time.
As for the other side of the straights, I'm sure that the people believe whatever they hear on their radio and TV. If their government believes that they need to channel some public dis-satisfaction into a harmless-to-the-government direction, the people of the Mainland will hate the Taiwanese for a few weeks. The rest of the time, if they think about Taiwan at all, they're probably scheming how to get across the straights and blend in.
I don't think this tells us anything about China's government that we didn't already know.
I'm using Jpilot. It's not perfect, but it must be close enough: I've no desire to switch.
Well, I spell it `grammar', too. I misspell it `grammer'. Consistantly, in that post. If you RTFA, you're probably not surprised.
When I was teaching econ, I several times made the mistake of setting an essay test. It showed that the American students couldn't write. When I marked them down for incomprehensiblity, they were shocked! ``You should grade the econ, not the grammer.'' they said. Unfortunately, the grammer and organization was bad enough that there wasn't any coherent content to grade.
Some of them did know the material, but it doesn't matter what you know, if you can't communicate it clearly to others. If you can't communicate, you might as well know nothing, because that's what everyone will assume.
By contrast, some students for whom English was a second language had grammer problems, but their writing was coherent enough that I could figure out what they meant.
-1, Offtopic. We were talking about schools. What do schools have to do with education?
You will find some background on education versus schooling here. I've got a very brief commentary on American vs foreign school funding here.
What it all boils down to is that American schools do their job very well, but that job is not providing the kind of education which makes good citizens for our republic: that job is to churn out docil workers for the 19th century industrialists, and cannon fodder for the 19th century armies.
If it weren't for a great many good teachers doing what they can in spite of the system, our educational system would be far more destructive than it is.
Folks, we need paper ballots. Counting them by bubblesheet scanner may be acceptable, but we need that paper trail.
If there was fraud in Florida, that's our opportunity to spread the word: that kind of fraud could be prevented by paper ballots.
Paper ballots are cheaper and more reliable than electronic machines, but the huge savings in money is nothing compared to the transparency, the paper trail and the difficulty in committing fraud that only paper ballots can deliver.
The guy's a political appointee (appointed by Clinton, initially, too). I'd say that he's there because somebody who likes him has political pull. That makes him perfectly qualified for this position, since that's the only qualification for these political appointee jobs.
He's taking an interest, and he's trying to get the bureaucracy to do what he thinks is right. That kind of tilting at windmills takes courage. It's more than a lot of political appointees do. M. Powell has been taking the technocrats' advice at least part of the time; in particular, I'm thinking about some of the bandwidth auctions, which were highly recommended by some economists. I'd say that he's not just mindlessly following a party line, neither the line of the Democrats who first put him there, nor the line of the Republicans who put him in nominal charge.
If you don't like what he's doing, well, that doesn't make him wrong, just as your approval wouldn't make him right.
How about:
``Open Source solutions will never gain the market share they deserve if media never gives them the attention they deserve. And the media will never give them attention until they [the Open Source solutions] start spending big bucks advertising with the media''.
No chicken-and-egg stuff here: I would bet that ZDNet is following thier long-standing policy of reward^H^H^H^Hviewing their advertisers' products.