The OS still sucks. I'll stick with RIM/Blackberry (which also has an active and seemingly open developer community) until a Android phone I like comes along.
How about reverse approach: making special (crippled) editions of software projects for countries with screwed up laws.
As a US citizen I have to say there's a brilliance in this suggestion. People don't like being limited, but they particularly don't like limitations when they're aware of them. Kind of like the encryption export laws we had for a while, where a US citizen could feel content/smug believing that they had access to the better encryption (which I'm sure is absolute hogwash, but every war is for the hearts and minds).
Use this as an excuse to upgrade yourself and regift her your old computer, you could even give her the new case/peripherals if you think that would make her happy.
That way the only money you're out comes from the difference between the date you purchase the system and the actual date you'd typically have upgraded the system. We get to reason a luxury purchase! Go mathematics!
or a defacto reason. Netbooks will provide some users with defacto reasons (if the UI is comfortable/complete enough) but I don't believe the current crop of desktop Linux distros provide a particularly compelling reason for an average user to switch, really kind of like the Vista debacle where you could upgrade from XP but what would you gain? Linux is still a server OS with a desktop, it's interesting, it's powerful, but that just means it's compelling to a select group of people.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to bash (I'm a Linux/SUN/Windows system admin). I find it compelling, I'm just saying that for a person of average technical interest (a casual user) there's no huge gain to be had from learning a totally new set of tools, not yet anyway.
And think about what drives most decisions? Jealousy, desire. You see some gameplay footage you like and you decide you want the game. Yet surprisingly, few people seem to covet my brown Ubuntu desktop...
our enemies I'm sure there are those of us who believe this is the way to prevent war. It seems like there's a generalized reality distortion field around technology which inhibits a part of the brain which might otherwise be concerned about freedom or morality or atrocity but history is full of bell-curves.
Or, better yet, lets not militarize the security of our private sector. How many terrorists do any of us know? Dollar for dollar how do the costs to our increased security match the costs of US-based attacks? And didn't we already pay a lot of guarantee each citizen their freedoms?
Maybe the b00bies concerns is the politicians way of trying to effect change without complicated or overly political arguments, which tend to be unpopular and largely ineffective. I mean, if he approached this like a raving privacy advocate he'd be immediately marginalized, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion because he wouldn't get any media coverage.
I don't know if this has changed but I installed Ubuntu on a older laptop about a year ago and after an unclean shutdown I was presented with the check disk during boot up, however there was no way to skip or otherwise quickly continue (no ctrl-c or anything; and it was slow). After reading on the forums a bit I found nothing but a few comments saying the check was a good idea and therefore an option for skipping the scan would not be made available.
I'd buy that like 99.9% of the time, but that 0.01% I don't need a developer telling me how he thinks I should do something. And certainly not hard-coding it in software.
When the societies processed it enough that it's comfortable trivializing it. Probably after the generation that had to fight it has had time to rebuild their lives enough to distance themselves from it.
They're badges of shame. I remember cringing when I was on a serious Team Fortress 2 jag and it proudly displayed my in-game hours (eagles scream!). After they decided to add full-on achievements I'd decided to explore a bit more of this life thing I'd heard so many people talking about.
Notes or contacts causing important meetings to be missed or leaving attendees un/less prepared. It's easy to say back everything up, but in the real world under stress (or laziness, or stupidity) you tend to stick with simpler work-flows. I like Saas for non-critical applications, maybe it's an age thing or maybe critical service/hosted solutions are simply still new enough that the kinks in reliability haven't been fully worked out.
Idiots breed and take middle management positions in business as well as state and federal government. This is why we say things like never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity because really there's so much stupidity it's likely a mathematical truth.
Slashdot Mirror
The OS still sucks. I'll stick with RIM/Blackberry (which also has an active and seemingly open developer community) until a Android phone I like comes along.
And where do you get "most open phone OS"?
As a US citizen I have to say there's a brilliance in this suggestion. People don't like being limited, but they particularly don't like limitations when they're aware of them. Kind of like the encryption export laws we had for a while, where a US citizen could feel content/smug believing that they had access to the better encryption (which I'm sure is absolute hogwash, but every war is for the hearts and minds).
Oracle will get you right sorted! They've got a legacy to live up to you know.
Use this as an excuse to upgrade yourself and regift her your old computer, you could even give her the new case/peripherals if you think that would make her happy.
That way the only money you're out comes from the difference between the date you purchase the system and the actual date you'd typically have upgraded the system. We get to reason a luxury purchase! Go mathematics!
or a defacto reason. Netbooks will provide some users with defacto reasons (if the UI is comfortable/complete enough) but I don't believe the current crop of desktop Linux distros provide a particularly compelling reason for an average user to switch, really kind of like the Vista debacle where you could upgrade from XP but what would you gain? Linux is still a server OS with a desktop, it's interesting, it's powerful, but that just means it's compelling to a select group of people.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to bash (I'm a Linux/SUN/Windows system admin). I find it compelling, I'm just saying that for a person of average technical interest (a casual user) there's no huge gain to be had from learning a totally new set of tools, not yet anyway.
And think about what drives most decisions? Jealousy, desire. You see some gameplay footage you like and you decide you want the game. Yet surprisingly, few people seem to covet my brown Ubuntu desktop...
our enemies I'm sure there are those of us who believe this is the way to prevent war. It seems like there's a generalized reality distortion field around technology which inhibits a part of the brain which might otherwise be concerned about freedom or morality or atrocity but history is full of bell-curves.
And out source it too.
Or, better yet, lets not militarize the security of our private sector. How many terrorists do any of us know? Dollar for dollar how do the costs to our increased security match the costs of US-based attacks? And didn't we already pay a lot of guarantee each citizen their freedoms?
Maybe the b00bies concerns is the politicians way of trying to effect change without complicated or overly political arguments, which tend to be unpopular and largely ineffective. I mean, if he approached this like a raving privacy advocate he'd be immediately marginalized, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion because he wouldn't get any media coverage.
To support you local NRA! ;-)
What are you, the Pope? It's already got a name, luxury tax baby!
That explains so much about me. Classic. Great link. ;-)
Scope. You want your patent to be as inclusive as possible because you don't want to have to file another one to adjust for some small changes.
To draw the conclusion that 'humans' were eating neanderthal from one isolated finding is just terribly scientific analysis.
;-)
Cha-ching! I smell grant money.
rather than admit that the Druids as Mother Earth loving, New Age darlings were bloodthirsty, life hating, human sacrificing cannibals.
How's your own bias any less dolt-like?
like nature does: could you mate with it and raise off-spring?
I don't know if this has changed but I installed Ubuntu on a older laptop about a year ago and after an unclean shutdown I was presented with the check disk during boot up, however there was no way to skip or otherwise quickly continue (no ctrl-c or anything; and it was slow). After reading on the forums a bit I found nothing but a few comments saying the check was a good idea and therefore an option for skipping the scan would not be made available.
I'd buy that like 99.9% of the time, but that 0.01% I don't need a developer telling me how he thinks I should do something. And certainly not hard-coding it in software.
When the societies processed it enough that it's comfortable trivializing it. Probably after the generation that had to fight it has had time to rebuild their lives enough to distance themselves from it.
They're badges of shame. I remember cringing when I was on a serious Team Fortress 2 jag and it proudly displayed my in-game hours (eagles scream!). After they decided to add full-on achievements I'd decided to explore a bit more of this life thing I'd heard so many people talking about.
Notes or contacts causing important meetings to be missed or leaving attendees un/less prepared. It's easy to say back everything up, but in the real world under stress (or laziness, or stupidity) you tend to stick with simpler work-flows. I like Saas for non-critical applications, maybe it's an age thing or maybe critical service/hosted solutions are simply still new enough that the kinks in reliability haven't been fully worked out.
I'd rather they made my blood poisonous to lawyers.
Idiots breed and take middle management positions in business as well as state and federal government. This is why we say things like never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity because really there's so much stupidity it's likely a mathematical truth.
Anyone remember Slashback?
Welcome our crack-smoking journalist brethren!
Sue me.
(sorry, couldn't resist)
"Beyond which, human voice can impart additional meaning in tone that text can't."
:-D lulz ROFLcopter )-': to impart those more nuanced details.
Bah! I fully expect my transcribed voice mail to include