maybe... the one good thing that has come out of all this is that I'm looking at all the options, including Libertarian. The move to the Democratic party was as much a symbolic protest as a tactical move.
The people who are recommending this are not interested in your privacy. I recall a time when Republicans stood for a less intrusive government, or they did until they figured it served their interests to do otherwise. I switched my party affiliation from Republican to Democrat this year. Even Newt Gingrich doesn't understand what happened to the GOP. If it weren't for the fact that all the newspapers (except NYT) have rolled over in the face of the constant Bush terror propaganda, this kind of thing would be big news. Scary as fuckin hell.
I have 4 friends who purchased a 17 inch PB, a Power Mac, a Mac mini and 2 iBooks on my recommendation. 2 of my daughter's friends now own Macs, and my wife wants a Mac mini to replace a 3d iMac we bought for our foreign exchange student. So, I guess I've facilitated a bunch of switchers.
Darth is right on... tht total amount owed by Apple will be less than a full course French meal at a 3 star restaurant as a consequence. French popular music hasn't changed much since the 60's. France "protects" it's national cultural heritage (incl. food, lingo, movies, etc.) thru petty legalistic maneuvers. But if you think French music is tepid, take a look at French TV sometime. There's a reason that BBC has all the shows on PBS and it's not the language barrier.
just asking... I use a mac, but would be interested in anything, even a non-Apple product, that doesn't rat on me and that works well. AKA QT. Is there a feature it's missing?
that's exactly what I did at my local library... then we moved to a city that offered only books. Been trying to convince the librarians to do audio cds for months now, but they refuse. They did start offering some great dvds.
Of course, there's always the relatives who don't own a computer and who have never downloaded or ripped anything, such as my sister-in-law who has a fine cd collection that she allows me to borrow.
VA software - hello Java, goodbye .Net
on
.Net:... 3 Years Later
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· Score: 3, Interesting
The Department of Veterans Affairs is a large and influential health care entity... a lot of health care organizations look to the VA for software leadership. Last year, VA programmers started to develop the latest generation of new apps for the Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS), probably the most widely distributed and multifaceted GUI-based medical record app in the U.S. The coders worked for about 6 months with.Net and then junked the whole thing for a variety of reasons, adopted Java for the newest and most innovative apps and have not looked back. Of course, many of the VA programmers are still in love with MUMPS, but there are not many MUMPS programmers graduating anymore. Bailing on.Net and adopting Java has got to say something about the relative ease of programming w/ Java or at least the cost of software development.
young minds get paid less and complain less... that's why schools hire young, butt-stupid teachers, hospitals hire non-burnt-out graduate nurses, firms hire eager scrubby-young execs who are willing to put off having a life, and the military prefers that you be just inexperienced enuf to want to get shot at... for almost nothing, that is. Young minds just put up w/ more crap at a lower pay rate. Physical prowess diminishes w/ age, but the mind can stay pretty well tuned up and ahead of the minds of kids who prefer to learn by fucking up.
But, in the end, your company just likes the fact that it will avoid paying you more and won't have to plan for your expensive retired ass.
if you get a chance to read the NY Times book review, the reviewer says that the emotional component of the game is key... that might not be an issue in a one-on-one game between a computer and a human, but poker is played on noxious groups of pollutant-spouting, raucous humans... I don't think tht a computer that we will ever see could possibly take into account the wide ranges of expression, bluff, etc. that a real game entails. And everyone knows that you can fool an electronic sensor, esp. lie detectors and so forth, with enough training, anyway.
The advantage the human has is that the species has had thousands of years to refine some survival traits: deceit as well as focused ruthlessness and obsession.
This would be great for kids in schools. My 14 y/o daughter - and almost every kid she knows -walks into Middle School every day with a 50 pound + bookbag. The school packs the daily routine so much that the kids have no time to go to their lockers between classes, so they just carry the books with them. This is the same school that forbids PDAs, but gives the thumbs up to "agendas" that reportedly keep the kids organized. Better to give them a laptop, allow the PDA and save some backs and spinal curvatures.
Slashdot Mirror
maybe... the one good thing that has come out of all this is that I'm looking at all the options, including Libertarian. The move to the Democratic party was as much a symbolic protest as a tactical move.
The people who are recommending this are not interested in your privacy. I recall a time when Republicans stood for a less intrusive government, or they did until they figured it served their interests to do otherwise. I switched my party affiliation from Republican to Democrat this year. Even Newt Gingrich doesn't understand what happened to the GOP. If it weren't for the fact that all the newspapers (except NYT) have rolled over in the face of the constant Bush terror propaganda, this kind of thing would be big news. Scary as fuckin hell.
I have 4 friends who purchased a 17 inch PB, a Power Mac, a Mac mini and 2 iBooks on my recommendation. 2 of my daughter's friends now own Macs, and my wife wants a Mac mini to replace a 3d iMac we bought for our foreign exchange student. So, I guess I've facilitated a bunch of switchers.
Darth is right on... tht total amount owed by Apple will be less than a full course French meal at a 3 star restaurant as a consequence. French popular music hasn't changed much since the 60's. France "protects" it's national cultural heritage (incl. food, lingo, movies, etc.) thru petty legalistic maneuvers. But if you think French music is tepid, take a look at French TV sometime. There's a reason that BBC has all the shows on PBS and it's not the language barrier.
just asking... I use a mac, but would be interested in anything, even a non-Apple product, that doesn't rat on me and that works well. AKA QT. Is there a feature it's missing?
that's exactly what I did at my local library... then we moved to a city that offered only books. Been trying to convince the librarians to do audio cds for months now, but they refuse. They did start offering some great dvds. Of course, there's always the relatives who don't own a computer and who have never downloaded or ripped anything, such as my sister-in-law who has a fine cd collection that she allows me to borrow.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is a large and influential health care entity... a lot of health care organizations look to the VA for software leadership. Last year, VA programmers started to develop the latest generation of new apps for the Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS), probably the most widely distributed and multifaceted GUI-based medical record app in the U.S. The coders worked for about 6 months with .Net and then junked the whole thing for a variety of reasons, adopted Java for the newest and most innovative apps and have not looked back. Of course, many of the VA programmers are still in love with MUMPS, but there are not many MUMPS programmers graduating anymore. Bailing on .Net and adopting Java has got to say something about the relative ease of programming w/ Java or at least the cost of software development.
IMO,
young minds get paid less and complain less... that's why schools hire young, butt-stupid teachers, hospitals hire non-burnt-out graduate nurses, firms hire eager scrubby-young execs who are willing to put off having a life, and the military prefers that you be just inexperienced enuf to want to get shot at... for almost nothing, that is. Young minds just put up w/ more crap at a lower pay rate. Physical prowess diminishes w/ age, but the mind can stay pretty well tuned up and ahead of the minds of kids who prefer to learn by fucking up.
But, in the end, your company just likes the fact that it will avoid paying you more and won't have to plan for your expensive retired ass.
if you get a chance to read the NY Times book review, the reviewer says that the emotional component of the game is key... that might not be an issue in a one-on-one game between a computer and a human, but poker is played on noxious groups of pollutant-spouting, raucous humans... I don't think tht a computer that we will ever see could possibly take into account the wide ranges of expression, bluff, etc. that a real game entails. And everyone knows that you can fool an electronic sensor, esp. lie detectors and so forth, with enough training, anyway. The advantage the human has is that the species has had thousands of years to refine some survival traits: deceit as well as focused ruthlessness and obsession.
Maybe this is on slashdot bc poker is one of the competitive mind games that a computer will never win.
This would be great for kids in schools. My 14 y/o daughter - and almost every kid she knows -walks into Middle School every day with a 50 pound + bookbag. The school packs the daily routine so much that the kids have no time to go to their lockers between classes, so they just carry the books with them. This is the same school that forbids PDAs, but gives the thumbs up to "agendas" that reportedly keep the kids organized. Better to give them a laptop, allow the PDA and save some backs and spinal curvatures.