Actually most English words have Greek and Latin descent. Very few find their roots in German.
Actually that's in fact not true. English is placed in the Germanic language group by linguists. Of course it has a strong French influence (as indicated), but it's primarily a Germanic language. Having studied German (and obviously speaking English), there are many similarities between the languages. And this was even more the case for (old?) English, particularly before the French invasion in 1066.
As for the ignorance; you're right that it's correctable, but it's ironic that we know enough to explain the differences to the ignorant individuals. I honestly attribute that to the permeation of US culture in the rest of the english speaking world. We undnestand the differences between US culture and our own, far more than Americans understand the differences between their culture and others'...
There are various reasons for this. First, 90% of Canada's population lies less than 100 miles from an American border; the same cannot be said for America. As such, it is understandable that the average Canadian comes into contact with Americans more than the other way around. Also, for right or wrong, America is large and rather powerful, with many large businesses. Canada is a major trade partner with the US, but I believe we're more a part of your trade than you are ours. Again, not a right or wrong argument, but the way it is. Since we're bigger, and dabble in world politics more, it's unavoidable that we're more on your radar.
The only things some Americans probably only know about Canada is 1)beer, 2)hockey and 3)eh!
See, we do know everything about Canada.;) You're probably right, though. Although, Americans who live near Canada know your legal drinking age is lower than ours. So that's four things.
And I pity the poor soul who hasn't had Canadian beer:)
I keep hearing about good Canadian beer, but have never had it (All we get is Molson - I'm not impressed). As a major brew-o-phile, I'm certainly interested in better Canadian beers if they exist. I've never had good experience with Canadian beers, but I expect the Canadian beers I have available are like the American beers you have available: ie, mass-produced shit. For what it's worth, America's starting to (in the last 5-10 years) to make some GREAT beer. One of my favorites is Stone Brewing Co. I realize American beer gets a bad rap - deservedly so - but it's changing dramatically, and I'd say most of the innovation in beers today is in America - ironically enough, because we have little beer tradition to maintain.
If it helps, think of American English as a foreign language. You wouldn't call someone in Spain on the phone and insist on speaking English, would you? Similarly, when calling an American, it would serve you well to make accomodations for their knowledge of your language, particularly if you expect that you are more knowledgeable of American English than the person to whom you are speaking is of UK English.
Also, it's not as if you are "correct" and the American "incorrect." Languages are fluid. Languages evolve, including English. Brits (I include Canadians here, having severed ties only quite recently) have really screwed up the proper German you were taught ~1500 years ago too. And the Norwegian you were taught ~1200 years ago. And the French you were taught 968 years ago. As such, would you consider the entire English language "incorrect?" Many words had various spellings in the 1600s when English was brought to America. As such, it's not accurate to claim that the American spelling is incorrect, when we simply chose one of the accepted spellings at the time and the Brits chose the other. It might be different if the English language had an established spelling for a certain word by 1500 and Americans changed, but this is not the case. For all the pedantic spelling and grammar correction, many Brits (and Canadians) seem to be ignorant of the history of their own language.
One might also suggest that you not engage in such displays of self-superiority - "When in Rome..." one might say. You seem to share the attitude of tourists in foreign lands who expect to have waiters (for example) speak their own native language and become irate when the waiter can't or won't. Admittedly, Americans are one of the major contributors to the image of the self-righteous tourist, and I find that disgusting too. Ultimately, one can adapt to your host nation - even if it's simply over the phone - or one can maintain self-righteousness and deal with the inevitable inaccuracies. What does one gain from this exchange, anyway?
As for the Americans in Canada you cite, their mistakes are borne of ignorance rather than self-righteousness. The difference borne of ignorance is correctable. I would politely, without condescencion, inform them that the letter they refer to as "zee" is called "zed" by the rest of the English speaking world. If they insist on maintaining their behavior, then your ire would be well-placed - if you didn't insist on doing the same, that is.
All in all, there's really no need for this "whose language is correct" debate. Language is a tool. If you can effectively with the other party, you have no problem. Your problem is you intentionally choose not to simply due to ego, which I find baffling.
No, this was the most insightful comment I have read here for a long time. Of course, if you're brainwashed, maybe you don't see it.
It's OT and I'm sick of people modding their opinion like it was goddamned fact. He's a troll. If he said something inflammatory like that against Kerry, he'd get modbombed into hell and you know it. But because the slashbots all think the same way, as long as you flame in the acceptable direction, it's "insightful." Not to mention it's hard to be insightful when you keep spouting off the same damned troll, but I digress
What irked me is that 4 numbers aren't really enough. I was factoring the numbers and found a formula based on numbers going down the center, vertical row of Pascal's triangle that was related to the starting index of strings themselves. The first string started at the 2nd digit, the second at the 6th, the third at the 24th, and the fourth at the 100th. Those numbers are the middle of the 0th, 2nd, 4th, and 6th rows of Pascal's triangle. So the [1,2,3,4]th numbers start at the [2,6,24,100]th positions of "e". [n+1]*[[(2*(n-1))!]/[((n-1)!)^2]] also matches the answers, leading me to plug 5 into that formula, get 420, find the 10 digits of e starting at the 420th position, and plug that in. Wrong answer.
In my case it took me about one hour of C# programming and head scratching to found out the fifth number. The puzzle is not very hard but it requires a little bit of unorthodox thinking. Don't start with classical extrapolation techniques...
Got that right. Try it and you'll be there all day. I also have to say, if I'd used matlab or pascal instead of python (or C++ for that matter), I'd have had it 10 minutes sooner. D'oh!
...As long as your character is a Gimp. Sort of like a cross between a dwarf and a troll, but the Gimp wears a leather suit and a ball-gag as default equipment.
And even if you had a firearm AND was trained AND noticed the crime? You confront the burglar and hope he/she runs away? If they are armed as well - and in the US, that's a pretty small if - they might just turn on his mom. And since burglars have almost always less to loose, they are much more likely to fire first. And "win". You are probably better off screaming for help, since that will deter most thieves just great.
I don't think you're seeing how this plays out. It's not like "High Noon." If you have a gun in your hand and you see them with a clear shot, you fire before they see you. If you can't do that, don't pick up the gun, and make a different plan (like evacuation). But any self defense class will tell you you don't go up and challenge them to a duel. And screaming might not work well - you're not going to be audible outside your house, and you've just announced your location to a thief. Really dumb idea.
The problem with you americans is that you only can see violent ways out of every situation. Hasn't your president learned you anything? Violence begets violence.
Not saying I disagree with you on this with regard to Iraq, but overapplying that sentiment isn't a good idea. They said that in 1938-1941 here too. There is a time and a place for violence, and when you're being attacked or invaded, I think that may be an appropriate time. Do recall that the only reason you're not speaking German natively (assuming you aren't German) is thanks to the violent tendencies of Americans and our willingness to volunteer ourself for causes that don't necessarily have an immediate, homeland impact for us. I don't think the passiveness that pervades Europe these days is a 100% good thing. I don't see a problem with appropriate self defense, something France didn't even practice in WW II. Appeasement has to stop somewhere.
Pfftt. While science does have politics, it is the least political field known to mankind. For every 'cuz I don't like your face' you encounter in the hard (real) sciences you find 20 such stans in the humanities and 400 in artistic endeavours. That is why so much more progress has been made in the hard sciences as compared to the soft social sciences.
No seriously. I'm a scientist, and it's so ruthlessly political it's not funny. The idea sounds good - look at evidence, go where it takes you - and indeed that's the idea. As such, science is apolitical. But whenever you're depending upon agencies for funding, and their biases, it's impossible to keep science clean. It's political on both the large scale (if I publish this work that happens to support this political party's platform, I never get funding from this agency propped up by the other party) and on the small scale (if I don't kiss this scientist's ass in the intro to my paper, it ain't getting published - and if I question his work, I'll never get published again). I've been bitten by both so many times I can't count.
I'm glad people who aren't scientists think it's this glorious, nearly untainted objective field, but after the experiments are done, it's as political or more than other fields. And experiments done in a vacuum (figuratively, of course) do no good. And work banished to third-tier journals because its authors have been blackballed for whatever reason might as well not exist, because it doesn't get noticed. And so much of the interesting research that does get press is due to shameless self promotion, that research gets attacked viciously, and it ends up "debunked." The study in the story suffers from some of that effect. Always beware of science released in a press conference, newspaper, or magazine before it's published in a peer-reviewed journal. Also beware of the small-minded assholes who attack groundbreaking research because they didn't come up with it first.
I hate cronyism, and it's half the reason I'm not going into academics. Of course, I'll admit if I were a social scientist, I'd have committed suicide by now. That's a field where you're expected to know the outcome before you investigate, and where any politically incorrect answers aren't even allowed.
I think in my next life I'll be an electrician or something.
Has anyone else wondered if there's a competition between Star Wars and Star Trek as to who can drive their respective franchises into the ground farther and faster?
That's "to boldly drive their respective franchises into ground that no other franchise has ever been driven."
It needed a nice Roddenberry misplaced modifier.;)
They're in it to make money. If they act 'nice' it's because they believe it's a good strategy to make money. I completely fail to see how that should inspire any loyalties from me.
As long as you find nothing wrong with them treating you (the consumer) the same way, then fine. Personally I like to reward companies who see benefit in supporting customers with my business.
If you teach companies that they won't be rewarded for playing nice, they won't. If you send the message (with your $$$) that actually caring might be profitable, they might take that option, even if it's less obvious as a mechanism for making money.
More would agree with it if the RIAA hadn't blown all its goodwill suing the wrong people and being mean in general. You don't get a second chance when you're a giant bitch on top of being wrong on your first go.
How would you have liked to see the RIAA police their content? I agree they're a bunch of anachronistic assholes, but to me it seems their biggest screwup was not doing the research to realize (if they could somehow do so) that one of the people they sued was a kid. Other than that, it seems like they are going after (as much as possible) people who are sharing a lot of files.
Personally, I don't like the RIAA, but I find the MPAA to be much more disgusting. Then there's DirecTV's tactics (up until a few months ago) that basically assumed *anyone* buying a certain brand of smart-card reader was pirating their service, and sought $3000 to aviod going to court. They've since stopped that, but still.
thats not german, its dutch! and dutch is not even like german - i mean no(t many) germans understand dutch out of the box...
Actually German and Dutch (and english) are very similar. I'm an American who learned German, and I once started teachin myself Dutch but stopped because it seemed too easy. Still, I could read half the damned article.
the problem here will be enforcement. The fact of the matter is, speaking as somebody with an *intimate* knowledge of sampling technology and techniques, that a sample used creatively enough is not recognizable.
If it's that unrecognizeable and creative, why'd you need to sample it instead of making something new?
And please, windows gimps with no linux experience need not moderate nor reply, because you don't know what you're talking about.
OK, I'm not. I've been admin'ing a few slackware boxes and a stray redhat and suse for about 4 years now. Some debian experience too. Just to declare.
However, it is the easiest linux distro to support, hands down.
Subjective - but even if granted, irrelevant. The problem is it's not supportED.
and to those who are saying "shut up and go with what's there" I might remind you that the reason they're using linux in the first place is because users (in this case admins) wanted to use it. The demand came before the supply, OK?
Not quite following this argument, but you seem to be implying that your company should stand up for your belief in Debian? Sorry, I'm sure the company doesn't care. You're an employee on company time, not an advocate.
I believe Debian is so far superior to the other distros that wide support for it is inevitable.
Well, that's not borne out so far. If anything, check back in 2 years and see if Deb's supported then. If so, give it a try.
Lastly I might add Debian is not a company that can be bought or influenced by money; it is a non-profit with protected legal status.
That includes all money, including support contracts. I don't know what "protected legal status" means, but I can guarantee that means nothing to your company's bottom line.
And for the most important reason your company doesn't want to go with Debian: If you die/quit/get fired, they just lost the only guy who admins the thing. Note that getting on the internet and asking advice from a bunch of morons screaming RTFM! doesn't count as support. Companies want and need support contracts. Debian isn't available with one. End of story. And if you with Deb and it screws up, probably end of your job.
.... the RIAA and MPAA sue Internet2 as being a potential source for copyright violations by being able to steal a movie in 4 seconds or an album in 0.0003 seconds.
It wasn't my fault I jacked 231232432 movies off P2P! The evil bastards INDUCEd me!!!
I'd have preferred a little more rebuttal than "whatever." That is -- could Verizon be telling the truth here? Are there security holes in bluetooth's serial port and file-transfer functions? What about in motorola's implementation in this particular phone? If not, then OK -- this is a shameless money grab and nothing more, hiding under a false veneer of "maintaining user privacy."
Right, but as I understand from TFA, it seems that they will in fact sell you these features. So their security argument falls flat - surely they wouldn't make people pay for features that were too insecure to include for free?
You have been apparently indoctrinated with a great success, but the fact is that you don't need any special "right to watch" a movie, like you don't need any "right to read" a book, at least not yet. The only thing that the copyright law regulates is the right to publish and distribute, not any magical "right to see" which would somehow make illegal the very act of merely looking at publicly available things, which would be completely ridiculous.
Where you been since the 1980's? It might be ridiculous, but it's also true. DVD's are encrypted, and thanks to our lovely DMCA it is illegal to defeat encryption to copy the material. Producing illicit DVD codecs is illegal, and a company got sued by the MPAA this week for doing so (story somewhere on/.). When you buy a DVD player, you are buying a device that has been sanctioned by the MPAA.
As such, I would say the guy is right when he says you need the MPAA's permission to watch a DVD. It's already law. Doesn't apply to CD's...yet...thankfully.
Well, aren't YOU the arrogant omnipotent windbag. You say you know what every store everywhere will do or won't do. Just because a website gives some weasel language, doesn't make it so. Individual franchises have market leeway, especially when competitors are very close by.
I think it's more likely he's right, particularly given that Circuit City is not (to my knowledge) franchised, and they are pretty tight with corporate policy. There's also the fact that they have the same damned competitor everywhere - Best Buy. The two of them drove out all the mom and pop's years ago, so the chances of varying local conditions of competition isn't likely. Then there's the fact that applying the low price guarantee to after-rebate prices wouldn't make sense. For one, rebates are given knowing that a sizeable fraction are never claimed, and Circuit City would be giving up that revenue (as well as the interest earned during the rebate period). Even that would have to be a store rebate only - there's no way they'd match a manufacturer rebate.
Bottom line, the grandparent poster has evidence, g-grandparent has anecdotal assertions. I don't think they grandparent was being arrogant for pointing out that the typical slashdot reader shouldn't expect to get pricematch on a rebate at his local CC. For one, it's certainly not the general corporate policy, isn't policy at a majority of stores, and I've yet to see proof of it being the case at ANY store.
Re:Many projects don't fail, they rust in place
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IT Myths
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(G-parent):"If the customer anticipates any future modifications and upgrades, I think that ought to be mentioned in the inital functional specifications, so that the developers can make sufficient room for such accomodations."
(Parent):BZZZT! Wrong answer. A good software architect holds one law above all else: "The customer doesn't actually know what they want!" This means that you need to code as defensively as possible.
I'd do both. Anyone who thinks they code so damned well they can adapt anything is naive or arrogant. Not spending the time with a customer to find out what they might want to do with the program in the future is completely foolish. Eventually you'll have to make design choices in writing your program, and if you can make those choices with knowledge of what you might have to do later, you're one step ahead.
How the hell did they get so popular? People are really willing to put up w/lack of choice and expensive prices?
First, in response to your memory card issues, I'll have to say that's on the periphery of what Best Buy sells. They do a lot of TV's and such, car audio, but you can't expect them to do that AND focus on having great stock of what are effectively aftermarket support items. It's going to be spotty for that. It's definitely not fair to compare two store chains with the attempt to buy one item; I could counter with a similar experience from Circuit City. As far as comparing them to NewEgg, look at as you're paying extra for the privelege of them having to carry a lot of low-volume stuff. You want it now, you'll pay more.
That said, if I want a $200 TV, where do I go? Circuit City is basically Best Buy with red shirts. I'm not mail ordering a friggin' TV. And all the other medium-sized chains (like Good Guys here in CA) are obscenely expensive - you think Best Buy is bad, try them.
So next time I need typical consumer electronic equipment, I'm heading to Best Buy. And no, dammit, I'm not 'turfing!;)
(Case in point, I donated $100 for Trillian before Pro was released. Why? Because I used it every day and it was much better than any of the individual IM clients.)
If you get $100 of use out of an IM client, I'm going to have to introduce you to this concept I like to call "outside."
Language follows culture, not vica-versa. When electronic mail arrived, we didn't run around flumoxed because there was no word for it. We invented a word. For a while, people were pretty bad with email, even though there was a word for it, because it's a difficult thing to understand. Then, after a few years, everybody "got" it.
That's why I'm figuring, you know, maybe these Amazon fuckers are just bad at math. If you're that bad at math, so bad that using the fingers to count doesn't help, you really don't need words for complicated mathematical contstructs. Like, say an equivalent for the word "four."
Slashdot Mirror
Actually that's in fact not true. English is placed in the Germanic language group by linguists. Of course it has a strong French influence (as indicated), but it's primarily a Germanic language. Having studied German (and obviously speaking English), there are many similarities between the languages. And this was even more the case for (old?) English, particularly before the French invasion in 1066.
As for the ignorance; you're right that it's correctable, but it's ironic that we know enough to explain the differences to the ignorant individuals. I honestly attribute that to the permeation of US culture in the rest of the english speaking world. We undnestand the differences between US culture and our own, far more than Americans understand the differences between their culture and others'...
There are various reasons for this. First, 90% of Canada's population lies less than 100 miles from an American border; the same cannot be said for America. As such, it is understandable that the average Canadian comes into contact with Americans more than the other way around. Also, for right or wrong, America is large and rather powerful, with many large businesses. Canada is a major trade partner with the US, but I believe we're more a part of your trade than you are ours. Again, not a right or wrong argument, but the way it is. Since we're bigger, and dabble in world politics more, it's unavoidable that we're more on your radar.
The only things some Americans probably only know about Canada is 1)beer, 2)hockey and 3)eh!
See, we do know everything about Canada. ;) You're probably right, though. Although, Americans who live near Canada know your legal drinking age is lower than ours. So that's four things.
And I pity the poor soul who hasn't had Canadian beer :)
I keep hearing about good Canadian beer, but have never had it (All we get is Molson - I'm not impressed). As a major brew-o-phile, I'm certainly interested in better Canadian beers if they exist. I've never had good experience with Canadian beers, but I expect the Canadian beers I have available are like the American beers you have available: ie, mass-produced shit. For what it's worth, America's starting to (in the last 5-10 years) to make some GREAT beer. One of my favorites is Stone Brewing Co. I realize American beer gets a bad rap - deservedly so - but it's changing dramatically, and I'd say most of the innovation in beers today is in America - ironically enough, because we have little beer tradition to maintain.
Also, it's not as if you are "correct" and the American "incorrect." Languages are fluid. Languages evolve, including English. Brits (I include Canadians here, having severed ties only quite recently) have really screwed up the proper German you were taught ~1500 years ago too. And the Norwegian you were taught ~1200 years ago. And the French you were taught 968 years ago. As such, would you consider the entire English language "incorrect?" Many words had various spellings in the 1600s when English was brought to America. As such, it's not accurate to claim that the American spelling is incorrect, when we simply chose one of the accepted spellings at the time and the Brits chose the other. It might be different if the English language had an established spelling for a certain word by 1500 and Americans changed, but this is not the case. For all the pedantic spelling and grammar correction, many Brits (and Canadians) seem to be ignorant of the history of their own language.
One might also suggest that you not engage in such displays of self-superiority - "When in Rome..." one might say. You seem to share the attitude of tourists in foreign lands who expect to have waiters (for example) speak their own native language and become irate when the waiter can't or won't. Admittedly, Americans are one of the major contributors to the image of the self-righteous tourist, and I find that disgusting too. Ultimately, one can adapt to your host nation - even if it's simply over the phone - or one can maintain self-righteousness and deal with the inevitable inaccuracies. What does one gain from this exchange, anyway?
As for the Americans in Canada you cite, their mistakes are borne of ignorance rather than self-righteousness. The difference borne of ignorance is correctable. I would politely, without condescencion, inform them that the letter they refer to as "zee" is called "zed" by the rest of the English speaking world. If they insist on maintaining their behavior, then your ire would be well-placed - if you didn't insist on doing the same, that is.
All in all, there's really no need for this "whose language is correct" debate. Language is a tool. If you can effectively with the other party, you have no problem. Your problem is you intentionally choose not to simply due to ego, which I find baffling.
It's OT and I'm sick of people modding their opinion like it was goddamned fact. He's a troll. If he said something inflammatory like that against Kerry, he'd get modbombed into hell and you know it. But because the slashbots all think the same way, as long as you flame in the acceptable direction, it's "insightful." Not to mention it's hard to be insightful when you keep spouting off the same damned troll, but I digress
What irked me is that 4 numbers aren't really enough. I was factoring the numbers and found a formula based on numbers going down the center, vertical row of Pascal's triangle that was related to the starting index of strings themselves. The first string started at the 2nd digit, the second at the 6th, the third at the 24th, and the fourth at the 100th. Those numbers are the middle of the 0th, 2nd, 4th, and 6th rows of Pascal's triangle. So the [1,2,3,4]th numbers start at the [2,6,24,100]th positions of "e". [n+1]*[[(2*(n-1))!]/[((n-1)!)^2]] also matches the answers, leading me to plug 5 into that formula, get 420, find the 10 digits of e starting at the 420th position, and plug that in. Wrong answer.
Got that right. Try it and you'll be there all day. I also have to say, if I'd used matlab or pascal instead of python (or C++ for that matter), I'd have had it 10 minutes sooner. D'oh!
Or for something running OS X...
It's a joke people...I own a powerbook.
...As long as your character is a Gimp. Sort of like a cross between a dwarf and a troll, but the Gimp wears a leather suit and a ball-gag as default equipment.
And even if you had a firearm AND was trained AND noticed the crime? You confront the burglar and hope he/she runs away? If they are armed as well - and in the US, that's a pretty small if - they might just turn on his mom. And since burglars have almost always less to loose, they are much more likely to fire first. And "win". You are probably better off screaming for help, since that will deter most thieves just great.
I don't think you're seeing how this plays out. It's not like "High Noon." If you have a gun in your hand and you see them with a clear shot, you fire before they see you. If you can't do that, don't pick up the gun, and make a different plan (like evacuation). But any self defense class will tell you you don't go up and challenge them to a duel. And screaming might not work well - you're not going to be audible outside your house, and you've just announced your location to a thief. Really dumb idea.
The problem with you americans is that you only can see violent ways out of every situation. Hasn't your president learned you anything? Violence begets violence.
Not saying I disagree with you on this with regard to Iraq, but overapplying that sentiment isn't a good idea. They said that in 1938-1941 here too. There is a time and a place for violence, and when you're being attacked or invaded, I think that may be an appropriate time. Do recall that the only reason you're not speaking German natively (assuming you aren't German) is thanks to the violent tendencies of Americans and our willingness to volunteer ourself for causes that don't necessarily have an immediate, homeland impact for us. I don't think the passiveness that pervades Europe these days is a 100% good thing. I don't see a problem with appropriate self defense, something France didn't even practice in WW II. Appeasement has to stop somewhere.
And no, I don't own a gun, in case that matters.
No seriously. I'm a scientist, and it's so ruthlessly political it's not funny. The idea sounds good - look at evidence, go where it takes you - and indeed that's the idea. As such, science is apolitical. But whenever you're depending upon agencies for funding, and their biases, it's impossible to keep science clean. It's political on both the large scale (if I publish this work that happens to support this political party's platform, I never get funding from this agency propped up by the other party) and on the small scale (if I don't kiss this scientist's ass in the intro to my paper, it ain't getting published - and if I question his work, I'll never get published again). I've been bitten by both so many times I can't count.
I'm glad people who aren't scientists think it's this glorious, nearly untainted objective field, but after the experiments are done, it's as political or more than other fields. And experiments done in a vacuum (figuratively, of course) do no good. And work banished to third-tier journals because its authors have been blackballed for whatever reason might as well not exist, because it doesn't get noticed. And so much of the interesting research that does get press is due to shameless self promotion, that research gets attacked viciously, and it ends up "debunked." The study in the story suffers from some of that effect. Always beware of science released in a press conference, newspaper, or magazine before it's published in a peer-reviewed journal. Also beware of the small-minded assholes who attack groundbreaking research because they didn't come up with it first.
I hate cronyism, and it's half the reason I'm not going into academics. Of course, I'll admit if I were a social scientist, I'd have committed suicide by now. That's a field where you're expected to know the outcome before you investigate, and where any politically incorrect answers aren't even allowed.
I think in my next life I'll be an electrician or something.
Computers from vegetable packing plants don't end up smelling like shit.
That's "to boldly drive their respective franchises into ground that no other franchise has ever been driven."
It needed a nice Roddenberry misplaced modifier. ;)
As long as you find nothing wrong with them treating you (the consumer) the same way, then fine. Personally I like to reward companies who see benefit in supporting customers with my business.
If you teach companies that they won't be rewarded for playing nice, they won't. If you send the message (with your $$$) that actually caring might be profitable, they might take that option, even if it's less obvious as a mechanism for making money.
More would agree with it if the RIAA hadn't blown all its goodwill suing the wrong people and being mean in general. You don't get a second chance when you're a giant bitch on top of being wrong on your first go.
How would you have liked to see the RIAA police their content? I agree they're a bunch of anachronistic assholes, but to me it seems their biggest screwup was not doing the research to realize (if they could somehow do so) that one of the people they sued was a kid. Other than that, it seems like they are going after (as much as possible) people who are sharing a lot of files.
Personally, I don't like the RIAA, but I find the MPAA to be much more disgusting. Then there's DirecTV's tactics (up until a few months ago) that basically assumed *anyone* buying a certain brand of smart-card reader was pirating their service, and sought $3000 to aviod going to court. They've since stopped that, but still.
Actually German and Dutch (and english) are very similar. I'm an American who learned German, and I once started teachin myself Dutch but stopped because it seemed too easy. Still, I could read half the damned article.
If it's that unrecognizeable and creative, why'd you need to sample it instead of making something new?
OK, I'm not. I've been admin'ing a few slackware boxes and a stray redhat and suse for about 4 years now. Some debian experience too. Just to declare.
However, it is the easiest linux distro to support, hands down.
Subjective - but even if granted, irrelevant. The problem is it's not supportED.
and to those who are saying "shut up and go with what's there" I might remind you that the reason they're using linux in the first place is because users (in this case admins) wanted to use it. The demand came before the supply, OK?
Not quite following this argument, but you seem to be implying that your company should stand up for your belief in Debian? Sorry, I'm sure the company doesn't care. You're an employee on company time, not an advocate.
I believe Debian is so far superior to the other distros that wide support for it is inevitable.
Well, that's not borne out so far. If anything, check back in 2 years and see if Deb's supported then. If so, give it a try.
Lastly I might add Debian is not a company that can be bought or influenced by money; it is a non-profit with protected legal status.
That includes all money, including support contracts. I don't know what "protected legal status" means, but I can guarantee that means nothing to your company's bottom line.
And for the most important reason your company doesn't want to go with Debian: If you die/quit/get fired, they just lost the only guy who admins the thing. Note that getting on the internet and asking advice from a bunch of morons screaming RTFM! doesn't count as support. Companies want and need support contracts. Debian isn't available with one. End of story. And if you with Deb and it screws up, probably end of your job.
It wasn't my fault I jacked 231232432 movies off P2P! The evil bastards INDUCEd me!!!
Right, but as I understand from TFA, it seems that they will in fact sell you these features. So their security argument falls flat - surely they wouldn't make people pay for features that were too insecure to include for free?
Where you been since the 1980's? It might be ridiculous, but it's also true. DVD's are encrypted, and thanks to our lovely DMCA it is illegal to defeat encryption to copy the material. Producing illicit DVD codecs is illegal, and a company got sued by the MPAA this week for doing so (story somewhere on /.). When you buy a DVD player, you are buying a device that has been sanctioned by the MPAA.
As such, I would say the guy is right when he says you need the MPAA's permission to watch a DVD. It's already law. Doesn't apply to CD's...yet...thankfully.
(Bluto Blutarski)
Note: If you don't get the above reference, RENT ANIMAL HOUSE NOW!!!
I think it's more likely he's right, particularly given that Circuit City is not (to my knowledge) franchised, and they are pretty tight with corporate policy. There's also the fact that they have the same damned competitor everywhere - Best Buy. The two of them drove out all the mom and pop's years ago, so the chances of varying local conditions of competition isn't likely. Then there's the fact that applying the low price guarantee to after-rebate prices wouldn't make sense. For one, rebates are given knowing that a sizeable fraction are never claimed, and Circuit City would be giving up that revenue (as well as the interest earned during the rebate period). Even that would have to be a store rebate only - there's no way they'd match a manufacturer rebate.
Bottom line, the grandparent poster has evidence, g-grandparent has anecdotal assertions. I don't think they grandparent was being arrogant for pointing out that the typical slashdot reader shouldn't expect to get pricematch on a rebate at his local CC. For one, it's certainly not the general corporate policy, isn't policy at a majority of stores, and I've yet to see proof of it being the case at ANY store.
(Parent):BZZZT! Wrong answer. A good software architect holds one law above all else: "The customer doesn't actually know what they want!" This means that you need to code as defensively as possible.
I'd do both. Anyone who thinks they code so damned well they can adapt anything is naive or arrogant. Not spending the time with a customer to find out what they might want to do with the program in the future is completely foolish. Eventually you'll have to make design choices in writing your program, and if you can make those choices with knowledge of what you might have to do later, you're one step ahead.
First, in response to your memory card issues, I'll have to say that's on the periphery of what Best Buy sells. They do a lot of TV's and such, car audio, but you can't expect them to do that AND focus on having great stock of what are effectively aftermarket support items. It's going to be spotty for that. It's definitely not fair to compare two store chains with the attempt to buy one item; I could counter with a similar experience from Circuit City. As far as comparing them to NewEgg, look at as you're paying extra for the privelege of them having to carry a lot of low-volume stuff. You want it now, you'll pay more.
That said, if I want a $200 TV, where do I go? Circuit City is basically Best Buy with red shirts. I'm not mail ordering a friggin' TV. And all the other medium-sized chains (like Good Guys here in CA) are obscenely expensive - you think Best Buy is bad, try them.
So next time I need typical consumer electronic equipment, I'm heading to Best Buy. And no, dammit, I'm not 'turfing! ;)
If you get $100 of use out of an IM client, I'm going to have to introduce you to this concept I like to call "outside."
That's why I'm figuring, you know, maybe these Amazon fuckers are just bad at math. If you're that bad at math, so bad that using the fingers to count doesn't help, you really don't need words for complicated mathematical contstructs. Like, say an equivalent for the word "four."
yes, I'm KIDDING!