I've seen people quoting a price of $1500.00 for UnixWare, which I'm guessing is a single-machine license. Also, SCO says they're looking for $149 for small users, like noncommercial users (that's you and me). I'm not going to be buying anything from them. I'd rather switch to FreeBSD and give them the finger, than send so much as one red cent their way.
Having said that, I'm going to be using Slackware on my main machine until I absolutely have to give it up. But, then, I'm not using any features that have been listed as potentially infringing, so I don't think I'm even involved in this; I'm not using SMP at all, for instance.
Actually, that could be useful for those of us who have wood-burning stoves. My energy bill was HUGE this past winter. I wonder how many nastygrams we can get them to generate?
Well, although everyone's having a great time beating up on poor Kofi Annan, who's obviously not a techie and probably not really aware of the issues you're describing, let's take this in another direction.
What if, and humor me here, Kofi Annan is a lot more savvy than he's letting on?
Maybe Kofi said to himself, "Well, these laptops are light, and have great battery life, and they come with wireless gear... It's really only a matter of time before those Linux maniacs roll out a reverse-engineered set of drivers, so maybe I can buy into this tech bigtime, making it look like I'm US friendly and scoring some points with that nitwit Bush. Then, when the Linux drivers come out, everyone can switch over from the proprietary stuff and I have plenty of plausible deniability -- what? Me? Linux? Whatever do you mean?"
Just a thought... Sometimes people are a lot sharper than they want you to think they are.;)
1. Poor and middle class people make rich people nervous, for several reasons. First of all, it's hard for a poor little rich kid to maintain that aura of superiority when Joey Sixpack has a higher GPA than him, is physically tougher than him, and knows a variety of physical skills like car maintenance, simple plumbing, electricity, and such -- all things rich people rarely do, but which poor people HAVE to know how to do. This might explain why so many rich people are nostalgic for the days when only the rich went to college. It might also explain why they like countries with a two class system -- an obvious division between rich and poor helps the rich maintain their illusions of superiority. The U.S. system of a wide, continuous range between rich and poor erodes the whole IDEA of superiority.
2. So rich people at least slightly dislike and resent the middle and working classes. On some level, many rich people wish that "those people" would "know their place". And, I think this translates to a dislike for paying middle class people any more than is absolutely necessary, and to the treating of employees as though they were serfs. This behavior, by the way, predates the middle classes -- it goes all the way back to the era before the unions were formed (the unions were formed in response to truly bad behavior on the part of company owners).
3. So companies' owners loathe paying any more in salary than they absolutely have to, for psychological reasons in addition to their natural greed and selfishness. They despise unions, which *enforce* fair treatment of employees, and they despise economic conditions (like the IT boom) which force them to treat employees well. So over time, company owners seek out workarounds which let them avoid having to pay a living wage.
4. Currently, globalism has offered them a chance to crush the entire playing field. When all good jobs are outsourced, millions of families get shunted from the middle classes down to the poor and working classes (levels the rich are more comfortable with). When everyone is desperate, it's easy to find workers you can keep under your heel, and the rich find that they are much more powerful as a result. I suspect that the rich, here in the US, would be perfectly happy with a two-class society. I think they would see it as a benefit of their policies.
5. Once society has reached a two-class state, the rich start globetrotting so they can avoid any experiences of squalor (except when they decide to go slumming, that is). Think they're worried about revolution? No. They'll just keep moving around. Think they're worried about markets? As long as they can keep their companies going for a few years and build up a stake, they don't care what happens long-term. They'll burn everything down to the ground and live off of the nest egg they've built. As will their rich children, who will inherit their nest egg, and so on. And, the worse the overall economy gets, the cheaper it is for the rich to live well.
Think "Fall of Rome", kids. Nero was rich, too, and he fiddled while Rome burned. The rich don't care about us. They just wish we would all go away, or be servants, or something. They live lives of ridiculous, disgusting excess, while the rest of us have to scrape and struggle. And, it isn't fair; it's never been fair. 2,000 years ago, Christ said "it is harder for a rich man to get into heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle." It has *always* been this way.
Ah, but you see, if you *leave* the US, you'll have to worry about all the *foreign* governments who'll be watching you... And, the CIA will be able to observe and "interact" with you at will, with no restrictions, because although their charter forbids them from interfering within the continental US, there's no holds barred overseas. Of course, they *are* trying to "improve" their domestic powers...
If you don't feel safe *here*, wait 'til you get over *there*... At least here, all you have to worry about is OUR feds...
Actually, this report vindicates ALL slashdotters! It's not that we can't get laid -- we're protecting our genius-level output! We're practically MARTYRS!!! Woot!;)
Yeah, right. The people who "daydream through the... class" probably don't pass the test the first time around. I don't know where YOU are, but around here, they grill ya, and they don't make it easy. Car tests aren't so bad IF you know what you're doing(I didn't have much trouble there). But, you have to know your stuff.
Just to put it in perspective, here in NY, first you have to pass a written test demonstrating that you know the laws you have to follow, and you have to answer safety-related questions, then you have to take the road test. First they take you out on the highway, you have to do all kinds of weird shit like taking this exit, moving from this lane to that, and so on, all in traffic of course, then you have to park in a normal spot, parallel park between two cars (with as little room as possible, of course), and do a three-corner turn on a crowded, tight street, drive all over the place while the guy is looking over your shoulder for the slightest thing to gig you on... Plus, remember, especially in NYC but elsewhere too, NY is CROWDED. So you're not just taking a test on an empty street -- oh, no. You're out at like, 9AM, or 4:30PM, and things get CROWDED. Maybe you can luck out and score a 2:00 PM test. Good luck. And, remember, in NY, if you fail the test, you've got a SIX MONTH WAIT for the next one.
Easy??? You're dreaming, dude -- they don't make it easy for you here. This isn't one of those states where you drive around some cones in a fenced-in parking lot. Of course, if you actually know what you're doing, it's not that tough. A good driver would probably pass with no trouble. But, don't take that and say, "the test is easy" because it just isn't. It actually tests you.
You're kidding! I can't believe they put TVs in the front seat... Here in New York, they're tough on that sort of thing. All a cop has to do is catch a glimpse of a cell phone and you've got a ticket. He'll give you a hard time, too... It's like the seatbelt law. Get caught without a seatbelt and that's an eighty dollar fine. The cell-phone thing is like, 500 bucks plus points on your license. No joke...
From now on, when I vacation in California, I'm staying off the highways...;)
As far as your motorcycle goes, you're braver than me... I used to ride, had a couple of freaky close calls and switched over to solid, sturdy pickup trucks. I find I don't have to change my shorts anywhere NEAR as often, ha ha...
I live in New York, where everyone is *REQUIRED* to take a professionally licensed instructor's driver's class *and* a difficult test. You have to know the rules of the road and prove yourself a competent driver. And, it is ILLEGAL here to do anything besides drive while you drive, so if a cop catches you with that PDA, etc, you're gonna get busted and pay a stiff fine. By the way: the televisions are in the BACK SEATS, not the front seats, you noob.
'Course, you probably won't live long enough to pay the fine... Anyone engaged in that many activities while driving is gonna hit a bridge abutment or something and incinerate himself, taking himself out of the gene pool and off our highways. But, that's natural selection in action. Always a Good Thing...
This is true; I also use Windows 2000 at work and most of our developer's tools *require* administrator status, sometimes before they'll even start up (others start, but then choke with various error messages to the tune of "you don't have appropriate priviledge for this operation", etc). I don't know why this has to be so; you'd think they could build a compiler or GUI that doesn't require admin status. But, it definitely seems to be the case.
It sucks, but that's the price of using Windows as a development platform. By the way, never make the mistake I made: if you ever utter the words "I'd rather we were using FreeBSD or Linux" in a Windows shop, you're known forever after as "that FreeBSD guy". Sigh...
Well, I see where you're going with this, but I think that what you're looking for is NOT a general-purpose computer, which no matter how you slice it, is still going to be a technical instrument that requires some training or at least a little reading to use properly. This isn't a failure on the part of computer manufacturers, or software developers -- it's the nature of a computer. It's *supposed* to work the way it does.
Perhaps what you're looking for is a special-purpose computer. Consider the game console; here is a special purpose computer that users can just turn on and use. Generally it takes very little time to get up and running with a game. Users love them. Why not expand that paradigm to home computing? Create a special-purpose console that just does web browsing and email (newsgroups can be accessed via the WWW). Limit what the console can do, and limit the email to plain-text and attachments which cannot be executed on the console, only saved to external media. Put the O/S on flash ROM, like a handheld. Or make it static!
Leave the workstations for the techies and power users, and sell the general public a 200.00 console. If you really want to protect them, that's your best bet.
Your analogies are false. Before you're permitted to drive a car, you have to go through a training process, learn proper technique, learn the rules of the road, and PROVE YOURSELF COMPETENT in a fairly stressful road test. Many people fail the driver's test a few times before passing (I passed the first time, but then, I trained for the test at an auto school). And, learning about NTSC vs. PAL is more like comparing TCP/IP to the seven-layer OSI stack. Most people, in most applications, won't need to worry about that because they're standardized on TCP/IP. As a television you buy will be standardized for the format your country generally uses. You're building straw men and failing to knock them down.
Another problem with your way of looking at this is, computers were originally scientific instruments for data processing which required a certain level of understanding on the part of the users, who were generally degreed professionals. Computers have been found to be useful for a wide variety of other things, including "sending pictures to grandma" but at their core, they're still pieces of equipment, not toys. When you buy a circular saw or a wood lathe, you read the manual, don't you? And, if you don't read the manual, you fully expect to lose a thumb when you inevitably screw up, right? A computer is much more complicated than a circular saw, so I don't find it unreasonable to require people to actually make an effort and RTFM.
The fact that lazy people *want* it to be a no-brainer toy doesn't actually make it one. The incredible laziness I see in people I meet (and I'm not referring to you, here, just other people I've met) amazes ahd horrifies me. It's like they think picking up a book is going to HURT them...
What's really ironic is, I read somewhere that no one who's studied the situation from a sociology or psychology standpoint has ever been able to demonstrate that ads work at all. The article basically said that people who study the situation generally find that the people viewing the ads learn to ignore them fairly quickly. I think the example used was people flipping channels or muting the TV whenever ads come on. Another article (sorry, it was a long time ago and I don't remember where I saw it) said that people don't even SEE print and web ads. They manage to actually not even notice them, it's like background noise the brain filters out.
About the only ads I've ever really paid attention to were highly targeted, technology-oriented ads placed in an ad section where you could look IF you were looking for a specific thing (think ComputerShopper). Those were what I consider "honorable" ads, because they basically just said, "Ok, so you're looking for a laptop. Here are the models we have, here are our prices." No weirdo bullshit, and hidden in the back of the magazine where they belong, you know?
Hmm... 400.00 plus 10 bucks a month (over a year, that's 120 bucks, so figure a total of 520.00). I was assuming the price for the new console would drop down to the going price, which is right around 200, but they'd probably be stubborn about the 400 for a while, so let's use that instead.
For 520 bucks, I could get 10 games, plus a case of beer. Or, eight brand-new games and six used games for a total of fourteen. Since I already have a Playstation and an XBox (which has online gaming through XBox Live) I think I'd go for the games instead.
Plus, did you notice? The new, weirdo console requires you to *DOWNLOAD* games. Suuuuuuure, I'd LOVE to download a couple GB a pop (remember, consoles use DVDs, not CDs). That sounds like a GREAT idea...
It's already happened. In NYC, where I used to work, they were painting whole buildings with ads. You could see through them from the inside, sort of, although you could tell there was paint on the window. But from the outside, you couldn't really see the building itself so much as a huge billboard. It looked kind of cool when someone opened a window and stuck his/her head out -- there'd be this black square in the ad, with the person in it. Weird.
But, this is already in progress. Check out 42nd street sometime. It's all lights, neon, and come-ons. Times Square is even worse, but at least there you don't have rabid hookers chasing you yelling "So you think you're too good for me?". Man... No means NO, lady!!!
Many? You mean there are authority figures who *aren't*??? I'm shocked! Finding an authority figure who isn't an idiot would be like like going into the deep freeze at the convenience store and finding a Yeti...;)
It's not like this thing is going to be an easy sell, anyway. The three currently marketed game systems (Playstation, XBox, and GameCube) are all state of the art and have great collections of games available. Also, most people who are sufficiently into games to drop a couple of hundreds of bucks on a console *have already done so*.
Given the choice, "Spend two hundred bucks and get a new, unproven console that everyone thinks is a DRM PC" or "Spend two hundred bucks and get four new games for your existing console", which do you think they're going to lean towards?;)
Well, hang on a second here. Let's assume, first of all, that there's no antigravity present (I think this was proven fairly handily by NASA). So we've got an ion engine, which has, say, a pound of thrust for a several pound generator. And, the prototypes described don't have any navigation built in.
So what? Let's take it a step further. Once you know how to build a prototype, it's a short hop to building an assembly of prototypes. Here's what I mean:
Take the four-foot-diameter, one pound lifter. If you built it to take a higher voltage, you could probably increase the output, say, to two pounds. Alter the frame it's built on, and you can probably get it down to a few inches thick, like s slab. Use a wire mesh instead of tinfoil and you have a slab that air can pass through. So, try stacking them, with some kind of insulating ring preventing the hot wire from shorting to the mesh above it (so it only sends ions downward, not upward). If each three-inch slab can produce, say, two pounds of thrust, slap fifty together to produce a hundred pounds. Then, build eight or ten assemblies, so you can levitate a thousand pounds. Then, design your hypothetical hovercraft so that it weighs no more than seven hundred pounds, with two passengers.
Ah, but you say navigation hasn't been solved. Ok, build your assemblies so that you can point them using a control stick of some kind. There's your control, right there -- directional thrust.
It's an interesting idea. I see it as looking like a big Zodiac raft, with ten barrels strapped around the outside and two seats inside. If I built one, I'd take it on the thruway just to see the look on the cop's face as I blow past him, coronas of lightning shooting all over the place from my thrust assemblies. Think about it; it would be funny enough to justify the cost of building it.
And, who else noticed that the Matrix hovercrafts seem to use this exact system? Someone likes obscure web searches, no?
Maybe in a way, it's good that our children are going to have to deal with this sort of thing. If they didn't see it for themselves, they'd NEVER believe OUR stories...;)
I'll never forget the fourth grade... It sucked. I had this idiot teacher, Mrs. McW---, who insisted on being addressed as "Ms." (so as an act of civil disobedience, I referred to her as "Mrs." because she was married, it drove her nuts -- you wouldn't think a kid would be able to engage in psychological warfare, but hey, you'd be surprised). She was the one who dragged the science teacher over to tell me there was "only one great ice age". What idiots. Other arguments between me and her were:
Trying to explain that the shells I'd brought in were over 40 million years old, and fossilized. She claimed "any shell that old would turn to dust as soon as you touched it". Attempting to explain fossilization got me branded as a liar.
Saying there were multiple ice ages got me branded a liar, because the stupid science teacher claimed "there was only one great ice age" (to which I replied, "You'd better take another look at your books, lady", which brought more heat down on my head -- ow). She would get the whole class making fun of me.
Once she was talking about bats, and said something about "blind as a bat" to which I replied, "actually, bats have very good binocular vision..." to which she barked at me, basically that if bats weren't blind the saying wouldn't be "blind as a bat" so I should sit down and shut up.
Basically, I found her to be completely evil and I hated her guts throughout the fourth grade. What a rotten woman. Here it is, like twenty years later, and I still hate her.;)
I had one teacher, Mrs. K---, who decided, foolishly, to ask the class where babies come from. Most of the kids (this was 2nd grade) gave the predictable answers, stork, cabbage patch, etc, but I'd already read up on the subject and thought the other kids were being dumb. I raised my hand.
"Philip, where do *you* think babies come from?"
"From the mother, of course. First the parents have intercourse..."
"PHILIP! SHUT YOUR MOUTH!"
"What? What's the big deal? The father puts his..."
"GO TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE RIGHT NOW!"
"Man, this sucks..."
Then, she made me go to a shrink to see whether anything funny was going on at home, and she practically accused my mother and father of keeping porno around. My mother's from the Bronx. Baaaaaaaaad move, Mrs. K----. Tactical error.;)
Anyway, the shrink said there was nothing wrong with me, that my parents were normal and healthy, and that he knew about the book I'd read and it was highly recommended for child education, etc, etc, so the whole thing blew over pretty fast. And, my mother and Mrs. K--- were enemies forever after.
I agree completely, although my reason for not homeschooling isn't the lack of social interaction (although, now that you mention it, that's a good reason too) but rather, that I believe that a child needs to have a range of different teachers with different fields of study in order to learn. I can help a kid with anything physics, math, or computer related, and I plan to. And, I'm going to make sure the kid's teachers aren't putting anything weird in his head -- I don't like the social engineering that goes on in public schools sometimes. But there's still going to be that division of labor, where the kid goes to specialists for lessons, following a curriculum. It seems like the safest route, you know?
An A/C asked, "Great idea. Dumb question though, are you going to force them through the same humiliation and waste of time that you went through in school, or are you going to teach them at home? (ie. homeschool)"
Well, the thing is, I think they should go to school *even though* it's going to be a fairly stupid and annoying experience. It's a shame that they'll have to go through pretty much the same crap I did, but if they don't, they won't learn the useful lessons that are to be had, namely:
1. People suck. No, really. Trust NOBODY. 2. Authority figures generally *don't* know what they're talking about, so you'd better doublecheck everything they tell you. 3. Most people, authority figures especially, only think about their own selfish self-interest. So you can't trust them to behave honorably, tell the truth, or even remember who you are. 4. Cover your ass at all times, and always doublecheck everything, every time. 5. When in doubt, punch him out. 6. If you can't tell what it is, don't eat it -- I don't care if you ARE in a cafeteria. 7. Sometimes you HAVE to suck up. But you can always get even later, when the teacher's back is turned. Corollary: "you can mess with me now, but payback's a bitch and you'll NEVER see it coming". 8. Never, and I mean NEVER leave your gym locker OR your hall locker unlocked or unattended. 9. It doesn't matter WHAT the coach says, you can shower safely at home. Do NOT get naked at school. 10. AVOID SPORTS FANATICS.
Slashdot Mirror
"2. comes with a nice 1000 page EULA (that premits SCO to take your wife and kill your dog at time of their choice)."
;)
But, wait! Given your comment marked #2 above, we can't just "go for SCO"! We have to implement the following branching structure:
if(wife.IsHot()){
goWithSco.Decision = "Fuck, no!";
}else if(wife.likesOral()){
if(wife.doesntBite()||wife.swallows()){
goWithSco.Decision = "Aw, HELLZ no!!!";
}else{
goWithSco.Decision = "Maybe";
}
}else if(wife.isADog){
if(wife.isANympho()){
if(wife.isARealDogWoofWoof()){
goWithSco.Decision = "Maybe. Tell ya tomorrow";
}else{
goWithSco.Decision = "Nah. I'll keep the wife.";
}
}else if(wife.isCool()){
goWithSco.Decision = "Nah, I'll keep the wife.";
}else {
goWithSco.Decision = "Maybe.";
}
}else if(dog.isAGoodDog()){
goWithSco.Decision = "Nah, I like my dog.";
} else {
goWithSco.Decision = "Maybe, but only if you take the wife and dog NOW.";
}
See? You have to think these decisions through.
I've seen people quoting a price of $1500.00 for UnixWare, which I'm guessing is a single-machine license. Also, SCO says they're looking for $149 for small users, like noncommercial users (that's you and me). I'm not going to be buying anything from them. I'd rather switch to FreeBSD and give them the finger, than send so much as one red cent their way.
Having said that, I'm going to be using Slackware on my main machine until I absolutely have to give it up. But, then, I'm not using any features that have been listed as potentially infringing, so I don't think I'm even involved in this; I'm not using SMP at all, for instance.
Actually, that could be useful for those of us who have wood-burning stoves. My energy bill was HUGE this past winter. I wonder how many nastygrams we can get them to generate?
Well, although everyone's having a great time beating up on poor Kofi Annan, who's obviously not a techie and probably not really aware of the issues you're describing, let's take this in another direction.
;)
What if, and humor me here, Kofi Annan is a lot more savvy than he's letting on?
Maybe Kofi said to himself, "Well, these laptops are light, and have great battery life, and they come with wireless gear... It's really only a matter of time before those Linux maniacs roll out a reverse-engineered set of drivers, so maybe I can buy into this tech bigtime, making it look like I'm US friendly and scoring some points with that nitwit Bush. Then, when the Linux drivers come out, everyone can switch over from the proprietary stuff and I have plenty of plausible deniability -- what? Me? Linux? Whatever do you mean?"
Just a thought... Sometimes people are a lot sharper than they want you to think they are.
The overall trend is more like this:
1. Poor and middle class people make rich people nervous, for several reasons. First of all, it's hard for a poor little rich kid to maintain that aura of superiority when Joey Sixpack has a higher GPA than him, is physically tougher than him, and knows a variety of physical skills like car maintenance, simple plumbing, electricity, and such -- all things rich people rarely do, but which poor people HAVE to know how to do. This might explain why so many rich people are nostalgic for the days when only the rich went to college. It might also explain why they like countries with a two class system -- an obvious division between rich and poor helps the rich maintain their illusions of superiority. The U.S. system of a wide, continuous range between rich and poor erodes the whole IDEA of superiority.
2. So rich people at least slightly dislike and resent the middle and working classes. On some level, many rich people wish that "those people" would "know their place". And, I think this translates to a dislike for paying middle class people any more than is absolutely necessary, and to the treating of employees as though they were serfs. This behavior, by the way, predates the middle classes -- it goes all the way back to the era before the unions were formed (the unions were formed in response to truly bad behavior on the part of company owners).
3. So companies' owners loathe paying any more in salary than they absolutely have to, for psychological reasons in addition to their natural greed and selfishness. They despise unions, which *enforce* fair treatment of employees, and they despise economic conditions (like the IT boom) which force them to treat employees well. So over time, company owners seek out workarounds which let them avoid having to pay a living wage.
4. Currently, globalism has offered them a chance to crush the entire playing field. When all good jobs are outsourced, millions of families get shunted from the middle classes down to the poor and working classes (levels the rich are more comfortable with). When everyone is desperate, it's easy to find workers you can keep under your heel, and the rich find that they are much more powerful as a result. I suspect that the rich, here in the US, would be perfectly happy with a two-class society. I think they would see it as a benefit of their policies.
5. Once society has reached a two-class state, the rich start globetrotting so they can avoid any experiences of squalor (except when they decide to go slumming, that is). Think they're worried about revolution? No. They'll just keep moving around. Think they're worried about markets? As long as they can keep their companies going for a few years and build up a stake, they don't care what happens long-term. They'll burn everything down to the ground and live off of the nest egg they've built. As will their rich children, who will inherit their nest egg, and so on. And, the worse the overall economy gets, the cheaper it is for the rich to live well.
Think "Fall of Rome", kids. Nero was rich, too, and he fiddled while Rome burned. The rich don't care about us. They just wish we would all go away, or be servants, or something. They live lives of ridiculous, disgusting excess, while the rest of us have to scrape and struggle. And, it isn't fair; it's never been fair. 2,000 years ago, Christ said "it is harder for a rich man to get into heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle." It has *always* been this way.
It's a shame. It could have been so much better.
Ah, but you see, if you *leave* the US, you'll have to worry about all the *foreign* governments who'll be watching you... And, the CIA will be able to observe and "interact" with you at will, with no restrictions, because although their charter forbids them from interfering within the continental US, there's no holds barred overseas. Of course, they *are* trying to "improve" their domestic powers...
If you don't feel safe *here*, wait 'til you get over *there*... At least here, all you have to worry about is OUR feds...
Actually, this report vindicates ALL slashdotters! It's not that we can't get laid -- we're protecting our genius-level output! We're practically MARTYRS!!! Woot! ;)
Well, if she can type really fast... ;)
Yeah, right. The people who "daydream through the... class" probably don't pass the test the first time around. I don't know where YOU are, but around here, they grill ya, and they don't make it easy. Car tests aren't so bad IF you know what you're doing(I didn't have much trouble there). But, you have to know your stuff.
Just to put it in perspective, here in NY, first you have to pass a written test demonstrating that you know the laws you have to follow, and you have to answer safety-related questions, then you have to take the road test. First they take you out on the highway, you have to do all kinds of weird shit like taking this exit, moving from this lane to that, and so on, all in traffic of course, then you have to park in a normal spot, parallel park between two cars (with as little room as possible, of course), and do a three-corner turn on a crowded, tight street, drive all over the place while the guy is looking over your shoulder for the slightest thing to gig you on... Plus, remember, especially in NYC but elsewhere too, NY is CROWDED. So you're not just taking a test on an empty street -- oh, no. You're out at like, 9AM, or 4:30PM, and things get CROWDED. Maybe you can luck out and score a 2:00 PM test. Good luck. And, remember, in NY, if you fail the test, you've got a SIX MONTH WAIT for the next one.
Easy??? You're dreaming, dude -- they don't make it easy for you here. This isn't one of those states where you drive around some cones in a fenced-in parking lot. Of course, if you actually know what you're doing, it's not that tough. A good driver would probably pass with no trouble. But, don't take that and say, "the test is easy" because it just isn't. It actually tests you.
You're kidding! I can't believe they put TVs in the front seat... Here in New York, they're tough on that sort of thing. All a cop has to do is catch a glimpse of a cell phone and you've got a ticket. He'll give you a hard time, too... It's like the seatbelt law. Get caught without a seatbelt and that's an eighty dollar fine. The cell-phone thing is like, 500 bucks plus points on your license. No joke...
;)
From now on, when I vacation in California, I'm staying off the highways...
As far as your motorcycle goes, you're braver than me... I used to ride, had a couple of freaky close calls and switched over to solid, sturdy pickup trucks. I find I don't have to change my shorts anywhere NEAR as often, ha ha...
Cute. Also full of it.
I live in New York, where everyone is *REQUIRED* to take a professionally licensed instructor's driver's class *and* a difficult test. You have to know the rules of the road and prove yourself a competent driver. And, it is ILLEGAL here to do anything besides drive while you drive, so if a cop catches you with that PDA, etc, you're gonna get busted and pay a stiff fine. By the way: the televisions are in the BACK SEATS, not the front seats, you noob.
'Course, you probably won't live long enough to pay the fine... Anyone engaged in that many activities while driving is gonna hit a bridge abutment or something and incinerate himself, taking himself out of the gene pool and off our highways. But, that's natural selection in action. Always a Good Thing...
This is true; I also use Windows 2000 at work and most of our developer's tools *require* administrator status, sometimes before they'll even start up (others start, but then choke with various error messages to the tune of "you don't have appropriate priviledge for this operation", etc). I don't know why this has to be so; you'd think they could build a compiler or GUI that doesn't require admin status. But, it definitely seems to be the case.
It sucks, but that's the price of using Windows as a development platform. By the way, never make the mistake I made: if you ever utter the words "I'd rather we were using FreeBSD or Linux" in a Windows shop, you're known forever after as "that FreeBSD guy". Sigh...
Well, I see where you're going with this, but I think that what you're looking for is NOT a general-purpose computer, which no matter how you slice it, is still going to be a technical instrument that requires some training or at least a little reading to use properly. This isn't a failure on the part of computer manufacturers, or software developers -- it's the nature of a computer. It's *supposed* to work the way it does.
Perhaps what you're looking for is a special-purpose computer. Consider the game console; here is a special purpose computer that users can just turn on and use. Generally it takes very little time to get up and running with a game. Users love them. Why not expand that paradigm to home computing? Create a special-purpose console that just does web browsing and email (newsgroups can be accessed via the WWW). Limit what the console can do, and limit the email to plain-text and attachments which cannot be executed on the console, only saved to external media. Put the O/S on flash ROM, like a handheld. Or make it static!
Leave the workstations for the techies and power users, and sell the general public a 200.00 console. If you really want to protect them, that's your best bet.
Your analogies are false. Before you're permitted to drive a car, you have to go through a training process, learn proper technique, learn the rules of the road, and PROVE YOURSELF COMPETENT in a fairly stressful road test. Many people fail the driver's test a few times before passing (I passed the first time, but then, I trained for the test at an auto school). And, learning about NTSC vs. PAL is more like comparing TCP/IP to the seven-layer OSI stack. Most people, in most applications, won't need to worry about that because they're standardized on TCP/IP. As a television you buy will be standardized for the format your country generally uses. You're building straw men and failing to knock them down.
Another problem with your way of looking at this is, computers were originally scientific instruments for data processing which required a certain level of understanding on the part of the users, who were generally degreed professionals. Computers have been found to be useful for a wide variety of other things, including "sending pictures to grandma" but at their core, they're still pieces of equipment, not toys. When you buy a circular saw or a wood lathe, you read the manual, don't you? And, if you don't read the manual, you fully expect to lose a thumb when you inevitably screw up, right? A computer is much more complicated than a circular saw, so I don't find it unreasonable to require people to actually make an effort and RTFM.
The fact that lazy people *want* it to be a no-brainer toy doesn't actually make it one. The incredible laziness I see in people I meet (and I'm not referring to you, here, just other people I've met) amazes ahd horrifies me. It's like they think picking up a book is going to HURT them...
What's really ironic is, I read somewhere that no one who's studied the situation from a sociology or psychology standpoint has ever been able to demonstrate that ads work at all. The article basically said that people who study the situation generally find that the people viewing the ads learn to ignore them fairly quickly. I think the example used was people flipping channels or muting the TV whenever ads come on. Another article (sorry, it was a long time ago and I don't remember where I saw it) said that people don't even SEE print and web ads. They manage to actually not even notice them, it's like background noise the brain filters out.
About the only ads I've ever really paid attention to were highly targeted, technology-oriented ads placed in an ad section where you could look IF you were looking for a specific thing (think ComputerShopper). Those were what I consider "honorable" ads, because they basically just said, "Ok, so you're looking for a laptop. Here are the models we have, here are our prices." No weirdo bullshit, and hidden in the back of the magazine where they belong, you know?
Hmm... 400.00 plus 10 bucks a month (over a year, that's 120 bucks, so figure a total of 520.00). I was assuming the price for the new console would drop down to the going price, which is right around 200, but they'd probably be stubborn about the 400 for a while, so let's use that instead.
For 520 bucks, I could get 10 games, plus a case of beer. Or, eight brand-new games and six used games for a total of fourteen. Since I already have a Playstation and an XBox (which has online gaming through XBox Live) I think I'd go for the games instead.
Plus, did you notice? The new, weirdo console requires you to *DOWNLOAD* games. Suuuuuuure, I'd LOVE to download a couple GB a pop (remember, consoles use DVDs, not CDs). That sounds like a GREAT idea...
The whole thing seems particularly dubious to me.
It's already happened. In NYC, where I used to work, they were painting whole buildings with ads. You could see through them from the inside, sort of, although you could tell there was paint on the window. But from the outside, you couldn't really see the building itself so much as a huge billboard. It looked kind of cool when someone opened a window and stuck his/her head out -- there'd be this black square in the ad, with the person in it. Weird.
But, this is already in progress. Check out 42nd street sometime. It's all lights, neon, and come-ons. Times Square is even worse, but at least there you don't have rabid hookers chasing you yelling "So you think you're too good for me?". Man... No means NO, lady!!!
Many? You mean there are authority figures who *aren't*??? I'm shocked! Finding an authority figure who isn't an idiot would be like like going into the deep freeze at the convenience store and finding a Yeti... ;)
It's not like this thing is going to be an easy sell, anyway. The three currently marketed game systems (Playstation, XBox, and GameCube) are all state of the art and have great collections of games available. Also, most people who are sufficiently into games to drop a couple of hundreds of bucks on a console *have already done so*.
;)
Given the choice, "Spend two hundred bucks and get a new, unproven console that everyone thinks is a DRM PC" or "Spend two hundred bucks and get four new games for your existing console", which do you think they're going to lean towards?
Well, hang on a second here. Let's assume, first of all, that there's no antigravity present (I think this was proven fairly handily by NASA). So we've got an ion engine, which has, say, a pound of thrust for a several pound generator. And, the prototypes described don't have any navigation built in.
So what? Let's take it a step further. Once you know how to build a prototype, it's a short hop to building an assembly of prototypes. Here's what I mean:
Take the four-foot-diameter, one pound lifter. If you built it to take a higher voltage, you could probably increase the output, say, to two pounds. Alter the frame it's built on, and you can probably get it down to a few inches thick, like s slab. Use a wire mesh instead of tinfoil and you have a slab that air can pass through. So, try stacking them, with some kind of insulating ring preventing the hot wire from shorting to the mesh above it (so it only sends ions downward, not upward). If each three-inch slab can produce, say, two pounds of thrust, slap fifty together to produce a hundred pounds. Then, build eight or ten assemblies, so you can levitate a thousand pounds. Then, design your hypothetical hovercraft so that it weighs no more than seven hundred pounds, with two passengers.
Ah, but you say navigation hasn't been solved. Ok, build your assemblies so that you can point them using a control stick of some kind. There's your control, right there -- directional thrust.
It's an interesting idea. I see it as looking like a big Zodiac raft, with ten barrels strapped around the outside and two seats inside. If I built one, I'd take it on the thruway just to see the look on the cop's face as I blow past him, coronas of lightning shooting all over the place from my thrust assemblies. Think about it; it would be funny enough to justify the cost of building it.
And, who else noticed that the Matrix hovercrafts seem to use this exact system? Someone likes obscure web searches, no?
Maybe in a way, it's good that our children are going to have to deal with this sort of thing. If they didn't see it for themselves, they'd NEVER believe OUR stories... ;)
I'll never forget the fourth grade... It sucked. I had this idiot teacher, Mrs. McW---, who insisted on being addressed as "Ms." (so as an act of civil disobedience, I referred to her as "Mrs." because she was married, it drove her nuts -- you wouldn't think a kid would be able to engage in psychological warfare, but hey, you'd be surprised). She was the one who dragged the science teacher over to tell me there was "only one great ice age". What idiots. Other arguments between me and her were:
;)
Trying to explain that the shells I'd brought in were over 40 million years old, and fossilized. She claimed "any shell that old would turn to dust as soon as you touched it". Attempting to explain fossilization got me branded as a liar.
Saying there were multiple ice ages got me branded a liar, because the stupid science teacher claimed "there was only one great ice age" (to which I replied, "You'd better take another look at your books, lady", which brought more heat down on my head -- ow). She would get the whole class making fun of me.
Once she was talking about bats, and said something about "blind as a bat" to which I replied, "actually, bats have very good binocular vision..." to which she barked at me, basically that if bats weren't blind the saying wouldn't be "blind as a bat" so I should sit down and shut up.
Basically, I found her to be completely evil and I hated her guts throughout the fourth grade. What a rotten woman. Here it is, like twenty years later, and I still hate her.
I had one teacher, Mrs. K---, who decided, foolishly, to ask the class where babies come from. Most of the kids (this was 2nd grade) gave the predictable answers, stork, cabbage patch, etc, but I'd already read up on the subject and thought the other kids were being dumb. I raised my hand.
;)
"Philip, where do *you* think babies come from?"
"From the mother, of course. First the parents have intercourse..."
"PHILIP! SHUT YOUR MOUTH!"
"What? What's the big deal? The father puts his..."
"GO TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE RIGHT NOW!"
"Man, this sucks..."
Then, she made me go to a shrink to see whether anything funny was going on at home, and she practically accused my mother and father of keeping porno around. My mother's from the Bronx. Baaaaaaaaad move, Mrs. K----. Tactical error.
Anyway, the shrink said there was nothing wrong with me, that my parents were normal and healthy, and that he knew about the book I'd read and it was highly recommended for child education, etc, etc, so the whole thing blew over pretty fast. And, my mother and Mrs. K--- were enemies forever after.
I agree completely, although my reason for not homeschooling isn't the lack of social interaction (although, now that you mention it, that's a good reason too) but rather, that I believe that a child needs to have a range of different teachers with different fields of study in order to learn. I can help a kid with anything physics, math, or computer related, and I plan to. And, I'm going to make sure the kid's teachers aren't putting anything weird in his head -- I don't like the social engineering that goes on in public schools sometimes. But there's still going to be that division of labor, where the kid goes to specialists for lessons, following a curriculum. It seems like the safest route, you know?
An A/C asked, "Great idea.
Dumb question though, are you going to force them through the same humiliation and waste of time that you went through in school, or are you going to teach them at home? (ie. homeschool)"
Well, the thing is, I think they should go to school *even though* it's going to be a fairly stupid and annoying experience. It's a shame that they'll have to go through pretty much the same crap I did, but if they don't, they won't learn the useful lessons that are to be had, namely:
1. People suck. No, really. Trust NOBODY.
2. Authority figures generally *don't* know what they're talking about, so you'd better doublecheck everything they tell you.
3. Most people, authority figures especially, only think about their own selfish self-interest. So you can't trust them to behave honorably, tell the truth, or even remember who you are.
4. Cover your ass at all times, and always doublecheck everything, every time.
5. When in doubt, punch him out.
6. If you can't tell what it is, don't eat it -- I don't care if you ARE in a cafeteria.
7. Sometimes you HAVE to suck up. But you can always get even later, when the teacher's back is turned. Corollary: "you can mess with me now, but payback's a bitch and you'll NEVER see it coming".
8. Never, and I mean NEVER leave your gym locker OR your hall locker unlocked or unattended.
9. It doesn't matter WHAT the coach says, you can shower safely at home. Do NOT get naked at school.
10. AVOID SPORTS FANATICS.