Well, if you are going to have a physical keyboard then why not have it be touch sensitive?
Some people prefer physical buttons that can be felt and provide individual haptic feedback when pressed, so they get a physical keyboard which they can also use for gestures. Seems like a pretty good idea.
When the last Palm Treo came out the resolution was 320 × 320 and The Dark Knight was in theaters. That is hardly recent memory. Go back to the 2003 era of blackberries and you have square screen resolutions as well. Go back further to their pagers and they had the same. Lots of early displays had square screens. The point is all high resolution modern smartphones do not.
The square screen isn't the only innovation, the keyboard is also touch sensitive (ie, you pass your fingers over the keys without pressing down), allowing the use of gestures and scrolling through content without touching the screen and getting it dirty or obscuring the display with your fingers.
"Now the FCC regulates what can and cannot be said on the radio."
Incorrect. The people do. Sadly the only peple who seem to make an effort are those that want to force there[sic] crap down our throats.
The people most certainly do not, the FCC does. The FCC commissioners are not elected, so you cannot even make the argument that the people are in control through representative government.
Honestly, have you contacted the FCC? Did you inform them of your feelings about what happened?
The FCC is restricting free speech and your argument is that I should write a strongly worded letter to unelected officials of an illegitimate organization that is acting extraconstitutionally. Let me know how that worked out (spoiler: it didn't).
You have more power with a government body then you will ever have with a corporation.
This is just irrational absolutism, and incorrect. In certain respects an organized populace has more power over government bodies. However the people make decisions on what a company does through their shareholders, the board of directors, the press, direct pressure, and litigation. All the while its getting more and more difficult to sue government. If the news about Comcast's torrent killing gets some bad press or gets sued for it, it will impact stock prices which could in itself lead to a policy change without you doing anything.
If I have a problem with my street, it gets taken care of quickly. The one time we had a problem it was fixed 4 hours later.
Yet for over 30 years the FCC still hasn't been "fixed", but in the meantime private satellite radio, cable and satellite tv have appeared and allow more freedom of speech and expression.
Also you cannot equate local government with federal government. Everyone has a bigger voice the smaller and more local the government is. The same could be said with corporations.
What we really need is municipal ownership of the infrastructure, which would allow for any number of ISPs to offer services to the customers and create true competition in that market. Right now, due to the mounds of regulations that have accumulated over the years, we have companies that have no incentive to compete or improve their networks beyond the basics. Others are shut out of the infrastructure and we have no innovation or real choice in the market.
Out here in the pacific northwest there is a lot of money going into new infrastructure. Verizon is laying out a fortune building their FIOS network and Comcast keeps spreading like the plague. There is money going into WiMax, and cell phone companies are releasing their own home internet solutions. Less regulation is the key. Look at cell phone providers, you have multiple carriers overlapping the same physical space. Government regulation created the phone and cable monopolies which stifled innovation and lead to stagnant infrastructure growth.
With wireless such as WiMax et. al, we have a hope for a truly competative market with many choices like in the days of dialup ISPs. But unfortunately many cities are being coerced into so-called "community" or "municipal" "free" wireless networks which are just government sponsored monopolies and more of the same.
We need to nationalize the "tubes" (;-) hehehe ) and lease bandwidth back to any- and everybody who wants to be an ISP.
You do realize what happened when we nationalized the broadcast radio spectrum? Freedom was lost in the process. Now the FCC regulates what can and cannot be said on the radio.
Nationalizing the internet would be the worst idea for keeping the internet free (as in speech) and in the process would also end up making it less free (as in beer). Right now you have thousands of companies providing access. If you have a problem with one (such as Comcast) you can choose an alternative, or pressure/advocate the company into changing. With so many alterntives its likely there's a choice out there for you. If the system was nationalized, and you didn't like something they were doing you have no choice, no alternatives. You can still try advocacy except you now have a much smaller voice than you did before.
Can you imagine if the telephone companies decided that too many people were dialing 800 numbers? If they started hanging up 1/2 of the 800 calls, people wouldn't be saying, "Well, they own the phone system, they can cut me off if I dial a number they don't like."
800 numbers are paid for by the person who owns the 800 number. Your phone company gets paid when you call an 800 number, so why wouldn't they want you calling them?
The proper place for this is in the courts. If Comcast violates its customer contract, they should be sued. Believe me there are more than enough trial lawyers out there that will pay for this themselves on the hope of future earnings. Its their network and whether or not you and I believe net neutrality is moral, right, wrong, legal or illegal, they have the right to control, patrol, fuck with, etc, their own network to the extent that they don't violate their contracts or the law. There are no net neutrality laws AFAIK, and I personally think giving the government ANY regulation powers or control of the internet is a horrible idea. If Comcast continues to limit availability of certain protocols then competing ISPs and community sponsored networks will fill the void. This has already happened in many areas.
I think a good analogy is if your bank limited how many ATM transactions you could have in a month and you didn't like it. You could try and pass a law to make the bank give you more or unlimited transactions. Or you could join a community bank such as a credit union with like-minded people and set the policy to allow unlimited transactions. If enough people agree with you they'll switch to the credit union. After the bank lost a significant number of customers they might remove the limit as well. Now if the bank had agreed NOT to limit transactions when you signed up, then you could sue the bank for violating their contract.
Regarding the FCC... The FCC has no authority in this domain (nor in most other) and is not even a legitimate agency under the US Constitution. Their only power with even a tenuous link to legitimacy is controlling radio frequency distribution and protecting property rights claims on said frequencies. Their content-control and fines are contrary to freedom and they should be completely dispanded or at least radically shrunk in size and scope.
Most RFID chips still have to be attached to a much larger coil antenna to make a tag that will actually work.
The "new" RFID innovation for embedding in clothing etc is conductive thread antennae. The antenna is woven into the clothing or item and disguises as an ordinary thread. To be less conspicuous the thread can be woven into the label or a seam.
Also, while it may not be possible to travel on Amtrack without ID, you can certainly walk or ride a bicycle (paid for with cash, I assume). The convenience of traveling by train is partially offset by the inconvenience of having to provide ID, which is an Amtrack policy.
Except you fail to realize that Amtrack is publicly owned by the federal government.
Their trains, their rules.
That should probably be re-written, "Our trains, their rules."
Also one of Austin's reasons is listed as "Home to Whole Foods"
Portland is home to New Seasons (8 locations) a natural/organic store similar to Whole Foods. There are two Whole Foods stores in the Portland area as well as several Wild Oats Marketplaces.
That makes three large natural/organic grocery chains in the area!
And if you don't want to have to leave home to get your natural foods there are at least two competing home delivery companies, Organics to You and Pioneer Organics!
Portland also is home to OHSU (Oregon Health and Science University) home to several major research departments.
Portland's Indymedia site (Independant Media Center; IMC) is a large independant media outlet and one of the oldest and largest in the indymedia network.
Portland is home to more breweries than any other city in the country. There are over 28 breweries within the city and more in the surrounding metro area. Portland is home to the so-called "microbrew revolution". The Oregon Brewers Festival is the largest independant craft brewers gathering in North America. There's also the Portland International Beerfest and the Spring Beer and Wine Festival.
Not to mention portland has an advanced mass transit system, Tri-Met, with Lightrail (MAX) and the Portland StreetCar. Google provides online trip planning for Tri-Met as well.
These features did not evolve in the traditional sense, they were merely a product of natural selection. New features evolve through mutation, otherwise they were already present in the mosquito's DNA. The harsh conditions of Athens brought out rare or previously poor traits in the mosquitos. These traits were present and dormant or brought into the mosquito population's genes through interbreeding, migration, etc.
Evolution relies primarily on genetic mutation which would have taken likely millions of years to evolve the changes witnessed in the Athens mosquitos.
Nothing evolved here, we're talking about an organism's adaptation to the environment through preexisting genetic makeup.
What good is having the right to self protection and then banning all of the tools needed to protect oneself?
That would be like saying "You have the right to remain silent" and then turning around and saying "...but we have the right to torture you, your children, and rape your wife until you talk." What kind of rights are those?
To be clear, I was arguing the problem with England is their democracy which is not a democratically elected representative based republic with checks and balances created by the people to protect their natural rights. Abandonment of these ideals is a large part of the problem in America.
Although I didn't mention it, I agree with you that there is an illusion of democracy that is used to manipulate the masses. But this ties in directly with an uninformed, lazy, decadant society which lends itself to manipulation.
It's all very democratic, if you happen to be a Senator or Emperor. It seems somehow more Feudal than Republican.
The senate has become a cabal of elites controlled by special interest groups and nonprofit think tanks. But I would argue this is largely due to the fact that the 17th amendment created direct election of the senators. Before which they were elected by their respective state legislatures. The state legislature has a vested interest in keeping the state's and people's rights. And with this original design the senators don't have to worry about giving something to the voters in terms of more safety, protection, programs, etc every term in order to keep their job. Just compare the number of laws (and unconstitutional laws) and pork from pre-1913 and post-1913 which was when the amendment was ratified.
Mind you this didn't insure absense of corruption it was merely another check and balance of powers.
those elements of our Republic which you (and our founding Fathers) espouse are being washed down the drain as we speak.
What the hell is wrong with England?!? You people invented modern democratic society and civil rights, and you've been happily flushing it down the drain, piece by piece, ever since the end of WWII.
That is exactly the problem- a democracy is mob rule, rights be damned. If the masses can be purchased or persuaded into giving away their rights or the rights of a minority, piecemeal, for safety or noble ideals you end up with a dictatorship. After all the people no longer have any rights.
The founding fathers of the US constitution warned against democracies for this reason, which is why they created a consitutionally bound limited republic. A republic which has been gradually moving towards a democracy which can be controlled by a people that have been tricked into caring about false left/right debates and gladitorial circus grandeur.
To me as a European, the fact that you have the DMCA in the USA seems absurd. The PATRIOT act seems absurd.
To me as a thought criminal, non-collectivist, pro-freedom individual, the fact that the European Union has a Food Supplements Directive which bans vitamins is absurd. The EUCD (which is the European Union equivalent of the DMCA and is almost completely implemented by law) seems absurd. Spending half a million USD to GPS track kids seems absurd.
You mention not being able to say fire in a movie theater being absurd. How about not being allowed to say anything that might lead someone to do something violent, or writing anything construed as promoting violence or terrorism? This is law in the UK and Netherlands and is on its way to the EU.
How about having all of your telephone/cell traffic saved and archived for one year, and all of your internet traffic archived for 6 months? Sound crazy? Absurd? Luckly it is still a proposal, but that sure makes the USA PATRIOT Act library records section look good.
I am pro-freedom everywhere and not trying to defend America. Just be aware of contollers who want to rob you of your freedom in Europe as well.
Will the students be given free eye healthcare to cover the cost of corrective lenses?
This is a pretty bad idea that stems from the belief that you can throw technology at a problem and fix it. In this case, give the kids laptops and they'll get smarter. Don't get me wrong, laptops/computers/other technologies used in conjunction with other tools is a good idea. I'd suggest using the right tool for the job which would result in a helpful exposure to a variety of learning tools- be it book or notebook.
I just hit TITLE when I insert the dvd which brings up the title menu, skipping ALL the ads.
Maybe you should get a different DVD player.. Mine is a cheapo APEX and it plays all DVDs I have run across and skips all ads too. Of course I have modded the firmware and added a removable harddrive- but it was only $80 when I got it over 3 years ago and it has more features than brand new players that still cost twice as much.
I think we are overtaxed, but I think the far larger problem is that congress does not spend the money appropriately.
I believe the problem is the ever-increasing scope of government. The way to effectively solve a problem is to be involved in it as your profession- a part of the industry, with competition. "Necessity is the mother of invention," and in capitalism profit/growth is the necessity and competition is the catalyst.
Congress attempts to solve a problem by throwing money at it. But in order to be successful they have to know more about what they're doing, which in turn costs more money. So either you pay a lot for a little, or you pay a whole lot for a little more.
If government would reduce their role in our lives and thus their spending, everyone could put money into things they care about. I believe putting faith in people you can hold responsible, people that know what they're doing and are involved in their specific industry is the best answer. Why do people keep asking their congressman to fix some supposed problem? Maybe because they want everyone to be forced to pay for a cause they believe in. But if this is the case they need to realize that their time and money would be better spent starting up a non-profit or volunteering for one.
Today we have nosey people that want to impose their beliefs and/or morality on everyone else through the strong arm of government (liberals with welfare plans and conservatives with morality) and groups of industry lobbyists that desire to limit freedoms in the name of the almighty dollar through the back door of government.
If we had true reform, true radical restructuring of government with the freedoms originally intended by the founders and a small yet effective government acting according to its purpose-- politics would be a lot more boring.
Don't forget the giant spiders with glowing eyes! Man I watched that movie so many times as a kid. I think my parents recorded a copy on VHS from TV.. The getting stuck under the river part always freaked me out.
The two titles listed on amazon don't mention this movie (The Ewok Adventure)... after looking on IMDB it appears that "Caravan of Courage" is the same as "The Ewok Adventure".. so this is a must buy for reliving my childhood and realizing you can never be taken back, and almost everything you used to like as a kid just plain sucks now.:(
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Well, if you are going to have a physical keyboard then why not have it be touch sensitive? Some people prefer physical buttons that can be felt and provide individual haptic feedback when pressed, so they get a physical keyboard which they can also use for gestures. Seems like a pretty good idea.
When the last Palm Treo came out the resolution was 320 × 320 and The Dark Knight was in theaters. That is hardly recent memory. Go back to the 2003 era of blackberries and you have square screen resolutions as well. Go back further to their pagers and they had the same. Lots of early displays had square screens. The point is all high resolution modern smartphones do not.
The square screen isn't the only innovation, the keyboard is also touch sensitive (ie, you pass your fingers over the keys without pressing down), allowing the use of gestures and scrolling through content without touching the screen and getting it dirty or obscuring the display with your fingers.
Yet for over 30 years the FCC still hasn't been "fixed", but in the meantime private satellite radio, cable and satellite tv have appeared and allow more freedom of speech and expression.
Also you cannot equate local government with federal government. Everyone has a bigger voice the smaller and more local the government is. The same could be said with corporations.
This sentence is incoherent.Out here in the pacific northwest there is a lot of money going into new infrastructure. Verizon is laying out a fortune building their FIOS network and Comcast keeps spreading like the plague. There is money going into WiMax, and cell phone companies are releasing their own home internet solutions. Less regulation is the key. Look at cell phone providers, you have multiple carriers overlapping the same physical space. Government regulation created the phone and cable monopolies which stifled innovation and lead to stagnant infrastructure growth.
With wireless such as WiMax et. al, we have a hope for a truly competative market with many choices like in the days of dialup ISPs. But unfortunately many cities are being coerced into so-called "community" or "municipal" "free" wireless networks which are just government sponsored monopolies and more of the same.
You do realize what happened when we nationalized the broadcast radio spectrum? Freedom was lost in the process. Now the FCC regulates what can and cannot be said on the radio.
Nationalizing the internet would be the worst idea for keeping the internet free (as in speech) and in the process would also end up making it less free (as in beer). Right now you have thousands of companies providing access. If you have a problem with one (such as Comcast) you can choose an alternative, or pressure/advocate the company into changing. With so many alterntives its likely there's a choice out there for you. If the system was nationalized, and you didn't like something they were doing you have no choice, no alternatives. You can still try advocacy except you now have a much smaller voice than you did before.
800 numbers are paid for by the person who owns the 800 number. Your phone company gets paid when you call an 800 number, so why wouldn't they want you calling them?The proper place for this is in the courts. If Comcast violates its customer contract, they should be sued. Believe me there are more than enough trial lawyers out there that will pay for this themselves on the hope of future earnings. Its their network and whether or not you and I believe net neutrality is moral, right, wrong, legal or illegal, they have the right to control, patrol, fuck with, etc, their own network to the extent that they don't violate their contracts or the law. There are no net neutrality laws AFAIK, and I personally think giving the government ANY regulation powers or control of the internet is a horrible idea. If Comcast continues to limit availability of certain protocols then competing ISPs and community sponsored networks will fill the void. This has already happened in many areas.
I think a good analogy is if your bank limited how many ATM transactions you could have in a month and you didn't like it. You could try and pass a law to make the bank give you more or unlimited transactions. Or you could join a community bank such as a credit union with like-minded people and set the policy to allow unlimited transactions. If enough people agree with you they'll switch to the credit union. After the bank lost a significant number of customers they might remove the limit as well. Now if the bank had agreed NOT to limit transactions when you signed up, then you could sue the bank for violating their contract.
Regarding the FCC... The FCC has no authority in this domain (nor in most other) and is not even a legitimate agency under the US Constitution. Their only power with even a tenuous link to legitimacy is controlling radio frequency distribution and protecting property rights claims on said frequencies. Their content-control and fines are contrary to freedom and they should be completely dispanded or at least radically shrunk in size and scope.
The "new" RFID innovation for embedding in clothing etc is conductive thread antennae. The antenna is woven into the clothing or item and disguises as an ordinary thread. To be less conspicuous the thread can be woven into the label or a seam.
Philips patent for a flexible fabric antenna.
Except you fail to realize that Amtrack is publicly owned by the federal government.
That should probably be re-written, "Our trains, their rules."
Correct, I wrote "located here" because they have locations in portland. I was incorrect about HP however.
Portland is home to New Seasons (8 locations) a natural/organic store similar to Whole Foods. There are two Whole Foods stores in the Portland area as well as several Wild Oats Marketplaces.
That makes three large natural/organic grocery chains in the area!
And if you don't want to have to leave home to get your natural foods there are at least two competing home delivery companies, Organics to You and Pioneer Organics!
There's also several natural food Co-Ops such as the People's Food Co-op and Food Front cooperative grocery. Last year the People's Co-op successfully tested an opensource POS system.
Portland also is home to OHSU (Oregon Health and Science University) home to several major research departments.
Portland's Indymedia site (Independant Media Center; IMC) is a large independant media outlet and one of the oldest and largest in the indymedia network.
Portland is home to more breweries than any other city in the country. There are over 28 breweries within the city and more in the surrounding metro area. Portland is home to the so-called "microbrew revolution". The Oregon Brewers Festival is the largest independant craft brewers gathering in North America. There's also the Portland International Beerfest and the Spring Beer and Wine Festival.
Not to mention portland has an advanced mass transit system, Tri-Met, with Lightrail (MAX) and the Portland StreetCar. Google provides online trip planning for Tri-Met as well.
These features did not evolve in the traditional sense, they were merely a product of natural selection. New features evolve through mutation, otherwise they were already present in the mosquito's DNA. The harsh conditions of Athens brought out rare or previously poor traits in the mosquitos. These traits were present and dormant or brought into the mosquito population's genes through interbreeding, migration, etc.
Evolution relies primarily on genetic mutation which would have taken likely millions of years to evolve the changes witnessed in the Athens mosquitos.
Nothing evolved here, we're talking about an organism's adaptation to the environment through preexisting genetic makeup.
What good is having the right to self protection and then banning all of the tools needed to protect oneself?
That would be like saying "You have the right to remain silent" and then turning around and saying "...but we have the right to torture you, your children, and rape your wife until you talk." What kind of rights are those?
Although I didn't mention it, I agree with you that there is an illusion of democracy that is used to manipulate the masses. But this ties in directly with an uninformed, lazy, decadant society which lends itself to manipulation.
The senate has become a cabal of elites controlled by special interest groups and nonprofit think tanks. But I would argue this is largely due to the fact that the 17th amendment created direct election of the senators. Before which they were elected by their respective state legislatures. The state legislature has a vested interest in keeping the state's and people's rights. And with this original design the senators don't have to worry about giving something to the voters in terms of more safety, protection, programs, etc every term in order to keep their job. Just compare the number of laws (and unconstitutional laws) and pork from pre-1913 and post-1913 which was when the amendment was ratified.
Mind you this didn't insure absense of corruption it was merely another check and balance of powers.
I couldn't agree (and thus weep) more."A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." ~Thomas Jefferson
The founding fathers of the US constitution warned against democracies for this reason, which is why they created a consitutionally bound limited republic. A republic which has been gradually moving towards a democracy which can be controlled by a people that have been tricked into caring about false left/right debates and gladitorial circus grandeur.
You mention not being able to say fire in a movie theater being absurd. How about not being allowed to say anything that might lead someone to do something violent, or writing anything construed as promoting violence or terrorism? This is law in the UK and Netherlands and is on its way to the EU.
How about having all of your telephone/cell traffic saved and archived for one year, and all of your internet traffic archived for 6 months? Sound crazy? Absurd? Luckly it is still a proposal, but that sure makes the USA PATRIOT Act library records section look good.
I am pro-freedom everywhere and not trying to defend America. Just be aware of contollers who want to rob you of your freedom in Europe as well.
Will the students be given free eye healthcare to cover the cost of corrective lenses?
This is a pretty bad idea that stems from the belief that you can throw technology at a problem and fix it. In this case, give the kids laptops and they'll get smarter. Don't get me wrong, laptops/computers/other technologies used in conjunction with other tools is a good idea. I'd suggest using the right tool for the job which would result in a helpful exposure to a variety of
learning tools- be it book or notebook.
Maybe you should get a different DVD player.. Mine is a cheapo APEX and it plays all DVDs I have run across and skips all ads too. Of course I have modded the firmware and added a removable harddrive- but it was only $80 when I got it over 3 years ago and it has more features than brand new players that still cost twice as much.
Anybody want a peanut?
I believe the problem is the ever-increasing scope of government. The way to effectively solve a problem is to be involved in it as your profession- a part of the industry, with competition. "Necessity is the mother of invention," and in capitalism profit/growth is the necessity and competition is the catalyst.
Congress attempts to solve a problem by throwing money at it. But in order to be successful they have to know more about what they're doing, which in turn costs more money. So either you pay a lot for a little, or you pay a whole lot for a little more.
If government would reduce their role in our lives and thus their spending, everyone could put money into things they care about. I believe putting faith in people you can hold responsible, people that know what they're doing and are involved in their specific industry is the best answer. Why do people keep asking their congressman to fix some supposed problem? Maybe because they want everyone to be forced to pay for a cause they believe in. But if this is the case they need to realize that their time and money would be better spent starting up a non-profit or volunteering for one.
Today we have nosey people that want to impose their beliefs and/or morality on everyone else through the strong arm of government (liberals with welfare plans and conservatives with morality) and groups of industry lobbyists that desire to limit freedoms in the name of the almighty dollar through the back door of government.
If we had true reform, true radical restructuring of government with the freedoms originally intended by the founders and a small yet effective government acting according to its purpose-- politics would be a lot more boring.
The two titles listed on amazon don't mention this movie (The Ewok Adventure)... after looking on IMDB it appears that "Caravan of Courage" is the same as "The Ewok Adventure".. so this is a must buy for reliving my childhood and realizing you can never be taken back, and almost everything you used to like as a kid just plain sucks now. :(