Issues of taste are esthetic - and thus there is no provable way of defining the truth or falsity of the statements regarding a particular taste (in this case the better amplification method).
It is irrational to argue about something that is not provable (you can't 'prove' one sound is better than another).
Therefore, and here is the scary part, everyone taking a zealous position regarding this subject is irrational about sound amplification.
Given that, why should we listen to the advice of irrational people?
Who exactly are they fighting? They are certainly in no way, shape, or form close to bankruptcy - just the opposite.
They are innovating, and making products better...
Now, that is a scream! Better than what? Better than they did a few years ago? Perhaps. Better than many of the best open source projects? Not even close.
The issue I hold with Microsoft, and everyone with a moral bone in their body must come to terms with, is that this company has gone from mass producing new technology that everyone wants, to dictating what technology we should have. They use their 'war chest' to further these goals at the expense of our culture - a culture based on true invention that by definition must stand upon the shoulders of the technologies that preceded. Both the extension of the copyright span, and the voracious and frivilous patenting of software 'processes' by rich encumbents only serves to stifle true inventions of the little guys.
What will we miss out on due to Microsoft's poor stewardship of their vast resources? I am saddened to have entered this field of endeavor given this environment.
I was going to say, he should just join the Army and go to Fort Irwin...largest instrumented battlefield simulation in the world...the closest you can get to real combat without being there. Full selection of OPFOR (opposing forces) for the ultimate in realism - these guys are the home team and know every waddi, berm and hilltop in the place; blazing heat through which you must hump 130 pounds of gear, the sounds and smoke of battle, the pain of blisters and sore muscles from walking all over and digging into its pitted surface, and the humiliation of defeat as you learn how little you really know about tactics and execution of military operations in a full stress environment. Yours only for the cost of admission - 4 to 6 years of your life (with the callup of the inactive ready reserve components probably more like 6).
Of course, the 'down side' (or up side - depending on your point of view) of that plan is the deployment to Iraq that would follow.:)
I read novels (mostly Sci Fi - but others as well - James Michner's sweeping series for example) from a very early age. However, I also delved into early examples of the graphic novel, first through comics, like Sgt Rock (the story lines were well and deeply thought out - not your brainless good guy/bad guy theme in most superhero comics - some serious pathos and politics), then through humor - a la 'Cracked' and 'Mad Magazine'. Finally I graduated to 'Heavy Metal' magazine, which was really cutting edge at the time - both deep serious plots as well as magnificent artwork.
That being said, in my later life, I have come back around to the novel (though I still delve into the graphic novels from time to time - the last of which was the 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'). I still see the graphic novels as interesting diversions, rather than a genre that I would choose to exclusively pursue; I can read every graphic novel in the local comic book shop in a matter of a few days - whereas it would take years to cover the whole of literature - if even possible. However, it seems more and more people are making the choice to spend their time and money on graphic novels exclusively.
I think this may be a result of the influence of instant gratification on our culture. When I was a child, I would have to wait to see a particular show on TV - instead spending the time inbetween in other diversions - passively by reading or actively by playing outside or creating my own stories; comics were short and once you read them - which took about 5 minutes - there was little point in reading it again. You had to learn patience - to wait for that episode or to find out how the story ends. Today children have instant access to just about anything they care to see, either through DVDs, or by such technology as set-top boxes that can record multiple programs for later watching. There is little patience to sit down and read a book with so many other diversions available through the TV in the form of movies, recorded shows, or video games.
This is fertile ground for the explosion of the graphic novel. My daughter is a manga fan - and is also a budding comic artist - but it took almost pulling teeth to get her to go through her reading list over the summer. Why? Because our culture has moved away from the effort needed to keep thousands of plot points in our heads as we read - we want that instant gratification of minutes or hours instead of days. We don't want any mystery that can't be solved in the next 5 minutes. While it may be true that it takes a certain form of concentration to read a graphic novel - it is no less true of reading a traditional novel in my experience - and probably more so when you consider the several days needed to read most novels.
I don't believe this spells the doom of the traditional novel, by any means. There are certain things that a novel does well that a graphic novel does not (character development and exposition to name a few). Coupled with the time associated in generating the graphic novel, I don't see the novel going by the wayside. What I do see is the potential for a blending of the two forms in various ways - graphical novels that are more 'words' than 'pictures', novels that are more graphical, and everything in between. The key to the success of both mediums - and the hybrid I see evolving - will follow from the willingness of publishers on both sides of the fence to allow cutting edge work to reach the shelves. I only hope we don't lose something meaningful in the process - either the rich depths possible through prose, or the beauty of the visual medium.
Art and literature also has a long history together. I remember reading several of Mark Twain's stories ("A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" comes to mind) originally bound in the 1930s - given to my father by my grandmother as a boy. In each section were wood engravings that illustrated the stories to a certain extent - to envoke the moo
Just as most schools require a 'basic computer' course - so too, either as part of this course, or as another, there should be a class on basic principles of networking and securing computers - generic for most OS's (linux, OSX, Windows).
Before a student is allowed to connect - they must pass this course.
Once they are connected, the IT department should have the authority to then remove them from the network if the network user in question becomes a nuisance. Expulsion should be tied to grievious violations.
To ameliorate the effects of brain dead students - the network should be set up in smallish segments using switches in a star topology; this will allow you to take away the magic electrons from the ports of the marching morons on an individual basis; hubs are bad - if one becomes infected - they soon all will be.
DNS (WINS resolution) should be set up in such a way as to deny automated resolution of student computer names/addresses within the network. This won't stop students who are smart enough to put their buddy's address in their hosts/lmhosts file - but it will stop the majority of idiots. Disable windows authentication domains...everyone logs into their own computer, and you won't be doing remote administration anyway - you don't need that headache.
Default to disabling known nasty protocols - with the caveat that students can negotiate a legitimate need for ports to be opened up for their use.
Assign static IPs to allow fine grained filtering - to accomidate the variations in students. Some students will have everything turned on and can be fully trusted; conversely, others will barely have any services beyond email enabled. This requires work on your part; automate this functionality of your network, then delegate responsibility for maintaining it to your most responsible students. You would be amazed how fast people become experts at network administration when they are responsible for making it work for everyone. To add a little fat to the fire - if they are dragging their feet on a network effecting problem - shut down all access to the outside world until they resolve the issue. Once you get the people trained, you shouldn't have to lift a finger.
Email is another big hairball - I won't discuss; given a college/university environment, you will probably have to deal with alot of spam. On the other hand, if your students and faculty are savvy enough, you could perhaps go to a public key authentication system (everything without a valid key gets bounced). This won't help your internet facing interface much; but will help your internal traffic volume to your mailservers.
They should do the right thing, because it is the right thing to do.
What you are implying is that the ends (money) justify the means (any way we can get it). I don't know if you have had an ethics class, or are a member of any of the various mainstream religeons - but what you are implying is considered 'wrong' in most cultures (unless, of course, you are a lawyer...:p ).
The big question we should ask ourselves is, why do we accept it and continue to do business with companies that do the wrong things?
...taking advantage of people's fears of what they don't understand.
Which is nice.
It is not nice; it is thoughtless and presumptuous.
It amazes me how business leader's actions can be shielded by their corporations, and no accounting is made for these morally reprehensible activities. People continue to buy their products, and they continue to rake in the money.
How can you be at ease with this state of affairs, while carrying out these activties, and still consider yourself an upstanding person? It boggles the mind.
What bothers me most about this is that the mainstream media is more than happy to provide airtime for these organizations. It seems the mere fact of a foundation or think tank's existence is enough to lead credence to its pronouncements - no matter how ridiculous the propoganda.
On the other hand, open source advocates are seen as less than scholarly - hackers with quaint ideas who don't understand that big business knows what is really best for the people and the country to prosper.
This is just a covert continuation of paternalism and the idea that certain types of people are better equipped to know what is best for the rest of us - the unwashed masses. What unbridled hubris! I marvel at the sheer audacity of these people to be so presumptuous.
Logic and sound argument will not snare these people; their souls are bought and paid for by their backers - and no amount of discourse will change that. I have difficulty understanding how they can live, day to day, with their hypocrisy staring them in the face? Have they no shame?
I have used rest stops all over the US - both night and day - and have never had a life threatening event occur. The people encountered were just like me - trying to get somewhere else. I will say this - I have never slept at a rest stop - just use them for short breaks, leg stretching and bathroom breaks. I have my itenerary planned such that I arrive at a hotel or campground at the appropriate stopping point.
The best rest stops (in terms of clean full service facilities) I encountered were in Georgia. The worse were in Alabama. I live in Texas, and ours are middle of the road - which also is about average for the other states.
I have noticed that some of the older rest stops are being rebuilt as time goes by, so this analysis may be outdated.
Why the heck are you connecting your machines directly to the internet? You should as a minimum have a router/switch inbetween your valuable systems and the outside world. Better yet, set up a firewall between your modem and the rest of your network.
There are several linux distributions that are dedicated firewalls - you can get an old P120 and a few NICs to do the trick.
If they gave me a rifle and plenty of ammo - I'd do it.
(19D/11B MOUT Instructer in a previous life)
If they tried to take me - a lot of them would be dead, and I wouldn't be in custody - although I might be dead; no one is invincible. If the money was in the 7 digits, it might be worth the chance - take out a life insurance policy before you go - either way your family makes out like bandits. Your odds of being captured or killed is very low when you consider the total number of contractors working in the region - akin to being struck by lightning.
The key is to keep a low profile - don't advertise that you are an anglo technician - wear a baggy burkha to conceal your features and weapons (who gives a f*** if they think you are a woman when you move around - your rifle will make them think twice if they decide to get fresh).
However, I doubt they are paying over $1 million for technicians...
The key with any tool - take CRM tools for example - is to actually take the time to use them on a consistent basis. One of the biggest barriers to consistent use I have seen is the variation of standards and interfaces of the tools that I like.
I think the future will see more XML and RSS based tools that allow you to integrate all of your systems (calendars, todo lists, issue tracking lists, blogs, etc etc) into one interface without regard for proprietary formats. Those companies that do put their eggs on the proprietary format basket will either be run around by smart filters, or wither on the vine as people see the lack of interoperability and go elsewhere.
That is the space where information management will reach a new plateau, imho.
Once people reach the 'I am mad as hell, and aren't going to take it anymore' threshold, then we will see a sea change.
In the meantime, the geeks and technologists will be building and using the tools that will launch a new round of megacorporations; those that stand by DRM will soon lose market share - and many will die (I am hoping MS is one of these - but the frugal saving of their ill-gotten profiteering monies will probably save them).
My sole experience with English beaches consistes of Yarmouth - all I saw there were rocks and boulders and not many waves - I don't see how you could surf or even swim there...although they had a neat pier. July or August timeframe - I think the temperature may have reached 80 degrees F.
Now that I live in Texas, I really do appreciate the European climate; it hit 103 degrees here a few weeks ago, and hovers in the 90s most days - what I wouldn't give for 80 degrees on a regular basis!
I lived in England for 2 years; after that I visited a friend of mine who lived in Tecoma for several weeks during the winter. Not much difference between the weather patterns - I think there were 3 days in the two weeks when it did not rain - and one day of clear skys.
I actually liked it. My wife, on the other hand, would commit suicide if she had to endure overcast for more than a few days (she is from San Antonio Texas).
Personally, I would like an even mixture; all the seasons in full measure with appropriate weather and moderate temperatures - wherever that can be found. In Texas winter is about a week, you don't really get a spring or fall, and summer is about 8 months out of the year. A good pair of sunglasses and sunblock is manditory.
I have 4 machines (not counting my kids and my wife's) - only one of which is a windows machine. All the rest are running Slackware Linux.
What does that lone Windows box do? It is just a glorified entertainment system - playing games that I can not run on Linux - or if they do run on another OS - I can't afford (i.e. a MAC), playing music and movies - most of which I could make work under Linux if I cared to spend the time. With the advent of perfectly usable open source business and creativity applications makes owning a windows box less of an imperative - in fact it could probably be replaced with a MAC - if I had the money.
On the other hand, my linux boxen are where the rubber meets the road. One is my workstation - thin client mostly - though I do some Python development on it for stand alone applications. One machine is my server; runs Zope - which I use as my development framework; 99% of my development efforts in my network are on this box - and all of the workstations on my network immediately benefit from thos efforts. The last machine is a firewall for my network.
Thats it. Joel is spot on, with this paradigm shift Microsoft is betting the farm on distributed applications, while the rest of the world is going toward web based applications. The nail in the coffin will be when browser developers build extensions into the browser to allow fast graphics programs that leverage underlying hardware in near real time, as well as abilities to control aspects of the browser - while allowing the user to override the application choices. Once that bottleneck is broken, the browser will become the interface of choice for most development.
Of course, the Canadians didn't have the same level of resistance on their beach that the Americans experienced on Omaha beach - so your point that the Canadians were somehow 'better' is false.
However, they would have their own trial taking Caen (was supposed to be taken on D-Day - but wasn't secured for 6 weeks, I believe) - running up against SS Panzer units in a drawn out slugfest that ended up leveling the city and bloodying the Canadians badly.
Later, the Canadians would make a name for themselves during intense fighting in Holland, earning the 3rd Canadian division the name 'Water Rats'.
Everyone who fought on the Allied side in WWII should be commended for their sacrifices, regardless of what country they come from. Taking some isolated situation out of the context of history, and trying to use that to bolster a falacious argument does not do them justice.
Slashdot Mirror
Issues of taste are esthetic - and thus there is no provable way of defining the truth or falsity of the statements regarding a particular taste (in this case the better amplification method).
It is irrational to argue about something that is not provable (you can't 'prove' one sound is better than another).
Therefore, and here is the scary part, everyone taking a zealous position regarding this subject is irrational about sound amplification.
Given that, why should we listen to the advice of irrational people?
This money is a war chest...
Who exactly are they fighting? They are certainly in no way, shape, or form close to bankruptcy - just the opposite.
They are innovating, and making products better...
Now, that is a scream! Better than what? Better than they did a few years ago? Perhaps. Better than many of the best open source projects? Not even close.
The issue I hold with Microsoft, and everyone with a moral bone in their body must come to terms with, is that this company has gone from mass producing new technology that everyone wants, to dictating what technology we should have. They use their 'war chest' to further these goals at the expense of our culture - a culture based on true invention that by definition must stand upon the shoulders of the technologies that preceded. Both the extension of the copyright span, and the voracious and frivilous patenting of software 'processes' by rich encumbents only serves to stifle true inventions of the little guys.
What will we miss out on due to Microsoft's poor stewardship of their vast resources? I am saddened to have entered this field of endeavor given this environment.
I was going to say, he should just join the Army and go to Fort Irwin...largest instrumented battlefield simulation in the world...the closest you can get to real combat without being there. Full selection of OPFOR (opposing forces) for the ultimate in realism - these guys are the home team and know every waddi, berm and hilltop in the place; blazing heat through which you must hump 130 pounds of gear, the sounds and smoke of battle, the pain of blisters and sore muscles from walking all over and digging into its pitted surface, and the humiliation of defeat as you learn how little you really know about tactics and execution of military operations in a full stress environment. Yours only for the cost of admission - 4 to 6 years of your life (with the callup of the inactive ready reserve components probably more like 6).
:)
Of course, the 'down side' (or up side - depending on your point of view) of that plan is the deployment to Iraq that would follow.
Thanks for that link.
From my American cultural perspective:
I read novels (mostly Sci Fi - but others as well - James Michner's sweeping series for example) from a very early age. However, I also delved into early examples of the graphic novel, first through comics, like Sgt Rock (the story lines were well and deeply thought out - not your brainless good guy/bad guy theme in most superhero comics - some serious pathos and politics), then through humor - a la 'Cracked' and 'Mad Magazine'. Finally I graduated to 'Heavy Metal' magazine, which was really cutting edge at the time - both deep serious plots as well as magnificent artwork.
That being said, in my later life, I have come back around to the novel (though I still delve into the graphic novels from time to time - the last of which was the 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'). I still see the graphic novels as interesting diversions, rather than a genre that I would choose to exclusively pursue; I can read every graphic novel in the local comic book shop in a matter of a few days - whereas it would take years to cover the whole of literature - if even possible. However, it seems more and more people are making the choice to spend their time and money on graphic novels exclusively.
I think this may be a result of the influence of instant gratification on our culture. When I was a child, I would have to wait to see a particular show on TV - instead spending the time inbetween in other diversions - passively by reading or actively by playing outside or creating my own stories; comics were short and once you read them - which took about 5 minutes - there was little point in reading it again. You had to learn patience - to wait for that episode or to find out how the story ends. Today children have instant access to just about anything they care to see, either through DVDs, or by such technology as set-top boxes that can record multiple programs for later watching. There is little patience to sit down and read a book with so many other diversions available through the TV in the form of movies, recorded shows, or video games.
This is fertile ground for the explosion of the graphic novel. My daughter is a manga fan - and is also a budding comic artist - but it took almost pulling teeth to get her to go through her reading list over the summer. Why? Because our culture has moved away from the effort needed to keep thousands of plot points in our heads as we read - we want that instant gratification of minutes or hours instead of days. We don't want any mystery that can't be solved in the next 5 minutes. While it may be true that it takes a certain form of concentration to read a graphic novel - it is no less true of reading a traditional novel in my experience - and probably more so when you consider the several days needed to read most novels.
I don't believe this spells the doom of the traditional novel, by any means. There are certain things that a novel does well that a graphic novel does not (character development and exposition to name a few). Coupled with the time associated in generating the graphic novel, I don't see the novel going by the wayside. What I do see is the potential for a blending of the two forms in various ways - graphical novels that are more 'words' than 'pictures', novels that are more graphical, and everything in between. The key to the success of both mediums - and the hybrid I see evolving - will follow from the willingness of publishers on both sides of the fence to allow cutting edge work to reach the shelves. I only hope we don't lose something meaningful in the process - either the rich depths possible through prose, or the beauty of the visual medium.
Art and literature also has a long history together. I remember reading several of Mark Twain's stories ("A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" comes to mind) originally bound in the 1930s - given to my father by my grandmother as a boy. In each section were wood engravings that illustrated the stories to a certain extent - to envoke the moo
How do you ensure the accuracy of the entries?
Just as most schools require a 'basic computer' course - so too, either as part of this course, or as another, there should be a class on basic principles of networking and securing computers - generic for most OS's (linux, OSX, Windows).
Before a student is allowed to connect - they must pass this course.
Once they are connected, the IT department should have the authority to then remove them from the network if the network user in question becomes a nuisance. Expulsion should be tied to grievious violations.
To ameliorate the effects of brain dead students - the network should be set up in smallish segments using switches in a star topology; this will allow you to take away the magic electrons from the ports of the marching morons on an individual basis; hubs are bad - if one becomes infected - they soon all will be.
DNS (WINS resolution) should be set up in such a way as to deny automated resolution of student computer names/addresses within the network. This won't stop students who are smart enough to put their buddy's address in their hosts/lmhosts file - but it will stop the majority of idiots. Disable windows authentication domains...everyone logs into their own computer, and you won't be doing remote administration anyway - you don't need that headache.
Default to disabling known nasty protocols - with the caveat that students can negotiate a legitimate need for ports to be opened up for their use.
Assign static IPs to allow fine grained filtering - to accomidate the variations in students. Some students will have everything turned on and can be fully trusted; conversely, others will barely have any services beyond email enabled. This requires work on your part; automate this functionality of your network, then delegate responsibility for maintaining it to your most responsible students. You would be amazed how fast people become experts at network administration when they are responsible for making it work for everyone. To add a little fat to the fire - if they are dragging their feet on a network effecting problem - shut down all access to the outside world until they resolve the issue. Once you get the people trained, you shouldn't have to lift a finger.
Email is another big hairball - I won't discuss; given a college/university environment, you will probably have to deal with alot of spam. On the other hand, if your students and faculty are savvy enough, you could perhaps go to a public key authentication system (everything without a valid key gets bounced). This won't help your internet facing interface much; but will help your internal traffic volume to your mailservers.
...brought in Canada, where the defense needs to prove its case...
I thought a common precept in jurisprudence was that a person is considered innocent until proven guilty.
Is it true, then, that your are considered guilty until proven innocent in Canada? This boggles the mind...
They also need some way to sort the collection...
I was going to say, they should just fire up one of the old machines and run a sorting algorithm. However, someone beat me to it.
I put odds on the military side, unless the Microsoft campus has a secret underground lair...(imaginations run wild)
So why should the do 'the right' thing?
:p ).
They should do the right thing, because it is the right thing to do.
What you are implying is that the ends (money) justify the means (any way we can get it). I don't know if you have had an ethics class, or are a member of any of the various mainstream religeons - but what you are implying is considered 'wrong' in most cultures (unless, of course, you are a lawyer...
The big question we should ask ourselves is, why do we accept it and continue to do business with companies that do the wrong things?
...taking advantage of people's fears of what they don't understand.
Which is nice.
It is not nice; it is thoughtless and presumptuous.
It amazes me how business leader's actions can be shielded by their corporations, and no accounting is made for these morally reprehensible activities. People continue to buy their products, and they continue to rake in the money.
How can you be at ease with this state of affairs, while carrying out these activties, and still consider yourself an upstanding person? It boggles the mind.
What bothers me most about this is that the mainstream media is more than happy to provide airtime for these organizations. It seems the mere fact of a foundation or think tank's existence is enough to lead credence to its pronouncements - no matter how ridiculous the propoganda.
On the other hand, open source advocates are seen as less than scholarly - hackers with quaint ideas who don't understand that big business knows what is really best for the people and the country to prosper.
This is just a covert continuation of paternalism and the idea that certain types of people are better equipped to know what is best for the rest of us - the unwashed masses. What unbridled hubris! I marvel at the sheer audacity of these people to be so presumptuous.
Logic and sound argument will not snare these people; their souls are bought and paid for by their backers - and no amount of discourse will change that. I have difficulty understanding how they can live, day to day, with their hypocrisy staring them in the face? Have they no shame?
I have used rest stops all over the US - both night and day - and have never had a life threatening event occur. The people encountered were just like me - trying to get somewhere else. I will say this - I have never slept at a rest stop - just use them for short breaks, leg stretching and bathroom breaks. I have my itenerary planned such that I arrive at a hotel or campground at the appropriate stopping point.
The best rest stops (in terms of clean full service facilities) I encountered were in Georgia. The worse were in Alabama. I live in Texas, and ours are middle of the road - which also is about average for the other states.
I have noticed that some of the older rest stops are being rebuilt as time goes by, so this analysis may be outdated.
Hold on a minute, are you advocating that we should have fallen under marshall law after 9/11?
That is not the right solution unless all civilian services are down; all services were not down in NY and Washington during that time.
Sounds like a good open source project to me... :)
Why the heck are you connecting your machines directly to the internet? You should as a minimum have a router/switch inbetween your valuable systems and the outside world. Better yet, set up a firewall between your modem and the rest of your network.
There are several linux distributions that are dedicated firewalls - you can get an old P120 and a few NICs to do the trick.
If they gave me a rifle and plenty of ammo - I'd do it.
(19D/11B MOUT Instructer in a previous life)
If they tried to take me - a lot of them would be dead, and I wouldn't be in custody - although I might be dead; no one is invincible. If the money was in the 7 digits, it might be worth the chance - take out a life insurance policy before you go - either way your family makes out like bandits. Your odds of being captured or killed is very low when you consider the total number of contractors working in the region - akin to being struck by lightning.
The key is to keep a low profile - don't advertise that you are an anglo technician - wear a baggy burkha to conceal your features and weapons (who gives a f*** if they think you are a woman when you move around - your rifle will make them think twice if they decide to get fresh).
However, I doubt they are paying over $1 million for technicians...
The key with any tool - take CRM tools for example - is to actually take the time to use them on a consistent basis. One of the biggest barriers to consistent use I have seen is the variation of standards and interfaces of the tools that I like.
I think the future will see more XML and RSS based tools that allow you to integrate all of your systems (calendars, todo lists, issue tracking lists, blogs, etc etc) into one interface without regard for proprietary formats. Those companies that do put their eggs on the proprietary format basket will either be run around by smart filters, or wither on the vine as people see the lack of interoperability and go elsewhere.
That is the space where information management will reach a new plateau, imho.
My understanding is that Microsoft has patented this technology - so you might have a difficult time finding a version other than that in Outlook...
Once people reach the 'I am mad as hell, and aren't going to take it anymore' threshold, then we will see a sea change.
In the meantime, the geeks and technologists will be building and using the tools that will launch a new round of megacorporations; those that stand by DRM will soon lose market share - and many will die (I am hoping MS is one of these - but the frugal saving of their ill-gotten profiteering monies will probably save them).
The pendulum swings...
My sole experience with English beaches consistes of Yarmouth - all I saw there were rocks and boulders and not many waves - I don't see how you could surf or even swim there...although they had a neat pier. July or August timeframe - I think the temperature may have reached 80 degrees F.
Now that I live in Texas, I really do appreciate the European climate; it hit 103 degrees here a few weeks ago, and hovers in the 90s most days - what I wouldn't give for 80 degrees on a regular basis!
I lived in England for 2 years; after that I visited a friend of mine who lived in Tecoma for several weeks during the winter. Not much difference between the weather patterns - I think there were 3 days in the two weeks when it did not rain - and one day of clear skys.
I actually liked it. My wife, on the other hand, would commit suicide if she had to endure overcast for more than a few days (she is from San Antonio Texas).
Personally, I would like an even mixture; all the seasons in full measure with appropriate weather and moderate temperatures - wherever that can be found. In Texas winter is about a week, you don't really get a spring or fall, and summer is about 8 months out of the year. A good pair of sunglasses and sunblock is manditory.
I have 4 machines (not counting my kids and my wife's) - only one of which is a windows machine. All the rest are running Slackware Linux.
What does that lone Windows box do? It is just a glorified entertainment system - playing games that I can not run on Linux - or if they do run on another OS - I can't afford (i.e. a MAC), playing music and movies - most of which I could make work under Linux if I cared to spend the time. With the advent of perfectly usable open source business and creativity applications makes owning a windows box less of an imperative - in fact it could probably be replaced with a MAC - if I had the money.
On the other hand, my linux boxen are where the rubber meets the road. One is my workstation - thin client mostly - though I do some Python development on it for stand alone applications. One machine is my server; runs Zope - which I use as my development framework; 99% of my development efforts in my network are on this box - and all of the workstations on my network immediately benefit from thos efforts. The last machine is a firewall for my network.
Thats it. Joel is spot on, with this paradigm shift Microsoft is betting the farm on distributed applications, while the rest of the world is going toward web based applications. The nail in the coffin will be when browser developers build extensions into the browser to allow fast graphics programs that leverage underlying hardware in near real time, as well as abilities to control aspects of the browser - while allowing the user to override the application choices. Once that bottleneck is broken, the browser will become the interface of choice for most development.
Of course, the Canadians didn't have the same level of resistance on their beach that the Americans experienced on Omaha beach - so your point that the Canadians were somehow 'better' is false.
However, they would have their own trial taking Caen (was supposed to be taken on D-Day - but wasn't secured for 6 weeks, I believe) - running up against SS Panzer units in a drawn out slugfest that ended up leveling the city and bloodying the Canadians badly.
Later, the Canadians would make a name for themselves during intense fighting in Holland, earning the 3rd Canadian division the name 'Water Rats'.
Everyone who fought on the Allied side in WWII should be commended for their sacrifices, regardless of what country they come from. Taking some isolated situation out of the context of history, and trying to use that to bolster a falacious argument does not do them justice.