I hear where you're coming from, however I don't think you're seeing the big picture. Please bear in mind I'm not arguing with you, but debating this issue. I know peoples feelings can run pretty hot over this subject:)
Having a gun is a lot of responsibility. Police officers, soldiers and everone else who has them as part of their jobs has extensive training, and is subject to investigation every time they fire their weapon (except soldiers at war of course). Normal people don't get that training, and aren't under such scrutiny. Normal people are also less likely to come across someone who actually needs shooting. Who has the right to deem someone suitable for owning a weapon of such lethality? It certainly can't fall on that individual themselves, as it clearly affects everyone around them.
People shouldn't need to be armed. Societies around the world have evolved beyond everyone constantly fighting for themselves, or having to defend themselves. We have police for that. We've had police for that, for years.
And, as a matter of fact, I don't think police should be armed. If the police and normal people don't have guns, why do criminals need them? I'd be a lot happier if no-one had guns than if everyone had them. Guns kill, yet no-guns don't, so it's an easy choice.
I'm of the opinion no-one needs to be killed, ever. If someone's tring to kill you, you only have to stop them (not kill them) to protect yourself. Criminals like that need rehabilitation, not execution.
Maybe that's one thing you didn't think of - in the rest of the modern world it's not OK to kill anyone. No executions, nothing. For a "christian" country to be so OK with killing is hilarious.
As for my "rambo" comment, I've interacted with plenty of armed Americans in uniform, and it's like talking to the same person - loud, arrogant, short hair, fascist attitude. Every single place I went had the same people. LAPD, airport security, immigration - all idiots with guns.
The gun "problem" is more out of habit than rights. Americans are too used to guns to give them up. They haven't yet realised a society with no guns is a better society. After all, wouldn't you agree a society without howitzers is a better society? Or maybe chemical weapons? If people are allowed handguns, why not B2 stealth bombers, nuclear submarines, V2 rockets and flamethrowers? Does the 2nd ammendment cover those?:-P
So, by your logic, you should be allowed a fighter jet, as you could have stopped the world trade center getting blown up. Your logic is fundamentally flawed.
The problem with your "granny-rapist" scenario, is there's no telling you have the skills to actually do something about it. What if you iced your gran instead of the rapist? How good would that be? Exactly.
We live in societies. Societies are there to protect us. We don't need guns, as we're not going up against bears at the 7/11, or being attacked by rabid elk on the bus.
I never want a gun. They cause more problems than they are worth. They don't help anyone. Look at the crime in the US - if guns meant people were safer, the US would be the safest country in the world, which it clearly isn't. think about that one while you stroke your gun.
That's the difference. Nearly all of the "illegal" guns out there were once legal. If those guns were never in public hands, they never would become illegal, hence less illegal guns.
Illogical, hardly. There's a difference between you not understanding it and it being illogical.
The serious vetting has to take place, as owning a gun gives someone the ability to end someone's life in a second. That power isn't for everyone. There are too many unhinged people out there. Just like we do with police, judges, pilots, soldiers and anyone else who can adversely affect anyone else in society. You are not born with the right to kill someone in seconds, if you wish. A society ceases to be a society if everyone feels the need to arm themselves.
I'm not saying that crime can be completely removed, but a good portion of gun-related crime can be.
When people talk about banning guns to reduce crime, people always come out with the "but they're not legal guns!" line, which is funny, as those guns were once legal, until they were stolen. If those guns weren't in the publics hands, they wouldn't have been stolen. No stolen legal guns = far far fewer illegal guns. That's not illogical, but pure logic. Go read up on "cause and effect". It's that simple. Don't say it doesn't work, as just look at the rest of the world. Places with low crime have fewer guns.
You also have to remember that a leading factor behind the high rate of gun-related deaths is the fact that it's a convenient way to kill someone (including yourself). If you get the urge to kill someone, and you don't have a gun, it goes. If you're packing a revolver, chances are someone will get hurt. Those are facts.
Seeing as you ended your post with "Screw you and everything that you stand for", I can see you're not in this for the logic. People like you unwittingly give my argument extra merit. thanks!
You've not been exposed to the sheer joy of directshow filters, have you? On windows, any directshow application can use the system's built-in filters to play video and audio. You can define what order these link up in, and which filters it uses (as you may have more than one for a particular codec). Saying the performance is better is a tad funny, seeing as DirectX9 has a VMR setting, which processes all the overlay information in hardware, in your graphics card. That means your CPU is under less stress. Couple that with the excellent ffdshow filter (open source divx, xvid, all other mpegs, raw, etc.), and you have the best video-playback system possible. Don't like media player? Fine. Use one of the other directshow-enabled players out there (which you'll find most for windows are).
Media player, and in fact all the media players I use, don't nag me. Ever. I have absolutely no idea where you got that idea from. It's as ludicrous as accusing/bin/ls of being bloated with spyware.
I love extolling the virtues of linux, but media isn't one of them. I know it's come a long way, but windows has some of the most well-though-out procedures for handling media I've ever seen in any OS. Getting an unknown file to work with it is simple. Each codec is installed in exactly the same way, and is instantly usably by anything that wants to process media in that format. It's faultless.
Please don't equate other companies not being open source with them being bad. They're not. It's a different philosophy, which we should accept as we'd like OSS to be accepted. Microsoft are well within their rights to withhold information it cost them millions to develop.
If linux was so good with media, I'd be right behind you, singing its praises as well. As it is, I know it isn't. It has a long way to go.
True, but the same goes for most of the workforce that are losing their jobs to India - it's not as if bright, gifted US programmers are being replaced by dumb Indian programmers. Like is being replaced by like, but for less money (which is why it's happening).
Wages are that high when compared to the cost of living. Americans pay less for their goods than most of Europe, yet get paid higher. And that's EUROPE we're talking about, so you can imagine the difference compared to somewhere less affluent. The problem is Americans dont realise it. NYC isn't the most expensive city in the world - it's always a close race between London and Tokyo. A house was sold in london for $60m, and it wasn't even big.
I'm not having a go at anyone, just the fact that most Americans go on about how they're not paid overblown wages, yet are when compared to the rest of the world (cost of living included).
That's the same with any computer, though. PCs, Apples, whatever - sleeping->on only takes a couple of seconds. Hibernation takes a bit longer, but even so my old notebook (500mhz) is up and running in well under 30 seconds.
Your co-worker has installed something strange on his machine, then. When XP loses explorer.exe, it does automatically re-launch it, and it does get its icons back in the system tray.
I've used XP and 2000 since their releases, and they're just as quick as each other. If your machine is slower with XP, there's most likely something wrong with its configuration. If anything, I'd say XP is faster than 2000.
Constant harassment?? You're a sensitive fellow, aren't you?
One click, and the tour box goes away. Another click, and it doesn't ask you for a passport. sheesh.
Again, as this is Windows, those two extra clicks are somehow mountains of crappy programming, bloat, or some sort of anti-linux propaganda.
If you're going to bash microsoft (I'd expect nothing less), please bash something worth-while. Don't just pick anything at random and run with it. sheesh.
I use windows because I want to play games on my PC, and watch videos without having to compile anything.
I'm all for linux, but it's much easier to get windows to do what I want than linux. You can convince yourself the only people with windows are mindless sheep, but it's a very usable OS for lots of people. I use computers all the time (I'm a professional open-source-based developer), and I only use windows as my desktop (granted, my servers are linux). Every once-in-a-while I'll see how the alternative apps on linux are doing, but they're still behind. Heck, I'm using homesite 4.5.2 from 2000 and it's better than any editor I've found in linux.
I'm not having a go at linux, or trolling, but trying to make people understand that even though people here hate windows, it's still a very functional operating system. My desktop machine at work is up months at a time, rock-solid. It does dual-display (twin 19" tfts on one geforce4) out of the box. I know you can do everything it does on linux, but it takes longer and is more difficult.
I'm saying that there is no loss of professionalism or skill when jobs are outsourced to India. All this talk of "but they can't code" and going on about strong accents is ridiculously unfair, and borderline racist.
The wages in the US are still ridiculously high. I'm not talking compared to the dotcom boom, but compared to the rest of the world for doing a similar job. That reason alone means jobs leave the US and go somewhere else. The US is effectively ripping off anyone who wants to get any IT work done.
It's not sour grapes on anyones part but all those whining about lost jobs. It was all fine and dandy when they were the ones revelling in the jobs, but as soon as they start to lose the "game", they start kicking up a fuss. That's selfish and childish, rolled into one.
Most IT is not difficult, yet the salaries say otherwise. Fix that, and everyone's jobs will be safer.
They obviously do, as people seem to use software that doesn't come with their computers very, very often. There isn't an argument for this. If they didn't, there wouldn't be a software industry.
FYI my old P3-500 notebook (dell inspiron) runs MP9 perfectly. I use it to power my projector, and it plays video fine. Skinning doesn't slow down the application or windows as much as you'd think, and surprise surprise, microsoft might have actually thought of that, too.
I'm not a fanboy, but slamming media player for looking good is ridiculous. If it didn't look good, you'd all be taking the piss out of it for that. Sheesh.
If people really have that many problems with IE that it's unusable - they'll upgrade. Saying that because software was on their PC when they bought it means they'll use that line of products indefinitely is ridiculous. By that logic, people who didn't get Office with their computers would write up their documents in Wordpad or Notepad, and use Calc to do their spreadsheets. People, believe it or not, know how to upgrade software.
IE, as it is, happens to be a very good web browser (as in it loads fast, doesn't break, renders web pages great) - not many people need anything more.
All tied up with a nice little PCI bus to really grate that FPS. It's not exactly future-proof. Once games start requiring >256mb for their uncompressed textures, that card is going to run like a dog. That's why people don't buy PCI graphics adapters any more.
But the fact that our beloved OS can't even keep its clipboard together is what's being debated here. Compared to windows' unified clipboard system, it looks ridiculous. How can you explain that to your gran? Linux will stay in our domain if we can't make it more usable. Three independent clipboards, each with their own access methods (which differ from app-to-app) is not the way to make a simple OS.
If you're sensitive about the whole outsourcing thing, you'd best not read this. I know it sounds like flaming, but anyway. read on if you want.
Bush didn't suddenly start outsourcing. I hate the guy as much as the next level-headed person, but let's not blame him for this one. Outsourcing isn't a good thing. It's not a bad thing, either. It's economic ebb and flow. At the moment, the jobs are going away from the US. Before, they've been going to the US. Give it a few more years, and the jobs will be coming back.
Complaining about this, as fashionable as it is, underlines the lack of objectivity when discussing this issue. How someone can defend themselves and their friends being paid vastly overblown salaries (and yes, US salaries are high, even when compared to cost of living) when people in these countries are just as able (which they are - India has schools too, yet Indian society places more emphasis on the importance of studies than American society - which favors athletic prowess), and more needing of the salary. It's being selfish.
Want to get jobs back to the US? Lower the wages. For US IT professionals to demand comparatively high salaries almost demands their jobs are sent elsewhere, especially when we're dealing with one of the most "footloose" industries present. If you want to keep your job, make sure you're the only one who can do it. Get special knowledge. Make yourself irreplacable. If you just sit at your desk all day, hammering out code anyone could do, you are replacable. It's not just IT this principle works for. Almost every single labor market out there works this way. If the workforce demands a higher salary than an alternative workforce, guess what? The work goes somewhere else.
Please folks, I can understand exactly where you're coming from on this one, but no-one moaned when this same phenomenon was working the other way round, and it's just plain immature (and selfish) to complain now.
This isn't about the methods of copying/pasting being different (we can see how that's frustrating when it differs), but the fact that there are TWO DIFFERENT clipboards, with their own keys. It doesn't matter how you copy/paste stuff, its the idea of two independent clipboards that which we're talking about.
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I hear where you're coming from, however I don't think you're seeing the big picture. Please bear in mind I'm not arguing with you, but debating this issue. I know peoples feelings can run pretty hot over this subject :)
Having a gun is a lot of responsibility. Police officers, soldiers and everone else who has them as part of their jobs has extensive training, and is subject to investigation every time they fire their weapon (except soldiers at war of course). Normal people don't get that training, and aren't under such scrutiny. Normal people are also less likely to come across someone who actually needs shooting. Who has the right to deem someone suitable for owning a weapon of such lethality? It certainly can't fall on that individual themselves, as it clearly affects everyone around them.
People shouldn't need to be armed. Societies around the world have evolved beyond everyone constantly fighting for themselves, or having to defend themselves. We have police for that. We've had police for that, for years.
And, as a matter of fact, I don't think police should be armed. If the police and normal people don't have guns, why do criminals need them? I'd be a lot happier if no-one had guns than if everyone had them. Guns kill, yet no-guns don't, so it's an easy choice.
I'm of the opinion no-one needs to be killed, ever. If someone's tring to kill you, you only have to stop them (not kill them) to protect yourself. Criminals like that need rehabilitation, not execution.
Maybe that's one thing you didn't think of - in the rest of the modern world it's not OK to kill anyone. No executions, nothing. For a "christian" country to be so OK with killing is hilarious.
As for my "rambo" comment, I've interacted with plenty of armed Americans in uniform, and it's like talking to the same person - loud, arrogant, short hair, fascist attitude. Every single place I went had the same people. LAPD, airport security, immigration - all idiots with guns.
The gun "problem" is more out of habit than rights. Americans are too used to guns to give them up. They haven't yet realised a society with no guns is a better society. After all, wouldn't you agree a society without howitzers is a better society? Or maybe chemical weapons? If people are allowed handguns, why not B2 stealth bombers, nuclear submarines, V2 rockets and flamethrowers? Does the 2nd ammendment cover those? :-P
The problem with your "granny-rapist" scenario, is there's no telling you have the skills to actually do something about it. What if you iced your gran instead of the rapist? How good would that be? Exactly.
We live in societies. Societies are there to protect us. We don't need guns, as we're not going up against bears at the 7/11, or being attacked by rabid elk on the bus.
I never want a gun. They cause more problems than they are worth. They don't help anyone. Look at the crime in the US - if guns meant people were safer, the US would be the safest country in the world, which it clearly isn't. think about that one while you stroke your gun.
That's the difference. Nearly all of the "illegal" guns out there were once legal. If those guns were never in public hands, they never would become illegal, hence less illegal guns.
The serious vetting has to take place, as owning a gun gives someone the ability to end someone's life in a second. That power isn't for everyone. There are too many unhinged people out there. Just like we do with police, judges, pilots, soldiers and anyone else who can adversely affect anyone else in society. You are not born with the right to kill someone in seconds, if you wish. A society ceases to be a society if everyone feels the need to arm themselves.
I'm not saying that crime can be completely removed, but a good portion of gun-related crime can be.
When people talk about banning guns to reduce crime, people always come out with the "but they're not legal guns!" line, which is funny, as those guns were once legal, until they were stolen. If those guns weren't in the publics hands, they wouldn't have been stolen. No stolen legal guns = far far fewer illegal guns. That's not illogical, but pure logic. Go read up on "cause and effect". It's that simple. Don't say it doesn't work, as just look at the rest of the world. Places with low crime have fewer guns.
You also have to remember that a leading factor behind the high rate of gun-related deaths is the fact that it's a convenient way to kill someone (including yourself). If you get the urge to kill someone, and you don't have a gun, it goes. If you're packing a revolver, chances are someone will get hurt. Those are facts.
Seeing as you ended your post with "Screw you and everything that you stand for", I can see you're not in this for the logic. People like you unwittingly give my argument extra merit. thanks!
Media player, and in fact all the media players I use, don't nag me. Ever. I have absolutely no idea where you got that idea from. It's as ludicrous as accusing /bin/ls of being bloated with spyware.
I love extolling the virtues of linux, but media isn't one of them. I know it's come a long way, but windows has some of the most well-though-out procedures for handling media I've ever seen in any OS. Getting an unknown file to work with it is simple. Each codec is installed in exactly the same way, and is instantly usably by anything that wants to process media in that format. It's faultless.
Please don't equate other companies not being open source with them being bad. They're not. It's a different philosophy, which we should accept as we'd like OSS to be accepted. Microsoft are well within their rights to withhold information it cost them millions to develop.
If linux was so good with media, I'd be right behind you, singing its praises as well. As it is, I know it isn't. It has a long way to go.
True, but the same goes for most of the workforce that are losing their jobs to India - it's not as if bright, gifted US programmers are being replaced by dumb Indian programmers. Like is being replaced by like, but for less money (which is why it's happening).
I'm not having a go at anyone, just the fact that most Americans go on about how they're not paid overblown wages, yet are when compared to the rest of the world (cost of living included).
Hahahaha! Fanboy. seriously. whatever gets you through the night.
That's the same with any computer, though. PCs, Apples, whatever - sleeping->on only takes a couple of seconds. Hibernation takes a bit longer, but even so my old notebook (500mhz) is up and running in well under 30 seconds.
Your co-worker has installed something strange on his machine, then. When XP loses explorer.exe, it does automatically re-launch it, and it does get its icons back in the system tray.
I've used XP and 2000 since their releases, and they're just as quick as each other. If your machine is slower with XP, there's most likely something wrong with its configuration. If anything, I'd say XP is faster than 2000.
One click, and the tour box goes away. Another click, and it doesn't ask you for a passport. sheesh.
Again, as this is Windows, those two extra clicks are somehow mountains of crappy programming, bloat, or some sort of anti-linux propaganda.
If you're going to bash microsoft (I'd expect nothing less), please bash something worth-while. Don't just pick anything at random and run with it. sheesh.
I'm all for linux, but it's much easier to get windows to do what I want than linux. You can convince yourself the only people with windows are mindless sheep, but it's a very usable OS for lots of people. I use computers all the time (I'm a professional open-source-based developer), and I only use windows as my desktop (granted, my servers are linux). Every once-in-a-while I'll see how the alternative apps on linux are doing, but they're still behind. Heck, I'm using homesite 4.5.2 from 2000 and it's better than any editor I've found in linux.
I'm not having a go at linux, or trolling, but trying to make people understand that even though people here hate windows, it's still a very functional operating system. My desktop machine at work is up months at a time, rock-solid. It does dual-display (twin 19" tfts on one geforce4) out of the box. I know you can do everything it does on linux, but it takes longer and is more difficult.
I'm rambling. I'll shut up now.
When on earth is tax money spent on outsourcing? :)
The wages in the US are still ridiculously high. I'm not talking compared to the dotcom boom, but compared to the rest of the world for doing a similar job. That reason alone means jobs leave the US and go somewhere else. The US is effectively ripping off anyone who wants to get any IT work done.
It's not sour grapes on anyones part but all those whining about lost jobs. It was all fine and dandy when they were the ones revelling in the jobs, but as soon as they start to lose the "game", they start kicking up a fuss. That's selfish and childish, rolled into one.
Most IT is not difficult, yet the salaries say otherwise. Fix that, and everyone's jobs will be safer.
That's part of the joke. :-P
They obviously do, as people seem to use software that doesn't come with their computers very, very often. There isn't an argument for this. If they didn't, there wouldn't be a software industry.
because who the hell listens to CDs any more? :) MP3 anyone? No more getting-up-and-changing-cd-to-listen-to-something- else. So 20th century. ;)
I'm not a fanboy, but slamming media player for looking good is ridiculous. If it didn't look good, you'd all be taking the piss out of it for that. Sheesh.
IE, as it is, happens to be a very good web browser (as in it loads fast, doesn't break, renders web pages great) - not many people need anything more.
All tied up with a nice little PCI bus to really grate that FPS. It's not exactly future-proof. Once games start requiring >256mb for their uncompressed textures, that card is going to run like a dog. That's why people don't buy PCI graphics adapters any more.
But the fact that our beloved OS can't even keep its clipboard together is what's being debated here. Compared to windows' unified clipboard system, it looks ridiculous. How can you explain that to your gran? Linux will stay in our domain if we can't make it more usable. Three independent clipboards, each with their own access methods (which differ from app-to-app) is not the way to make a simple OS.
So outsourcing is only bad if it's in your sector, in your country. Damn that's selfish.
Bush didn't suddenly start outsourcing. I hate the guy as much as the next level-headed person, but let's not blame him for this one. Outsourcing isn't a good thing. It's not a bad thing, either. It's economic ebb and flow. At the moment, the jobs are going away from the US. Before, they've been going to the US. Give it a few more years, and the jobs will be coming back.
Complaining about this, as fashionable as it is, underlines the lack of objectivity when discussing this issue. How someone can defend themselves and their friends being paid vastly overblown salaries (and yes, US salaries are high, even when compared to cost of living) when people in these countries are just as able (which they are - India has schools too, yet Indian society places more emphasis on the importance of studies than American society - which favors athletic prowess), and more needing of the salary. It's being selfish.
Want to get jobs back to the US? Lower the wages. For US IT professionals to demand comparatively high salaries almost demands their jobs are sent elsewhere, especially when we're dealing with one of the most "footloose" industries present. If you want to keep your job, make sure you're the only one who can do it. Get special knowledge. Make yourself irreplacable. If you just sit at your desk all day, hammering out code anyone could do, you are replacable. It's not just IT this principle works for. Almost every single labor market out there works this way. If the workforce demands a higher salary than an alternative workforce, guess what? The work goes somewhere else.
Please folks, I can understand exactly where you're coming from on this one, but no-one moaned when this same phenomenon was working the other way round, and it's just plain immature (and selfish) to complain now.
This isn't about the methods of copying/pasting being different (we can see how that's frustrating when it differs), but the fact that there are TWO DIFFERENT clipboards, with their own keys. It doesn't matter how you copy/paste stuff, its the idea of two independent clipboards that which we're talking about.