If that were only true! Selfishness is part of every human on this planet. That has not changed, ever, as far as we can read back human history. What has changed in the last 150 or so years, at least in the western cultures, is that before that time most people believed that humans were a creation of a purposeful and personal God and therefore had a purpose and destiny not only here in this world, but also beyond the grave. The writers of the Declaration of Independence recognized that human rights come from their creator.
Today the Drawinian evolutionary doctrine has taken hold which tells us that we are products of random, or perhaps not quite random impersonal forces with nothing at all after death. Our beliefs about our origins and destiny have a much more profound and lasting effect than all technology put together. Technology has always enabled those who have it to impose their selfishness on those ho don't have it. Humans are singularly bad at predicting the future, both technologically and politically.
Perhaps as "James the Child of God" you can seek to find God, and if you honestly do seek Him, you WILL find Him.
....you hear about the demise of small car occupants.....
Actually, several recent fatalities were when a smaller car ran into a large pickup, which are quite numerous out here in the countryside. Cars can and are being designed to try to protect occupants and do succeed to a point. However the laws of physics operating when a large vehicle crashes into a smaller one cannot be completely circumvented by even the best designs. In a mix of small and big cars, the big ones will always have some advantage.
....the transmission infrastructure for the electricity can't take a significant number of people doing this......
Actually, if the re-charging takes place at night, there should be no problem with the grid. In fact, the overall efficiency of the grid would improve because the load over 24 hours would be more even.
....comparing a Mini to a F-150 by crashing them head-on into each other.....
What happens when a Mini crashed into the F-150 or something even bigger and heavier? It seems that this much more likely. Even with the best safety design, at some point the laws of physics cannot be circumvented. We have one of the most dangerous highways in Oregon and read about the demise of small car occupants much more often than those of an old heavy pickup or SUV involved in head-ons or solo jobs into the big immoveable trees we have around here.
We got a Honda Accord Hybrid and for a 250+ Hp car it does pretty well at 34MPG average city and highway. An important consideration for safety is the ability to pass quickly and safely on the two lane roads and getting up the many hills here in Oregon. It is also very comfortable and quiet, with enough room for stuff when going on a trip. Safety is more important to us than saving a few dollars on gas or even in helping the environment.
..... I'd be happy to be able to purchase an x86 version of OSX.....
Yes, and then if wouldn't work on your crappy Dell, you'd expect support from Apple, since you PAID for their OSX. Dream on. As a/. geek you'll likely get OSX running on your PC box and be your own support service however. The masses of users will just go and buy a Macx86 if they want OSX
.....Onboard audio just sucks. Plain and simple. Maybe it's me, but I've never heard a good one.....
You will hear excellent audio on any existing Mac and that should also be the case on the x86 Apple boxes. Apple designs the hardware and software together as a SYSTEM, just like your DVD player, digital TV and any other modern digital electronic device purchased from a reputable brand manufacturer.
....I would hope that Apple does not ever release their OS for the standard PC.....
Don't worry, they won't. They shouldn't really care if some few hackers get their OSX running on a generic PC with a certain set of hardware specs. It's just that the ordinary millions of consumers won't have the skills needed to get OSX running on their PC. If someone tries to sell a way for the masses to be able to do this, I'm sure they'll hear from Apple legal eagles. Apple will not need to support any of those PCs and so if a clueless Joe has trouble getting OSX to run, they will have no way to get help from Apple. Any manufacturer of a PC that advertises OSX compatibility will likely also have legal problems as well. Since most PCs already have the Microsoft system installed, Joe user would have to buy or pirate OSX and then try to get it to run. Not likely. Also, if the prices of the new x86 Macs are not significantly more than an equivalent PC, there'll not be much incentive for someone to buy say a Dell, erase the already paid for Windows, pay $129.00 for OSX and then maybe not even be able to get it to install and/or run.
.......Why does knowing your hardware make the hardware more expensive......
I wish people arond here would finally stop riding that old obsolete hobby horse of more expensive Macs. Other than cheap no-name clones, Apple wares are no more expensive than equivalent stuff from Sony, Toshiba, HP and other name brands except Dell. Dells especially their ugly, heavy laptops are pure garbage. There is no real way to make a decent computer for significantly less because they all use mostly the same major components. Long term, Macs are actually cheaper because they last longer and don't need the hassle of constantly updating against the numerous constantly changing malware that plagues the Windows users. Succeeding Mac OSX run faster and better on the same old hardware, whereas in Windows the opposite is true.
.....Sure, it might detract from them selling hardware.....
Actually, if Apple charges full retail for each copy of OSX, even for any PC manufacturer who might want to install it on their boxes, they should be able to compete pretty well. Letting Dell install OSX on their computers, but making them pay full retail for each copy might work just fine for Apple. Apple's hardware, especially laptops, even if it runs Windows would still be better than Dell's offerings. As for games, PC's good enough to play games are quite costly, so get a specialized computer for games, commonly called a console, such as an x-box or play station.
......Cool...now show me how you pull music off of it......
For Macs there are a number of shareware and free programs out there. I myself have never had occasion to transfer music off my ipod. I try not to violate copyrights by spreading music I bought around to others. One program i remember seeing in the net I believe is called ipodder. I am sure similar programs exist for Windows.
The restrictions are not in the iPod, but in the iTunes downloaded music. You can put anything on the iPod without restrictions if it is not already DRM protected.
....even imagine better picture quality than current DVD......
If you have a HUGE fancy theatre sized monitor the pictures will definitely be much clearer. Unfortunately, the programming and all the commercials will be just as worthless as it is now. However,you'll be able to clearly tell that your favorite news guy has not shaved very well and that the makeup job of the news gal is done rather sloppily.
What is DRM infested about OSX? Other than music from the iTunes service, I know of no DRM in OSX. You buy a Mac and get the OSX and all its cool iApps with it. Next year you'll even be able to run other OS on the Intel Macs. Is the OSX not based on a BSD heritage?
.....but do you really believe there's a massive conspiracy to skew the news in favour of liberals....
No, not a conspricacy, but that just happens to be the philosophical bent of the majority of people who go into journalism. If you make a list of the media organizations that endorsed Kerry vs those that endorsed Bush, Kerry was favored by a considerable margin. The same was true for Gore. It is just plain natural for anyone's philosophy of life to color their likes and dislikes of political candidates. Right now the Senate must determine how the life philosophy of Mr. Roberts may influence his decisions as a Supreme Court Justice.
Actually, I am not dogmatically for one or the other party, but tend to look at the record of integrity of the individual as far as it can be known. I have voted for candidates from both parties and more often than not, they were the ones that got into office.
.....I want to abolish our horribly divisive a destructive plurality system......
I can see some of the merits of what is essentially a proportional system. Since I live in a rural area, one of my concerns is that in such a system the rural population is always outvoted by the urban majority. We have seen this here in Oregon where the city dwellers are voting on issues that don't or barely affect them, such as some of the hunting laws that were ramroded through by certain lobbying groups expending considerable amounts of money to convince city voters on issues that those voter know next to nothing about. Because the Oregon Senate is set up on a geographical basis, just like the US Senate, the lobbying groups were never successful to get such laws through the Senate part of the legislature. So they made an end run around the legislature through the majority city vote. The reason the 1872 mining laws, that allow my friends to prospect for gold, have never been repealed in the US Congress is because the Senators of the sparsely populated west have successfully blocked the majority house of representatives. The reason Northern California water is not being shipped to Southern California is because the Senators of the thinly populated northern part of the state manged to block the majority legislative vote of the south.
Because of human nature, there can never be a perfect human government, but I think the founding fathers instituted a wise and equitable system by preventing the majority from tyrannizing the minority. What other country or countries can you name that have had the system you propose under the same government system as we have under our present constitution for over 200 years now?
......"Liberal Media Bias" excuse to justify anything they have to say as pathetic.....
Once either party is in power, the media do tend to be more adverserial than supportive since that stance is likely to sell better. What is better to look at in order to determine bias is which party the majority of the media have supported over those 50 years. As far as I can remember, that has usually been the liberals. That was certainly true of the last election. There are exceptions of course. The good thing is that the American voters see through that blatent media endorsements of the liberals and elect conservatives like Bush and throw liberal senators out of office even if he has an important position in the senate. Through constant commercial and political bombardment by the media, most people have become rather immune to media hype and often use their remote control to keep the annoyances down to a dull roar.
....but I'm not going to tell you the password....
What if the person "forgot" the password? People do honestly forget passwords all the time. How could a court determine whether the person REALLY forgot it or is lying? Maybe put him/her in jail to help them remember?
....keeping a democratic country's public fooled about the truth....
The problem is that most often the popular media are not interested in truth, but have an agenda of their own. Somtimes in agreement with the government, but most often against, especially if the government is conservative. War is always a messy thing where death can be portrayed either for or against the war. When for, the valor and sacrifice is praised. When against the futility and failure are elevated. In the last election it was abundantly clear who the majority of the media were rooting for. It was amusing to watch the dismay of some of the most ardent democratic newspeople on election night as their favorite candidates went down to defeat.
....And do you think that the NSA, or the FBI, can't get into it?....
Surely there must be encryptions that the government cannot decode in any reasonable time. Apple says that if a user forgets the "filevault" password on OSX, the data is lost forever. I wonder if that is really true. Can someone be held in contempt of court for being forgetful?
.... it might not be a bad idea to encrypt them.....
Of course and then tell them you forgot the password. No way to prove you did not forget it. With a good encryption that could be fairly bullet proof. Tell them to take the HD to the NSA to see if they can decrypt it.
The problem with battery operated mice and other battery operated devices is that the battery often dies at the most inopportune time. Generally, the simpler a design, the more reliable it is. Replacing a battery and more complicatted electronics with a simple cable has its virtues of greater reliability.
....I would think that there will be very poor tactile feedback....
Most of the millions of ipod users have no problem with how the touch buttons thereon work. You can hear a little click, which can also be turned off. The new mouse uses that same technology. Having fewer or no moving parts generally improves reliability. How wonderfully maintenance and trouble free are the now commonplace optical mice compared to the rolling ball designs. All mice I have ever used emit a faint click from their mechanical switch when the button(s) are pressed.
...Information is never destroyed. It may become irretreivable to a human being...
It is intersesting that you should make that observation about the indestructibleness of information. In the Bible we find a similar statement by Jesus in Matthew 12:36-37
And I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
An "ideal observer" ie. God would certainly be able to retrieve *any* information that has ever existed in the Universe. Has anyone ever uttered the words: "I'll be God damned?" So then watch what you say!
.....whereas the second is an excerpt from the world's best known play....
That is only true, because at least two people have agreed on the meaning and design of the little pictures we call letters and how they happen to be arranged in a code called English. To someone who knows only say German, that arrangement of these symbols carries no meaning although he may recognize the shape of the symbols. To a Chinese, the symbols themselves are also indecipherable. To have any communication, there must be some previous agreement on the meaning of the carriers of said information and their arrangements.
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.......People are generally good......
If that were only true! Selfishness is part of every human on this planet. That has not changed, ever, as far as we can read back human history. What has changed in the last 150 or so years, at least in the western cultures, is that before that time most people believed that humans were a creation of a purposeful and personal God and therefore had a purpose and destiny not only here in this world, but also beyond the grave. The writers of the Declaration of Independence recognized that human rights come from their creator.
Today the Drawinian evolutionary doctrine has taken hold which tells us that we are products of random, or perhaps not quite random impersonal forces with nothing at all after death. Our beliefs about our origins and destiny have a much more profound and lasting effect than all technology put together. Technology has always enabled those who have it to impose their selfishness on those ho don't have it. Humans are singularly bad at predicting the future, both technologically and politically.
Perhaps as "James the Child of God" you can seek to find God, and if you honestly do seek Him, you WILL find Him.
....you hear about the demise of small car occupants.....
Actually, several recent fatalities were when a smaller car ran into a large pickup, which are quite numerous out here in the countryside. Cars can and are being designed to try to protect occupants and do succeed to a point. However the laws of physics operating when a large vehicle crashes into a smaller one cannot be completely circumvented by even the best designs. In a mix of small and big cars, the big ones will always have some advantage.
....the transmission infrastructure for the electricity can't take a significant number of people doing this......
Actually, if the re-charging takes place at night, there should be no problem with the grid. In fact, the overall efficiency of the grid would improve because the load over 24 hours would be more even.
....comparing a Mini to a F-150 by crashing them head-on into each other.....
What happens when a Mini crashed into the F-150 or something even bigger and heavier? It seems that this much more likely. Even with the best safety design, at some point the laws of physics cannot be circumvented. We have one of the most dangerous highways in Oregon and read about the demise of small car occupants much more often than those of an old heavy pickup or SUV involved in head-ons or solo jobs into the big immoveable trees we have around here.
...the Accord....
We got a Honda Accord Hybrid and for a 250+ Hp car it does pretty well at 34MPG average city and highway. An important consideration for safety is the ability to pass quickly and safely on the two lane roads and getting up the many hills here in Oregon. It is also very comfortable and quiet, with enough room for stuff when going on a trip. Safety is more important to us than saving a few dollars on gas or even in helping the environment.
..... I'd be happy to be able to purchase an x86 version of OSX.....
/. geek you'll likely get OSX running on your PC box and be your own support service however. The masses of users will just go and buy a Macx86 if they want OSX
Yes, and then if wouldn't work on your crappy Dell, you'd expect support from Apple, since you PAID for their OSX. Dream on. As a
.....Onboard audio just sucks. Plain and simple. Maybe it's me, but I've never heard a good one.....
You will hear excellent audio on any existing Mac and that should also be the case on the x86 Apple boxes. Apple designs the hardware and software together as a SYSTEM, just like your DVD player, digital TV and any other modern digital electronic device purchased from a reputable brand manufacturer.
....I would hope that Apple does not ever release their OS for the standard PC.....
Don't worry, they won't. They shouldn't really care if some few hackers get their OSX running on a generic PC with a certain set of hardware specs. It's just that the ordinary millions of consumers won't have the skills needed to get OSX running on their PC. If someone tries to sell a way for the masses to be able to do this, I'm sure they'll hear from Apple legal eagles. Apple will not need to support any of those PCs and so if a clueless Joe has trouble getting OSX to run, they will have no way to get help from Apple. Any manufacturer of a PC that advertises OSX compatibility will likely also have legal problems as well. Since most PCs already have the Microsoft system installed, Joe user would have to buy or pirate OSX and then try to get it to run. Not likely. Also, if the prices of the new x86 Macs are not significantly more than an equivalent PC, there'll not be much incentive for someone to buy say a Dell, erase the already paid for Windows, pay $129.00 for OSX and then maybe not even be able to get it to install and/or run.
.......Why does knowing your hardware make the hardware more expensive......
I wish people arond here would finally stop riding that old obsolete hobby horse of more expensive Macs. Other than cheap no-name clones, Apple wares are no more expensive than equivalent stuff from Sony, Toshiba, HP and other name brands except Dell. Dells especially their ugly, heavy laptops are pure garbage. There is no real way to make a decent computer for significantly less because they all use mostly the same major components. Long term, Macs are actually cheaper because they last longer and don't need the hassle of constantly updating against the numerous constantly changing malware that plagues the Windows users. Succeeding Mac OSX run faster and better on the same old hardware, whereas in Windows the opposite is true.
.....Sure, it might detract from them selling hardware.....
Actually, if Apple charges full retail for each copy of OSX, even for any PC manufacturer who might want to install it on their boxes, they should be able to compete pretty well. Letting Dell install OSX on their computers, but making them pay full retail for each copy might work just fine for Apple. Apple's hardware, especially laptops, even if it runs Windows would still be better than Dell's offerings. As for games, PC's good enough to play games are quite costly, so get a specialized computer for games, commonly called a console, such as an x-box or play station.
......Cool...now show me how you pull music off of it......
For Macs there are a number of shareware and free programs out there. I myself have never had occasion to transfer music off my ipod. I try not to violate copyrights by spreading music I bought around to others. One program i remember seeing in the net I believe is called ipodder. I am sure similar programs exist for Windows.
......Yes, the iPod being a shining example......
The restrictions are not in the iPod, but in the iTunes downloaded music. You can put anything on the iPod without restrictions if it is not already DRM protected.
....even imagine better picture quality than current DVD......
If you have a HUGE fancy theatre sized monitor the pictures will definitely be much clearer. Unfortunately, the programming and all the commercials will be just as worthless as it is now. However,you'll be able to clearly tell that your favorite news guy has not shaved very well and that the makeup job of the news gal is done rather sloppily.
....DRM infested?.....
What is DRM infested about OSX? Other than music from the iTunes service, I know of no DRM in OSX. You buy a Mac and get the OSX and all its cool iApps with it. Next year you'll even be able to run other OS on the Intel Macs. Is the OSX not based on a BSD heritage?
.....but do you really believe there's a massive conspiracy to skew the news in favour of liberals....
No, not a conspricacy, but that just happens to be the philosophical bent of the majority of people who go into journalism. If you make a list of the media organizations that endorsed Kerry vs those that endorsed Bush, Kerry was favored by a considerable margin. The same was true for Gore. It is just plain natural for anyone's philosophy of life to color their likes and dislikes of political candidates. Right now the Senate must determine how the life philosophy of Mr. Roberts may influence his decisions as a Supreme Court Justice.
Actually, I am not dogmatically for one or the other party, but tend to look at the record of integrity of the individual as far as it can be known. I have voted for candidates from both parties and more often than not, they were the ones that got into office.
.....I want to abolish our horribly divisive a destructive plurality system......
I can see some of the merits of what is essentially a proportional system. Since I live in a rural area, one of my concerns is that in such a system the rural population is always outvoted by the urban majority. We have seen this here in Oregon where the city dwellers are voting on issues that don't or barely affect them, such as some of the hunting laws that were ramroded through by certain lobbying groups expending considerable amounts of money to convince city voters on issues that those voter know next to nothing about. Because the Oregon Senate is set up on a geographical basis, just like the US Senate, the lobbying groups were never successful to get such laws through the Senate part of the legislature. So they made an end run around the legislature through the majority city vote. The reason the 1872 mining laws, that allow my friends to prospect for gold, have never been repealed in the US Congress is because the Senators of the sparsely populated west have successfully blocked the majority house of representatives. The reason Northern California water is not being shipped to Southern California is because the Senators of the thinly populated northern part of the state manged to block the majority legislative vote of the south.
Because of human nature, there can never be a perfect human government, but I think the founding fathers instituted a wise and equitable system by preventing the majority from tyrannizing the minority. What other country or countries can you name that have had the system you propose under the same government system as we have under our present constitution for over 200 years now?
......"Liberal Media Bias" excuse to justify anything they have to say as pathetic.....
Once either party is in power, the media do tend to be more adverserial than supportive since that stance is likely to sell better. What is better to look at in order to determine bias is which party the majority of the media have supported over those 50 years. As far as I can remember, that has usually been the liberals. That was certainly true of the last election. There are exceptions of course. The good thing is that the American voters see through that blatent media endorsements of the liberals and elect conservatives like Bush and throw liberal senators out of office even if he has an important position in the senate. Through constant commercial and political bombardment by the media, most people have become rather immune to media hype and often use their remote control to keep the annoyances down to a dull roar.
....but I'm not going to tell you the password....
What if the person "forgot" the password? People do honestly forget passwords all the time. How could a court determine whether the person REALLY forgot it or is lying? Maybe put him/her in jail to help them remember?
....keeping a democratic country's public fooled about the truth....
The problem is that most often the popular media are not interested in truth, but have an agenda of their own. Somtimes in agreement with the government, but most often against, especially if the government is conservative. War is always a messy thing where death can be portrayed either for or against the war. When for, the valor and sacrifice is praised. When against the futility and failure are elevated. In the last election it was abundantly clear who the majority of the media were rooting for. It was amusing to watch the dismay of some of the most ardent democratic newspeople on election night as their favorite candidates went down to defeat.
....And do you think that the NSA, or the FBI, can't get into it?....
Surely there must be encryptions that the government cannot decode in any reasonable time. Apple says that if a user forgets the "filevault" password on OSX, the data is lost forever. I wonder if that is really true. Can someone be held in contempt of court for being forgetful?
.... it might not be a bad idea to encrypt them .....
Of course and then tell them you forgot the password. No way to prove you did not forget it. With a good encryption that could be fairly bullet proof. Tell them to take the HD to the NSA to see if they can decrypt it.
....I've grown to detest mouse cables....
The problem with battery operated mice and other battery operated devices is that the battery often dies at the most inopportune time. Generally, the simpler a design, the more reliable it is. Replacing a battery and more complicatted electronics with a simple cable has its virtues of greater reliability.
....I would think that there will be very poor tactile feedback....
Most of the millions of ipod users have no problem with how the touch buttons thereon work. You can hear a little click, which can also be turned off. The new mouse uses that same technology. Having fewer or no moving parts generally improves reliability. How wonderfully maintenance and trouble free are the now commonplace optical mice compared to the rolling ball designs. All mice I have ever used emit a faint click from their mechanical switch when the button(s) are pressed.
...Information is never destroyed. It may become irretreivable to a human being...
It is intersesting that you should make that observation about the indestructibleness of information. In the Bible we find a similar statement by Jesus in Matthew 12:36-37
And I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
An "ideal observer" ie. God would certainly be able to retrieve *any* information that has ever existed in the Universe. Has anyone ever uttered the words: "I'll be God damned?" So then watch what you say!
.....whereas the second is an excerpt from the world's best known play....
That is only true, because at least two people have agreed on the meaning and design of the little pictures we call letters and how they happen to be arranged in a code called English. To someone who knows only say German, that arrangement of these symbols carries no meaning although he may recognize the shape of the symbols. To a Chinese, the symbols themselves are also indecipherable. To have any communication, there must be some previous agreement on the meaning of the carriers of said information and their arrangements.