While I like you Deity rant, not everyone is that bad. Maybe they wouldn't be called "true believers" but join the church because the believe in a certain interpretation of the moral teachings of the bible that mirror their own personal views. Many join for a sense of community, comfort, tradition and the idea that they are part of something a bit greater than their individual lives. Some think they can help their community or others by participating. There is also the fear of death, which can be a powerful thing to overcome.
Personally I think it is all insane, and I don't believe or belong. However I can understand how some might. However the true believers, are just crazy to me.
It certainly does not "fill the void of what science does not know". I am pretty sure it is to give people comfort, community, and a feeling of belonging to something greater than they have in their petty downtrodden lives, where the great majority live without wealth, position, education or the real hope of acquiring any of those things.
Just because we don't understand something doesn't mean "god musta dun it!". There will likely always be gaps in scientific knowlege I think, but that is simply the nature of the process in which we learn things.
Anyone remember those. Every computer used to come with them. Any case you bought would have a square little place for a case badge. Sometimes it would already be populated with the case logo. The cool part, was at one point companies would make custom case badges and sell them, so you could use new ones, or replace old ones. I know I have an old BP6 Dual Celly gathering dust with a custom case and a "2CPU.COM" case badge. Fun times. I also remember you could just get various graphic etc...
Nice. Sounds like I just buy a degree and get a tax deductible receipt. Now for a limited time it includes a toy.
Seriously though, I have had courses that had no "final". Usually had to do with working on one large project or thesis. However even at the end of those there would be a "defense" or "presentation" you were also marked on. Mind you they were not worth 40-60% like many finals more like 5-15%, but still there was some sort of evaluation other than just on the work done previously. Also I would have to say of all my classes I have ever taken at the University level, say of 40 total courses, maybe 3-4 were like that. Of those all of them were at the end of my degree (year 4/5).
To have 486 of 500 without finals just sounds retarded to me.
I know this makes me old as well, but I recall back in the day that using strong encryption OUTSIDE the USA was illegal.
There were separate versions of explorer, and other web products as well as encryption software for those in the USA and everybody else.
I always thought that was odd, and it eventually just seemed to disappear (they likely figured out how futile it was to try and control what people were doing on the internet, go figure...).
Contract Law. You agreed to the EULA. No one forced you to buy the product. You could have taken one look a the EULA, and walked away saying "No thanks". Hell most people don't even read their insurance or mortgage agreements, let alone agreements for a PS3.
Problem is they have become so ubik these days, that there is some sort of EULA on everything now indemnifying companies from blame or litigation. Most of these are ridiculous in length. I mean the iTunes one is like 75 pages long, not to mention, WOW, or any purchase or service. I would spend the rest of my days reading through EULA's. Odds are if I actually read them, I wouldn't want to agree with them.
The main problem is while no one forces you to buy a product and accept a EULA, really they do collectively, as everyone uses them now, so you really have little choice in the matter. Most of them are ridiculous such as credit cards, or ISPs, or anything, that basically somewhere has two clauses that say "we can do whatever we want", and "we will change this agreement however we like, but we will notify you somehow". My Cable company changed my EULA to include bandwidth caps once upon a time, notification to me consisted of posting the revised EULA to an obscure link on their website somewhere. I didn't find out until they cut off my service. Nice.
EULA still doesn't protect you from doing illegal stuff. However it does make it harder to prove. So while I could sign an agreement at a doctor's office, or the white water rafting place that says I won't sue if I die, it doesn't protect them from if they mess up and you die. It is a much harder thing to prove however. Just like some contracts are illegal, I can't make a contact that says "you will allow me to murder you" as no matter what, that's still against the law.
So that would be the key here, is it fraud or not. As they advertise one thing, yet did another. Their defense might be that, well it is in the EULA so we actually advertised that these changes may take place thus it isn't false advertising. The counter argument would be, that it is hidden in a 75 page agreement, so it isn't really discoverable. In most cases, they would likely ask, "so did you read it" and in most cases the response would be "no", and I think many judges without looking too deeply into the case would be "case closed".
I have heard that some consider many of these EULA's not worth the paper they are written on, as in a lot of areas, apparently a contract that is so heavily weighted in only one persons favor is not considered a valid legal contract. From my limited understanding I have heard that most of this EULA stuff has not been really tested in a real court of any significance. That is what this issue needs, a lot of court time and public awareness as it is really getting silly.
A 800$ small claims court is not going to do it, despite the amount of press it is getting online. This needs several multi-year class action big money suits before any judge is going to start looking at the actual significance of these agreements and if they are actually legal and just.
"Man, that f.... wait up, where am I? Why am I on a couch? Where is my clothing? Why do I have no money left, and receipts to a bank machine for a lot more? Why is a Zebra licking my face? Who is this girl at my door knocking, saying that I told her to show up so we could talk about things? Why does my leg hurt and I have a huge bruise? Why does my entire body feel like garbage for the next 24 hours or so? Who drank all the booze in my house? Who are you strange people? Why is my house destroyed? Is it the weekend again yet?"
Fun at the time (apparently). Not so much the next day.
My favorite one currently is if I am so messed up that I can't remember anything (which means I would be noticeably physically sloppy drunk), and the girl is sober enough to remember, then she should be able to understand that if I say something there is no way in hell that I A) will remember it, or B) meant any of it. I mean come on, use some common sense. Then show up without calling first to see? Then when I make an excuse at the door, go all passive aggressive on facebook? Crazy or stupid, take your pick.
Anyway had one of those nights (minus the Zebra, I made that up) recently where I woke up half dressed on my couch, with a bunch of people sleeping in my beds, one of which a total stranger, with little memory past a friend at one of the bars trying to cut me off of doing any more shots (apparently not early enough).
I have no inclination to repeat that performance any time soon, that's for sure. I might have a few moderated drinks over the next couple of weeks, but that was a messed up night. Believe me, while it sounds funny and maybe fun, having a few drinks in moderation is a lot better. Hurts less.
I just fail to see how they plan on taking methyl hydrate ice, which is only ice because it is A) freaking cold, and B) under intense underwater pressure, and mine it, removing it from the A) Cold, B) Pressure, and not somehow have all or much of it go straight into to atmosphere?
While I agree, much of this has to be taken in scale.
If I: A) Help someone cross the street B) Kill someone
I must be a good guy, as I helped someone cross the street.
I guess what I am trying to say is that the SCALE of good to bad, is lets say in opposition. While they have taken some nice small steps which are more than just symbolic, much of what gets done in the name of progress outstrips that very quickly in my mind.
CPU's have been around longer than discrete GPU's.
Its not quite apples and oranges, but along those same lines.
If anything I would say the consumer marketing has been more pronounced in the graphics industry between ATI and nVIDIA not to mention having a more equal market share. The fight between AMD and Intel is for the hearts and minds of manufactures more than actual consumers, and Intel owns something like 80% of the market.
So if your trying to decide which of your branding is more well known, I am not sure it is as simple as that. In this case however it may just be as simple in that AMD is the parent company so that is what it is gonna be called at the end of the day.
Not sure where you live, but I know in many parts of the country the options are even worse.
Where I live in Ontario, its not too bad, but I still pay about the same as you for a 60GB cap from Cogeco, which I believe is owned by Rogers. It was a 10mbit, but they improved it the last couple of years. I currently get about 12mbit so it probably is a theoretical 15mbit by now. I also am a heavy user (though not that heavy) and also usually exceed my cap by a bit, though I have been trying to monitor my usage and keep it under cap or within reason (60-80). They also charge 1.50/GB which is a bit nuts.
Considering Teksavvy sold it at 0.25/GB on their limited accounts, or 0.10/GB if you pre-paid for 100GB at a time. Of course they have unlimited accounts as well. These are all DSL however, where I have cable which is a bit different.
Anyway in other parts of the country your options may be pretty bad indeed. If you live in a big city you likely have more options available to you.
I love how people think oil and gas companies and stations conspire etc... set prices. They are NOTHING compared to the telcos in Canada.
Bell and Rogers don't even try to hide it. They just price everything the same. They even use the exact same sales methods. With convergence I bet their business model is exactly the same now also. They all sell the same services, though slightly different. Cable VS Sat, Landline VS VOIP, Cellphone VS Cellphone (of which both own several subsidiaries), Cable Internet VS Phone Internet. They all offer packages, they all offer their services at "competitive" prices, in that they are the same stupid prices that their competitors set.
I mean the last CRTC ruling was a joke. The independents at the time were complaining that Bell (and Rogers, though I don't think they were part of the investigation) was selling them copper, and shaping their customers traffic, slowing their connections. Bell argued that traffic shaping was needed for the health of the infrastructure as their wouldn't be enough bandwidth for all. They then found a Bell produced study that basically proved this was total BS. Then Bell argued that this practice was "fair" because they at least screwed their own customers the same way. The CRTC found this to be true (surprise) and found in favor of Bell (with I believe a cravat to look at this issue in more detail at an unspecified later date).
SO I won't get too excited about the CRTC growing a spine just yet, though it is however a start.
Letters?! Who has the freaking time to learn letters these days?
Use colors! Everyone can see, and those that can't shouldn't drive. Just for spite make two of the colors red and green against color blind folks.
Also why even bother having a set of defined colors... then you have to worry about how many graduations etc... Just make a spectrum (or use THE spectrum if you wish), and label one end "Bad" and the other "Good".
Slashdot Mirror
10 Turn into X screw Y.
20 Throw a lightning bolt.
30 GOTO 10
That seems to be the AI programming for Zeus.
Let X be any animal of creation.
Let Y be either a God or Human.
The Titans. Sheesh! How hard was that!
The matrix called, they want their script back.
While I like you Deity rant, not everyone is that bad. Maybe they wouldn't be called "true believers" but join the church because the believe in a certain interpretation of the moral teachings of the bible that mirror their own personal views. Many join for a sense of community, comfort, tradition and the idea that they are part of something a bit greater than their individual lives. Some think they can help their community or others by participating. There is also the fear of death, which can be a powerful thing to overcome.
Personally I think it is all insane, and I don't believe or belong. However I can understand how some might. However the true believers, are just crazy to me.
It certainly does not "fill the void of what science does not know". I am pretty sure it is to give people comfort, community, and a feeling of belonging to something greater than they have in their petty downtrodden lives, where the great majority live without wealth, position, education or the real hope of acquiring any of those things.
Just because we don't understand something doesn't mean "god musta dun it!". There will likely always be gaps in scientific knowlege I think, but that is simply the nature of the process in which we learn things.
Well without Copper, your "energy" isn't going very far.
Anyone remember those. Every computer used to come with them. Any case you bought would have a square little place for a case badge. Sometimes it would already be populated with the case logo. The cool part, was at one point companies would make custom case badges and sell them, so you could use new ones, or replace old ones. I know I have an old BP6 Dual Celly gathering dust with a custom case and a "2CPU.COM" case badge. Fun times. I also remember you could just get various graphic etc...
Apple makes money because people don't buy hardware specs, they buy fiction.
There, fixed that for you... :)
Wasn't George W Bush a Harvard grad?
Nice. Sounds like I just buy a degree and get a tax deductible receipt. Now for a limited time it includes a toy.
Seriously though, I have had courses that had no "final". Usually had to do with working on one large project or thesis. However even at the end of those there would be a "defense" or "presentation" you were also marked on. Mind you they were not worth 40-60% like many finals more like 5-15%, but still there was some sort of evaluation other than just on the work done previously. Also I would have to say of all my classes I have ever taken at the University level, say of 40 total courses, maybe 3-4 were like that. Of those all of them were at the end of my degree (year 4/5).
To have 486 of 500 without finals just sounds retarded to me.
You misunderstand. He is marrying his MacBook. This is also the reason it is not turned on.
Zing.
wtf? I guess it was the age...
Reminds me of the BBC TV show "The IT Crowd"....
"Here Mr. President, this is the Internet!" snickers
Hands President a suspiciously shoebox sized box with a flashing light on the top and a big red button.
"Just don't press the button, unless you have dire need, as this will shutdown the Internet!" more repressed snickers...
I know this makes me old as well, but I recall back in the day that using strong encryption OUTSIDE the USA was illegal.
There were separate versions of explorer, and other web products as well as encryption software for those in the USA and everybody else.
I always thought that was odd, and it eventually just seemed to disappear (they likely figured out how futile it was to try and control what people were doing on the internet, go figure...).
Contract Law. You agreed to the EULA. No one forced you to buy the product. You could have taken one look a the EULA, and walked away saying "No thanks". Hell most people don't even read their insurance or mortgage agreements, let alone agreements for a PS3.
Problem is they have become so ubik these days, that there is some sort of EULA on everything now indemnifying companies from blame or litigation. Most of these are ridiculous in length. I mean the iTunes one is like 75 pages long, not to mention, WOW, or any purchase or service. I would spend the rest of my days reading through EULA's. Odds are if I actually read them, I wouldn't want to agree with them.
The main problem is while no one forces you to buy a product and accept a EULA, really they do collectively, as everyone uses them now, so you really have little choice in the matter. Most of them are ridiculous such as credit cards, or ISPs, or anything, that basically somewhere has two clauses that say "we can do whatever we want", and "we will change this agreement however we like, but we will notify you somehow". My Cable company changed my EULA to include bandwidth caps once upon a time, notification to me consisted of posting the revised EULA to an obscure link on their website somewhere. I didn't find out until they cut off my service. Nice.
EULA still doesn't protect you from doing illegal stuff. However it does make it harder to prove. So while I could sign an agreement at a doctor's office, or the white water rafting place that says I won't sue if I die, it doesn't protect them from if they mess up and you die. It is a much harder thing to prove however. Just like some contracts are illegal, I can't make a contact that says "you will allow me to murder you" as no matter what, that's still against the law.
So that would be the key here, is it fraud or not. As they advertise one thing, yet did another. Their defense might be that, well it is in the EULA so we actually advertised that these changes may take place thus it isn't false advertising. The counter argument would be, that it is hidden in a 75 page agreement, so it isn't really discoverable. In most cases, they would likely ask, "so did you read it" and in most cases the response would be "no", and I think many judges without looking too deeply into the case would be "case closed".
I have heard that some consider many of these EULA's not worth the paper they are written on, as in a lot of areas, apparently a contract that is so heavily weighted in only one persons favor is not considered a valid legal contract. From my limited understanding I have heard that most of this EULA stuff has not been really tested in a real court of any significance. That is what this issue needs, a lot of court time and public awareness as it is really getting silly.
A 800$ small claims court is not going to do it, despite the amount of press it is getting online. This needs several multi-year class action big money suits before any judge is going to start looking at the actual significance of these agreements and if they are actually legal and just.
Reminds me of a joke a stand up comic did... talking about bunnies.
The more hugs and love a pet bunny gets, the better, really tenderizes it, meat just falls off the bone....
"Nuke it, its the only way to be.....er wait."
"Man, that f.... wait up, where am I? Why am I on a couch? Where is my clothing? Why do I have no money left, and receipts to a bank machine for a lot more? Why is a Zebra licking my face? Who is this girl at my door knocking, saying that I told her to show up so we could talk about things? Why does my leg hurt and I have a huge bruise? Why does my entire body feel like garbage for the next 24 hours or so? Who drank all the booze in my house? Who are you strange people? Why is my house destroyed? Is it the weekend again yet?"
Fun at the time (apparently). Not so much the next day.
My favorite one currently is if I am so messed up that I can't remember anything (which means I would be noticeably physically sloppy drunk), and the girl is sober enough to remember, then she should be able to understand that if I say something there is no way in hell that I A) will remember it, or B) meant any of it. I mean come on, use some common sense. Then show up without calling first to see? Then when I make an excuse at the door, go all passive aggressive on facebook? Crazy or stupid, take your pick.
Anyway had one of those nights (minus the Zebra, I made that up) recently where I woke up half dressed on my couch, with a bunch of people sleeping in my beds, one of which a total stranger, with little memory past a friend at one of the bars trying to cut me off of doing any more shots (apparently not early enough).
I have no inclination to repeat that performance any time soon, that's for sure. I might have a few moderated drinks over the next couple of weeks, but that was a messed up night. Believe me, while it sounds funny and maybe fun, having a few drinks in moderation is a lot better. Hurts less.
Butter VS Margarine is another good recent example.
I just fail to see how they plan on taking methyl hydrate ice, which is only ice because it is A) freaking cold, and B) under intense underwater pressure, and mine it, removing it from the A) Cold, B) Pressure, and not somehow have all or much of it go straight into to atmosphere?
While I agree, much of this has to be taken in scale.
If I:
A) Help someone cross the street
B) Kill someone
I must be a good guy, as I helped someone cross the street.
I guess what I am trying to say is that the SCALE of good to bad, is lets say in opposition. While they have taken some nice small steps which are more than just symbolic, much of what gets done in the name of progress outstrips that very quickly in my mind.
That's a bit unfair (but probably accurate).
CPU's have been around longer than discrete GPU's.
Its not quite apples and oranges, but along those same lines.
If anything I would say the consumer marketing has been more pronounced in the graphics industry between ATI and nVIDIA not to mention having a more equal market share. The fight between AMD and Intel is for the hearts and minds of manufactures more than actual consumers, and Intel owns something like 80% of the market.
So if your trying to decide which of your branding is more well known, I am not sure it is as simple as that. In this case however it may just be as simple in that AMD is the parent company so that is what it is gonna be called at the end of the day.
Not sure where you live, but I know in many parts of the country the options are even worse.
Where I live in Ontario, its not too bad, but I still pay about the same as you for a 60GB cap from Cogeco, which I believe is owned by Rogers. It was a 10mbit, but they improved it the last couple of years. I currently get about 12mbit so it probably is a theoretical 15mbit by now. I also am a heavy user (though not that heavy) and also usually exceed my cap by a bit, though I have been trying to monitor my usage and keep it under cap or within reason (60-80). They also charge 1.50/GB which is a bit nuts.
Considering Teksavvy sold it at 0.25/GB on their limited accounts, or 0.10/GB if you pre-paid for 100GB at a time. Of course they have unlimited accounts as well. These are all DSL however, where I have cable which is a bit different.
Anyway in other parts of the country your options may be pretty bad indeed. If you live in a big city you likely have more options available to you.
I love how people think oil and gas companies and stations conspire etc... set prices. They are NOTHING compared to the telcos in Canada.
Bell and Rogers don't even try to hide it. They just price everything the same. They even use the exact same sales methods. With convergence I bet their business model is exactly the same now also. They all sell the same services, though slightly different. Cable VS Sat, Landline VS VOIP, Cellphone VS Cellphone (of which both own several subsidiaries), Cable Internet VS Phone Internet. They all offer packages, they all offer their services at "competitive" prices, in that they are the same stupid prices that their competitors set.
I mean the last CRTC ruling was a joke. The independents at the time were complaining that Bell (and Rogers, though I don't think they were part of the investigation) was selling them copper, and shaping their customers traffic, slowing their connections. Bell argued that traffic shaping was needed for the health of the infrastructure as their wouldn't be enough bandwidth for all. They then found a Bell produced study that basically proved this was total BS. Then Bell argued that this practice was "fair" because they at least screwed their own customers the same way. The CRTC found this to be true (surprise) and found in favor of Bell (with I believe a cravat to look at this issue in more detail at an unspecified later date).
SO I won't get too excited about the CRTC growing a spine just yet, though it is however a start.
Letters?! Who has the freaking time to learn letters these days?
Use colors! Everyone can see, and those that can't shouldn't drive. Just for spite make two of the colors red and green against color blind folks.
Also why even bother having a set of defined colors... then you have to worry about how many graduations etc... Just make a spectrum (or use THE spectrum if you wish), and label one end "Bad" and the other "Good".