You might find the C/C++ crowd commonly accuse the Java or Ruby crowd of this overhead.
I think this is an ongoing series of events. The assembly crowd said the same about C. However as a stepping stone these languages may spur some to try other languages such as C/C++ first then assembly.
HAHA! You refuse to buy from Amazon but patronize a bigger big box retailer.
I don't 'refuse' to buy from Amazon at all.
Why then did you say this:
"I buy books from Barnes and Nobles, not Amazon, because I like to support brick and mortar book stores. I buy both online and in the store."
I am afraid that if Amazon keeps growing, local bookstores will cease to exist.
As others have already said Amazon has affiliate stores. With Amazon it is possible for a small local bookstore to sell books on Amazon. It's also possible for local bookstores to have a cafe, no law says only B&N or Borders can have cafes. Many people, including me, go to B&N for the cafe. If there were a locally owned bookstore with a cafe I'd go there. I don't buy books or magazines every tyme I go to the cafe but it does increase the likelihood I will buy from them.
However, only crazy people think B&N is bigger than Amazon.
Amazon is bigger than B&N, whereas B&N market capitalization is $1.38 Billion Amazon's is $58.03.
'Different stores'? Well, I have...some Barnes and Noble, I have some Borders
Admittedly a big metro area, where I live we have more than just B&N and Borders. Yesterday on my way to a medical appointment, riding my bike, I stopped at a bookstore not owned by either chain. I have been to other locally owned bookstores as well. Also not all B&Ns and Borders carry the same books. When looking for a specific book I can go to one B&N and if they don't have it they can call other local stores to see if they have them. That is handy when it is something I want that day.
there's a single Book-a-Million
I haven't seen one of those around here though there was one where I used to live.
I think I've explained this clearly enough. You just read right past the part of my post where I explained I'm choosing to shop, physically, at B&N vs. some locally-owned new book store because Barnes and Nobles actually exists and the other does not.
In your original post I replied to you say nothing what so ever about there being no locally owned bookstores. It wasn't until I asked why you weren't buying from them until you said there were none. Now what's the possibility you would have said that if I had not asked?
And yes, if you live in Orlando Florida you there might, in fact, be an actual local bookstore you can buy books at.
I used to but obviously not now. And it wasn't always a big city. At one tyme a major employer in the area was McCoy Air Force Base, which closed in 1975. Even after Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom opened Orlando took years before it became a "big city".
I live in a county with an population 1/100th of that. The whole county.
That population figure you gave for Orlando is the greater Orlando area not specifically the city itself, the city's population itself is 230,514. The Greater Orlando area is made up of 4 counties.
I must say you didn't read about Orlando that well, just well enough to get the greater area's population.
HAHA! You refuse to buy from Amazon but patronize a bigger big box retailer. Me, while I prefer to patronize local stores as it is now I have to watch my budget so if I buy a book I will buy it from whoever has the lowest price. And even though I have Barnes and Nobles' Readers Advantage discount card Amazon is frequently cheaper. For instance I'm looking for a book on Ubuntu, Jaunty or Karmic, as I want to install it on my Mac. When I want a book on a specific subject I'll go to different stores to look at the available books, then once I decide what book to get I'll shop for the cheapest price.
Not working and having my disability screwed around with the only choice I have is to buy from the cheapest store I can find or not buy.
Big box stores do make local businesses go out of business...if they bothered to exist in the first place.
I know, er knew, two people who owned and ran separate bookstores. Both were converted houses. I moved away more than 10 years ago but one of the stores is still open, the Spiral Circle.
P.S.: Yes, they do still have stores in the area. But they're five times further away than either the stores they drove out of business or the stores they closed within a year of driving out the competition.
If there are no stores then why aren't any opening? With there being demand there's a reason for someone to open a store. It says something if there's not enough demand for someone to open a store.
If Walmart opens a store in an area then closes it Walmart just wasted money.
I can order from Amazon at midnight from home after spending 4 hours researching online. With WalMart I still have to drive someplace where I wouldn't normally be going.
I can order from Walmart online but I can't return an item ordered from Amazon locally. Or make an exchange locally. I care more about that than having to drive. I actually love to drive.
I buy books from Barnes and Nobles, not Amazon, because I like to support brick and mortar book stores. I buy both online and in the store.
Why aren't you buying from locally owned small bookstores instead of B&N? Amazon and Barnes and Noble are both big box stores that caused some small businesses to close.
Ditto. I don't particularly like Amazon. But they aren't any worse than Barnes & Noble with their "move into an area, kill off the local book stores, and then leave" policy. Quite like WalMart, now that I think of it. I won't buy from either of them anymore
Can you show where either Barnes and Noble or Walmart opened in an area then once the competition went out of business they left? That is absolutely stupid.
What cracks me up is that someone siding with Walmart is claiming that Amazon is trying to drive B&M shops out of existence, and Walmart must defend B&M retail outlets against the predations of Amazon. Seems to me that Amazon is playing the same game Walmart played that drove all the traditional retailers out of business... giving customers lower prices due to reduced overhead.
It seems to me that when competition benefits people they support it but when they have to compeat they don't. When it lowers their own costs they like it but when it reduces their pay they don't. But that doesn't explain it all. Many got upset over employers offshore outsourcing jobs as well as adding competition in health care and insurance by not allowing people to buy insurance across state lines and getting the same tax deductions employers get for offering insurance.
JC Penney is forbidden to ship Levis to Canada (I know, I phoned them and asked).
I don't think it can be illegal for JC Penny to ship to Canada, from what I understand that is a violation of NAFTA. It could only be illegal if Blue Jeans was illegal in Canada.
Also dust is easy to blow/vacuum out; a gunky tar residue is not.
Ever read in a warranty where it says that if the case is opened it is void? I have and I've had dust in my PC cases the only way to remove was to open the case.
You say my "logic is deteriorately as we go along" yet you do not say how or where. I gave logical answer to much of what you said, except where I pointed Ted Kennedy opposed a wind farm. I even gave links to scientific articles.
I mean a warranty cannot explicitely state every type of possible user-caused damage to the device, but I think most people would agree that it is reasonable for a company to void the warranty if you did something stupid that damaged the machine. Seems like smoking near a computer, and clogging it up with tar, should fall into that category, shouldn't it?
No, I don't. What's next then, voiding a warranty because of too much dust? After only a few months I've opened PC cases to find the inside covered with dust. Once I went down to a computer store to see if I could get some sort of filter, explaining to an employee what the inside looked like. He said they didn't have anything but suggested I tape a coffee filter to the air intake vent. I haven't done that yet but I bought some cans of compressed air I use to blow out the dust once in a while.
Really, how many people think of dust particles whether they be from smoke or not causing harm to electronic equipment?
There's a failing video card in a imac sitting right here
Graphics failed in the MacBook Pro I'm typing this on. When it did I headed down to an Apple store and made an appointment with the Genius Bar the same day. The tech ran some tests and said the graphics needed to be replaced. He then went into the back and came back a few minutes later. He said they were short on the part so he'd have to order it, and when I asked he said it's be in in a couple of days. He then said I could take the MBP home, after rebooting it was working again, and they'd call when the part came in. Because of a repair backlog, there are 4 Apple stores in my area but one closed for remodeling, it took a week to get it back. I later found out that if you pay for Apple Pro Care, which costs $100 a year, you're put at the head of any line.
That failure was the first of two hardware failures this MBP had, and it failed more than 16 months after I got it. The second failure was the DVD drive, after 2 years. I bought two other Macs used. One was a Mac SE 30 I bought in 1992. They were made in 1988-89 and mine lasted until 2000. A few months after it died I bought a PowerMac 7300/200, which were made in 1997. It died in 2006.
I've also bought PCs new, one with Win 95, one dual booted NT4 and Redhat Linux, another had ME, and one came with Linux preinstalled. Except for the NT4 Workstation/Linux PC they had had to have both the hard disk drive and the motherboard replaced before they were one year old. The Win 95 PC was a Gateway, the WinME an HP, the workstation was from Microway, and the Linux PC was a store brand.
Whereas every Mac I had lasted more than a year before I had trouble with it of 4 new PCs I bought only one did not have trouble during it's first year, the Microway PC. Unfortunately its CPU is a DEC Alpha and I was unable to install much software, DEC's FX!32 software emulator wasn't as good as DEC billed it as, on it so I haven't used it much.
I guess I'll send it in at the last day of warranty:\
Grit your teeth and take it into a store. Then if they say they need to order the parts to fix it take it home and have them call you when they come in. You might be without it a few days but at least you'll get it repaired.
My Macbook came a with a handy guide in how to upgrade the HDD and RAM. Maybe your model is a different story, or perhaps the guy didn't know what he was talking about.
Mine came with a 70 page "Everything Mac" booklet with instructions on how to add RAM but that's it. Adding RAM is easy, the slots are below the battery but to swap the drives the case has to be opened.
if you're cleaning out a PC you should be using rubbing alcohol on fan blades and so on after you wipe them down anyway. That helps reduce future buildup from everything including normal dust. That is providing you can get the fan off.
If the fan blades are plastic alcohol may shorten their life span, some plastics are eaten or softened by alcohol.
(and personally, I'm OK with that being tomorrow), smoke is part of the "ambient air"
Until the day comes when driving vehicles is banned accidents causing injuries including disabilities and deaths will be a part of life. I smoke and I am willing to pay more for health insurance because of that but I am not willing to pay because I ride a bike and have been hit by vehicles as well as have breathed their exhaust. And yes, I am one of those who was disabled after being hit while riding my bike, I survived a Traumatic Brain Injury or TBI. And yes survived, while I was in a coma the docs told my family it would be a miracle if I lived. Well if I could I'd argue with those docs, they were wrong. Instead of it being a miracle my life has been a living hell.
I used to be the IT administrator for an office of a dozen people, back when it was somehow allowed to smoke indoors in the office while you work. And the style was for everyone to smoke. As a non smoker I was a minority, and had to put up with working in that mess.
No, you didn't have to put up with it, you had the choice to work somewhere else. On the other hand the healthiest way for me to go somewhere is to ride my bike or walk, unfortunately that means I have to breath in all that exhaust from vehicles.
Apple is/has become/always was an arrogant company with regard to customer service
Apple has always had a good customer service rating. Year after year Apple was ranked near if not at the top surveys on customer service. After using Windows PC, and dealing with the hassles thereof, for about 10 years I switched to Linux and Mac. In the more than 2 years I've had my Mac I only had one problem with Apple service, which I was expecting. I tried to use Eclipse for programming when I got an error. I knew they probably wouldn't but I was hoping an Apple tech would help me with it, instead I was told to try to get help in the Apple developer forums online.
but I think it should be something that is illegal to expose other people to
How about if I make it illegal to expose people to your car's exhaust as well? I use to ride my bike 100 to 200 miles a week and I hated having to breath in car exhaust. Or take alcohol, though it's one of the most dangerous drugs it's legal. When the US made it illegal by passing Prohibition all it did was make organized crime rich and powerful.
I think I'll sue the thousands of drivers that passes me or I pass today on my bike ride.
Slashdot Mirror
You might find the C/C++ crowd commonly accuse the Java or Ruby crowd of this overhead.
I think this is an ongoing series of events. The assembly crowd said the same about C. However as a stepping stone these languages may spur some to try other languages such as C/C++ first then assembly.
Falcon
HAHA! You refuse to buy from Amazon but patronize a bigger big box retailer.
I don't 'refuse' to buy from Amazon at all.
Why then did you say this:
"I buy books from Barnes and Nobles, not Amazon, because I like to support brick and mortar book stores. I buy both online and in the store."
I am afraid that if Amazon keeps growing, local bookstores will cease to exist.
As others have already said Amazon has affiliate stores. With Amazon it is possible for a small local bookstore to sell books on Amazon. It's also possible for local bookstores to have a cafe, no law says only B&N or Borders can have cafes. Many people, including me, go to B&N for the cafe. If there were a locally owned bookstore with a cafe I'd go there. I don't buy books or magazines every tyme I go to the cafe but it does increase the likelihood I will buy from them.
However, only crazy people think B&N is bigger than Amazon.
Amazon is bigger than B&N, whereas B&N market capitalization is $1.38 Billion Amazon's is $58.03.
'Different stores'? Well, I have...some Barnes and Noble, I have some Borders
Admittedly a big metro area, where I live we have more than just B&N and Borders. Yesterday on my way to a medical appointment, riding my bike, I stopped at a bookstore not owned by either chain. I have been to other locally owned bookstores as well. Also not all B&Ns and Borders carry the same books. When looking for a specific book I can go to one B&N and if they don't have it they can call other local stores to see if they have them. That is handy when it is something I want that day.
there's a single Book-a-Million
I haven't seen one of those around here though there was one where I used to live.
I think I've explained this clearly enough. You just read right past the part of my post where I explained I'm choosing to shop, physically, at B&N vs. some locally-owned new book store because Barnes and Nobles actually exists and the other does not.
In your original post I replied to you say nothing what so ever about there being no locally owned bookstores. It wasn't until I asked why you weren't buying from them until you said there were none. Now what's the possibility you would have said that if I had not asked?
And yes, if you live in Orlando Florida you there might, in fact, be an actual local bookstore you can buy books at.
I used to but obviously not now. And it wasn't always a big city. At one tyme a major employer in the area was McCoy Air Force Base, which closed in 1975. Even after Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom opened Orlando took years before it became a "big city".
I live in a county with an population 1/100th of that. The whole county.
That population figure you gave for Orlando is the greater Orlando area not specifically the city itself, the city's population itself is 230,514. The Greater Orlando area is made up of 4 counties.
I must say you didn't read about Orlando that well, just well enough to get the greater area's population.
Falcon
HAHA! You refuse to buy from Amazon but patronize a bigger big box retailer. Me, while I prefer to patronize local stores as it is now I have to watch my budget so if I buy a book I will buy it from whoever has the lowest price. And even though I have Barnes and Nobles' Readers Advantage discount card Amazon is frequently cheaper. For instance I'm looking for a book on Ubuntu, Jaunty or Karmic, as I want to install it on my Mac. When I want a book on a specific subject I'll go to different stores to look at the available books, then once I decide what book to get I'll shop for the cheapest price.
Not working and having my disability screwed around with the only choice I have is to buy from the cheapest store I can find or not buy.
Big box stores do make local businesses go out of business...if they bothered to exist in the first place.
I know, er knew, two people who owned and ran separate bookstores. Both were converted houses. I moved away more than 10 years ago but one of the stores is still open, the Spiral Circle.
P.S.: Yes, they do still have stores in the area. But they're five times further away than either the stores they drove out of business or the stores they closed within a year of driving out the competition.
If there are no stores then why aren't any opening? With there being demand there's a reason for someone to open a store. It says something if there's not enough demand for someone to open a store.
If Walmart opens a store in an area then closes it Walmart just wasted money.
Falcon
I can order from Amazon at midnight from home after spending 4 hours researching online. With WalMart I still have to drive someplace where I wouldn't normally be going.
I can order from Walmart online but I can't return an item ordered from Amazon locally. Or make an exchange locally. I care more about that than having to drive. I actually love to drive.
Falcon
unless you absolutely must have it this instant, online shopping wins.
I prefer to being able to easily and quickly return things, especially if I'm going to spend a lot.
Falcon
There are a few cafes within a short walking distance, including a Starbucks, but the closest Walmart I know of is 20 to 30 minutes drive.
Falcon
Either way, I'm sure there ARE more Wal-marts in the middle of the states, since the coasts are mostly made up of Starbucks.
Geographically I live in upper middle America, Minneapolis/St Paul, MN, and I have more Starbucks near me than Walmarts.
Falcon
Because we all know how there are no Wal-Marts along the East or West Coasts, and those backward "middle Americans" don't have the Internet.
I believe 'Middle America' refers to social/economic classes... not locality...
And of course the middle class can't afford net access. But the poor can.
Falcon
I buy books from Barnes and Nobles, not Amazon, because I like to support brick and mortar book stores. I buy both online and in the store.
Why aren't you buying from locally owned small bookstores instead of B&N? Amazon and Barnes and Noble are both big box stores that caused some small businesses to close.
Falcon
Ditto. I don't particularly like Amazon. But they aren't any worse than Barnes & Noble with their "move into an area, kill off the local book stores, and then leave" policy. Quite like WalMart, now that I think of it. I won't buy from either of them anymore
Can you show where either Barnes and Noble or Walmart opened in an area then once the competition went out of business they left? That is absolutely stupid.
Falcon
What cracks me up is that someone siding with Walmart is claiming that Amazon is trying to drive B&M shops out of existence, and Walmart must defend B&M retail outlets against the predations of Amazon. Seems to me that Amazon is playing the same game Walmart played that drove all the traditional retailers out of business... giving customers lower prices due to reduced overhead.
It seems to me that when competition benefits people they support it but when they have to compeat they don't. When it lowers their own costs they like it but when it reduces their pay they don't. But that doesn't explain it all. Many got upset over employers offshore outsourcing jobs as well as adding competition in health care and insurance by not allowing people to buy insurance across state lines and getting the same tax deductions employers get for offering insurance.
Falcon
JC Penney is forbidden to ship Levis to Canada (I know, I phoned them and asked).
I don't think it can be illegal for JC Penny to ship to Canada, from what I understand that is a violation of NAFTA. It could only be illegal if Blue Jeans was illegal in Canada.
Falcon
Also dust is easy to blow/vacuum out; a gunky tar residue is not.
Ever read in a warranty where it says that if the case is opened it is void? I have and I've had dust in my PC cases the only way to remove was to open the case.
Falcon
You say my "logic is deteriorately as we go along" yet you do not say how or where. I gave logical answer to much of what you said, except where I pointed Ted Kennedy opposed a wind farm. I even gave links to scientific articles.
I therefore conclude you're trolling.
Falcon
I mean a warranty cannot explicitely state every type of possible user-caused damage to the device, but I think most people would agree that it is reasonable for a company to void the warranty if you did something stupid that damaged the machine. Seems like smoking near a computer, and clogging it up with tar, should fall into that category, shouldn't it?
No, I don't. What's next then, voiding a warranty because of too much dust? After only a few months I've opened PC cases to find the inside covered with dust. Once I went down to a computer store to see if I could get some sort of filter, explaining to an employee what the inside looked like. He said they didn't have anything but suggested I tape a coffee filter to the air intake vent. I haven't done that yet but I bought some cans of compressed air I use to blow out the dust once in a while.
Really, how many people think of dust particles whether they be from smoke or not causing harm to electronic equipment?
Falcon
There's a failing video card in a imac sitting right here
Graphics failed in the MacBook Pro I'm typing this on. When it did I headed down to an Apple store and made an appointment with the Genius Bar the same day. The tech ran some tests and said the graphics needed to be replaced. He then went into the back and came back a few minutes later. He said they were short on the part so he'd have to order it, and when I asked he said it's be in in a couple of days. He then said I could take the MBP home, after rebooting it was working again, and they'd call when the part came in. Because of a repair backlog, there are 4 Apple stores in my area but one closed for remodeling, it took a week to get it back. I later found out that if you pay for Apple Pro Care, which costs $100 a year, you're put at the head of any line.
That failure was the first of two hardware failures this MBP had, and it failed more than 16 months after I got it. The second failure was the DVD drive, after 2 years. I bought two other Macs used. One was a Mac SE 30 I bought in 1992. They were made in 1988-89 and mine lasted until 2000. A few months after it died I bought a PowerMac 7300/200, which were made in 1997. It died in 2006.
I've also bought PCs new, one with Win 95, one dual booted NT4 and Redhat Linux, another had ME, and one came with Linux preinstalled. Except for the NT4 Workstation/Linux PC they had had to have both the hard disk drive and the motherboard replaced before they were one year old. The Win 95 PC was a Gateway, the WinME an HP, the workstation was from Microway, and the Linux PC was a store brand.
Whereas every Mac I had lasted more than a year before I had trouble with it of 4 new PCs I bought only one did not have trouble during it's first year, the Microway PC. Unfortunately its CPU is a DEC Alpha and I was unable to install much software, DEC's FX!32 software emulator wasn't as good as DEC billed it as, on it so I haven't used it much.
I guess I'll send it in at the last day of warranty :\
Grit your teeth and take it into a store. Then if they say they need to order the parts to fix it take it home and have them call you when they come in. You might be without it a few days but at least you'll get it repaired.
Falcon
The Apple techs have my sympathy. The smoke also chews up the electronics and oxidizes the connectors.
More toxins were likely emitted when the Mac was made.
Falcon
My Macbook came a with a handy guide in how to upgrade the HDD and RAM. Maybe your model is a different story, or perhaps the guy didn't know what he was talking about.
Mine came with a 70 page "Everything Mac" booklet with instructions on how to add RAM but that's it. Adding RAM is easy, the slots are below the battery but to swap the drives the case has to be opened.
Falcon
if you're cleaning out a PC you should be using rubbing alcohol on fan blades and so on after you wipe them down anyway. That helps reduce future buildup from everything including normal dust. That is providing you can get the fan off.
If the fan blades are plastic alcohol may shorten their life span, some plastics are eaten or softened by alcohol.
Falcon
(and personally, I'm OK with that being tomorrow), smoke is part of the "ambient air"
Until the day comes when driving vehicles is banned accidents causing injuries including disabilities and deaths will be a part of life. I smoke and I am willing to pay more for health insurance because of that but I am not willing to pay because I ride a bike and have been hit by vehicles as well as have breathed their exhaust. And yes, I am one of those who was disabled after being hit while riding my bike, I survived a Traumatic Brain Injury or TBI. And yes survived, while I was in a coma the docs told my family it would be a miracle if I lived. Well if I could I'd argue with those docs, they were wrong. Instead of it being a miracle my life has been a living hell.
Falcon
I used to be the IT administrator for an office of a dozen people, back when it was somehow allowed to smoke indoors in the office while you work. And the style was for everyone to smoke. As a non smoker I was a minority, and had to put up with working in that mess.
No, you didn't have to put up with it, you had the choice to work somewhere else. On the other hand the healthiest way for me to go somewhere is to ride my bike or walk, unfortunately that means I have to breath in all that exhaust from vehicles.
Falcon
a really bad idea.
So is dust.
Falcon
Apple is/has become/always was an arrogant company with regard to customer service
Apple has always had a good customer service rating. Year after year Apple was ranked near if not at the top surveys on customer service. After using Windows PC, and dealing with the hassles thereof, for about 10 years I switched to Linux and Mac. In the more than 2 years I've had my Mac I only had one problem with Apple service, which I was expecting. I tried to use Eclipse for programming when I got an error. I knew they probably wouldn't but I was hoping an Apple tech would help me with it, instead I was told to try to get help in the Apple developer forums online.
Falcon
but I think it should be something that is illegal to expose other people to
How about if I make it illegal to expose people to your car's exhaust as well? I use to ride my bike 100 to 200 miles a week and I hated having to breath in car exhaust. Or take alcohol, though it's one of the most dangerous drugs it's legal. When the US made it illegal by passing Prohibition all it did was make organized crime rich and powerful.
I think I'll sue the thousands of drivers that passes me or I pass today on my bike ride.
Falcon