A straw poll is, by definition, a nonbinding vote, as the grandparent mentioned--e.g., the Iowa Republican caucuses, or the Ames Straw Poll you are referring to. You drop a secret ballot in a box. The final decision (these are all effectively ways to gauge potential nominees) is made by the Party much later in the season.
Iowa Democratic caucuses are a bit different, by the way--no ballots, for one thing. I was actually surprised the Republican caucuses were different. I had to look this up to make sure the people quoted in the summary weren't incredibly misinformed.
If you have to try so much that you're going to get locked out (surely you suspect something after one or two failed attempts), doesn't the site offer some sort of password retrieval function? I know this doesn't really answer your question directly, but it seems like it would work for the few sites you seem to forget about each year.
If there's a law, and no one is there to enforce it, does anyone pay attention?
Periodic inspections are a part of the requirements. I suppose it's not the 24/7 surveillance that you'll probably argue for next, but neither are the regulations for any of the other food you're eating, so you should be equally skeptical of those as well.
what's to stop someone from labeling something organic when it is no such thing?
The law. Did you read my post? "Organic" is regulated. "Natural" and other words are not, so if you had said that instead you'd at least have a point (and I'd agree).
You could, but not in the US (or Canada and probably other countries with similar standards). While it's certainly possible to raise them in an otherwise compliant manner as you point out, the law prohibits GMOs from being labeled "organic."
This doubled land use is a disaster for the environment where every acre we can leave in as natural a state as possible matters
A "natural state"? Like contaminated with runoff from pesticides and synthetic fertilizers? Even if your claim of doubled land use is true, cheaper, more abundant food won't matter when we can't eat it because we're all dead. I'm not saying there are easy answers, but "conventional" agriculture (a separate issue from GMOs, by the way, although not with current US law) isn't it.
People buy "organic" stuff - paying significant premiums - as if that means anything in practice. The perception is that it's more natural.
Except that it does mean something in practice. In the US, use of the word "organic" is regulated; the laws vary somewhat depending on the type of product, but in general they cannot be grown with synthetic fertilizer, pesticides, or (in the case of animals) growth hormones and overused antibiotics. Some people think that using more natural methods makes the food taste better (I can tell the difference with dairy but mostly due to the grass-feeding requirement, which is is a separate issue but part of the USDA Organic standards); others think such food is better for them (if you had the choice between eating pesticide residue or not, I assume you'd pick the latter); but regardless, in most cases it's at least better for the environment, with less risk of groundwater contamination from pesticides and fertilizers. More objectively, some studies have often shown better levels of nutrients in some organically produced food.
This is not like the word "natural," which is completely unregulated in the US. Anyone can stick that on a label and it doesn't need to mean anything. "Organic" is different (although depending on the wording with multi-ingredient foods, the product may be only partially so, though at least 70% if it appears anywhere besides the ingredients label).
They'd just institute daylight-based pricing. Use of electricity during the day = $0.05/kWh. Use of electricity an night = $0.50/kWh. Now you've got to solve the battery problem AND the solar panel problem.
Would this really work? How do mostly- or all-solar homes work? I'm only familiar with smaller setups, and most of them don't directly power the house; they charge a battery that will then be used (usually with a DC-to-AC inverter) to power things later--e.g., at night, so the higher fee then will actually work out in the customer's favor.
I own a Kindle Fire... it is great that Amazon is keeping it easy to jailbreak, ON PURPOSE, so when I do, I can quickly and easily.
Unfortunately for you, the article (and TFS even mentions it) refers to the Kindle Touch, not the Kindle Fire. This is essentially the fifth-generation eInk Kindle.
UPS generally comes around 5-6pm and leaves a package on the doorstep instead of a signature required, delivery exception, please drive yourself to our local service center and be frustrated that we can't find the package when you arrive.
Probably because you didn't request a will-call (hold) or didn't wait for the driver to get back? I've done this lots of times (I have Amazon Prime, and it's usually what they use) and only had a problem once where they forgot to record the re-arrival of my exceptionally large clothes-drying-rack box.
Possibly so, when it comes to packages arriving at our house, we prefer services that "just work" as to those we have to micromanage. It just so happens that UPS "just works" better than FedEx, for us.
Wait, I can't read, I thought we were discussing UPS. I've had the same FedEx experience as you, but it's also bad for me because they don't even have any Air or even Ground pickup facilities where I live (and yes, they are different, but they're all about 25 mi away). UPS usually works for me like it does for you, as long as signatures are taken care of--which is easy to do now with UPS MyChoice, anyway.
UPS generally comes around 5-6pm and leaves a package on the doorstep instead of a signature required, delivery exception, please drive yourself to our local service center and be frustrated that we can't find the package when you arrive.
Probably because you didn't request a will-call (hold) or didn't wait for the driver to get back? I've done this lots of times (I have Amazon Prime, and it's usually what they use) and only had a problem once where they forgot to record the re-arrival of my exceptionally large clothes-drying-rack box.
This is an OptiPlex, intended primarily for business-type customers and not available on Dell's "Home" section. The likelihood of a novice user stumbling to this is low.
Not saying it's fair of them, but still--and their "help me choose" pages are rarely representative of the actual choices, anyway (this being an exception, except it's misleading).
I know this is going to be too hippie for some of you to handle, but get back to me when they make a car that solves the problem of urban sprawl, pedestrian and cyclist hostility, lazyness, non-human-sized development, and all the other problems that automobiles bring to cities.
You're aware that the speed limit is a maximum, right? (Not a minimum at which to begin negotiating when you get a ticket?) And before anyone asks, yes, I know some freeways have a minimum speed, as well. These are the limits provided that the conditions warrant.
We are working to make updates silent and break less addons
And from a business perspective, that's even worse. I get to spend hours trying to figure out why 10,000 workstations are suddenly flaking out on me, and then finally explain to my boss that it was because a "silent update" went out completely untested and unproven.
No, that's what you get for letting users run as admins or for not disabling the update feature (it is an option). If I were your boss, I wouldn't feel bad for you.
But it was also released during the consumer legacy-to-NT transition period and wasn't really marketed for home use, as the others the OP mentioned were.
Last time I checked some guy named Edison invented a nifty thing that makes light in the night, even without fire. Great thing, really, you should try it some time.
In other words, it's the 21st century and your night life is still dependent on the sun?
The most frustrating thing for me is that FF 5 moved the Home button all the freaking way to the right.... My mouse is often around the forward/back buttons and the beginning of the URL box.... why can't the reload and home key button be there too?
You're kidding, right? Right-click the toolbar. Choose "Customize." Drag your buttons where you want them. Problem solved.
I'm not saying I like all the UI changes from Firefox 3.6 to 4/5, but this is one of the easiest changes to overcome if you don't like it. That being said, I did move the Home button back but am finding that I really don't stop/reload being where they are--plus, there are easy keyboard shortcuts for them both, anyway, that I normally use instead.
Try typing in that forty digit key with 1s and ls and 0s and Os.
I'll grant you that other stuff, but product keys are written in capital letters. Surely you can tell the difference between a "1" and an "L," but not even that matters--they don't use the number 1 or either the letter or number O or 0 (only Q). I don't know about "L," but of the 9 product keys I'm staring at now, none of them happen to have it, either.
Who says they're mistakes? I doubt there are many people with "whom" still part of their "native" grammar, so most people are probably using it because it "sounds neat" (probably the OP) or they have enough time to think about the (former) "rule" when they are writing (like the people who "corrected" the OP). I guess the OP's could be considered a mistake since it's hypercorrection, but it probably wouldn't have happened if prescriptivists would quit insisting that everyone follow their so-called "rules."
Standard English is standard because... it's just arbitrarily so. It is not standard because it is inherently better, it's standard because people have exerted influence (in media, the education system, daily life--like job interviews or housing applications) to maintain its position. I'm not saying that aiming for a standard is a bad thing, but it's certainly bad when someone understands the post (with a very small, very common deviation from something that many people might not even consider to be in the perhaps abstract standard), yet feels the need to "correct" it anyway instead of discussing the actual topic.
The one about the close button having migrated to be next to the min and max buttons (on the mac anyway, they were always together on windows right?) is a pretty good point.
Actually, only since Windows 95. In Windows 3.1 (and earlier, and even some DOS window-like applications), the there were maximize/restore and minimize buttons on the right, and the control box on the left. Double-clicking the control box would close the window, as would clicking it and choosing "Close" from the menu that would pop up.
My biggest problem on the "classic" Mac OS (I was a very infrequent user of Systems 7-9) was that I could never remember which of the button--they were all unlabeled or labeled with some obscure lines, as I recall--was the close button.
nearly impossible to separate good programs from bad ones because it costs nothing to get them on the store
And by "nothing," I assume you mean $100/year.
(Yes, I did read the rest--you mean that anyone who submits will be accepted, unlike a physical store where they'd have to have some interest in stocking your product. I understand this sentiment, although Apple tries not to accept apps that crash, rely on outdated APIs, do any user--un-friendly activities, look bad, otherwise violate any of the Store guidelines. Not as stringent as a physical store, but perhaps better for the average user than finding something on the Web.)
I suppose they're both relevant, but browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo is, indeed, the one that controls what I was talking about (restoring the last few recently closed tabs from memory). The browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers preference may also help, but unlike the other one, it at least tries to detect an optimum value by default based on the amount of RAM you have. Additionally, it is the preference that stores pages to avoid having to reload when doing a back/forward, rather than the one that does what I was talking about.
(Why they are two different things, I don't know, other than that the former is also used if you enable the "restore session on restart" feature or whatever it's called.)
Slashdot Mirror
There are already Windows and Linux links on the site. Didn't try them, but they're right by the OS X one, so I'm assuming it's the same...
The straw poll was in August. This was a caucus.
A straw poll is, by definition, a nonbinding vote, as the grandparent mentioned--e.g., the Iowa Republican caucuses, or the Ames Straw Poll you are referring to. You drop a secret ballot in a box. The final decision (these are all effectively ways to gauge potential nominees) is made by the Party much later in the season.
Iowa Democratic caucuses are a bit different, by the way--no ballots, for one thing. I was actually surprised the Republican caucuses were different. I had to look this up to make sure the people quoted in the summary weren't incredibly misinformed.
If you have to try so much that you're going to get locked out (surely you suspect something after one or two failed attempts), doesn't the site offer some sort of password retrieval function? I know this doesn't really answer your question directly, but it seems like it would work for the few sites you seem to forget about each year.
If there's a law, and no one is there to enforce it, does anyone pay attention?
Periodic inspections are a part of the requirements. I suppose it's not the 24/7 surveillance that you'll probably argue for next, but neither are the regulations for any of the other food you're eating, so you should be equally skeptical of those as well.
what's to stop someone from labeling something organic when it is no such thing?
The law. Did you read my post? "Organic" is regulated. "Natural" and other words are not, so if you had said that instead you'd at least have a point (and I'd agree).
You can have "organic GMO" crops
You could, but not in the US (or Canada and probably other countries with similar standards). While it's certainly possible to raise them in an otherwise compliant manner as you point out, the law prohibits GMOs from being labeled "organic."
This doubled land use is a disaster for the environment where every acre we can leave in as natural a state as possible matters
A "natural state"? Like contaminated with runoff from pesticides and synthetic fertilizers? Even if your claim of doubled land use is true, cheaper, more abundant food won't matter when we can't eat it because we're all dead. I'm not saying there are easy answers, but "conventional" agriculture (a separate issue from GMOs, by the way, although not with current US law) isn't it.
People buy "organic" stuff - paying significant premiums - as if that means anything in practice. The perception is that it's more natural.
Except that it does mean something in practice. In the US, use of the word "organic" is regulated; the laws vary somewhat depending on the type of product, but in general they cannot be grown with synthetic fertilizer, pesticides, or (in the case of animals) growth hormones and overused antibiotics. Some people think that using more natural methods makes the food taste better (I can tell the difference with dairy but mostly due to the grass-feeding requirement, which is is a separate issue but part of the USDA Organic standards); others think such food is better for them (if you had the choice between eating pesticide residue or not, I assume you'd pick the latter); but regardless, in most cases it's at least better for the environment, with less risk of groundwater contamination from pesticides and fertilizers. More objectively, some studies have often shown better levels of nutrients in some organically produced food.
This is not like the word "natural," which is completely unregulated in the US. Anyone can stick that on a label and it doesn't need to mean anything. "Organic" is different (although depending on the wording with multi-ingredient foods, the product may be only partially so, though at least 70% if it appears anywhere besides the ingredients label).
They'd just institute daylight-based pricing. Use of electricity during the day = $0.05/kWh. Use of electricity an night = $0.50/kWh. Now you've got to solve the battery problem AND the solar panel problem.
Would this really work? How do mostly- or all-solar homes work? I'm only familiar with smaller setups, and most of them don't directly power the house; they charge a battery that will then be used (usually with a DC-to-AC inverter) to power things later--e.g., at night, so the higher fee then will actually work out in the customer's favor.
I own a Kindle Fire ... it is great that Amazon is keeping it easy to jailbreak, ON PURPOSE, so when I do, I can quickly and easily.
Unfortunately for you, the article (and TFS even mentions it) refers to the Kindle Touch, not the Kindle Fire. This is essentially the fifth-generation eInk Kindle.
UPS generally comes around 5-6pm and leaves a package on the doorstep instead of a signature required, delivery exception, please drive yourself to our local service center and be frustrated that we can't find the package when you arrive.
Probably because you didn't request a will-call (hold) or didn't wait for the driver to get back? I've done this lots of times (I have Amazon Prime, and it's usually what they use) and only had a problem once where they forgot to record the re-arrival of my exceptionally large clothes-drying-rack box.
Possibly so, when it comes to packages arriving at our house, we prefer services that "just work" as to those we have to micromanage. It just so happens that UPS "just works" better than FedEx, for us.
Wait, I can't read, I thought we were discussing UPS. I've had the same FedEx experience as you, but it's also bad for me because they don't even have any Air or even Ground pickup facilities where I live (and yes, they are different, but they're all about 25 mi away). UPS usually works for me like it does for you, as long as signatures are taken care of--which is easy to do now with UPS MyChoice, anyway.
UPS generally comes around 5-6pm and leaves a package on the doorstep instead of a signature required, delivery exception, please drive yourself to our local service center and be frustrated that we can't find the package when you arrive.
Probably because you didn't request a will-call (hold) or didn't wait for the driver to get back? I've done this lots of times (I have Amazon Prime, and it's usually what they use) and only had a problem once where they forgot to record the re-arrival of my exceptionally large clothes-drying-rack box.
This is an OptiPlex, intended primarily for business-type customers and not available on Dell's "Home" section. The likelihood of a novice user stumbling to this is low.
Not saying it's fair of them, but still--and their "help me choose" pages are rarely representative of the actual choices, anyway (this being an exception, except it's misleading).
I know this is going to be too hippie for some of you to handle, but get back to me when they make a car that solves the problem of urban sprawl, pedestrian and cyclist hostility, lazyness, non-human-sized development, and all the other problems that automobiles bring to cities.
I suspect they never will.
You're aware that the speed limit is a maximum, right? (Not a minimum at which to begin negotiating when you get a ticket?) And before anyone asks, yes, I know some freeways have a minimum speed, as well. These are the limits provided that the conditions warrant.
We are working to make updates silent and break less addons
And from a business perspective, that's even worse. I get to spend hours trying to figure out why 10,000 workstations are suddenly flaking out on me, and then finally explain to my boss that it was because a "silent update" went out completely untested and unproven.
No, that's what you get for letting users run as admins or for not disabling the update feature (it is an option). If I were your boss, I wouldn't feel bad for you.
But it was also released during the consumer legacy-to-NT transition period and wasn't really marketed for home use, as the others the OP mentioned were.
Last time I checked some guy named Edison invented a nifty thing that makes light in the night, even without fire. Great thing, really, you should try it some time.
In other words, it's the 21st century and your night life is still dependent on the sun?
As if nobody spends any time outdoors?
The most frustrating thing for me is that FF 5 moved the Home button all the freaking way to the right. ... My mouse is often around the forward/back buttons and the beginning of the URL box. ... why can't the reload and home key button be there too?
You're kidding, right? Right-click the toolbar. Choose "Customize." Drag your buttons where you want them. Problem solved.
I'm not saying I like all the UI changes from Firefox 3.6 to 4/5, but this is one of the easiest changes to overcome if you don't like it. That being said, I did move the Home button back but am finding that I really don't stop/reload being where they are--plus, there are easy keyboard shortcuts for them both, anyway, that I normally use instead.
Try typing in that forty digit key with 1s and ls and 0s and Os.
I'll grant you that other stuff, but product keys are written in capital letters. Surely you can tell the difference between a "1" and an "L," but not even that matters--they don't use the number 1 or either the letter or number O or 0 (only Q). I don't know about "L," but of the 9 product keys I'm staring at now, none of them happen to have it, either.
And they're only 25 characters long, not 40.
someone's grammar mistakes
Who says they're mistakes? I doubt there are many people with "whom" still part of their "native" grammar, so most people are probably using it because it "sounds neat" (probably the OP) or they have enough time to think about the (former) "rule" when they are writing (like the people who "corrected" the OP). I guess the OP's could be considered a mistake since it's hypercorrection, but it probably wouldn't have happened if prescriptivists would quit insisting that everyone follow their so-called "rules."
Standard English is standard because ... it's just arbitrarily so. It is not standard because it is inherently better, it's standard because people have exerted influence (in media, the education system, daily life--like job interviews or housing applications) to maintain its position. I'm not saying that aiming for a standard is a bad thing, but it's certainly bad when someone understands the post (with a very small, very common deviation from something that many people might not even consider to be in the perhaps abstract standard), yet feels the need to "correct" it anyway instead of discussing the actual topic.
Sooo...romance novels are basically porn for women? (Assuming we believe this study.)
Also, what about non-heterosexual men? I'm pretty sure cheating wives wouldn't be a turn-on....and I'm not sure that a romance novel is, either. :)
The one about the close button having migrated to be next to the min and max buttons (on the mac anyway, they were always together on windows right?) is a pretty good point.
Actually, only since Windows 95. In Windows 3.1 (and earlier, and even some DOS window-like applications), the there were maximize/restore and minimize buttons on the right, and the control box on the left. Double-clicking the control box would close the window, as would clicking it and choosing "Close" from the menu that would pop up.
My biggest problem on the "classic" Mac OS (I was a very infrequent user of Systems 7-9) was that I could never remember which of the button--they were all unlabeled or labeled with some obscure lines, as I recall--was the close button.
nearly impossible to separate good programs from bad ones because it costs nothing to get them on the store
And by "nothing," I assume you mean $100/year.
(Yes, I did read the rest--you mean that anyone who submits will be accepted, unlike a physical store where they'd have to have some interest in stocking your product. I understand this sentiment, although Apple tries not to accept apps that crash, rely on outdated APIs, do any user--un-friendly activities, look bad, otherwise violate any of the Store guidelines. Not as stringent as a physical store, but perhaps better for the average user than finding something on the Web.)
I suppose they're both relevant, but browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo is, indeed, the one that controls what I was talking about (restoring the last few recently closed tabs from memory). The browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers preference may also help, but unlike the other one, it at least tries to detect an optimum value by default based on the amount of RAM you have. Additionally, it is the preference that stores pages to avoid having to reload when doing a back/forward, rather than the one that does what I was talking about.
(Why they are two different things, I don't know, other than that the former is also used if you enable the "restore session on restart" feature or whatever it's called.)