Sorry man, I am sure you're not but you can't have it both ways. Freedom of speech means just that. The moment you make exceptions is the moment that someone decides what should be the exception and such decision is always biased even if the majority would agree.
If someone say's "The holocaust did not happen" then why is it so bad that this is being said? If it did happen and the person says not then he's wrong. If it didn't happen then he's right. So what. But the law that can put a person behind bars for denying the holocaust is not interested in true of false. It exists because someone thought that denying the holocaust was offensive and akin of everything Nazi's stood for. It is there to deny freedom of speech and therefore freedom of opinion.
Then maybe you are not bright enough to see the sense. Many people are more concerned about their kids and mortgage and fail to see the ever tightening net that our own society is spinning around ourselves. It is not because they=us want the power. All of this stuff probably comes forth out of good will but has on the long term the reverse effect. Maybe looking at Turkey or hunger in Africa or terrorists in "somewhere" makes it easier not to look at the mess growing at our own doorstep.
We hand-over our freedoms on a silver platter in the name of security, morality and sadly religion as well in our ever ongoing stride to make our world perfect. Well guess what! It ain't perfect and never will be but the moral crap we have been spinning over the last 2 decades has made the world less perfect where rules take over from morality and common sense. Where governments take over from personal responsibility. People will eventually get fed up with being told how to live their lives but I thought that point was reached several years ago but we are still at it.
Just because something is worse somewhere else doesn't make the less bad any good. You are maintaining a slippery slope. People say this all the time. "Nah, this new law isn't so bad look how bad people have it over there?" in the mean time we repeat this step several 1000 times and suddenly you wake up in a totalitarian state called "Europe" and wonder what happened. I am glad I got out of that one 16 years ago.
That must classify as the stupidest thing I have heard all week. I would say all month but we are only 8 days into March.
If a government of a "free" country that advocates free speech and all those things the "Western" world is so proud of, then they have no right to block access to any particular web-site just because it offers the opportunity to do something wrong (Which by the way is still disputed)
Why should people in Denmark not be allowed to browse allofmp3? Why should they not be allowed to listen to sound clips and browse and read the enormous music library there? No, let's block access for the entire population so that they won't be tempted to break the law. Those idiots better ban movies like "The fast and the furious" because people may be tempted to speed when driving home after the movies.
People, I say it again...
We are rapidly breaking down our western model of civilisation. We are giving away and taking away our own freedoms for which our forefathers fought so hard to obtain. Allied forces kicked out Nazis in the second world war so people would to be forced to show an "Ausweis" (passport) at every street corner and now I hear that in the Netherlands's you have to carry a passport on you at all times even when not leaving the country!
Governments, Local councils and other "authorities" continue to dream up new law's and new rules at a neck breaking pace to control the local and national issues. Yet they never remove any rules and now often are hamstrung themselves by their own net of burocracy.
So get educated you dumbasses and please do read a book about democracy. The stupid "security" measures in the USA is rubbing off on all countries arpound the world because airlines that fly into your country are required to comply. As a result from 1 March we in New Zealand can not board an international aircraft with more than 100 ml of contact lens liquid! We know it bullshit, you know it's bullshit yet we still do it.
God this pisses me off so much is everybody in the world totally nuts.
To close with the wonderfull words "Shit happens" and there ain't nothing you can do about it.
"The bright side that I can see is that perhaps not having to put up with so many dumb, uneducated actors as public role models and political activists."
Has it occurred to anyone that just maybe they invested in a plant that was about to close thus putting everyone out of a job? Fat good it does to keep the air clean while not to being able to eat. Or do you suggest that not only to we solve their health problem but at the same time introduce a brand new industry all on the same day? After all if god can do it in 7 days so can we right? What do you suggest, have them all sit around and knit woolen scarves for us? Oh no then kids have to help that would be child labor.
Arm chair geniuses here underestimate the complexities involved in this matter. Maybe the soul of Bill Gates is as black as the soot from that oil refinery but maybe just maybe there are so many more factors involved. It may well be possible that the link between their money and the oil refinery goes though several layers thus obscuring visibility on what really is invested in. There will alway be some jealous pisshead to dig up obscure links that were not intended.
I like you comparison to importing alcohol and paying an income tax. It is a typical scenario where a local law takes over from a foreign one. Of course RIAA knows this too but are painfully aware that it is extremely difficult to achieve for individual MP3 files imported through the internet.
I wonder how long before "The land of the free" will have an active firewall (Introduced to protect against terrorism of course) to keep track of things like that.
But the bottom line is that we should be pissed with any artist signing up with the big labels and boycott their music out of principle. I believe the band Metalica suffered such a backlash a few years back. I belong to the large group that refuses to buy music and teach my kid not to buy CD's because of virus risks. He's now 11, never bought a CD and never even looks at a record shop. Mission accomplished. (By the way, he loves music but finds other ways to enjoy it)
"Products shouldn't be released in America" first. And that is exactly what is happening more already. Sites like Gizmodo and Kotaku complain on a regular basis about "why o why don't we get this fancy new gadget States side" Well, many manufacturers are scared to enter into the American market. Large as it may be, it is filled with degenerated morons who all have their lawyers phone number tattooed on their right arm.
Any manufacturer mostly release their products in normal countries first to give them a chance to make the product USA Idiot proof. Once they have done that and stockpiled enough money to handle the lawyers fees they will incur in the USA they might think about releasing there.
I design a range of products for clients and I always suggest to steer clear of the USA because there is always a dick that is going to sue you and you better have a fat wallet ready.
This is never going to happen. In order to achieve this they would have to create autonomous control systems anyway as a fallback. These day's ATC already started to transmit instructions directly to the FMC (Flight Management Computer) in data format instead of voice. Onboard traffic avoidance systems that can communicate with other aircraft augment this. To be honest. Automated flight is here already.
10 years ago, we typically would hand fly the aircraft on take off right up to about 1000 feet and then flick on the automatic pilot and not turn it off until established on final for landing at 1000 feet. Total hand flying might be 6 - 7 minutes per flight. The autoland system consistently would do a better job landing (Yes my landings are shocking pun intended) although flying finals in hot afternoon tropical weather worked better when handflying because pilots would allow for a greater flightpath tolerance.
Anyway, I get sidetracked. The notion of a guy holding a joystick in some ground based control room flying a real aircraft is not realistic at all. That person giving more abstract instructions to the aircraft yes that is possible but that is already happening. As someone said earlier. It would be a small step to forcibly disconnect the pilot from the controls but you'd have to deal with their unions first as the outcry would be greater than the installation of the old cockpit voice recorders.
Quite right! When I was an F/O on a 737 flying around in Indonesia we had the odd scare (Technical ones) and believe me. Pilots are not brave outstanding commanders who save their passengers lives. Were strapped in the front of the aeroplane so we arrive at the crash site first. It is that motivation alone that makes them do checklists and go to the limit in order to save their own ass.
I never once though about passengers while being thrown around in a vicious thunderstorm and I doubt any good pilot actually has time for that.
Take the pilot out of the aircraft but leave him to fly it remotely is so incredibly stupid that I fail to find words for it. But leaving the pilot out all together is a good idea. There is the odd case where the pilot saved the day by finding a unconventional solution but those cases are rare. In most cases "Pilot error" is the cause of the crash.
They do need better software though. The 737-400 I flew had wonderful automated control systems but I recall occasions where I enjoyed my in-flight meal at cruise only to look up and see the horizon at a 30 degree angle while the autopilot was happily flying towards the ground. Another case (Damn I was eating again) the auto throttle though it prudent to move to idle power while cruising at 31.000 feet and no TOD (Top of Decent) was still hundreds of miles away.
Until this date I never knew the name of this experiment. As a kid in 1975 I underwent this test with a slight variation at a primary school for god sakes! It actually pisses me off thinking about it now and I would sure have a word with my son's principal if he were ever subjected to this crap.
The experiment I was involved with (I was the "teacher") they made use of a big box with a spring loaded arm with boxing glove (honest). They demonstrated the box by letting me press button 1 (Weakest punch) after with the glove extended with force. For the rest the same scenario. But I got to choose the strength of the punch between 1 and 10. Oh yeah, they also told me that the "learner" might get pissed off when the punches would get too hard and might want a "word" with me.
Needless to say that as a little kid I stayed with force 1 and sometimes 2 throughout the experiment but who is the sadist here? I think it is the idiots that subject kids to this kind of treatment.
As far as I am concerned they are all pretty cool. I started with Nasa Worldwind which uses the 10 meter elevation map in some area's giving superb landscape relief. Google Earth has better aerial imagery for the area I live while Virtual Earth does some cool stuff with better 3D buildings but again. In the area I live (New Zealand) the data is shocking and next to useless.
I am awaiting the day that Google earth will put in the better 10 meter elevation data and then Google Earth rocks. I agree with an earlier comment about needing a better integration of the 3D warehouse with Google Earth.
Google earth is also pretty solid. I run it across 3 XWGA screens resulting in a massive glove smoothly spinning around. Oh about spinning. I really missed that feature in the Microsoft product. In Google Earth you can give the map a push and it keeps moving. Also I don't like the fact that you need to use CTRL and Left mouse button to swing your view around. I prefer that action by the mouse only.
Top marks for Google Earth (Great data)
Second Nasa Worldwind (Great elevation data but hard to find)
Third....
.
.
.
Eight place Virtual Earth 3D. But as a new product not a bad first try. Bloody slow though.
Go an tell your right hand what to do mate. There always is someone on slashdot who feels the need to exert some "authority" and tells people to "move on". Why the hell would I take your opinion for that eh!..Indeed, so shut up
That is a damn good question. Why do you want to know everything that is going on? That is a hell of a lot to keep track of. Let's face it, that is impossible no matter what. So you are going to be selective. How? well you pick up the stuff to which you have easy access. So basically the big media can fill your head with stuff you can't do anything about while another one of your civil rights is signed away in the white house.
So, I choose to pass on that crap and instead scan the minutes from our local council meetings on-line so I know who is going to fuck with things that immediately affect me. The last I want to advocate is the stick your head in the sand and let's go to the mall mentality but unless you cut the static you will not be in a position to seek out the real news.
(How the hell did we get so side tracked from the subject)
By not being exposed to "static" bullshit news I feel I am in a better position to actually think and form an opinion rather than having one shoved down my throat by the news agencies. And, yes given the choice I rather be uninformed than misinformed. Have you ever seen these pictures in the media? http://www.aim.org/static/2194_0_7_0_C
How about global warming? What do we really know and understand. Even if you are involved in the research, what assumptions you basing your conclusions on? Let's face it, most things we "know" are things we have seen on TV or in a paper. The rest of what we "know" we got from biased parents and biased education. So let's not confuse knowledge with stuff you have been told and that you took as a fact.
You obviously haven't tried this. I get as addicted to news as the next guy but you have to see it for what it is. Business. News is business. When I get depressed then I consciously try to avoid all news, good or bad. That never fails to fix it. Then some news makes it through and before I know it, I am in the thick of it until the next round.
If you think your choice of voting is an informed one when you base it on the news or gossip at the water cooler then you deserve what you get. A country controlled by the media, these guys can form and change your opinion when ever they feel like and you don't even realize it happens.
Blocking from news, by no means leaves me uninformed. I read up on old publications of local election candidates and email them with questions and critique. When was the last time you contacted your local representative to voice your opinion?
And, no I don't give a flying rats arse about tsunami's, Birdflu scares, War in Irak, terrorists or global warming but I do make sure the kid next door get's sorted out when I caught him stealing toys from my son. It's the little things, it starts at home and spreads outwards. Being all intellectual around the water cooler discussing global warming might be fun, but it isn't very productive.
Do yourself a big favor. Turn off the TV, cancel the news papers and stay away from those kind of news sites. News is depressing, and depressing news sells. You can't fix bad news but you can agonize over it. The only result is that you are lining the pockets of entertainment news agencies by watching their adds and what's worse, throwing you into a depression causing you to think your country is going down the toilet.
Try a two week self imposed news ban. Your spirits will lift, your productivity goes up and your sense of well being goes up. As a result you become a supportive. positive and productive citizen of the kind America needs to get back on it's feet again. Imagine if everyone did this!
In order to take back your ability to form your own opinion you have to stop taking in big media news. This takes the power away from the big media and will restore democracy the way it was intended to work.
There is security in numbers. The main reason of the download panic is that everyone downloads music at some point in time. This is the reason that the AA's try to make you believe that Copyright infringement "IS" stealing. Once the numbers dwindle to a managable amount they will still come down hard on those left over.
Small download communities "under the radar" probably set themselves up to be the first under the hammer of the AA's.
It's a bit like the old, "What if nobody pays their taxes anymore" Well, obviously, nobody would actually go to jail. In the end the law is in the eye of the beholder and only valid if enough people believe it is so. Judging to the numbers that download music I would say that it is "NOT" stealing.
Re:Wireless Digital Monitor
on
USB To Go Wireless
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Uhm, in my case four WXGA LCD monitors runing at 60 hz of one PC...
1440 x 900 x 32 x 4 x 60 = 7879680000 bps or 7.88 gbps
1.2 cents per KWH! Holy &%^& that is so cheap! Here in New Zealand where a lot of our energy comes from renewable sources, Water and geothermal we get to pay over 8 cents US currency (0.15 NZ$/KWH) even though the installations were paid for by public funds (taxes).
Now I understand why Amerikans are so wasteful with energy, it is practically free over there! Well here a windmill makes perfect sense as does solar hot water and so on. Solar hotwater will be installed on my house in two months time and I am infact considering a windmill.
Yep PCMCIA port sounds fair. A laptop it is not. It's the user end of a computer. The noisy stuff, power supply, graphics card and CPU are in the box, hopefully sound proof somewhere deep below your desk where it can serve as a way to warm your feet in winder.
Basically, a PC is an appliance of which as little as possible should be seen. It is the Keyboard and screen design that defines tomorrows computer.
Oh, and while on the subject of keyboards! Can someone tell these morons to stop messing with the keyboard layout. Cursor keys, Page up/down, INS,DEL,END and Home used to have a standard place. It worked fine for decades so leave it alone unless you find a breakthrough that makes me type twice as fast!
I recently bought a new keyboard and had to return it because if had these keys laid out differently causing untold grief. I instead managed to score an "old" keyboard somewhere so at least work and home have the same keyboard layout.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry man, I am sure you're not but you can't have it both ways. Freedom of speech means just that. The moment you make exceptions is the moment that someone decides what should be the exception and such decision is always biased even if the majority would agree.
If someone say's "The holocaust did not happen" then why is it so bad that this is being said? If it did happen and the person says not then he's wrong. If it didn't happen then he's right. So what. But the law that can put a person behind bars for denying the holocaust is not interested in true of false. It exists because someone thought that denying the holocaust was offensive and akin of everything Nazi's stood for. It is there to deny freedom of speech and therefore freedom of opinion.
You can't have it both ways.
Then maybe you are not bright enough to see the sense. Many people are more concerned about their kids and mortgage and fail to see the ever tightening net that our own society is spinning around ourselves. It is not because they=us want the power. All of this stuff probably comes forth out of good will but has on the long term the reverse effect. Maybe looking at Turkey or hunger in Africa or terrorists in "somewhere" makes it easier not to look at the mess growing at our own doorstep.
We hand-over our freedoms on a silver platter in the name of security, morality and sadly religion as well in our ever ongoing stride to make our world perfect. Well guess what! It ain't perfect and never will be but the moral crap we have been spinning over the last 2 decades has made the world less perfect where rules take over from morality and common sense. Where governments take over from personal responsibility. People will eventually get fed up with being told how to live their lives but I thought that point was reached several years ago but we are still at it.
Just because something is worse somewhere else doesn't make the less bad any good. You are maintaining a slippery slope. People say this all the time. "Nah, this new law isn't so bad look how bad people have it over there?" in the mean time we repeat this step several 1000 times and suddenly you wake up in a totalitarian state called "Europe" and wonder what happened. I am glad I got out of that one 16 years ago.
That must classify as the stupidest thing I have heard all week. I would say all month but we are only 8 days into March.
If a government of a "free" country that advocates free speech and all those things the "Western" world is so proud of, then they have no right to block access to any particular web-site just because it offers the opportunity to do something wrong (Which by the way is still disputed)
Why should people in Denmark not be allowed to browse allofmp3? Why should they not be allowed to listen to sound clips and browse and read the enormous music library there? No, let's block access for the entire population so that they won't be tempted to break the law. Those idiots better ban movies like "The fast and the furious" because people may be tempted to speed when driving home after the movies.
People, I say it again...
We are rapidly breaking down our western model of civilisation. We are giving away and taking away our own freedoms for which our forefathers fought so hard to obtain. Allied forces kicked out Nazis in the second world war so people would to be forced to show an "Ausweis" (passport) at every street corner and now I hear that in the Netherlands's you have to carry a passport on you at all times even when not leaving the country!
Governments, Local councils and other "authorities" continue to dream up new law's and new rules at a neck breaking pace to control the local and national issues. Yet they never remove any rules and now often are hamstrung themselves by their own net of burocracy.
WE ARE CHOKING OUR SELVES!
So get educated you dumbasses and please do read a book about democracy. The stupid "security" measures in the USA is rubbing off on all countries arpound the world because airlines that fly into your country are required to comply. As a result from 1 March we in New Zealand can not board an international aircraft with more than 100 ml of contact lens liquid! We know it bullshit, you know it's bullshit yet we still do it. God this pisses me off so much is everybody in the world totally nuts. To close with the wonderfull words "Shit happens" and there ain't nothing you can do about it.
"The bright side that I can see is that perhaps not having to put up with so many dumb, uneducated actors as public role models and political activists."
I soooooo agree. couldn't put it better.
(Mod this guy up please )
Has it occurred to anyone that just maybe they invested in a plant that was about to close thus putting everyone out of a job? Fat good it does to keep the air clean while not to being able to eat. Or do you suggest that not only to we solve their health problem but at the same time introduce a brand new industry all on the same day? After all if god can do it in 7 days so can we right? What do you suggest, have them all sit around and knit woolen scarves for us? Oh no then kids have to help that would be child labor.
Arm chair geniuses here underestimate the complexities involved in this matter. Maybe the soul of Bill Gates is as black as the soot from that oil refinery but maybe just maybe there are so many more factors involved. It may well be possible that the link between their money and the oil refinery goes though several layers thus obscuring visibility on what really is invested in. There will alway be some jealous pisshead to dig up obscure links that were not intended.
I like you comparison to importing alcohol and paying an income tax. It is a typical scenario where a local law takes over from a foreign one. Of course RIAA knows this too but are painfully aware that it is extremely difficult to achieve for individual MP3 files imported through the internet.
I wonder how long before "The land of the free" will have an active firewall (Introduced to protect against terrorism of course) to keep track of things like that.
But the bottom line is that we should be pissed with any artist signing up with the big labels and boycott their music out of principle. I believe the band Metalica suffered such a backlash a few years back. I belong to the large group that refuses to buy music and teach my kid not to buy CD's because of virus risks. He's now 11, never bought a CD and never even looks at a record shop. Mission accomplished. (By the way, he loves music but finds other ways to enjoy it)
"Products shouldn't be released in America" first. And that is exactly what is happening more already. Sites like Gizmodo and Kotaku complain on a regular basis about "why o why don't we get this fancy new gadget States side" Well, many manufacturers are scared to enter into the American market. Large as it may be, it is filled with degenerated morons who all have their lawyers phone number tattooed on their right arm.
Any manufacturer mostly release their products in normal countries first to give them a chance to make the product USA Idiot proof. Once they have done that and stockpiled enough money to handle the lawyers fees they will incur in the USA they might think about releasing there.
I design a range of products for clients and I always suggest to steer clear of the USA because there is always a dick that is going to sue you and you better have a fat wallet ready.
Tiny particle without charge? so what. I have a tiny particle like that. It is the battery in my old IPod Shuttle that won't hold any charge either.
This is never going to happen. In order to achieve this they would have to create autonomous control systems anyway as a fallback. These day's ATC already started to transmit instructions directly to the FMC (Flight Management Computer) in data format instead of voice. Onboard traffic avoidance systems that can communicate with other aircraft augment this. To be honest. Automated flight is here already.
10 years ago, we typically would hand fly the aircraft on take off right up to about 1000 feet and then flick on the automatic pilot and not turn it off until established on final for landing at 1000 feet. Total hand flying might be 6 - 7 minutes per flight. The autoland system consistently would do a better job landing (Yes my landings are shocking pun intended) although flying finals in hot afternoon tropical weather worked better when handflying because pilots would allow for a greater flightpath tolerance.
Anyway, I get sidetracked. The notion of a guy holding a joystick in some ground based control room flying a real aircraft is not realistic at all. That person giving more abstract instructions to the aircraft yes that is possible but that is already happening. As someone said earlier. It would be a small step to forcibly disconnect the pilot from the controls but you'd have to deal with their unions first as the outcry would be greater than the installation of the old cockpit voice recorders.
Quite right! When I was an F/O on a 737 flying around in Indonesia we had the odd scare (Technical ones) and believe me. Pilots are not brave outstanding commanders who save their passengers lives. Were strapped in the front of the aeroplane so we arrive at the crash site first. It is that motivation alone that makes them do checklists and go to the limit in order to save their own ass.
I never once though about passengers while being thrown around in a vicious thunderstorm and I doubt any good pilot actually has time for that.
Take the pilot out of the aircraft but leave him to fly it remotely is so incredibly stupid that I fail to find words for it. But leaving the pilot out all together is a good idea. There is the odd case where the pilot saved the day by finding a unconventional solution but those cases are rare. In most cases "Pilot error" is the cause of the crash.
They do need better software though. The 737-400 I flew had wonderful automated control systems but I recall occasions where I enjoyed my in-flight meal at cruise only to look up and see the horizon at a 30 degree angle while the autopilot was happily flying towards the ground. Another case (Damn I was eating again) the auto throttle though it prudent to move to idle power while cruising at 31.000 feet and no TOD (Top of Decent) was still hundreds of miles away.
Until this date I never knew the name of this experiment. As a kid in 1975 I underwent this test with a slight variation at a primary school for god sakes! It actually pisses me off thinking about it now and I would sure have a word with my son's principal if he were ever subjected to this crap.
The experiment I was involved with (I was the "teacher") they made use of a big box with a spring loaded arm with boxing glove (honest). They demonstrated the box by letting me press button 1 (Weakest punch) after with the glove extended with force. For the rest the same scenario. But I got to choose the strength of the punch between 1 and 10. Oh yeah, they also told me that the "learner" might get pissed off when the punches would get too hard and might want a "word" with me.
Needless to say that as a little kid I stayed with force 1 and sometimes 2 throughout the experiment but who is the sadist here? I think it is the idiots that subject kids to this kind of treatment.
As far as I am concerned they are all pretty cool. I started with Nasa Worldwind which uses the 10 meter elevation map in some area's giving superb landscape relief. Google Earth has better aerial imagery for the area I live while Virtual Earth does some cool stuff with better 3D buildings but again. In the area I live (New Zealand) the data is shocking and next to useless. I am awaiting the day that Google earth will put in the better 10 meter elevation data and then Google Earth rocks. I agree with an earlier comment about needing a better integration of the 3D warehouse with Google Earth. Google earth is also pretty solid. I run it across 3 XWGA screens resulting in a massive glove smoothly spinning around. Oh about spinning. I really missed that feature in the Microsoft product. In Google Earth you can give the map a push and it keeps moving. Also I don't like the fact that you need to use CTRL and Left mouse button to swing your view around. I prefer that action by the mouse only. Top marks for Google Earth (Great data) Second Nasa Worldwind (Great elevation data but hard to find) Third ....
.
.
.
Eight place Virtual Earth 3D. But as a new product not a bad first try. Bloody slow though.
Go an tell your right hand what to do mate. There always is someone on slashdot who feels the need to exert some "authority" and tells people to "move on". Why the hell would I take your opinion for that eh!..Indeed, so shut up
Yes! You got man. Peace.
That is a damn good question. Why do you want to know everything that is going on? That is a hell of a lot to keep track of. Let's face it, that is impossible no matter what. So you are going to be selective. How? well you pick up the stuff to which you have easy access. So basically the big media can fill your head with stuff you can't do anything about while another one of your civil rights is signed away in the white house.
So, I choose to pass on that crap and instead scan the minutes from our local council meetings on-line so I know who is going to fuck with things that immediately affect me. The last I want to advocate is the stick your head in the sand and let's go to the mall mentality but unless you cut the static you will not be in a position to seek out the real news.
(How the hell did we get so side tracked from the subject)
By not being exposed to "static" bullshit news I feel I am in a better position to actually think and form an opinion rather than having one shoved down my throat by the news agencies. And, yes given the choice I rather be uninformed than misinformed. Have you ever seen these pictures in the media? http://www.aim.org/static/2194_0_7_0_C
How about global warming? What do we really know and understand. Even if you are involved in the research, what assumptions you basing your conclusions on? Let's face it, most things we "know" are things we have seen on TV or in a paper. The rest of what we "know" we got from biased parents and biased education. So let's not confuse knowledge with stuff you have been told and that you took as a fact.
You obviously haven't tried this. I get as addicted to news as the next guy but you have to see it for what it is. Business. News is business. When I get depressed then I consciously try to avoid all news, good or bad. That never fails to fix it. Then some news makes it through and before I know it, I am in the thick of it until the next round.
If you think your choice of voting is an informed one when you base it on the news or gossip at the water cooler then you deserve what you get. A country controlled by the media, these guys can form and change your opinion when ever they feel like and you don't even realize it happens.
Blocking from news, by no means leaves me uninformed. I read up on old publications of local election candidates and email them with questions and critique. When was the last time you contacted your local representative to voice your opinion?
And, no I don't give a flying rats arse about tsunami's, Birdflu scares, War in Irak, terrorists or global warming but I do make sure the kid next door get's sorted out when I caught him stealing toys from my son. It's the little things, it starts at home and spreads outwards. Being all intellectual around the water cooler discussing global warming might be fun, but it isn't very productive.
Do yourself a big favor. Turn off the TV, cancel the news papers and stay away from those kind of news sites. News is depressing, and depressing news sells. You can't fix bad news but you can agonize over it. The only result is that you are lining the pockets of entertainment news agencies by watching their adds and what's worse, throwing you into a depression causing you to think your country is going down the toilet. Try a two week self imposed news ban. Your spirits will lift, your productivity goes up and your sense of well being goes up. As a result you become a supportive. positive and productive citizen of the kind America needs to get back on it's feet again. Imagine if everyone did this! In order to take back your ability to form your own opinion you have to stop taking in big media news. This takes the power away from the big media and will restore democracy the way it was intended to work.
There is security in numbers. The main reason of the download panic is that everyone downloads music at some point in time. This is the reason that the AA's try to make you believe that Copyright infringement "IS" stealing. Once the numbers dwindle to a managable amount they will still come down hard on those left over.
Small download communities "under the radar" probably set themselves up to be the first under the hammer of the AA's.
It's a bit like the old, "What if nobody pays their taxes anymore" Well, obviously, nobody would actually go to jail. In the end the law is in the eye of the beholder and only valid if enough people believe it is so. Judging to the numbers that download music I would say that it is "NOT" stealing.
Uhm, in my case four WXGA LCD monitors runing at 60 hz of one PC...
1440 x 900 x 32 x 4 x 60 = 7879680000 bps or 7.88 gbps
1.2 cents per KWH! Holy &%^& that is so cheap! Here in New Zealand where a lot of our energy comes from renewable sources, Water and geothermal we get to pay over 8 cents US currency (0.15 NZ$/KWH) even though the installations were paid for by public funds (taxes).
Now I understand why Amerikans are so wasteful with energy, it is practically free over there! Well here a windmill makes perfect sense as does solar hot water and so on. Solar hotwater will be installed on my house in two months time and I am infact considering a windmill.
Yep PCMCIA port sounds fair. A laptop it is not. It's the user end of a computer. The noisy stuff, power supply, graphics card and CPU are in the box, hopefully sound proof somewhere deep below your desk where it can serve as a way to warm your feet in winder. Basically, a PC is an appliance of which as little as possible should be seen. It is the Keyboard and screen design that defines tomorrows computer.
Oh, and while on the subject of keyboards! Can someone tell these morons to stop messing with the keyboard layout. Cursor keys, Page up/down, INS,DEL,END and Home used to have a standard place. It worked fine for decades so leave it alone unless you find a breakthrough that makes me type twice as fast!
I recently bought a new keyboard and had to return it because if had these keys laid out differently causing untold grief. I instead managed to score an "old" keyboard somewhere so at least work and home have the same keyboard layout.