I'm glad someone posted this, because that was my feeling the first time I read it (in the 70s). I have re-read it many times since (most recently last month) and would quickly name it my favorite book of all time, and also the most uplifting and optimistic. Earth Abides celebrates the durability and optimism of humanity, as opposed to the durability of humanity's technology.
We humans keep thinking it's our stuff that makes us special, but it isn't. We are what's special about us, and this is what Earth Abides celebrates. Earth Abides and the human race continues to thrive. This book really shaped my world view - a very important read.
I don't watch TV, but I just won a cheapo 19" WalMart TV (worth $120) in an office drawing and was startled to realize it supported both analog and digital service. I bought a pair of rabbit ears and set out to see how it would work in my apartment in rural Massachusetts (over 50 miles from Boston). To my utter amazement, I received many digital broadcasts almost perfectly while the analog channels were plagued by snow and interference that made them unbearable. Furthermore, the picture quality was stunning. Even though the set is "SDTV", the difference in quality between analog and digital was huge. All these years I've been fed propaganda telling me that over the air HDTV would require fancy antennas, but it turns out to be a BIG LIE. Between Netflix and broadcast HDTV, why would anyone want cable or satellite TV unless they are literally in the middle of nowhere?
Of course, there's STILL nothing worth watching. Bah! Humbug!
Boy.. same old tired arguments we hear from again and again. Most of them are variations of: 1) Linux is too hard. 2) Windows has more applications.
Actually, it's neither of those. The masses out there never "chose" Windows. They went out to a big box store and bought a computer. It just happened to come with Windows on it. Then they cruised up and down the software aisles and bought nice slick boxes with pretty pictures on them. They gradually learned to install and use that stuff (called "applications"), dragging along boatloads of spyware and viruses as they went. They would never consider installing Linux today because it doesn't come in a big shiny box that sits on a shelf in the software aisle.
If someone was actually *marketing* Linux, then it might have a significant *market* share.
Consider the experience I gave my wife recently when I bought her a pre-installed Linux laptop from System76 for her birthday:
She had already been (forcibly) transitioned to an Ubuntu distribution, so copying over her settings was as easy as backing up and restoring her home directory.
All the programs she needed to install were listed in a dialog under Applications/Add Remove.. Anything that seemed interesting to her was installed with a single click and worked perfectly.
She didn't have to spend hours ripping open shiny boxes and feeding CD's into the beast to install an office suite and other productivity applications.
Software upgrades happen every week or so without any fuss or bother.
All sorts of interesting games were either already installed or only a mouse-click away.
Sure, you can't do all the things on a Linux box that you can do on a Windows box. And you can't do all the things on a Windows box that you can do on a Linux box! Sure, you can't run all your windows apps on Linux. And why would you? There are so many great Linux apps that you can run instead! Some are better. Some are worse. They're different!
It's been about a year since I made the big leap from Windows to Linux. I'm loving it now and I wouldn't dream of going back.
Friend of mine tried and canceled and now I can't call them from my Vonage phone any more. They simply don't have a system in place for de-assigning phone numbers! Repeated calls to Vonage have achieved nothing. In my frustration I tried out 8x8's service (Packet8), but just sent the adapter back today: their call quality issues were significantly worse.
Having said that, none of the VOIP providers can beat Verizon for sheer arrogance. I still celebrate the day (two and a half years ago) I stopped throwing wads of cash at them.
Try watching Castle in the Sky and then while you're sitting there, amazed, at how it is such a shameless ripoff of Atlantis, note that it was made several years earlier.
I realize we're in love with tabs 'n all, but when I tried to convert my technophobic wife to a tabbed world in Opera, she didn't like it one bit. It was hard enough teaching her to find minimized applications in the task bar without also teaching her to find her mail and browser windows among the tabs in Opera. Weeks later she still couldn't "see" the stuff that was right in front of her.
Oh for Pete's sake.. if something is really, really good, why don't you just pay a few bucks for it? Just because the browser wars meant free browsers for everyone doesn't mean that you should be ashamed of spending real money for good products when it's appropriate.
The last time I tried Opera (version 5), I was seriously disappointed
I know others have said this already, but I have to add my voice: Opera became a contender with version 7, and now with version 8 it is a very polished product. I purchased a license well over a year ago and have never regretted it.
Having said that, I also use FF for those sites (mainly Google beta sites) that require it, and even IE when the html coding is brutally stupid. But for 99% of the sites out there, Opera is wonderful.
I discovered Opera when a visitor to one of my web sites complained: "it doesn't work in Opera". That was when I discovered that "doesn't work in Opera" usually means I've coded something that caters specifically to a quirk or MS extension to HTML/Javascript. Which is why you will find many HTML authors use Opera for routine testing.
As far as comparing it with FF goes, I like FF and respect what they have done. I installed it for my wife (who can't cope well with change) and she transitioned to it from IE without any problem. But for myself, I find that using Opera is like driving a very fine, high performance sports car. FF is like driving a Prius: intellectually and morally satisfying but lacking in zip. If you live many hours a day in web browser land, Opera makes the experience very, very pleasant.
The state in which he is a resident will allow him to deduct the amount of taxes paid to other states.
I live in New Hampshire and worked for a Massachusetts company for a few years. Massachusetts siphoned off its full income tax during those years with absolutely no recourse to me because New Hampshire has no income tax. Now that doesn't for a moment mean that I don't pay tax in New Hampshire. We make up for that tax free status by having outrageous real estate taxes instead.
But do you suppose Massachusetts cares how much I pay in real estate taxes? Boohoo.
The real killer last tax year (2004) was that at least half of my income came from Florida. And because my deductions on the Massachusetts form are factored by the percentage of income from Massachusetts, they wanted even more of my money than usual. The more I earn outside of Massachusetts, the more I pay to Massachusetts in taxes. Go figure!
Our public library has higher late fees than any rental outfit. Sure, we get to keep the movie for a whole week, but what are the odds that we'll remember where we put it after a week?
I beg my wife not to take movies out from the public library; it's costing us a fortune.
As someone else mentioned, the Earth is pretty much in energy equilibrium. Energy from the sun arrives at the planet, stirs things up a bit, and is re-radiated out to the universe. What goes out is basically equal to what came in. Using fossil fuels or nuclear energy disturbs the equilibrium by converting potential energy sources into heat which must be radiated out to space along with the stuff that's already coming in from the sun.
Renewable sources such as wind or solar energy may disturb what happens in the atmosphere one way or another (cooler here, warmer there..), but they don't upset the overall energy balance. Energy that would have gone directly into heating the atmosphere, is channeled through our widescreen TVs and electric vehicles first, where it ultimately converts to heat that is re-radiated back to the universe.
Picked up one of these little babies on eBay the other day for around $350. DVD quality MPEG2, SD media. Record time is a little short, but the camera is literally the size of a credit card (ok.. a thick credit card). These have been around for at least a year now...
VoIP: ya gets what ya pays for
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VoIP Questioned
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· Score: 1
Gosh, when I saw this subject I thought it was going to be a rant about the security issue: a subject that does make me uneasy.
Since I converted my POTS line to Vonage, I am in the phonebook (at least for the time being), I have 911 service and I am thrilled not to have those indecipherable bills from the phone company. Voice quality is fair, but ya gets what ya pays for.
Sure, 911 during a power failure is problematic, but then again, what are the odds? Unless it's a 911 call that is related to the power failure, which the authorities are likely to know about anyway. And besides, I still keep a cell phone around for desperate emergencies and network outages (more frequent than I'd like, but rarely inconvenient).
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I'm glad someone posted this, because that was my feeling the first time I read it (in the 70s). I have re-read it many times since (most recently last month) and would quickly name it my favorite book of all time, and also the most uplifting and optimistic. Earth Abides celebrates the durability and optimism of humanity, as opposed to the durability of humanity's technology.
We humans keep thinking it's our stuff that makes us special, but it isn't. We are what's special about us, and this is what Earth Abides celebrates. Earth Abides and the human race continues to thrive. This book really shaped my world view - a very important read.
Of course, there's STILL nothing worth watching. Bah! Humbug!
Actually, it's neither of those. The masses out there never "chose" Windows. They went out to a big box store and bought a computer. It just happened to come with Windows on it. Then they cruised up and down the software aisles and bought nice slick boxes with pretty pictures on them. They gradually learned to install and use that stuff (called "applications"), dragging along boatloads of spyware and viruses as they went. They would never consider installing Linux today because it doesn't come in a big shiny box that sits on a shelf in the software aisle.
If someone was actually *marketing* Linux, then it might have a significant *market* share.
Consider the experience I gave my wife recently when I bought her a pre-installed Linux laptop from System76 for her birthday:
Sure, you can't do all the things on a Linux box that you can do on a Windows box. And you can't do all the things on a Windows box that you can do on a Linux box! Sure, you can't run all your windows apps on Linux. And why would you? There are so many great Linux apps that you can run instead! Some are better. Some are worse. They're different!
It's been about a year since I made the big leap from Windows to Linux. I'm loving it now and I wouldn't dream of going back.
Friend of mine tried and canceled and now I can't call them from my Vonage phone any more. They simply don't have a system in place for de-assigning phone numbers! Repeated calls to Vonage have achieved nothing. In my frustration I tried out 8x8's service (Packet8), but just sent the adapter back today: their call quality issues were significantly worse.
Having said that, none of the VOIP providers can beat Verizon for sheer arrogance. I still celebrate the day (two and a half years ago) I stopped throwing wads of cash at them.
Try watching Castle in the Sky and then while you're sitting there, amazed, at how it is such a shameless ripoff of Atlantis, note that it was made several years earlier.
I realize we're in love with tabs 'n all, but when I tried to convert my technophobic wife to a tabbed world in Opera, she didn't like it one bit. It was hard enough teaching her to find minimized applications in the task bar without also teaching her to find her mail and browser windows among the tabs in Opera. Weeks later she still couldn't "see" the stuff that was right in front of her.
Oh for Pete's sake.. if something is really, really good, why don't you just pay a few bucks for it? Just because the browser wars meant free browsers for everyone doesn't mean that you should be ashamed of spending real money for good products when it's appropriate.
I know others have said this already, but I have to add my voice: Opera became a contender with version 7, and now with version 8 it is a very polished product. I purchased a license well over a year ago and have never regretted it.
Having said that, I also use FF for those sites (mainly Google beta sites) that require it, and even IE when the html coding is brutally stupid. But for 99% of the sites out there, Opera is wonderful.
I discovered Opera when a visitor to one of my web sites complained: "it doesn't work in Opera". That was when I discovered that "doesn't work in Opera" usually means I've coded something that caters specifically to a quirk or MS extension to HTML/Javascript. Which is why you will find many HTML authors use Opera for routine testing.
As far as comparing it with FF goes, I like FF and respect what they have done. I installed it for my wife (who can't cope well with change) and she transitioned to it from IE without any problem. But for myself, I find that using Opera is like driving a very fine, high performance sports car. FF is like driving a Prius: intellectually and morally satisfying but lacking in zip. If you live many hours a day in web browser land, Opera makes the experience very, very pleasant.
I live in New Hampshire and worked for a Massachusetts company for a few years. Massachusetts siphoned off its full income tax during those years with absolutely no recourse to me because New Hampshire has no income tax. Now that doesn't for a moment mean that I don't pay tax in New Hampshire. We make up for that tax free status by having outrageous real estate taxes instead.
But do you suppose Massachusetts cares how much I pay in real estate taxes? Boohoo.
The real killer last tax year (2004) was that at least half of my income came from Florida. And because my deductions on the Massachusetts form are factored by the percentage of income from Massachusetts, they wanted even more of my money than usual. The more I earn outside of Massachusetts, the more I pay to Massachusetts in taxes. Go figure!
Oh sure.. easy for you to say. You just haven't seen my home theater.
Our public library has higher late fees than any rental outfit. Sure, we get to keep the movie for a whole week, but what are the odds that we'll remember where we put it after a week?
I beg my wife not to take movies out from the public library; it's costing us a fortune.
Renewable sources such as wind or solar energy may disturb what happens in the atmosphere one way or another (cooler here, warmer there..), but they don't upset the overall energy balance. Energy that would have gone directly into heating the atmosphere, is channeled through our widescreen TVs and electric vehicles first, where it ultimately converts to heat that is re-radiated back to the universe.
Picked up one of these little babies on eBay the other day for around $350. DVD quality MPEG2, SD media. Record time is a little short, but the camera is literally the size of a credit card (ok.. a thick credit card). These have been around for at least a year now...
Since I converted my POTS line to Vonage, I am in the phonebook (at least for the time being), I have 911 service and I am thrilled not to have those indecipherable bills from the phone company. Voice quality is fair, but ya gets what ya pays for.
Sure, 911 during a power failure is problematic, but then again, what are the odds? Unless it's a 911 call that is related to the power failure, which the authorities are likely to know about anyway. And besides, I still keep a cell phone around for desperate emergencies and network outages (more frequent than I'd like, but rarely inconvenient).