Actually, the word "vacation" comes from the Latin phrase translated as "vacant days". These "vacant days" were the days that weren't "holy days", from which we get the word "holiday". So "vacation" is actually supposed to be a work day, not a holiday. Sorry, but the Brits have this one right for a change.
Just for reference, the Romans had almost 180 "holy days" each year, making for about a 50/50 split between work and days off. Again, we workaholic Americans have it all wrong.
the US should make the drivers license exam (the practical part) a lot harder
Agreed on the tests-should-be-harder part, but I hate to burst your bubble here. "The US" doesn't issue driver's licenses. Each state is responsible for that. There is no federal driver's license.
Driving on a mountain-side road with a lot of hairpin-turns in a manual gearbox car (possibly on snow or other bad conditions), teaches one about driving more than 1000 hours on a motorway.
And this is why each state is responsible for its own driving tests. The highest mountain peak in the state I live in (Missouri) is about 1500 ft. above sea level. And you can't really drive up it (it's Taum Sauk Mountain, which is privately owned and has a broken reservoir on top of it). The worst driving conditions in this state are: 1) The interstates, 2) the bog-mire country roads, and 3) anywhere in suburban St. Louis or Kansas City. In that order.
Learning to drive on the interstates is an exercise in keeping yourself mentally awake despite not seeing anything noteworthy for miles. The reward for this is your life. Failure means death under the rear wheels of a tractor-trailer.
Learning to drive on crappy country roads is an exercise that teaches how not to get stuck. Failure means calling and paying a tow-truck, or at least Farmer John down the road, who probably has a tow chain and a diesel farm truck with enough torque to remove you from the mud ruts.
Learning to drive in suburban hell is a must if you are going to ever buy something anywhere in this state. Real shops don't exist in urban and rural areas. Urban areas get the foo-foo shops (coffee shops, restaurants, antiques stores, artisans' shops, etc.). Rural areas are heavy on machinery repair, gas stations, and a select few fast-food joints. But the good-intention-paved streets of suburbia are where you can actually buy things you need in day-to-day life. Like toilet paper. And shoes. The reward for learning how to deal with driving those streets of hell is, again, your life. If you fail this test, you are undoubtedly pinned between a BMW containing a dead guy with two cellphones embedded in his head and an SUV (a.k.a. "Yuppie Tank" or "Urban Assault Vehicle") containing one clueless soccer-mom that swears she did nothing wrong, despite the obvious fact that Bimmer Boy is dead and you're soon to be.
What really needs to happen, though, is a change in the law and a change in the enforcement of the law. One of these things is not like the others... see if you can spot it.
Q: Why should you stop for a red light? A: Because someone else will probably hit you if you don't.
Q: Why should you signal before turning or changing lanes? A: Because someone else will probably hit you if you don't.
Q: Why should you turn into the near lane instead of the far lane? A: Because someone else will probably hit you if you don't.
Q: Why should you obey the speed limit? A: Because the cops will write you a ticket if you don't.
Speed limits don't prevent anything. In fact, most accidents during the morning commute (statistically, the highest accident rate is during the morning rush hour) are at a low speed, when everyone is going 35 mph on the interstate (where the speed limit is 60). So here's a thought... instead of punishing "maybe-crime", punish actual crime. You went too fast? Who cares? You ran into someone? That's a violation of motor vehicle laws. The primary law in the matter says that you must keep your vehicle under control at all times. An accident is a loss of control (unless you meant to hit someone, in which case it's vehicular assault). If you hit someone, you've harmed them, either physically or financially. Who's the victim when you break the speed limit? Nobody. It's just about half a notch short of thought crime.
So get rid of speed limits and teach people how to avoid causing accidents instead of how to avoid the cops. Then impose strict penalties upon those that cause accidents. That alone would fix most of the problems on the roads in the US.
No, FF6 gets talked about more because every time someone mentions FF7, an FF6 fanboy (like myself) has to bring up the fact that the original speaker was a newb that never played FF6. And then we proceed to ramble on about FF6 for the next half-hour. Oh, and there was about a 3-year head start for it, too.
Why should I care about Joe's HVAC Repair in B.F., South Carolina? I don't live in SC, much less that particular part of SC. In fact, I've never been to SC. So why should I (or anyone else not in the area) care about Joe's HVAC Repair? 99.999% of small businesses are 100% irrelevant. Only the 0.001% that are near me and pertain to my search are relevant. Google Local was great for this, and integrating it with Google Maps has made it even better. If you want your business to be found by Google 100% of the time, register it with Google Maps as a local business. It's even free.
a society could not function if everyone could just take what they wanted.
Most artists should get a day job. A society could not function if everyone just slacked off and played music all the time.
Only the artists that can convince a significant number of people that they should be paid handsomely for their music should get the privilege of not having a day job. And even those should not be paid so handsomely that they can stop working as a musician and live on the spoils. (Retirement excepted, of course.)
Linux, not so much. Even Ubuntu requires that I fiddle around with some stuff before it's properly usable. Here's a sample of the idiotic config crap necessary:
- twiddle the X config file to get certain mouse buttons working - I have a 5-button mouse. Only 3 buttons are supported by default, so I have to go add a couple more buttons to the mouse in the config file. How hard is it to just have a nice HID manager that polls the device for its button/axis count and binds everything to a set of commands? Really, it shouldn't be that tough. Mac OS X calls them Button1..ButtonN. Windows does the same but calls them Joy1..JoyN. Motion axes are handled similarly. - get "special" video drivers to do anything that requires hardware acceleration - To be fair, this one is slowly going away as the Damned Hippies (you know the type) lose control of the community. Ubuntu at least gives you an easy interface to get this if you want it. But to be completely fair, there's not even an issue with this if you use Mac OS X or Windows.
Oh, and before you say "but you can compile your own stuff under Linux and customize it however you want", 1) you can do that on Mac OS X too, and with mostly the same tools, 2) with several distros (Ubuntu, I'm looking at you) the tools aren't included and you have to track them down along with their dependent libs/tools/etc. (again, no different from Mac OS X), and 3) that doesn't meet the definition of "just works out of the box" in even a small way.
You're right in that there's no reason why Linux couldn't work the same way as Mac OS X. But it doesn't. And it won't until the Damned Hippies are removed from the equation. They are now the fly in the ointment. They've contributed a lot, and they deserve the credit for that. But they need to stop dicking around and get things to the point where it "just works" (and the word "completely" really should be added to that) or Linux will never catch on with the masses. And the longer Linux takes to catch on with the masses, the longer Microsoft & Friends have to keep trying until they get something right. They've already done it in the dev community with.NET. Now they just need to do it with something that matters to the average user. It's not a matter of "if", but of "when".
Nothing beats the original, no matter how many newbs think MK64 is better. (Note: not n00bs, just newbs. You're not lame if you like MK64, just inexperienced.)
The one thing I loved more about the original than any of the others was the lack of that annoying power slide crap. You could jump and slide, but there was no speed boost from "wiggling your stick". All that got you was some funny looks from the people around you. You jumped, slid, released the turn, and jumped again to stop your sideways momentum (a slight physics glitch that was really helpful). No boosts. No color-changing smoke. No blue sparks. (Jesus brings them, you know.) Just a good racing game. With Mario-themed weaponry.
Oh, and the simple-yet-fun battle mode... that ruled. Bring that gameplay up to 4 (or more!) players and I'm in. No timers, bombs, or blowing up your own balloons (I never thought I'd be winded playing video games, but Nintendo has proved me wrong), just head-to-head kart carnage like old times.
just because a jury can go against the law doesn't mean that's half the purpose of a jury.
It's not "half the purpose of a jury", it's the whole purpose of a jury of the defendant's peers. When the law is wrong, the jury's constitutional, patriotic duty is to overturn the bad law. If not for jury nullification, a jury of peers is useless. Laws are laws and peers or not, a jury would have to uphold them against any benefit to society allowed by removing the bad laws. Except they can nullify bad laws and not have to uphold them.
Only in the case of a good law (i.e. not indefinite copyrights held by non-human, non-individual entities) would a jury need to find the accused guilty.
Little known fact: the first blood transfusion was a complete and utter failure.
It was for one of the popes, and they drew blood from 3 young boys and fed it to the pope. Yes, fed it to him. The pope died, since he simply digested the blood rather than being able to use it as blood. The boys... well... they died from infections from being bled out to feed a dying pope their blood.
Great story, huh? Death by bleeding and infection: It makes pedophilic anal rape seem like nothing in comparison. Gotta love those crazy pseudo-christians. The funny thing is, if they were really doing things the christian way, they wouldn't be having blood transfusions in any form at all. "Abstain from blood" and all that, you know...
Oh, I quit listening to the commercial pap long ago. And you'll note that nowhere in my post do I make the claim that all big-label musicians are any better. Just some of them. Compare that to virtually none of the indy musicians I've ever heard perform.
Hey, if your kid is so allergic that my normal kid has to eat bologna sandwiches instead of PB&J, you can either pay to have your kid put in a bubble, pay to have your kid put in a private school, or pay to have my kid eat bologna. Your rights end where my nose begins, and this works both ways. I may have no right to knowingly make your kid sick, but you have no right to expect me to pick up the tab for it either.
Folks might also consider patronizing independent artists.
Sure, if independent artists ever consider becoming good musicians. Don't get me wrong, there are a few gems out there. But the vast majority of indy artists are crap. That's why they're indy.
Want to use something other than iTunes for the iPod (I don't, but beside the point), you have to hack it.
No. You have to fire up iTunes once while your iPod is plugged in, turn on the "Use this iPod as a hard drive" option (it's called something like that), turn on the "Manually manage music" or "Do not sync this iPod" (or whatever that one is called), and shut iTunes off and never use it again. You may also need to uncheck the "Start iTunes when this device is plugged in" option (on the same screen) to prevent iTunes from opening itself.
At that point, you have a music player that will work exactly like a shitty iRiver or Creative player, except it can play AAC's (protected or not). Any third party utility that can put files into the iPod can put music into its playlists, which are simply standard playlist (m3u) files in the Playlists folder at the root of the iPod. (This doesn't apply if you still have iTunes synching things up, since it maintains a huge XML monstrosity in a different folder.) Or, if you're a sadist, you can manage your music by hand. Even by CLI, if you're truly crazy.
There are a great many things that Apple allows that the anti-Apple people don't just refuse to mention but actually lie about. Yes, it's retarded, petty, and counter-productive. But they're anti-Apple zealots. It's what they do. They're the reason shoot-on-sight laws exist. Well, them, and the pro-Apple zealots.
Oh, and the Mighty Mouse (the multi-button mouse) is now included "in the box" with all of Apple's machines that come with mice (iMac and Mac Pro, basically). It has been for about a year now. Just FYI.
...to lock people out of something like this is probably going to be a mistake in the long run. But, Apple has obviously proved its critics wrong before...
Apple never proved their critics wrong on the Mac clone thing. They refused to allow clones to their detriment (in terms of marketshare). When they finally allowed clones, it was very nearly with their dying breath because Windows on IBM clones had gained dominance by then. The Mac clones were stealing Apple's share of a very small piece of pie by then, and Apple smartly ended that arrangement. If they had done it 10 years sooner, Windows would be a historical curiosity and we'd all be cursing our "horribly broken" MacOS instead. (And Mac OS X wouldn't exist, since Apple would probably be fat and lazy about upgrading to anything that would break full compatibility with the classic MacOS.)
The only place where Apple's critics were really proven wrong was with the iPod. We all recall the now-famous quote, "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." Poor CmdrTaco's never gonna live that one down.
I think the iPhone is going to resemble the Mac rather than the iPod in this regard. And then it will be discontinued. Hopefully other phone manufacturers are taking notes.
The new mouse does not "emulate" a right-click. It sends a Button2 (sometimes called "Joy2", for joystick buttons) signal. Ctrl-click (Ctrl-Button1) emulates a Button2 signal in the OS.
Hey, my bill says "AT&T Yahoo! DSL", not "AT&T's non-telco subsidiary Yahoo! DSL".
It's reasonable to assume that their ISP division is covered under the same laws as the telco division, seeing as how they're using the same brand name and all. And I think a judge could be convinced of the same. AT&T is a common carrier. If you want to censor stuff, at least use a brand name that isn't also used for telco stuff.
Oh, and AT&T sucks (but not quite as bad as Charter, my other option for a decent internet connection). But since I haven't agreed to a new ToS in the last 6 years, if they shut me off, they'll be violating the terms of service that I agreed to. Turnabout's fair play, bitches.
See, I was hoping for some epic battles between the Halo-obsessed frat-boy types on consoles vs. the diehard PC gamer types with the kb/mouse. I would be among the PC crowd bringing down some fire and brimstone upon the console twits.
It was going to be like a flamewar, only with guns.
And her processing power is pretty dim compared to a computer.
Your cat is smarter than you realize. Brains do image processing, task/goal tracking, fine and coarse motor control, and a myriad of other complex processes simultaneously. Many of these require advanced (but not abstract) mathematics and ability to react to the result. Example: if I'm moving this speed and the dog is chasing me at that speed, will the dog catch me before I reach the house and bite off a chunk of my tail? If so, run up the nearest suitable tree.
It's been said repeatedly that "the most powerful supercomputer in the world is approaching the complexity of X". Currently, X is somewhere between a snail and a housefly. When it gets to housecat, you won't be able to win the games at all anymore.
Less than a year ago, there wasnt enough processing power to dynamically generate the movement of water in games, says Lee Bamber, a programmer for 20 years and founder of The Game Creators, Ltd.
Wow, fluid simulations started less than a year ago? Damn. Simulate it on the molecular level real time, maybe no. But still.
Good call. I remember Nintendo bragging about the wave physics in Wave Race 64 back in 1996. It wasn't new then, and it certainly hasn't been getting any newer in the 10 years since.
Note that you won't see the term "Gutsy Gibbon" mentioned in an installed OS (except in the sources file for aptitude, but a normal user is unlikely to ever see that).
I don't know about that. All of the updates for Feisty Fawn show "somepackage-ubuntufeisty704-packageversion" in the updates panel. I'm guessing you'll see the same with "feisty" replaced by "gutsy" in the next release.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, the word "vacation" comes from the Latin phrase translated as "vacant days". These "vacant days" were the days that weren't "holy days", from which we get the word "holiday". So "vacation" is actually supposed to be a work day, not a holiday. Sorry, but the Brits have this one right for a change.
Just for reference, the Romans had almost 180 "holy days" each year, making for about a 50/50 split between work and days off. Again, we workaholic Americans have it all wrong.
the US should make the drivers license exam (the practical part) a lot harder
Agreed on the tests-should-be-harder part, but I hate to burst your bubble here. "The US" doesn't issue driver's licenses. Each state is responsible for that. There is no federal driver's license.
Driving on a mountain-side road with a lot of hairpin-turns in a manual gearbox car (possibly on snow or other bad conditions), teaches one about driving more than 1000 hours on a motorway.
And this is why each state is responsible for its own driving tests. The highest mountain peak in the state I live in (Missouri) is about 1500 ft. above sea level. And you can't really drive up it (it's Taum Sauk Mountain, which is privately owned and has a broken reservoir on top of it). The worst driving conditions in this state are: 1) The interstates, 2) the bog-mire country roads, and 3) anywhere in suburban St. Louis or Kansas City. In that order.
Learning to drive on the interstates is an exercise in keeping yourself mentally awake despite not seeing anything noteworthy for miles. The reward for this is your life. Failure means death under the rear wheels of a tractor-trailer.
Learning to drive on crappy country roads is an exercise that teaches how not to get stuck. Failure means calling and paying a tow-truck, or at least Farmer John down the road, who probably has a tow chain and a diesel farm truck with enough torque to remove you from the mud ruts.
Learning to drive in suburban hell is a must if you are going to ever buy something anywhere in this state. Real shops don't exist in urban and rural areas. Urban areas get the foo-foo shops (coffee shops, restaurants, antiques stores, artisans' shops, etc.). Rural areas are heavy on machinery repair, gas stations, and a select few fast-food joints. But the good-intention-paved streets of suburbia are where you can actually buy things you need in day-to-day life. Like toilet paper. And shoes. The reward for learning how to deal with driving those streets of hell is, again, your life. If you fail this test, you are undoubtedly pinned between a BMW containing a dead guy with two cellphones embedded in his head and an SUV (a.k.a. "Yuppie Tank" or "Urban Assault Vehicle") containing one clueless soccer-mom that swears she did nothing wrong, despite the obvious fact that Bimmer Boy is dead and you're soon to be.
What really needs to happen, though, is a change in the law and a change in the enforcement of the law. One of these things is not like the others... see if you can spot it.
Q: Why should you stop for a red light?
A: Because someone else will probably hit you if you don't.
Q: Why should you signal before turning or changing lanes?
A: Because someone else will probably hit you if you don't.
Q: Why should you turn into the near lane instead of the far lane?
A: Because someone else will probably hit you if you don't.
Q: Why should you obey the speed limit?
A: Because the cops will write you a ticket if you don't.
Speed limits don't prevent anything. In fact, most accidents during the morning commute (statistically, the highest accident rate is during the morning rush hour) are at a low speed, when everyone is going 35 mph on the interstate (where the speed limit is 60). So here's a thought... instead of punishing "maybe-crime", punish actual crime. You went too fast? Who cares? You ran into someone? That's a violation of motor vehicle laws. The primary law in the matter says that you must keep your vehicle under control at all times. An accident is a loss of control (unless you meant to hit someone, in which case it's vehicular assault). If you hit someone, you've harmed them, either physically or financially. Who's the victim when you break the speed limit? Nobody. It's just about half a notch short of thought crime.
So get rid of speed limits and teach people how to avoid causing accidents instead of how to avoid the cops. Then impose strict penalties upon those that cause accidents. That alone would fix most of the problems on the roads in the US.
No, FF6 gets talked about more because every time someone mentions FF7, an FF6 fanboy (like myself) has to bring up the fact that the original speaker was a newb that never played FF6. And then we proceed to ramble on about FF6 for the next half-hour. Oh, and there was about a 3-year head start for it, too.
Hey, at least Christmas comes once a year.
Peach has been holding out on Mario for a couple of decades now.
Your rude manner aside, you're absolutely right.
Why should I care about Joe's HVAC Repair in B.F., South Carolina? I don't live in SC, much less that particular part of SC. In fact, I've never been to SC. So why should I (or anyone else not in the area) care about Joe's HVAC Repair? 99.999% of small businesses are 100% irrelevant. Only the 0.001% that are near me and pertain to my search are relevant. Google Local was great for this, and integrating it with Google Maps has made it even better. If you want your business to be found by Google 100% of the time, register it with Google Maps as a local business. It's even free.
Most artists are struggling
a society could not function if everyone could just take what they wanted.
Most artists should get a day job. A society could not function if everyone just slacked off and played music all the time.
Only the artists that can convince a significant number of people that they should be paid handsomely for their music should get the privilege of not having a day job. And even those should not be paid so handsomely that they can stop working as a musician and live on the spoils. (Retirement excepted, of course.)
The new (slim) PS2 has ethernet built in.
I think he just explained that.
.NET. Now they just need to do it with something that matters to the average user. It's not a matter of "if", but of "when".
Mac OS X "just works" out of the box.
Linux, not so much. Even Ubuntu requires that I fiddle around with some stuff before it's properly usable. Here's a sample of the idiotic config crap necessary:
- twiddle the X config file to get certain mouse buttons working - I have a 5-button mouse. Only 3 buttons are supported by default, so I have to go add a couple more buttons to the mouse in the config file. How hard is it to just have a nice HID manager that polls the device for its button/axis count and binds everything to a set of commands? Really, it shouldn't be that tough. Mac OS X calls them Button1..ButtonN. Windows does the same but calls them Joy1..JoyN. Motion axes are handled similarly.
- get "special" video drivers to do anything that requires hardware acceleration - To be fair, this one is slowly going away as the Damned Hippies (you know the type) lose control of the community. Ubuntu at least gives you an easy interface to get this if you want it. But to be completely fair, there's not even an issue with this if you use Mac OS X or Windows.
Oh, and before you say "but you can compile your own stuff under Linux and customize it however you want", 1) you can do that on Mac OS X too, and with mostly the same tools, 2) with several distros (Ubuntu, I'm looking at you) the tools aren't included and you have to track them down along with their dependent libs/tools/etc. (again, no different from Mac OS X), and 3) that doesn't meet the definition of "just works out of the box" in even a small way.
You're right in that there's no reason why Linux couldn't work the same way as Mac OS X. But it doesn't. And it won't until the Damned Hippies are removed from the equation. They are now the fly in the ointment. They've contributed a lot, and they deserve the credit for that. But they need to stop dicking around and get things to the point where it "just works" (and the word "completely" really should be added to that) or Linux will never catch on with the masses. And the longer Linux takes to catch on with the masses, the longer Microsoft & Friends have to keep trying until they get something right. They've already done it in the dev community with
Nothing beats the original, no matter how many newbs think MK64 is better. (Note: not n00bs, just newbs. You're not lame if you like MK64, just inexperienced.)
The one thing I loved more about the original than any of the others was the lack of that annoying power slide crap. You could jump and slide, but there was no speed boost from "wiggling your stick". All that got you was some funny looks from the people around you. You jumped, slid, released the turn, and jumped again to stop your sideways momentum (a slight physics glitch that was really helpful). No boosts. No color-changing smoke. No blue sparks. (Jesus brings them, you know.) Just a good racing game. With Mario-themed weaponry.
Oh, and the simple-yet-fun battle mode... that ruled. Bring that gameplay up to 4 (or more!) players and I'm in. No timers, bombs, or blowing up your own balloons (I never thought I'd be winded playing video games, but Nintendo has proved me wrong), just head-to-head kart carnage like old times.
just because a jury can go against the law doesn't mean that's half the purpose of a jury.
It's not "half the purpose of a jury", it's the whole purpose of a jury of the defendant's peers. When the law is wrong, the jury's constitutional, patriotic duty is to overturn the bad law. If not for jury nullification, a jury of peers is useless. Laws are laws and peers or not, a jury would have to uphold them against any benefit to society allowed by removing the bad laws. Except they can nullify bad laws and not have to uphold them.
Only in the case of a good law (i.e. not indefinite copyrights held by non-human, non-individual entities) would a jury need to find the accused guilty.
Little known fact: the first blood transfusion was a complete and utter failure.
It was for one of the popes, and they drew blood from 3 young boys and fed it to the pope. Yes, fed it to him. The pope died, since he simply digested the blood rather than being able to use it as blood. The boys... well... they died from infections from being bled out to feed a dying pope their blood.
Great story, huh? Death by bleeding and infection: It makes pedophilic anal rape seem like nothing in comparison. Gotta love those crazy pseudo-christians. The funny thing is, if they were really doing things the christian way, they wouldn't be having blood transfusions in any form at all. "Abstain from blood" and all that, you know...
Oh, I quit listening to the commercial pap long ago. And you'll note that nowhere in my post do I make the claim that all big-label musicians are any better. Just some of them. Compare that to virtually none of the indy musicians I've ever heard perform.
Hey, if your kid is so allergic that my normal kid has to eat bologna sandwiches instead of PB&J, you can either pay to have your kid put in a bubble, pay to have your kid put in a private school, or pay to have my kid eat bologna. Your rights end where my nose begins, and this works both ways. I may have no right to knowingly make your kid sick, but you have no right to expect me to pick up the tab for it either.
Folks might also consider patronizing independent artists.
Sure, if independent artists ever consider becoming good musicians. Don't get me wrong, there are a few gems out there. But the vast majority of indy artists are crap. That's why they're indy.
Want to use something other than iTunes for the iPod (I don't, but beside the point), you have to hack it.
No. You have to fire up iTunes once while your iPod is plugged in, turn on the "Use this iPod as a hard drive" option (it's called something like that), turn on the "Manually manage music" or "Do not sync this iPod" (or whatever that one is called), and shut iTunes off and never use it again. You may also need to uncheck the "Start iTunes when this device is plugged in" option (on the same screen) to prevent iTunes from opening itself.
At that point, you have a music player that will work exactly like a shitty iRiver or Creative player, except it can play AAC's (protected or not). Any third party utility that can put files into the iPod can put music into its playlists, which are simply standard playlist (m3u) files in the Playlists folder at the root of the iPod. (This doesn't apply if you still have iTunes synching things up, since it maintains a huge XML monstrosity in a different folder.) Or, if you're a sadist, you can manage your music by hand. Even by CLI, if you're truly crazy.
There are a great many things that Apple allows that the anti-Apple people don't just refuse to mention but actually lie about. Yes, it's retarded, petty, and counter-productive. But they're anti-Apple zealots. It's what they do. They're the reason shoot-on-sight laws exist. Well, them, and the pro-Apple zealots.
Oh, and the Mighty Mouse (the multi-button mouse) is now included "in the box" with all of Apple's machines that come with mice (iMac and Mac Pro, basically). It has been for about a year now. Just FYI.
...to lock people out of something like this is probably going to be a mistake in the long run. But, Apple has obviously proved its critics wrong before...
Apple never proved their critics wrong on the Mac clone thing. They refused to allow clones to their detriment (in terms of marketshare). When they finally allowed clones, it was very nearly with their dying breath because Windows on IBM clones had gained dominance by then. The Mac clones were stealing Apple's share of a very small piece of pie by then, and Apple smartly ended that arrangement. If they had done it 10 years sooner, Windows would be a historical curiosity and we'd all be cursing our "horribly broken" MacOS instead. (And Mac OS X wouldn't exist, since Apple would probably be fat and lazy about upgrading to anything that would break full compatibility with the classic MacOS.)
The only place where Apple's critics were really proven wrong was with the iPod. We all recall the now-famous quote, "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." Poor CmdrTaco's never gonna live that one down.
I think the iPhone is going to resemble the Mac rather than the iPod in this regard. And then it will be discontinued. Hopefully other phone manufacturers are taking notes.
The new mouse does not "emulate" a right-click. It sends a Button2 (sometimes called "Joy2", for joystick buttons) signal. Ctrl-click (Ctrl-Button1) emulates a Button2 signal in the OS.
I opened a .docx file in a text editor the other day, just to see what it looked like.
It was plain ol' HTML with a funky DOCTYPE (with a -strict.dtd in it, so maybe, finally, MS is gonna support strict compliance to something).
Hey, my bill says "AT&T Yahoo! DSL", not "AT&T's non-telco subsidiary Yahoo! DSL".
It's reasonable to assume that their ISP division is covered under the same laws as the telco division, seeing as how they're using the same brand name and all. And I think a judge could be convinced of the same. AT&T is a common carrier. If you want to censor stuff, at least use a brand name that isn't also used for telco stuff.
Oh, and AT&T sucks (but not quite as bad as Charter, my other option for a decent internet connection). But since I haven't agreed to a new ToS in the last 6 years, if they shut me off, they'll be violating the terms of service that I agreed to. Turnabout's fair play, bitches.
See, I was hoping for some epic battles between the Halo-obsessed frat-boy types on consoles vs. the diehard PC gamer types with the kb/mouse. I would be among the PC crowd bringing down some fire and brimstone upon the console twits.
It was going to be like a flamewar, only with guns.
Damn you, Epic! Damn you! (shakes fist)
newer programmers don't understand pointers and curses.
While older programmers understand that they're the same thing.
Example: "I'm gonna char* your mom in the int*!" "Oh yeah? Well your mom is a char*-ing void* with a int[] like a horse!"
And her processing power is pretty dim compared to a computer.
Your cat is smarter than you realize. Brains do image processing, task/goal tracking, fine and coarse motor control, and a myriad of other complex processes simultaneously. Many of these require advanced (but not abstract) mathematics and ability to react to the result. Example: if I'm moving this speed and the dog is chasing me at that speed, will the dog catch me before I reach the house and bite off a chunk of my tail? If so, run up the nearest suitable tree.
It's been said repeatedly that "the most powerful supercomputer in the world is approaching the complexity of X". Currently, X is somewhere between a snail and a housefly. When it gets to housecat, you won't be able to win the games at all anymore.
Less than a year ago, there wasnt enough processing power to dynamically generate the movement of water in games, says Lee Bamber, a programmer for 20 years and founder of The Game Creators, Ltd.
Wow, fluid simulations started less than a year ago? Damn.
Simulate it on the molecular level real time, maybe no. But still.
Good call. I remember Nintendo bragging about the wave physics in Wave Race 64 back in 1996. It wasn't new then, and it certainly hasn't been getting any newer in the 10 years since.
Note that you won't see the term "Gutsy Gibbon" mentioned in an installed OS (except in the sources file for aptitude, but a normal user is unlikely to ever see that).
I don't know about that. All of the updates for Feisty Fawn show "somepackage-ubuntufeisty704-packageversion" in the updates panel. I'm guessing you'll see the same with "feisty" replaced by "gutsy" in the next release.
OO.o on MacOS X is pure crap. NeoOffice isn't much better (way too slow).
Run the Windows version inside of Crossover or Wine.