I was reading through the Senate version of this bill last week, and as I recall, there's language included that basically says the bill explicitly doesn't affect skipping of commercials, etc, one way or the other.
IIRC, it says you can skip through part of a work (objectionable content), but doesn't say anything about skipping whole works (which explicitly includes commercials, warnings, etc.)
Obviously there are going to be shitty writers and good writers in any medium. Blogs simply make this more apparent in that (1) anyone can write one (sheer volume) and (2) there's no (external) editing.
The important thing-- in any medium-- is developing a set of mental filters to weed out the dross. Some of those are generalized (looking at spelling, logic, etc) and some are only available once you've spent some time with a particular subject (think about how many variations on "Learn C in 21 picoseconds" and so on get published.)
Gorman comes off as an elitist jackass. I'm sure he's very qualified in his own field, but he overgeneralizes to the point of absurdity: 'Blog People', my ass.
(My gut feeling, by the way, would be that weblogs (and the 'net in general) have had a net positive impact on the writing ability of the general populace, but I couldn't back that up.)
You can just give them a phone number to get the discount, so use your friends/bosses/relatives. (At least here, in N.Cali, you can. I do it all the time.)
For extra fun, use your bosses number while buying fifty bucks worth of saran wrap and baby oil at three in the morning.
I know there was a guy who had a project going to get a bunch of people to use his card. I believe it was linked on/., actually.
Given that you can do all of the above (without whoever owns the card knowing about it), whoever was involved in the investigation ought to get a swift kick in the ass and a lifetime ban from any position of authority.
The Volume/CD keys are occassionally useful (though since I normally wear headphones w/ inline volume control, they'd be redundant for me), but god, Apple keyboards are annoying.
They're pretty, I guess, but they're a pain in the ass to work on after being used to my IBM, kind of like working on a laptop.
And that USB hub? It breaks. All the damn time. I've TAed/worked/adminned in a number of (primarily Apple) computer labs, and invariably I'd have to play mix and match because of malfunctioning keyboards (which is a pain in the ass when everything is bolted down.) I seem to recall a case in which there was an electrical problem with the USB ports on a couple G4s, and they burned out about a keyboard a week as well...
>Even so, apple's relocated it to the monitor (another thing PC makers should have done years ago), which in my mind is the 'proper' place for the system's power button.
Please, Christ no. There are already too many people who need to constantly be reminded that you have to plug the square box with the glass into the rectangular box with the cupholder for everything to work; putting the system power button on the monitor just exacerbates a serious misunderstanding of computer hardware that will cause trouble later.
Having the power button on the keyboard was pretty cool, though, I'll give you that. That's definately something I'd like to have for convenience if nothing else.
Actually, I'd bet there'd be *some* market for fabbing custom keyboards, at least in the enthusiast market... this one's starting to wear out after five years.
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I was reading through the Senate version of this bill last week, and as I recall, there's language included that basically says the bill explicitly doesn't affect skipping of commercials, etc, one way or the other. IIRC, it says you can skip through part of a work (objectionable content), but doesn't say anything about skipping whole works (which explicitly includes commercials, warnings, etc.)
Obviously there are going to be shitty writers and good writers in any medium. Blogs simply make this more apparent in that (1) anyone can write one (sheer volume) and (2) there's no (external) editing.
The important thing-- in any medium-- is developing a set of mental filters to weed out the dross. Some of those are generalized (looking at spelling, logic, etc) and some are only available once you've spent some time with a particular subject (think about how many variations on "Learn C in 21 picoseconds" and so on get published.)
Gorman comes off as an elitist jackass. I'm sure he's very qualified in his own field, but he overgeneralizes to the point of absurdity: 'Blog People', my ass.
(My gut feeling, by the way, would be that weblogs (and the 'net in general) have had a net positive impact on the writing ability of the general populace, but I couldn't back that up.)
I have one note called "to-do" which links to a bunch of other notes with more details, code scraps, etc.
(It requires Mono, and it's not web-based-- if you're looking for full-blown wiki software, I have no idea.)
You can just give them a phone number to get the discount, so use your friends/bosses/relatives. (At least here, in N.Cali, you can. I do it all the time.) For extra fun, use your bosses number while buying fifty bucks worth of saran wrap and baby oil at three in the morning. I know there was a guy who had a project going to get a bunch of people to use his card. I believe it was linked on /., actually.
Given that you can do all of the above (without whoever owns the card knowing about it), whoever was involved in the investigation ought to get a swift kick in the ass and a lifetime ban from any position of authority.
Not mine, apparantly-- but thanks for the heads up. Interesting SF project, by the way. ;)
The Volume/CD keys are occassionally useful (though since I normally wear headphones w/ inline volume control, they'd be redundant for me), but god, Apple keyboards are annoying.
They're pretty, I guess, but they're a pain in the ass to work on after being used to my IBM, kind of like working on a laptop.
And that USB hub? It breaks. All the damn time. I've TAed/worked/adminned in a number of (primarily Apple) computer labs, and invariably I'd have to play mix and match because of malfunctioning keyboards (which is a pain in the ass when everything is bolted down.) I seem to recall a case in which there was an electrical problem with the USB ports on a couple G4s, and they burned out about a keyboard a week as well...
>Even so, apple's relocated it to the monitor (another thing PC makers should have done years ago), which in my mind is the 'proper' place for the system's power button.
Please, Christ no. There are already too many people who need to constantly be reminded that you have to plug the square box with the glass into the rectangular box with the cupholder for everything to work; putting the system power button on the monitor just exacerbates a serious misunderstanding of computer hardware that will cause trouble later.
Having the power button on the keyboard was pretty cool, though, I'll give you that. That's definately something I'd like to have for convenience if nothing else.
Actually, I'd bet there'd be *some* market for fabbing custom keyboards, at least in the enthusiast market... this one's starting to wear out after five years.