When I was home for the holidays, I had what seems to be a typical experience in family technical support. They had a variety of computers (too much money, no sense). One laptop had 2000+ spyware programs running, and the desktop was even taken over by a hostile active desktop. Indeed, you'd go to search in IE and about every other word would be hotlinked to some sort of product.
Installing firefox on their computers is one thing, but I have far younger half-brothers who literally will click 'yes' to everything that pops up. Indeed, they have some sort of furry animal (named 'Bonzibuddy' or something?) that seems to give them buying advice on their desktop (??!?!!). The solution to their problem was that they just established a stand-alone computer for homework and computer games, with no connection to the internet.
Now, I agree that it is a terrible waste of resources, but it at least gives them a reliable computer to do work on without having to wonder if the spyware will destroy their MS Office or 'Sims' or whatever they play.
Meh, I have my iBook and live half the country away.:)
A telecommunications giant is fighting the city, because it is providing services. Well, that's what this is. A service, and it will benefit society. Besides, its not like Bellsouth doesn't have their own little little nest. From TFA:
BellSouth says it can't compete effectively with cities where taxpayers pay for laying down expensive fiber-optic networks. . . Perhaps, but Lafayette is building because BellSouth and the city's cable TV company aren't rushing to meet the city's needs.
There you go: evidence that capitalism isn't meeting the needs of people, and the state is stepping in. Adam Smith and economic libertarians would have those people simply sitting around, waiting for the invisible hand to bring them their broadband. Nope, the city is intervening, the corporation is retaliating.. and the city should win.
Of course, Bellsouth could probably just win everything by stepping into the area and providing service (probably with an initial loss, but they'd recoup their costs) - heck, get a juicy government subsidy and some nice photo-ops. I'm sure this USA Today article will turn some heads, especially if it gets reported in a more reputable newspaper.
This is an excellent example of a shortcoming of Wikipedia. I try to contribute as much as I can, due to my academic interests in History, and I must say I've never seen such an example as yours. Of course, that may be due to my sticking to obscure 'corners' of the Wiki project.
The Talk page that you linked too is reprehensible to say the least. This is why 'real' academic work needs peer-referencing for credibility.
If I ever hear anybody planning to use Wiki as an authoritative source I'll be sure to point them to the Tokamak program example.
I must say that I was impressed with the interview with Jimmy Wales. I've had my misgivings with the Wikinews project in the past, despite being an avid reader/contributor to Wikipedia. Yet from the article Mr. Wales lays out the project well:
The bloggers are the editorial page and response to the editorial pages, and we're the response to the front page. We'll synthesize what's being reported in a variety of sources.
Brilliant! That's exactly what WikiNews should be, and what it would excel at. Now, it will be simply a blog, but sort of an.. uber-blog. I'm just glad that Mr. Wales isn't looking too far, and acknowledges the shortcomings of the Wikinews project - the accessibility to foreign lands, important peoples, etc. In short, the power to break many stories. Not that bloggers haven't broken a few stories, but the lion's share will continue to reside with the big media sources.
All in all, a great interview. Kudos to Mr. Wales!
Depending on what the other console makers do, they may be forced into a lower price.
Are there going to be any comparable consoles to the Xbox2, given that this will presumably be a next-generation console? If not, then perhaps the market really will support this price? Perhaps it will be just that good, that people will fork over $399 in order to get in on this next 'evolution of gaming'.
Remember this is an analyst speaking, he has no idea like you and me. Besides, M$ is really good at doing one thing. Making more $. At $400, the economics would not support the margin.
On the other hand, this is an analyst speaking.. what are your credentials? Please don't take this as a personal attack, I'm trying to cast some light on both of the views. I'm not saying that your incorrect, but perhaps some of the information indicates that people really would spend $400 on their XBOX2.
People spend money on weird things. Perhaps the layperson would think that people wouldn't spend hundreds on portable mp3 players, or that Halo 2 wouldn't be the success that it is? I think that there is a large market that would spend this much money on an XBox 2, given the runaway success of the Xbox.
Of course, this analyst could be right out of 'er, but presumably he has some training and market reports that reflects on this?
Whiny readers complain about GT4=vapourware?
on
Gran Turismo 4 JP Launch
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Hah. This is ironic news, given that the Wired story that was just posted earlier today had Grand Turismo 4 as #6 on the year's vapourware list.
Gran Turismo 4, the latest installment in Sony's wildly popular racing series, was supposed to allow PlayStation 2 racers to chase each other over the internet.
Well, I suppose Japan gets it.. and the North American launch won't be long away. Of course, if they had rushed it to make a Christmas release in North America, maybe we would have gotten some faulty Japanese porting.
The consenquences to always choose the MOST prudent and LEAST risky policy can sometimes take the form of things other than terrorist attacks. Yes, you increase the risk of terror attacks by erring on the side of liberal democracy and open government, sometimes that is the cost that we pay. Of course, the United States could simply slide into dictatorship, and your safety would be more assured.. but doesn't that mean the terrorists win?
The LEAST risky policy could be interning foreign nationals, as that Michelle Malkin character seemed to argue that the US should do. Is that the MOST prudent policy?
Tough questions, I admit, but there is never a right answer. On one level I do see your points, but I don't think a blind adherence to government conservativism and security is the right answer.
Cheers tho, I don't mean to sound overly argumentative, as I fear my post may sound.
This is indeed a fine line that the article discusses:
There is now a delicate dance underway between issues of national security and open public scrutiny about taxpayer dollars being spent wisely or squandered. Meanwhile, the swirl of secrecy seems to be revolving around a top secret "stealthy" satellite project, codenamed MISTY.
I had the good fortune to read Michael Ignatieff's new book The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror during the winter holidays. It discusses this issue in depth, and it helped bring a lot of the issues into focus. At least in this case, it seems that the lawmakers are given this information - even if it is only in a 'closed' environment. Of course, the Bush admin should not be threatening lawmakers that are speaking out at all.
Now, some secrecy is needed; but really, there is both a pro and con to liberal democracy - I would say that in this case, the Bush admin should be as open as possible. The 'clear and present' danger at this time is 'terrorism', and is their knowledge of spy satellites really going to change things? Perhaps, I'm not an expert, but unless this can be demonstrated openness is required.
I'm going to try to pre-empt another claim, that of the People's Republic of China. In my opinion, they are not yet a threat, and policy can not be planned around hostilities - that's when you get a new cold war planned. Secrecy is a great debate for public policy - in this case, I'd say given the current situation, the prudent move would be to move towards openness.
I would argue that he had a Marxist approach, yes, with his stages and arguments that supposed 'hard-core' advocates of Open Source software were trying to skip stages 2 - 5 and arrive at stage 6.
My argument may not have been as clear as it should have been, but I believe there is a strong connection btw. the marxist approach (esp. with respects to communists trying to skip stages 2 - 5 [bourgois]).
The article is interesting, and its nice to see an interpretation I had never thought of before, but another poster was right when he mentioned the Marxist angle to this particular interpretation.
Open Source software is simply too new to establish a model for this to follow - there are many different models that could be followed, and it is simply too deterministic.
The Marxist connection jumped right out at me, from this one quotation in the article.
The hard-core FOSS advocates would like to go directly from Stage 1 (Innovation) to Stage 6 (The FOSS Era) and skip the whole commercial part. They argue that proprietary software ownership is undesirable at best, and immoral or unethical at the worst.
But ignores capitalism and human nature, and the economic forces that help fund and drive the creative process in Western society. In spite of fundamental differences between software and brick-and-mortar industries, software follows the same first four phases of the lifecycle.
Come now, this sounds exactly like Marxism.. It is interesting that there has never been a self declared communist state in the world - they were always going through the SOCIALIST stage of the model. The article is essentially saying that they should follow a gradual evolution of ideas, but that is inevitable.
Determinism is dangerous to use in this context - you can't just sit by and wait for Open Source. 'Lifecycle' my ass.
Geez.. I felt that the item concerning Sierra on-line's shut down was the 'top' gaming low. From TFA:
While technically still existing for the sake of retaining the brand, Vivendi Universal shut down cut its Seattle-based staff of 350--ending a long legacy of PC gaming. One of the most respected in the 80's and into the 90's, the company created games such as Kings Quest, Quest for Glory, Red Baron, Aces of the Pacific, and Aces Over Europe (from now defunct flight sim studio Dynamix). In not-so-consoling news, Leisure Suit Larry still lives on as a series of mini-games.
Heck, the loss of Space Quest alone is the saddest thing I've ever heard. Now.. those were games. Thank goodness for abandonware - even though I'm sure this Vivendi Universal company owns the rights, I'll still be downloading Space Quest games.
Given my initial reaction, which was along the same lines as yours, I looked down at the author's biography at the bottom:
Kane Scarlett is a technology journalist/analyst with 20 years in the business, working for such publishers as National Geographic, Population Reference Bureau, Miller Freeman, and International Data Group and managing and editing for such journals as JavaWorld, LinuxWorld, DV Magazine, NC World, and of course, developerWorks.
Seems legit? Obviously he is carried on the IBM website, which does cast some suspicion on the integrity of it.. but I didn't see a conflict of interest in the article.
Wow, similar IDs for government employees? This might prove as dangerous to our freedom as, say, Military IDs.
Oh, give me a break, who modded this 'Flamebait'. Give me a break, he had a valid point.
If you don't want a Federal ID card for employees/contractors, don't join the Federal government? This is more akin to a Military ID card than a 'national ID card'. I think this is a great analogy, and if I had meta-mod points I'd mod that unfair.
This was a horrible chain of events that severely inconvenienced a lot of people for Christmas, and I would be hoppin' mad if I was in any of their places. However, let's not jump on ComAir too hard, IMHO. From TFA:
"This probably seemed like plenty to the designers, but when the storms hit last week, they caused many, many crew reassignments, and the value of 32,000 was exceeded," he said.
It's true, it was an extreme connection of circumstances... horrid weather (heck, there was snow in some Texas town for the first time in like 80 years or something, read it in some glurge article) coupled with the winter holidays. They should redesign their system and admit that they've grown to a level where their system is unable to hand extreme circumstances, and this should serve as a great wake-up call for them.
In the past I've always chuckled at the thought of 'upgrading for the sake of upgrading', but I suppose this is one case where an earlier upgrade could have saved them millions and made a lot of people's holidays better.
Officials promise property owners will be fairly compensated for any land seized.
I suppose they would seize them? Of course, it'd be a lot of different property owners to deal with, rather than just a few farmers.
Interesting that there is a capacity to seize land, especially in the United States where the right to property seems so enshrined in your constitution? I'll have to look into this further.
On the surface, I was inclined to say that this is a good idea - centralization seems to be the way of the day, and centralizing all these services in one superhighway could work. It'll revitalize the area that the superhighway goes through, much like the trains of the 1800s.
That being said, there is a lot of reluctance to this project. Despite what the governor claims, this most certainly isn't a repeat of the Eisenhower-era Interstate project. It's probably just an opportunity for private corporations to enter the arena of mass transportation.. they would get some sort of rights over the variety of communications means that course through this privately-owned and made superhighways.
The article refers to the use of private tolls to sustain this. Clearly, these investing businesses have done an analysis and realized that they can profit off this - despite its 'whopping' $175 bn price tag.
This project would change the shape of the areas affected. New areas along the 'superhighway', and the areas that didn't get included... It would be interesting to see if this project goes ahead, and if towns then lobby in order to have access to the highway.
If you need help, it's pretty easy. I'm using the Mac OS version of MSN, but I did this in the XP version before.. just go to the file menu, and save your contact list. Then you can open up your @gmail session and go to 'import contacts from a saved file'.
Bobs your uncle, all that is needed then for your contacts to each individually say 'yes', which really isn't much of an imposition.
Yeah, I've used a @gmail MSN since I got it, and it's been great to get rid of Hotmail.
It is a bit of a bitch tho, as you do need to start a new MSN account based off your gmail, you can use it as your.net thing. The easiest way is to save your contact list to a file, then create a @Gmail account and import that file - your contacts will have to add you again, but you don't have to go individual by individual.
Sounds very interesting. I've been through a period of intensive language school before, albeit for French. In my personal experience, especially for beginners, your money would be best spent on small class-sized personal instruction. We did some technology work and it was not as effective - perhaps for an intermediate learner once the bases are covered, but I found it could really lead to problems. I did enjoy parts of the computer-based portion, but found other parts to be useless. My French accent was truly horrible, and that was partially a result of me speaking to a computer and checking my results myself - sounded fine to me, but apparently makes a native French-speaker cringe.
That being said, there are a few things that a good language program can have: (1) If speaking, have an ability to hear your own voice to ensure that you have the right tone. (2) If speaking, make sure the teacher can hear the tone, to ensure it is correct. (3) If typing, make sure the computer isn't overly sensitive.
Not sure how you type in Japanse, but it could be hard with all the various characters - I have a friend taking Japanese right now and it is effective. Spent a while reading to him from his reader book, which was fun but probably could be a good use for a computer - preparing for a test. But once again, you really need a human being to pick up on the accent if your trying to produce fluid speakers.
Just my opinion. Good luck with your language school!
You neglected to mention the 'criminals' in Europe and the United States. It is a small percentage of Chinese users using the internet for spam purposes, and this is using a rather broad brush to paint a variety of users in a very negative way.
Certainly, I won't change your views and you won't change mine.
Obviously, you did not read the article. Perhaps I am being too harsh - perhaps you did read the article, and found it to reinforce your pre-existing prejudicial views towards the Far East. I quote from the article.
The spam chain is complex. Basically, though, most people responsible for sending spam are based in the US, though a growing number are now organized criminals in Eastern Europe and Russia. China is the location of choice for the servers that host the spammers' websites and for buying and selling lists of spam zombies, or personal computers (PCs) deliberately infected with spam-enabling viruses.
The criminals, as you so derisively call the citizens of these far-east countries, are using the Chinese as middlemen. Yes, this makes them accomplices, but using such inflammatory satements such as criminals, trespassors is rediculous.
It is fortunate that you don't have to communicate with those countries, because I would assume with neanderthal views such as your own you would have very little to contribute to any intelligent conversation.
It doesn't, as yet, index your browser history, but as Google has discovered with GDS, this can be a double-edged sword.
Now they can market it as the Desktop Search Tool of the privacy-concious, and call a lack of a feature a good safe feature. I know this horse has been flogged to death on the other threads concerning Google Desktop Search, but puhleese.
It is blindingly fast at both indexing and retrieval - which is near instant - and has the huge advantage over Google Desktop Search of being a native Windows client.
Don't know what to say - if it does serve 97 percent of the computer market more effectively, then perhaps they will dominate the system. It'll be interesting to see if this turns into a battle of paradigms: programs native to an OS (i.e. Yahoo!) or browser based (Google).
Slashdot Mirror
When I was home for the holidays, I had what seems to be a typical experience in family technical support. They had a variety of computers (too much money, no sense). One laptop had 2000+ spyware programs running, and the desktop was even taken over by a hostile active desktop. Indeed, you'd go to search in IE and about every other word would be hotlinked to some sort of product.
:)
Installing firefox on their computers is one thing, but I have far younger half-brothers who literally will click 'yes' to everything that pops up. Indeed, they have some sort of furry animal (named 'Bonzibuddy' or something?) that seems to give them buying advice on their desktop (??!?!!). The solution to their problem was that they just established a stand-alone computer for homework and computer games, with no connection to the internet.
Now, I agree that it is a terrible waste of resources, but it at least gives them a reliable computer to do work on without having to wonder if the spyware will destroy their MS Office or 'Sims' or whatever they play.
Meh, I have my iBook and live half the country away.
A telecommunications giant is fighting the city, because it is providing services. Well, that's what this is. A service, and it will benefit society. Besides, its not like Bellsouth doesn't have their own little little nest. From TFA:
BellSouth says it can't compete effectively with cities where taxpayers pay for laying down expensive fiber-optic networks. . . Perhaps, but Lafayette is building because BellSouth and the city's cable TV company aren't rushing to meet the city's needs.
There you go: evidence that capitalism isn't meeting the needs of people, and the state is stepping in. Adam Smith and economic libertarians would have those people simply sitting around, waiting for the invisible hand to bring them their broadband. Nope, the city is intervening, the corporation is retaliating.. and the city should win.
Of course, Bellsouth could probably just win everything by stepping into the area and providing service (probably with an initial loss, but they'd recoup their costs) - heck, get a juicy government subsidy and some nice photo-ops. I'm sure this USA Today article will turn some heads, especially if it gets reported in a more reputable newspaper.
This is an excellent example of a shortcoming of Wikipedia. I try to contribute as much as I can, due to my academic interests in History, and I must say I've never seen such an example as yours. Of course, that may be due to my sticking to obscure 'corners' of the Wiki project.
The Talk page that you linked too is reprehensible to say the least. This is why 'real' academic work needs peer-referencing for credibility.
If I ever hear anybody planning to use Wiki as an authoritative source I'll be sure to point them to the Tokamak program example.
I must say that I was impressed with the interview with Jimmy Wales. I've had my misgivings with the Wikinews project in the past, despite being an avid reader/contributor to Wikipedia. Yet from the article Mr. Wales lays out the project well:
The bloggers are the editorial page and response to the editorial pages, and we're the response to the front page. We'll synthesize what's being reported in a variety of sources.
Brilliant! That's exactly what WikiNews should be, and what it would excel at. Now, it will be simply a blog, but sort of an.. uber-blog. I'm just glad that Mr. Wales isn't looking too far, and acknowledges the shortcomings of the Wikinews project - the accessibility to foreign lands, important peoples, etc. In short, the power to break many stories. Not that bloggers haven't broken a few stories, but the lion's share will continue to reside with the big media sources.
All in all, a great interview. Kudos to Mr. Wales!
Nice try, troll.
Different versions of English, mate. Wasn't aware that I had to type in 'American English' in order to post on this site.
Of course, you've simply revealed yourself to be an ignorant boor. Hopefully you've had your fun for the day.
Depending on what the other console makers do, they may be forced into a lower price.
Are there going to be any comparable consoles to the Xbox2, given that this will presumably be a next-generation console? If not, then perhaps the market really will support this price? Perhaps it will be just that good, that people will fork over $399 in order to get in on this next 'evolution of gaming'.
Remember this is an analyst speaking, he has no idea like you and me. Besides, M$ is really good at doing one thing. Making more $. At $400, the economics would not support the margin.
On the other hand, this is an analyst speaking.. what are your credentials? Please don't take this as a personal attack, I'm trying to cast some light on both of the views. I'm not saying that your incorrect, but perhaps some of the information indicates that people really would spend $400 on their XBOX2.
People spend money on weird things. Perhaps the layperson would think that people wouldn't spend hundreds on portable mp3 players, or that Halo 2 wouldn't be the success that it is? I think that there is a large market that would spend this much money on an XBox 2, given the runaway success of the Xbox.
Of course, this analyst could be right out of 'er, but presumably he has some training and market reports that reflects on this?
Hah. This is ironic news, given that the Wired story that was just posted earlier today had Grand Turismo 4 as #6 on the year's vapourware list.
Gran Turismo 4, the latest installment in Sony's wildly popular racing series, was supposed to allow PlayStation 2 racers to chase each other over the internet.
Well, I suppose Japan gets it.. and the North American launch won't be long away. Of course, if they had rushed it to make a Christmas release in North America, maybe we would have gotten some faulty Japanese porting.
All your base...
The consenquences to always choose the MOST prudent and LEAST risky policy can sometimes take the form of things other than terrorist attacks. Yes, you increase the risk of terror attacks by erring on the side of liberal democracy and open government, sometimes that is the cost that we pay. Of course, the United States could simply slide into dictatorship, and your safety would be more assured.. but doesn't that mean the terrorists win?
The LEAST risky policy could be interning foreign nationals, as that Michelle Malkin character seemed to argue that the US should do. Is that the MOST prudent policy?
Tough questions, I admit, but there is never a right answer. On one level I do see your points, but I don't think a blind adherence to government conservativism and security is the right answer.
Cheers tho, I don't mean to sound overly argumentative, as I fear my post may sound.
This is indeed a fine line that the article discusses:
There is now a delicate dance underway between issues of national security and open public scrutiny about taxpayer dollars being spent wisely or squandered. Meanwhile, the swirl of secrecy seems to be revolving around a top secret "stealthy" satellite project, codenamed MISTY.
I had the good fortune to read Michael Ignatieff's new book The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror during the winter holidays. It discusses this issue in depth, and it helped bring a lot of the issues into focus. At least in this case, it seems that the lawmakers are given this information - even if it is only in a 'closed' environment. Of course, the Bush admin should not be threatening lawmakers that are speaking out at all.
Now, some secrecy is needed; but really, there is both a pro and con to liberal democracy - I would say that in this case, the Bush admin should be as open as possible. The 'clear and present' danger at this time is 'terrorism', and is their knowledge of spy satellites really going to change things? Perhaps, I'm not an expert, but unless this can be demonstrated openness is required.
I'm going to try to pre-empt another claim, that of the People's Republic of China. In my opinion, they are not yet a threat, and policy can not be planned around hostilities - that's when you get a new cold war planned. Secrecy is a great debate for public policy - in this case, I'd say given the current situation, the prudent move would be to move towards openness.
I would argue that he had a Marxist approach, yes, with his stages and arguments that supposed 'hard-core' advocates of Open Source software were trying to skip stages 2 - 5 and arrive at stage 6.
My argument may not have been as clear as it should have been, but I believe there is a strong connection btw. the marxist approach (esp. with respects to communists trying to skip stages 2 - 5 [bourgois]).
The article is interesting, and its nice to see an interpretation I had never thought of before, but another poster was right when he mentioned the Marxist angle to this particular interpretation.
Open Source software is simply too new to establish a model for this to follow - there are many different models that could be followed, and it is simply too deterministic.
The Marxist connection jumped right out at me, from this one quotation in the article.
The hard-core FOSS advocates would like to go directly from Stage 1 (Innovation) to Stage 6 (The FOSS Era) and skip the whole commercial part. They argue that proprietary software ownership is undesirable at best, and immoral or unethical at the worst.
But ignores capitalism and human nature, and the economic forces that help fund and drive the creative process in Western society. In spite of fundamental differences between software and brick-and-mortar industries, software follows the same first four phases of the lifecycle.
Come now, this sounds exactly like Marxism.. It is interesting that there has never been a self declared communist state in the world - they were always going through the SOCIALIST stage of the model. The article is essentially saying that they should follow a gradual evolution of ideas, but that is inevitable.
Determinism is dangerous to use in this context - you can't just sit by and wait for Open Source. 'Lifecycle' my ass.
Geez.. I felt that the item concerning Sierra on-line's shut down was the 'top' gaming low. From TFA:
While technically still existing for the sake of retaining the brand, Vivendi Universal shut down cut its Seattle-based staff of 350--ending a long legacy of PC gaming. One of the most respected in the 80's and into the 90's, the company created games such as Kings Quest, Quest for Glory, Red Baron, Aces of the Pacific, and Aces Over Europe (from now defunct flight sim studio Dynamix). In not-so-consoling news, Leisure Suit Larry still lives on as a series of mini-games.
Heck, the loss of Space Quest alone is the saddest thing I've ever heard. Now.. those were games. Thank goodness for abandonware - even though I'm sure this Vivendi Universal company owns the rights, I'll still be downloading Space Quest games.
Given my initial reaction, which was along the same lines as yours, I looked down at the author's biography at the bottom:
Kane Scarlett is a technology journalist/analyst with 20 years in the business, working for such publishers as National Geographic, Population Reference Bureau, Miller Freeman, and International Data Group and managing and editing for such journals as JavaWorld, LinuxWorld, DV Magazine, NC World, and of course, developerWorks.
Seems legit? Obviously he is carried on the IBM website, which does cast some suspicion on the integrity of it.. but I didn't see a conflict of interest in the article.
Wow, similar IDs for government employees? This might prove as dangerous to our freedom as, say, Military IDs.
Oh, give me a break, who modded this 'Flamebait'. Give me a break, he had a valid point.
If you don't want a Federal ID card for employees/contractors, don't join the Federal government? This is more akin to a Military ID card than a 'national ID card'. I think this is a great analogy, and if I had meta-mod points I'd mod that unfair.
This was a horrible chain of events that severely inconvenienced a lot of people for Christmas, and I would be hoppin' mad if I was in any of their places. However, let's not jump on ComAir too hard, IMHO. From TFA:
"This probably seemed like plenty to the designers, but when the storms hit last week, they caused many, many crew reassignments, and the value of 32,000 was exceeded," he said.
It's true, it was an extreme connection of circumstances... horrid weather (heck, there was snow in some Texas town for the first time in like 80 years or something, read it in some glurge article) coupled with the winter holidays. They should redesign their system and admit that they've grown to a level where their system is unable to hand extreme circumstances, and this should serve as a great wake-up call for them.
In the past I've always chuckled at the thought of 'upgrading for the sake of upgrading', but I suppose this is one case where an earlier upgrade could have saved them millions and made a lot of people's holidays better.
From the article:
Officials promise property owners will be fairly compensated for any land seized.
I suppose they would seize them? Of course, it'd be a lot of different property owners to deal with, rather than just a few farmers.
Interesting that there is a capacity to seize land, especially in the United States where the right to property seems so enshrined in your constitution? I'll have to look into this further.
On the surface, I was inclined to say that this is a good idea - centralization seems to be the way of the day, and centralizing all these services in one superhighway could work. It'll revitalize the area that the superhighway goes through, much like the trains of the 1800s.
That being said, there is a lot of reluctance to this project. Despite what the governor claims, this most certainly isn't a repeat of the Eisenhower-era Interstate project. It's probably just an opportunity for private corporations to enter the arena of mass transportation.. they would get some sort of rights over the variety of communications means that course through this privately-owned and made superhighways.
The article refers to the use of private tolls to sustain this. Clearly, these investing businesses have done an analysis and realized that they can profit off this - despite its 'whopping' $175 bn price tag.
This project would change the shape of the areas affected. New areas along the 'superhighway', and the areas that didn't get included... It would be interesting to see if this project goes ahead, and if towns then lobby in order to have access to the highway.
If you need help, it's pretty easy. I'm using the Mac OS version of MSN, but I did this in the XP version before.. just go to the file menu, and save your contact list. Then you can open up your @gmail session and go to 'import contacts from a saved file'.
Bobs your uncle, all that is needed then for your contacts to each individually say 'yes', which really isn't much of an imposition.
Yeah, I've used a @gmail MSN since I got it, and it's been great to get rid of Hotmail.
.net thing. The easiest way is to save your contact list to a file, then create a @Gmail account and import that file - your contacts will have to add you again, but you don't have to go individual by individual.
It is a bit of a bitch tho, as you do need to start a new MSN account based off your gmail, you can use it as your
Hope that helps.
Sounds very interesting. I've been through a period of intensive language school before, albeit for French. In my personal experience, especially for beginners, your money would be best spent on small class-sized personal instruction. We did some technology work and it was not as effective - perhaps for an intermediate learner once the bases are covered, but I found it could really lead to problems. I did enjoy parts of the computer-based portion, but found other parts to be useless. My French accent was truly horrible, and that was partially a result of me speaking to a computer and checking my results myself - sounded fine to me, but apparently makes a native French-speaker cringe.
That being said, there are a few things that a good language program can have:
(1) If speaking, have an ability to hear your own voice to ensure that you have the right tone.
(2) If speaking, make sure the teacher can hear the tone, to ensure it is correct.
(3) If typing, make sure the computer isn't overly sensitive.
Not sure how you type in Japanse, but it could be hard with all the various characters - I have a friend taking Japanese right now and it is effective. Spent a while reading to him from his reader book, which was fun but probably could be a good use for a computer - preparing for a test. But once again, you really need a human being to pick up on the accent if your trying to produce fluid speakers.
Just my opinion. Good luck with your language school!
You neglected to mention the 'criminals' in Europe and the United States. It is a small percentage of Chinese users using the internet for spam purposes, and this is using a rather broad brush to paint a variety of users in a very negative way.
Certainly, I won't change your views and you won't change mine.
Obviously, you did not read the article. Perhaps I am being too harsh - perhaps you did read the article, and found it to reinforce your pre-existing prejudicial views towards the Far East. I quote from the article.
The spam chain is complex. Basically, though, most people responsible for sending spam are based in the US, though a growing number are now organized criminals in Eastern Europe and Russia. China is the location of choice for the servers that host the spammers' websites and for buying and selling lists of spam zombies, or personal computers (PCs) deliberately infected with spam-enabling viruses.
The criminals, as you so derisively call the citizens of these far-east countries, are using the Chinese as middlemen. Yes, this makes them accomplices, but using such inflammatory satements such as criminals, trespassors is rediculous.
It is fortunate that you don't have to communicate with those countries, because I would assume with neanderthal views such as your own you would have very little to contribute to any intelligent conversation.
If I ever got mod-points, I'd mod this one up. Wow, I RTFA and didn't pick up on that, and apparently the article poster didn't either.
Although to give the poster some credit, that website 'The Register' is not the best written of websites.
It doesn't, as yet, index your browser history, but as Google has discovered with GDS, this can be a double-edged sword.
Now they can market it as the Desktop Search Tool of the privacy-concious, and call a lack of a feature a good safe feature. I know this horse has been flogged to death on the other threads concerning Google Desktop Search, but puhleese.
It is blindingly fast at both indexing and retrieval - which is near instant - and has the huge advantage over Google Desktop Search of being a native Windows client.
Don't know what to say - if it does serve 97 percent of the computer market more effectively, then perhaps they will dominate the system. It'll be interesting to see if this turns into a battle of paradigms: programs native to an OS (i.e. Yahoo!) or browser based (Google).