Apple's almost doing this already with the inclusion of a lot of smaller labels on iTMS. By eliminating the need to produce large volumes of CDs and ship them all over the country, they're putting the smaller labels on the same level as the big ones, which is an incredibly good thing.
But your idea reminds me of the time Jobs was demoing Garageband at MacWorld and, after he was done making the song and importing it into iTunes he asked "What more could you want?" (Or something to that effect.)
My wife was working on a presentation for her masters class and was getting files from her Windows-using classmates to produce the final Powerpoint. For some reason Office v.X couldn't open the files, but NeoOffice/J could.
For that reason alone (and the price), I recommend NeoOffice. I've been using it as my sole office application for some time now with no problems.
The problem is the shitty ass cell network in the US. Using WAP on my phone is like this:
Login
Wait...
Scroll to "News"
Wait...
Click "CNN"
Wait...
Click "Headlines"
Wait
Click a story I want to read
wait
Read the first 250 words, click next
wait.
The browser's not so bad, it's the connection speed. You'd think downloading plain text at 19kbps wouldn't be so damn slow.
Yeah, and the missile defense system that hasn't worked yet isn't pork. And neither are the cost-plus, no-bid contracts awarded to Halliburton and its subsidiaries.
Oh great and powerful/. Gods! Forgive this mere mortal for questioning the wisdom of spending $400 billion a year in unaudited funds on breaking things and hurting people. I must have forgotten that I need to support the troops by cutting VA funding and spending it on technologies that don't work.
The problem with Indian and Spanish dishes is that they require spices that are difficult to grow, especially in the kind of temperate climate people like, and take up a significant amount of room that could otherwise be used for crops.
While I'm sure you could import curry powder or saffron strands (dried, so they're low weight), you have the problem of the spices losing their efficacy over long storage times.
French food uses herbs that are generally found in the temperate climate of France, so they can be grown in the same greenhouse as the crops to save space.
First off, AFAIK NASA still has microfiche copies of the plans for the Saturn V. They gave away the bulky paper plans were given away.
Second, we should develop a Saturn V only as a "space bus" to transfer people and cargo that can't be heavily irradiated by the Van Allen belts to and from LEO. It's far too expensive and to send cargo up on a firecracker. A better way would be to use a space elevator. If launched correctly you could even fling cargo straight to the moon or Mars without any fuel.
Once the people and cargo are in LEO, you can transfer them to a spacecraft (in the truest sense of the word) that can send them to the Moon or Mars.
Energy: Solar power stations using silicon manufactured on the moon or mining for Helium-3 for fusion power.
Insurance: Eggs in one basket = bad. Even if you never send people to the moon, knowing a lot about deep space operations makes redirecting asteroids or comets away from Earth much easier.
Better use of Funds: The current military-industrial complex spends billions on technologies that can't be tested (like the 'missile defense') and cannot be audited. If we're going to spend all that money on fancy high-tech stuff, why not make it something productive instead of destructive?
Of course, to get anything off of the moon you need to have three things; people, equipment, and life support materials. All of which need to be lifted from the bottom of the much larger gravity well on Earth.
Now if you could have an agricultural colony on Mars growing food for a Moon base and launching it using fuel made on Mars, then you'd really have something. Or a space elevator from Earth.
To continue the explorer analogy: The Moon = the Canary Islands, Mars = The West Indies.
Large Companies are good for somethings, like manufacturing, where there are economies of scale.
Small companies are good for other things, like personal services or goods distribution.
Individuals can do a lot of things themselves, like growing herbs and vegetables or raising a couple chickens or guinea hens.
But there's no reason to be as wasteful and greedy and polluting as we have become, and that's the society I want to leave behind. And I don't think I'm the only one who wants to do that.
I don't want my own company. I want to live off the grid and independent of society; grow my own food, make my own fuel, grow my own food and live an undisturbed life.
And don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. The "Corporate World" isn't three people who incorporate to shirk personal responsibility. The corporate world isn't small businesses like the one I work for. The corporate world is companies like Wal*Mart or ExxonMobil or some other Huge entity where workers who don't put in 80 hour weeks are frowned upon and people and land and customers are resources that should have as much wealth wrung out of them as possible lest some other corporate monster get it.
They suck the soul out of music, art, film, and pull the joy out of any job they get their hands on. They homogenize their product, homogenize the culture and homogenize their employees. It's depressing.
That's why I'm trying to immerse myself as little as possible for the shortest amount of time I can, and then leave it forever.
Don't get your hopes up guys, girls don't like introverted single minded computergeeks. Get a different hobby, lose the ugly glasses, get some contacts. Get a skin treatment and loose some weight. Get some dental work done. Learn how to communicate and how to listen. Girls in general couldn't care less about computers, nor do they like that you spend 10 hours a day in front of the screen.
About changing hobbies:
No.
I will sit in front of my computer when I feel like it. I will simply not abandon my wife to do so. It would be no different if I spent hours and hours working on my car or mowing my lawn or learning sports stats. The type of hobby isn't the problem, ignoring your partner is.
What you're suggesting is that all people everywhere should give up things they enjoy in order to attract someone else, which doesn't have to be the case.
Who said I don't send letters? I send them letters all the time. Just last week I sent them three; one about the Downing Street Memo, another about the idiotic energy policy and CAFE standards, and another about Santorums disgusting attempt to turn the NWS into the research arm of AccuWeather.
But I don't expect it to help anything except get a politely worded "Fuck off and die" letter. There's two words politicians understand: money and power. I don't have any of either of them to give, so I'm not worth listening to.
PHP is good for a start, but be sure to cover Javascript and the HTML DOM. It's unlikely that they'll encounter PHP in the real world, but Javascript will help them since it's the basis for DHTML and for some things in Flash.
And Javascript takes little more than a text editor and a web browser to create, so no expensive web host or SFTP.
The Bush administration supports the U SAP AT RIOT Act. Bush will sign it into law. His hands aren't clean.
Now let's assume I do write to my Congressional delegation. Seeing as how my senators are both republican and my Democratic congressman is so middle-of-the-road he's got a yellow line down his back I doubt they'll listen.
Besides, why listen to one poor, liberal young kid who doesn't have the money to donate when you can do the bidding of large corporate donors? (And don't think they don't support the U SAP AT RIOT Act.)
The key point you're missing is that PHP doesn't have a rigid OO structure, which is why it's popular, especially for web scripting. People don't want rigid structures if they just want to throw a page together. It also is integrated well with Apache and uses similar control functions to C/C++, so programmers can switch between the languages easily.
I've solved that problem by simply not visiting sites that use pop-ups. Besides, running a site and making money by advertising has been shown to be an unprofitable business model.
Slashdot Mirror
But your idea reminds me of the time Jobs was demoing Garageband at MacWorld and, after he was done making the song and importing it into iTunes he asked "What more could you want?" (Or something to that effect.)
Someone from the audience shouted "Sell it!"
For that reason alone (and the price), I recommend NeoOffice. I've been using it as my sole office application for some time now with no problems.
Just like some other craft we happen to know.
Login
Wait...
Scroll to "News"
Wait...
Click "CNN"
Wait...
Click "Headlines"
Wait
Click a story I want to read
wait
Read the first 250 words, click next
wait.
The browser's not so bad, it's the connection speed. You'd think downloading plain text at 19kbps wouldn't be so damn slow.
Yeah, and the missile defense system that hasn't worked yet isn't pork. And neither are the cost-plus, no-bid contracts awarded to Halliburton and its subsidiaries.
But you have to make sure it's a Mac-compatible blank robot.
Simple solution: Put the DVD into the DVD player with the TV off, get yourself ready to watch the movie and then turn the TV on.
Ha!
</sarcasm>
While I'm sure you could import curry powder or saffron strands (dried, so they're low weight), you have the problem of the spices losing their efficacy over long storage times.
French food uses herbs that are generally found in the temperate climate of France, so they can be grown in the same greenhouse as the crops to save space.
Second, we should develop a Saturn V only as a "space bus" to transfer people and cargo that can't be heavily irradiated by the Van Allen belts to and from LEO. It's far too expensive and to send cargo up on a firecracker. A better way would be to use a space elevator. If launched correctly you could even fling cargo straight to the moon or Mars without any fuel.
Once the people and cargo are in LEO, you can transfer them to a spacecraft (in the truest sense of the word) that can send them to the Moon or Mars.
Energy: Solar power stations using silicon manufactured on the moon or mining for Helium-3 for fusion power.
Insurance: Eggs in one basket = bad. Even if you never send people to the moon, knowing a lot about deep space operations makes redirecting asteroids or comets away from Earth much easier.
Better use of Funds: The current military-industrial complex spends billions on technologies that can't be tested (like the 'missile defense') and cannot be audited. If we're going to spend all that money on fancy high-tech stuff, why not make it something productive instead of destructive?
Now if you could have an agricultural colony on Mars growing food for a Moon base and launching it using fuel made on Mars, then you'd really have something. Or a space elevator from Earth.
To continue the explorer analogy: The Moon = the Canary Islands, Mars = The West Indies.
Small companies are good for other things, like personal services or goods distribution.
Individuals can do a lot of things themselves, like growing herbs and vegetables or raising a couple chickens or guinea hens.
But there's no reason to be as wasteful and greedy and polluting as we have become, and that's the society I want to leave behind. And I don't think I'm the only one who wants to do that.
And don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. The "Corporate World" isn't three people who incorporate to shirk personal responsibility. The corporate world isn't small businesses like the one I work for. The corporate world is companies like Wal*Mart or ExxonMobil or some other Huge entity where workers who don't put in 80 hour weeks are frowned upon and people and land and customers are resources that should have as much wealth wrung out of them as possible lest some other corporate monster get it.
That's why I'm trying to immerse myself as little as possible for the shortest amount of time I can, and then leave it forever.
About changing hobbies:
No.
I will sit in front of my computer when I feel like it. I will simply not abandon my wife to do so. It would be no different if I spent hours and hours working on my car or mowing my lawn or learning sports stats. The type of hobby isn't the problem, ignoring your partner is.
What you're suggesting is that all people everywhere should give up things they enjoy in order to attract someone else, which doesn't have to be the case.
I prefer them younger, however, so I only look at PNG.
Just don't tell my wife.
But I don't expect it to help anything except get a politely worded "Fuck off and die" letter. There's two words politicians understand: money and power. I don't have any of either of them to give, so I'm not worth listening to.
And Javascript takes little more than a text editor and a web browser to create, so no expensive web host or SFTP.
Now let's assume I do write to my Congressional delegation. Seeing as how my senators are both republican and my Democratic congressman is so middle-of-the-road he's got a yellow line down his back I doubt they'll listen.
Besides, why listen to one poor, liberal young kid who doesn't have the money to donate when you can do the bidding of large corporate donors? (And don't think they don't support the U SAP AT RIOT Act.)
The key point you're missing is that PHP doesn't have a rigid OO structure, which is why it's popular, especially for web scripting. People don't want rigid structures if they just want to throw a page together. It also is integrated well with Apache and uses similar control functions to C/C++, so programmers can switch between the languages easily.
It's quite simple, really. I'll burn all my purchased music to CD and re-rip them.
If they think for one second I'm going to tolerate an "Intel Inside" sticker on my Mac they have another thing coming.
I've solved that problem by simply not visiting sites that use pop-ups. Besides, running a site and making money by advertising has been shown to be an unprofitable business model.