Sooooooo inclined to agree with you!...but ultimately I'd buy into a Ponzi scheme if I could get payout with very little or no investment, which is what our SSI allows. So not ponzi.
big black holes = gravitational mass? = maybe account for missing mass we thought of as 'dark matter'? Just curious... this is awesome [if it's not outlier of course].
I want Twitter to fight (and not just to warn account users, but to keep the data out of the govt's hands) for the principle of the matter; and I'm not strongly pro- or anti-WikiLeaks (I follow for pragmatic reasons, heh); but it would make my skin crawl if the govt wanted infos on all followers. The money wasted; the police state implications — good heavens, I'd make a time machine and go back in time and trip up revere's horse so the british could come.
iTunes isn't even 'music manager'-proper, but a store. A store that is as large as an operating system, tries to install a browser and movie player with every update (even though you always opt out and can't use that bloatware from within the software anyway), and takes up a HUGE memory footprint. It lacks support for other music formats (because, I know, it's more of a store than a music manager). And while you have to tell it not to sync/delete your music (under advanced settings), I still haven't found a way to tell the giant music manager how to automatically detect new music on my computer.
It is gargantuan, when all it really does is let you make playlists and buy music. Yes, it's plug-and-play, but what ISN'T? Bitpim does that; is that even a 'feature' these days, or a basic requirement?
Over the years, I've had (and proudly still have) original iPod, and other versions of the h/w thought iPod Touch, and in each iteration the h/w has gotten better; the iTunes software has gotten worse. (Genius, for example). The safeties have been a PITA (like I'm never going to register more than 5 machines in a LIFETIME). iTunes is sorely in need of a hollywood diet; it's default modes shouldn't delete anything and the default installs shouldn't install anything except iTunes itself.
If apple would clean up their act and not try to make iPhone/pod software bigger than the (or the) operating system, I'd support iPhone; apple does great innovation! But they need the competition, so I'm glad android and even ms and rim are giving apple run for their money.
On a more serious note, this is a horrible blow against the accessibility of public officials, and a senseless attack against some very good people. But I fear it'll only get worse if the US is unable to reboot itsself.
This is precisely the problem. Reps aren't usually national figures that need SS protection; they should be able to meet w/ constituents and discuss issues without fear of being attacked (and vice versa). I think it's extraordinarily important in a representative government.
I rep on a much smaller scale, and physically poll people and have changed my mind on issues based on those interactions. I'm so impressed that a US House Rep tried to do the same. And completely disheartened that her efforts ended so tragically.:-/
In a society of various-sized people, a handgun is an equalizer.
As a slender woman, I'm not likely to fight off an attacker that's 3x my size with a knife or baseball bat. I imagine slender men and maybe the elderly might feel the same way.
I've never shot anybody, but I've wielded (brandished?) my 9mm with the intent to protect myself, went to court and had the mf'er prosecuted. I have no doubt he would have severely hurt me (and others) if I hadn't had access to a handgun.
(Plus the whole 4th amendment thing — it's there for a reason.)
OTOH, I see no reason for assault weapons to be available except to the military; there's self-defense (handgun), then there's just DRIVE BY.
The news was that a representative who wanted to be more available and hands-on for her constituents — a different kind of politician who takes time to make herself available in a less-scripted manner than "Town Halls" — gets gunned down for her trouble. And not only her, but her staff and others.
I don't think it's a 'guns' issue — biologicals or chemicals (ricin, sarin) could have done the same or worse. Or a simple suicide bomber could have made as much of a splash (though not as many frags, probably).
I think it's a political issue, and a damned shame that a probable real 'do-gooder' and maybe even 'honest politician' (hold the oxymoron comments!) gets herself and her staff shot up for trying to change the political landscape.
The representative was right: emails are impersonal; and imo Town Halls are scripted b.s.; but constituents ought to be able to communicate directly with their reps, and there ought to be more transparency in govt. Hell, maybe she ought to have used Skype; there SHOULD be a tech solution for honest govt reps to speak to voters on a personal level w/out citizens losing even more civil rights.
This was my thought at first, too, but then I realized that I communicate so differently with voice than with the written word. I'm imagining talking into a word processor so I can see the words at least, and maybe touching the screen to manipulate them (select/delete/italicize). But I don't think it would work; I vocalize my thoughts very differently than I write them. (Oooh, and just the thought of 'saying' programming languages, or 'saying' rows and rows of numerical data... egads!)
I'm all about the keyboard, I guess. I wonder if they could make a tablet with an indented home row that could provide tactile feedback. Older flip phones used to have indents or raised dots plus the tactile feedback so I could txt without looking — something I CAN'T do on my freaking touchscreen phone.
Ouch no. That's like having anti-virus and not using it.
I DO think we learn from our mistakes. If you "white out" the ugly parts of our past, which happened *naturally* (that is, not some conspiracy by a few evil overlords, but a subconscious, collective decision to enslave people based on race), it's doomed to happen again. And I'm not just talking about American slavery; slavery has been pretty much everywhere. (And still is, just under nicer-sounding names, imo.)
There have always been wars, but I think we're fighting them more responsibly now. Heh, countries tend to consult with the U.N. first (note the 'heh') — international relations would take a giant step backwards without that kind of mega-diplomacy. And I think American policy re: Afghanistan IS tempered by our war in Vietnam. ~~I wish we weren't STILL in Afghanistan; or at least that we would have focused on Afghanistan and left Iraq out of it; but at least it seems the U.S. is treading more thoughtfully so we don't end up in another Vietnam.
There haven't been any more Nagasakis and Hiroshimas; there've been anti-nuclear treaties; nations are learning to get on. New problems popped up ('terrorists'), but we'll learn to deal with that, too. It's like a growing process.
And that's why we have to keep Twain's Huck Finn in its original, and let kids know that even genius authors (and the fathers of our country, etc) were not infallible, and that none of us are impervious to making the same mistakes again.
Most of the older internet users started out as 'outsiders' (at least, nobody knew what I meant about FTP usenet and new kernels). And I'd rather be an outsider than a target.
But seriously re: google accts, I just made [yet another] Gmail account and yes, they ask for cell number, but I didn't need it, and I didn't give it. (I did have a hard time with that captcha picture... I can never read them, takes forever to get it typed right.)
Plus, it just wouldn't be right for the disenfranchised w/out phones to be denied email through a library computer; Google and fb and microsoft WANT everything they can get, but you really only need to pick a stupid "what's your mom's name" question, an available username, and an okay pw. (And good enough eyesight to read captchas).
One sorta-real Facebook account with very few emer. contacts that's rarely used (and only for emergencies); but several other FB accounts that are just junk for people who want to "friend" me, connected to several junk GMail/Google accounts identifying me as a Harvard business grad, an African immigrant, a gay boy from Louisiana, a junkie from CT, a UNC student, others... I share these fakies with some local friends who want to remain anonymous, too. Oops, I've messed up my "Web" experience, oh noes!
(The minute I logged into a site that "knew who I was" and offered to connect to FB for me, I decided to go Sybil on "Web 2.0".)
MAYBE I feel sorry for the elderly or disabled who for whatever reason want an e-card from an unspecified friend, but why wouldn't they ask themselves why a FRIEND would send you a link to a site that requires you to install something to see a dumb-ass picture. My 76 yr old tech-disabled mother wouldn't buy into that crap.
I just use the client email program windows live mail (preloaded on my win machines). It saves emails in subdirs "contacts" and "Windows Live Mail" at \users\[user]\appdata\microsoft, all in.eml format, and in the proper account subdirectories (gmail/msn/[isp]).
I used cell as alarm mainly because of power outages, but really the idea of having fewer gadgets doing more work makes sense to me.
The one time I invested in a batt backup alarm, I wasn't smart enough to put it on surge protector, and lightening whacked the whole thing. (My fault, not alarm/batt backup.)
I got my hsd during first year of college; it was an early entrance program. You load up your first years of hs w/ adv classes (like by placing out), and spend your hs senior year in college as a freshman. I didn't have much of a choice--I polished off my required courses in my hs junior year, but lacked a few credits to officialy graduate; several colleges were interested in taking me early, and the h.s. took those credits (AFTER I PASSED, of course) and gave me by hsd.
That was in the 80s; it seems now more high schools offer a better range of AP and college-credit classes and/or are more open to letting juniors/seniors leave camput and take classes at local colleges. (Which is much better solution since it keeps you with your age group, imo).
I found out accidentally that LG phones standardized on micro-USB sometime within the last few years, and never looked back; family has 4 current LGs, several older ones (as backups), and they all fit the same charger. Opted out of other brands (bb esp) because of charger issue — hotel staff always have micro-USB chargers if you left yours at home.
Good to know HTC is standardized on m-USB too. They should advertise that $hit.
Is this really TROLL?! Cause I was thinking the same thing. *ouch*
The word cloud of published materials idea is neat, but trying to make it represent 'human history', instead of a subset of human history (like, 'published by...'') does seem a tad arrogant.
I gotta agree -- I hate 'censorship'-proper, but being selective is a service to the consumer, and Amazon's got to make that choice.
Anyway, part of being a published author is the quest to get your work published. Heinlein earned the right over time (DECADES) to get just about anything published; Number of the Beast wouldn't have seen the light of day if it hadn't been for his earlier works.
I think Kyle Michel Sullivan is doing the groundwork to BECOME such an author, and I wish him well. I bet if his stuff sells, Amazon will review their submission criteria.
...although I disagree because I am even MORE pessimistic: the govt (eh, maybe just the State Dept) wouldn't want assange publishing anything unless assange was on their payroll./sigh/
I went straight to daily kos when the NN news came out, and most of us didn't know wth to think (the media stories were along the lines of "everybody hates it" except comcast and verizon; then the ACLU filed suit; etc major confusion)...and I still think the opinions through the american political spectrum are too varied to label. The idea is nice, but is the implementation fair (does it go far enough)?
.
But now that the info's been disseminated more, my biggest personal concern isn't over NN itself, but with the unfortunate timing of the US's 'discomfort' with wikileaks (do I need a link) + the U.N.'s 'concern' with internet not being controlled.
Not that the US could be strong-armed by the third-world countries (and other proponents of UN regulation of internet), but that the U.S. could take advantage of the UN's concern in order to stuff wikileaks or other sites/services considered a threat to national security.
Slashdot Mirror
Sooooooo inclined to agree with you! ...but ultimately I'd buy into a Ponzi scheme if I could get payout with very little or no investment, which is what our SSI allows. So not ponzi.
big black holes = gravitational mass? = maybe account for missing mass we thought of as 'dark matter'? Just curious... this is awesome [if it's not outlier of course].
Feels like a witch hunt to me. /just saying.
Plus, there's overkill — dont' they have all they need to convict manning?
I want Twitter to fight (and not just to warn account users, but to keep the data out of the govt's hands) for the principle of the matter; and I'm not strongly pro- or anti-WikiLeaks (I follow for pragmatic reasons, heh); but it would make my skin crawl if the govt wanted infos on all followers. The money wasted; the police state implications — good heavens, I'd make a time machine and go back in time and trip up revere's horse so the british could come.
iTunes isn't even 'music manager'-proper, but a store. A store that is as large as an operating system, tries to install a browser and movie player with every update (even though you always opt out and can't use that bloatware from within the software anyway), and takes up a HUGE memory footprint. It lacks support for other music formats (because, I know, it's more of a store than a music manager). And while you have to tell it not to sync/delete your music (under advanced settings), I still haven't found a way to tell the giant music manager how to automatically detect new music on my computer.
It is gargantuan, when all it really does is let you make playlists and buy music. Yes, it's plug-and-play, but what ISN'T? Bitpim does that; is that even a 'feature' these days, or a basic requirement?
Over the years, I've had (and proudly still have) original iPod, and other versions of the h/w thought iPod Touch, and in each iteration the h/w has gotten better; the iTunes software has gotten worse. (Genius, for example). The safeties have been a PITA (like I'm never going to register more than 5 machines in a LIFETIME). iTunes is sorely in need of a hollywood diet; it's default modes shouldn't delete anything and the default installs shouldn't install anything except iTunes itself.
If apple would clean up their act and not try to make iPhone/pod software bigger than the (or the) operating system, I'd support iPhone; apple does great innovation! But they need the competition, so I'm glad android and even ms and rim are giving apple run for their money.
win vista > iTunes
Yeah, i hate iTunes that much.
On a more serious note, this is a horrible blow against the accessibility of public officials, and a senseless attack against some very good people. But I fear it'll only get worse if the US is unable to reboot itsself.
This is precisely the problem. Reps aren't usually national figures that need SS protection; they should be able to meet w/ constituents and discuss issues without fear of being attacked (and vice versa). I think it's extraordinarily important in a representative government.
I rep on a much smaller scale, and physically poll people and have changed my mind on issues based on those interactions. I'm so impressed that a US House Rep tried to do the same. And completely disheartened that her efforts ended so tragically. :-/
*ouch*
As a slender woman, I'm not likely to fight off an attacker that's 3x my size with a knife or baseball bat. I imagine slender men and maybe the elderly might feel the same way.
I've never shot anybody, but I've wielded (brandished?) my 9mm with the intent to protect myself, went to court and had the mf'er prosecuted. I have no doubt he would have severely hurt me (and others) if I hadn't had access to a handgun.
(Plus the whole 4th amendment thing — it's there for a reason.)
OTOH, I see no reason for assault weapons to be available except to the military; there's self-defense (handgun), then there's just DRIVE BY.
The news was that a representative who wanted to be more available and hands-on for her constituents — a different kind of politician who takes time to make herself available in a less-scripted manner than "Town Halls" — gets gunned down for her trouble. And not only her, but her staff and others.
I don't think it's a 'guns' issue — biologicals or chemicals (ricin, sarin) could have done the same or worse. Or a simple suicide bomber could have made as much of a splash (though not as many frags, probably).
I think it's a political issue, and a damned shame that a probable real 'do-gooder' and maybe even 'honest politician' (hold the oxymoron comments!) gets herself and her staff shot up for trying to change the political landscape.
The representative was right: emails are impersonal; and imo Town Halls are scripted b.s.; but constituents ought to be able to communicate directly with their reps, and there ought to be more transparency in govt. Hell, maybe she ought to have used Skype; there SHOULD be a tech solution for honest govt reps to speak to voters on a personal level w/out citizens losing even more civil rights.
Hell, maybe they're holding Dolphin Court to decide if they should give US rights.
We're a cocky bunch, aren't we. Heh.
(But we should be humane to all creatures, of course.)
(Unless they're trying to annihilate us. Cf Independence Day.)
This was my thought at first, too, but then I realized that I communicate so differently with voice than with the written word. I'm imagining talking into a word processor so I can see the words at least, and maybe touching the screen to manipulate them (select/delete/italicize). But I don't think it would work; I vocalize my thoughts very differently than I write them. (Oooh, and just the thought of 'saying' programming languages, or 'saying' rows and rows of numerical data... egads!)
I'm all about the keyboard, I guess. I wonder if they could make a tablet with an indented home row that could provide tactile feedback. Older flip phones used to have indents or raised dots plus the tactile feedback so I could txt without looking — something I CAN'T do on my freaking touchscreen phone.
Ouch no. That's like having anti-virus and not using it.
I DO think we learn from our mistakes. If you "white out" the ugly parts of our past, which happened *naturally* (that is, not some conspiracy by a few evil overlords, but a subconscious, collective decision to enslave people based on race), it's doomed to happen again. And I'm not just talking about American slavery; slavery has been pretty much everywhere. (And still is, just under nicer-sounding names, imo.)
There have always been wars, but I think we're fighting them more responsibly now. Heh, countries tend to consult with the U.N. first (note the 'heh') — international relations would take a giant step backwards without that kind of mega-diplomacy. And I think American policy re: Afghanistan IS tempered by our war in Vietnam. ~~I wish we weren't STILL in Afghanistan; or at least that we would have focused on Afghanistan and left Iraq out of it; but at least it seems the U.S. is treading more thoughtfully so we don't end up in another Vietnam.
There haven't been any more Nagasakis and Hiroshimas; there've been anti-nuclear treaties; nations are learning to get on. New problems popped up ('terrorists'), but we'll learn to deal with that, too. It's like a growing process.
And that's why we have to keep Twain's Huck Finn in its original, and let kids know that even genius authors (and the fathers of our country, etc) were not infallible, and that none of us are impervious to making the same mistakes again.
Most of the older internet users started out as 'outsiders' (at least, nobody knew what I meant about FTP usenet and new kernels). And I'd rather be an outsider than a target.
But seriously re: google accts, I just made [yet another] Gmail account and yes, they ask for cell number, but I didn't need it, and I didn't give it. (I did have a hard time with that captcha picture... I can never read them, takes forever to get it typed right.)
Plus, it just wouldn't be right for the disenfranchised w/out phones to be denied email through a library computer; Google and fb and microsoft WANT everything they can get, but you really only need to pick a stupid "what's your mom's name" question, an available username, and an okay pw. (And good enough eyesight to read captchas).
One sorta-real Facebook account with very few emer. contacts that's rarely used (and only for emergencies); but several other FB accounts that are just junk for people who want to "friend" me, connected to several junk GMail/Google accounts identifying me as a Harvard business grad, an African immigrant, a gay boy from Louisiana, a junkie from CT, a UNC student, others... I share these fakies with some local friends who want to remain anonymous, too. Oops, I've messed up my "Web" experience, oh noes!
(The minute I logged into a site that "knew who I was" and offered to connect to FB for me, I decided to go Sybil on "Web 2.0".)
It's more like an invitation to attack yourself.
MAYBE I feel sorry for the elderly or disabled who for whatever reason want an e-card from an unspecified friend, but why wouldn't they ask themselves why a FRIEND would send you a link to a site that requires you to install something to see a dumb-ass picture. My 76 yr old tech-disabled mother wouldn't buy into that crap.
I just use the client email program windows live mail (preloaded on my win machines). It saves emails in subdirs "contacts" and "Windows Live Mail" at \users\[user]\appdata\microsoft, all in .eml format, and in the proper account subdirectories (gmail/msn/[isp]).
I used cell as alarm mainly because of power outages, but really the idea of having fewer gadgets doing more work makes sense to me.
The one time I invested in a batt backup alarm, I wasn't smart enough to put it on surge protector, and lightening whacked the whole thing. (My fault, not alarm/batt backup.)
But my cell alarm's never failed me yet.
(Then again, it's not apple.)
I got my hsd during first year of college; it was an early entrance program. You load up your first years of hs w/ adv classes (like by placing out), and spend your hs senior year in college as a freshman. I didn't have much of a choice--I polished off my required courses in my hs junior year, but lacked a few credits to officialy graduate; several colleges were interested in taking me early, and the h.s. took those credits (AFTER I PASSED, of course) and gave me by hsd.
That was in the 80s; it seems now more high schools offer a better range of AP and college-credit classes and/or are more open to letting juniors/seniors leave camput and take classes at local colleges. (Which is much better solution since it keeps you with your age group, imo).
I found out accidentally that LG phones standardized on micro-USB sometime within the last few years, and never looked back; family has 4 current LGs, several older ones (as backups), and they all fit the same charger. Opted out of other brands (bb esp) because of charger issue — hotel staff always have micro-USB chargers if you left yours at home.
Good to know HTC is standardized on m-USB too. They should advertise that $hit.
Is this really TROLL?! Cause I was thinking the same thing. *ouch*
The word cloud of published materials idea is neat, but trying to make it represent 'human history', instead of a subset of human history (like, 'published by...'') does seem a tad arrogant.
I gotta agree -- I hate 'censorship'-proper, but being selective is a service to the consumer, and Amazon's got to make that choice.
Anyway, part of being a published author is the quest to get your work published. Heinlein earned the right over time (DECADES) to get just about anything published; Number of the Beast wouldn't have seen the light of day if it hadn't been for his earlier works.
I think Kyle Michel Sullivan is doing the groundwork to BECOME such an author, and I wish him well. I bet if his stuff sells, Amazon will review their submission criteria.
.
But now that the info's been disseminated more, my biggest personal concern isn't over NN itself, but with the unfortunate timing of the US's 'discomfort' with wikileaks (do I need a link) + the U.N.'s 'concern' with internet not being controlled.
Not that the US could be strong-armed by the third-world countries (and other proponents of UN regulation of internet), but that the U.S. could take advantage of the UN's concern in order to stuff wikileaks or other sites/services considered a threat to national security.
encrypt her shit (or at least password-protect it), ESP on a SHARED terminal.