Justin Beiber wouldn't be popular unless a lot of people actually liked his music, as hard as that is to believe. A result of marketing he may be, but they are marketing something people clearly want. The fundamental problem is most people have terrible taste in music. The labels are just pandering to that.
Exactly right. If you went to some English-speaking desert island where they've never heard of Justin Beiber and you played a teenage girl his music, and some 'indie' artist's music and you asked her which she liked better, she'd pick Justin. His music is popular because his demographic likes it. Look at Rebecca Black. Her terrible song rocketed in popularity with no marketing behind it. Why? Because her demographic liked it.
How do you associate the number of vacation days to which an employee is entitled? How to do you forward vacation requests to a manage for approval? How does Google Calendar deduct taken vacation from the pool that the employee has? How does the pool reset at the end of the year? Does Google calendar automatically add vacation days as an employee accrues them? What about vacation carry-over from one year to the next? Is there a mechanism to notify HR / management if an employee hasn't used their vacation time?
"Psssh." *pulls out smartphone and goes to Youtube.*
"Hey Dad, my smartphone has stopped working." "Yeah, I cut it off." "What?!?! Why?!?!" "You blew me off when I told you to go wash the car. Now go cut the lawn."
also promises to free car owners of the tiresome chore of washing the car
Having children is also another way to accomplish this, albeit at much greater cost. Once I (and my siblings) turned 10, my parents never washed a vehicle again (until we left the house).
makes this the only vehicle legally allowed to be sold in the US!
Just because the vehicle will never be sold in the USA doesn't mean it's not interesting. Billions of people live elsewhere in the world and drive vehicles unavailable in the good ol' USA. Many of them also pay a lot more for energy than Americans do, relative to their incomes, so alternate vehicles are of interest.
Drivers confident in their safety equipment drive more dangerously
Hey Anonymous Coward, in my situation it's not really the crumple zones, seatbelts and airbags that perhaps cause more dangerous driving - It's the sense that cars perform better. My 2004 Volkswagen sticks to the road better than my 1971 Datsun did. As a result, I'm more inclined to take turns faster in the VW, perhaps when I shouldn't. Similarly, the VW brakes better. The VW is also a much quieter car than the Datsun was, so I have a tendency to drive faster because there isn't the same 'sense of speed.'
4 people is insufficient genetically to produce a viable colony
With those numbers you would also have the requirement for some degree of incest between the offspring, which has all manner of social barriers (not to mention potential genetic issues)...
It's not the 'libertards' (ugh) who should jump on you - It's the conservatives who should. The conservatives are supposed to be about personal freedom and the rights of the individual...
Since then I've been looking for a decent community that aggregates real news.
Twitter.
I follow the Economist, (the Onion), numerous good tech sites and writers, as well as friends I respect. Lots of good news aggregation if your twitter feed is more than "I put on a redshirt. Oh no Captain Kirk!"
If they start pissing off arrogant, self-important hippies and douchebags, there goes their core market
Lack of a 'green' certification isn't going to push these people away. A thug in glasses and a black turtleneck could come to their crashpad and punch them in the face every day and they'd still crawl back for their iFix. Looking cool using a device with a nifty UI trumps anything else. You really think they're all going to stary buying Vaios?
How is this possible when she barely understands how the Supreme Court of the United States works? The Supreme Court defines the constitution of your nation.
Blah blah blah. The doctors said the same thing in Canada fifty years ago when universal health care began to be implemented. Today Canuck docs claim they'll quit if health care is changed in Canada. How many American docs quit when medicare was put in place?
I'm hardly an expert on US matters, but I've always thought that this "disastrous approach" actually predates the Obama presidency
Correct. I'm Canadian, so I'm greatly affected by what goes in the US Economy. What Obama struggles with, and continues to struggle with are largely related to his predecessors and include, but aren't limited to -
1) The "Bush Tax Cut" which ensured the US federal government had insufficient taxes to do their job, combined with the trillions spent on overseas wars.
2) Governments that preceded him being unwilling to regulate the financial sector, resulting in the meltdowns in 2008. (I blame Clinton here too - His presidency is largely to blame for the subprime mortgage mess.)
3) An obstinate congress which blocks anything, regardless of whether or not it is good for the country.
This has nothing to do with knowing that Mrs. Edith Hedgehog in 36J is from Bristol and likes knitting and everything about knowing that Sir Roger Carr in 2A is the chairman of Centrica. It's all about knowing the first class passengers, not the riff-raff in steerage.
It's a pity Google's video search now only searches YouTube. The one thing I now use Bing for is it's cross-site video search. Yesterday I was searching for a clip of Bond flying Little Nellie. Turns out the best one was on TCM - Bing found it, Google didn't.
Yes, but a good lawyer only does this after advising their client as to a) the law, b) precedents and c) the likely outcome based on their experience.
"Yes, we can sue your neighbour for stress after they painted their house blue, but you will likely incur $15,000 in legal costs, you will likely lose the case and you may be required to pay your neighbour's legal fees. Do you still want to proceed?"
"Yes, goddammit."
"Fine. Please write me a retainer cheque for $15,000 and we'll get started with the court filing."
I didn't see this answered anywhere. I use bittorrent to download and seed Linux distros and the Wikipedia for schools disc. How much will this pointless crack down impact my legal and legitimate use of this service?
Zero. I've only ever torrented once, and afterwards I got a message from my ISP stating that I had breached copyright. The message listed the exact file - "Hellboy 2," If memory serves. So they knew exactly what I had grabbed. Torrents will live on - Downloading copyright content on torrents may start to fade...
So Canada will let anyone smuggle themselves into the country and allow them to stay however long they want?
No, but we tend to do more cost/benefit analysis on programs than do our American friends. If illegal immigration is costing Canada one billions dollars per year then it doesn't make sense to spend 3 billion building a fence (these are just made-up numbers to make a point). Certainly criminals are deported, but some illegal picking apples in the summer and shovelling driveways in the winter is not likely to get much attention focused on him because it's cheaper to let him stay.
Because it's obvious the product was 'Designed by Apple.' It's a freakin' Apple product. That, and they're obvioulsy obfuscating the fact it's "Made in China." Even if a Dell laptop is assembled by an ODM it's still "Designed by Dell."
If we are going to repair roads, etc. I suspect that we will need to double taxes
I agree 100%, but it will never happen. The American electorate will instantly vote out anyone who raises gas taxes, and will vote in people who fix the roads by borrowing the money.
Slashdot Mirror
Justin Beiber wouldn't be popular unless a lot of people actually liked his music, as hard as that is to believe. A result of marketing he may be, but they are marketing something people clearly want. The fundamental problem is most people have terrible taste in music. The labels are just pandering to that.
Exactly right. If you went to some English-speaking desert island where they've never heard of Justin Beiber and you played a teenage girl his music, and some 'indie' artist's music and you asked her which she liked better, she'd pick Justin. His music is popular because his demographic likes it. Look at Rebecca Black. Her terrible song rocketed in popularity with no marketing behind it. Why? Because her demographic liked it.
We use Google Calendar for this
How do you associate the number of vacation days to which an employee is entitled? How to do you forward vacation requests to a manage for approval? How does Google Calendar deduct taken vacation from the pool that the employee has? How does the pool reset at the end of the year? Does Google calendar automatically add vacation days as an employee accrues them? What about vacation carry-over from one year to the next? Is there a mechanism to notify HR / management if an employee hasn't used their vacation time?
Enquiring minds want to know...
You obviously don't have kids of your own yet.
I do - A boy and a girl.
"Psssh." *pulls out smartphone and goes to Youtube.*
"Hey Dad, my smartphone has stopped working."
"Yeah, I cut it off."
"What?!?! Why?!?!"
"You blew me off when I told you to go wash the car. Now go cut the lawn."
also promises to free car owners of the tiresome chore of washing the car
Having children is also another way to accomplish this, albeit at much greater cost. Once I (and my siblings) turned 10, my parents never washed a vehicle again (until we left the house).
"Dad, can I watch TV?"
"No. Now go wash the car."
I don't like Jack Danuals ether
Drinking ether? I see your problem right there.
makes this the only vehicle legally allowed to be sold in the US!
Just because the vehicle will never be sold in the USA doesn't mean it's not interesting. Billions of people live elsewhere in the world and drive vehicles unavailable in the good ol' USA. Many of them also pay a lot more for energy than Americans do, relative to their incomes, so alternate vehicles are of interest.
Drivers confident in their safety equipment drive more dangerously
Hey Anonymous Coward, in my situation it's not really the crumple zones, seatbelts and airbags that perhaps cause more dangerous driving - It's the sense that cars perform better. My 2004 Volkswagen sticks to the road better than my 1971 Datsun did. As a result, I'm more inclined to take turns faster in the VW, perhaps when I shouldn't. Similarly, the VW brakes better. The VW is also a much quieter car than the Datsun was, so I have a tendency to drive faster because there isn't the same 'sense of speed.'
I sure do miss the manual gearbox though...
in fact 8.5 million people visit the Louvre compared to 1.8 million visiting Windsor castle
And you don't think this anything to do with the fact the Louvre is full of, oh, I dunno, FAMOUS ART?
4 people is insufficient genetically to produce a viable colony
With those numbers you would also have the requirement for some degree of incest between the offspring, which has all manner of social barriers (not to mention potential genetic issues)...
I know the libertards will jump on me for this
It's not the 'libertards' (ugh) who should jump on you - It's the conservatives who should. The conservatives are supposed to be about personal freedom and the rights of the individual...
Since then I've been looking for a decent community that aggregates real news.
Twitter.
I follow the Economist, (the Onion), numerous good tech sites and writers, as well as friends I respect. Lots of good news aggregation if your twitter feed is more than "I put on a redshirt. Oh no Captain Kirk!"
If they start pissing off arrogant, self-important hippies and douchebags, there goes their core market
Lack of a 'green' certification isn't going to push these people away. A thug in glasses and a black turtleneck could come to their crashpad and punch them in the face every day and they'd still crawl back for their iFix. Looking cool using a device with a nifty UI trumps anything else. You really think they're all going to stary buying Vaios?
Palin believes in the Constitution
How is this possible when she barely understands how the Supreme Court of the United States works? The Supreme Court defines the constitution of your nation.
83-percent-of-doctors-have-considered-quitting-over-obamacare
Blah blah blah. The doctors said the same thing in Canada fifty years ago when universal health care began to be implemented. Today Canuck docs claim they'll quit if health care is changed in Canada. How many American docs quit when medicare was put in place?
This, of course, is how Obama got elected.
Alright, I'll bite you Anonymous Coward. Would you rather have had McCain / Palin?
I'm hardly an expert on US matters, but I've always thought that this "disastrous approach" actually predates the Obama presidency
Correct. I'm Canadian, so I'm greatly affected by what goes in the US Economy. What Obama struggles with, and continues to struggle with are largely related to his predecessors and include, but aren't limited to -
1) The "Bush Tax Cut" which ensured the US federal government had insufficient taxes to do their job, combined with the trillions spent on overseas wars.
2) Governments that preceded him being unwilling to regulate the financial sector, resulting in the meltdowns in 2008. (I blame Clinton here too - His presidency is largely to blame for the subprime mortgage mess.)
3) An obstinate congress which blocks anything, regardless of whether or not it is good for the country.
This has nothing to do with knowing that Mrs. Edith Hedgehog in 36J is from Bristol and likes knitting and everything about knowing that Sir Roger Carr in 2A is the chairman of Centrica. It's all about knowing the first class passengers, not the riff-raff in steerage.
It's a pity Google's video search now only searches YouTube. The one thing I now use Bing for is it's cross-site video search. Yesterday I was searching for a clip of Bond flying Little Nellie. Turns out the best one was on TCM - Bing found it, Google didn't.
The lawyer only does what the client wants.
Yes, but a good lawyer only does this after advising their client as to a) the law, b) precedents and c) the likely outcome based on their experience.
"Yes, we can sue your neighbour for stress after they painted their house blue, but you will likely incur $15,000 in legal costs, you will likely lose the case and you may be required to pay your neighbour's legal fees. Do you still want to proceed?"
"Yes, goddammit."
"Fine. Please write me a retainer cheque for $15,000 and we'll get started with the court filing."
I didn't see this answered anywhere. I use bittorrent to download and seed Linux distros and the Wikipedia for schools disc. How much will this pointless crack down impact my legal and legitimate use of this service?
Zero. I've only ever torrented once, and afterwards I got a message from my ISP stating that I had breached copyright. The message listed the exact file - "Hellboy 2," If memory serves. So they knew exactly what I had grabbed. Torrents will live on - Downloading copyright content on torrents may start to fade...
So Canada will let anyone smuggle themselves into the country and allow them to stay however long they want?
No, but we tend to do more cost/benefit analysis on programs than do our American friends. If illegal immigration is costing Canada one billions dollars per year then it doesn't make sense to spend 3 billion building a fence (these are just made-up numbers to make a point). Certainly criminals are deported, but some illegal picking apples in the summer and shovelling driveways in the winter is not likely to get much attention focused on him because it's cheaper to let him stay.
Ipad buy you!
Because it's obvious the product was 'Designed by Apple.' It's a freakin' Apple product. That, and they're obvioulsy obfuscating the fact it's "Made in China." Even if a Dell laptop is assembled by an ODM it's still "Designed by Dell."
(and as I've seen once put a label written "Proudly inspected in the USA"... can one be more lame?)
For me, what's lame is what Apple puts on their products: "Designed by Apple in California."
If we are going to repair roads, etc. I suspect that we will need to double taxes
I agree 100%, but it will never happen. The American electorate will instantly vote out anyone who raises gas taxes, and will vote in people who fix the roads by borrowing the money.