You don't think Microsoft is pushing back? And much as I love open source, let's get real here. There are VERY few open software projects that even begin to compare to their commercial equivalents. Firefox is about the only one I can think of offhand (and don't EVEN say Gimp, because anyone who thinks that is even close to comparable to Photoshop is a complete r-tard).
Seriously, though, you can expect a HUGE pushback on this from the publishing industry (college textbooks are a big moneymaker, especially considering how overpriced many textbooks are) and even from some professors (they write the books, after all).
And there is another issue too: Who is going to write these open source textbooks? Even though academics don't usually get paid particularly well for their writing, it's unlikely that many academics are going want to tackle something as big as a survey-level textbook for free (with the occasional exception like the professor in the article).
If you adjust for inflation, NASA's budget is about half of what it was during the space race years in the 60's. You can't go to Mars on that. You probably can't even go back to the moon on that. And a paltry $2 billion isn't going to make much of a difference.
Obama is no more serious about NASA's lofty aspirations that Bush or Clinton. It's just political pandering for Florida. And I am tired of hearing promises from politicians that they know damn well they can never deliver on.
It's easy for someone whose idea of heroism comes from simplistic TV shows and movies to to say "Stand up to the man!" But when you have a family to support, you can't just quit the job that pays for food, rent, and your kid's health care just to stand up for some abstract principle. It's a lot easier to move around and stand up for your scruples in the white-collar world. But in the blue-collar world where most security guards work, most people live paycheck to paycheck and can't afford to lose those paychecks just to help out a bunch of photographers/hippies/PETA assholes/etc.
Basically, with no capability to use a cablecard (much less switched digital video), MythTV is growing increasingly irrelevant in the DVR world. Sure, you could set up a complicated system using additional cable boxes from you cable company with some sort of IR channel switching, but the expense and hassle of that will keep MythTV on the far, far fringe. And if HDMI becomes the standard, MythTV is really screwed (it's able to record off of component outputs, but not HDMI).
I truly wish MythTV were practical (I hate DRM and the hassles of moving video from one form to another as much as anyone). But with an increasingly hostile cable companies (that want to lock you into THEIR DVR's), I don't think it is or will be again. It's hard enough to even get a Tivo to work on most cable systems today (with cablecards being wonky and Tivo still not able to do SDV), much less a DIY DVR.
I worked as a security guard all through my undergrad years (worked dorm security for the university I went to). For the most part it was a great job (quiet and great for study time), but the downside was that you were a total fall guy for your boss's stupidity. They would come up with some inane policy (or just tell you in private "Don't let people do such-and-such") and you were expected to enforce it, or get fired. But you could also get fired if you did enforce it and someone complained about the stupid policy. Most of the security guards I worked with had been "fired" at least once (and, almost always, promptly rehired 2 months later). The worst part was that we got blamed by the public for enforcing the stupid policies (as if we came up with them). I had people yell at me, get in my face, even had a few guys take a swing at me (watch out for the little guys, especially when they're drunk).
So before people blast the guards, they should realize that guards often get conflicting messages and stupid directives from the top. They're just trying to keep their jobs.
"Tough Crowd" was actually my all-time favorite Comedy Central talk show (liked it way better than Stewart, Colbert, or Corolla). I loved its spontaneity and unpredictability. Sure, it was a little disorganized. But the gems that came out of those comedian's mouths from time-to-time would often have me on the floor laughing. The comedians were great at riffing on current news topics and even better at riffing on each other.
Jim Norton was particularly funny. If Norton was on the show, you could pretty much count on at least one comment so outrageous that it would shock the audience into a stunned silence. I remember more than a few that left many jaws dropped. "I was watching one of those ads for the Shirley Temple DVD collection the other night. I really liked that commercial and she was just adorable. And after if was over, I cleaned the spunk off my t-shirt and went to bed."
Anyone remember the old Saturday Night Live skit from the early 90's where the Olympic Committee decided to have an all-drug Olympics? I still remember Chris Farley as the weightlifter who had gotten so strong on "Steroids, hormones, and some sort of fish paralyzer" that he ripped his own arms off trying to do a world-record-shattering dead lift. I'm sure it would be on Youtube if NBC/Universal hadn't turned into such a bunch of party-pooping bastards and removed all the classic SNL content.
Republicans aren't humorless, but they generally don't gravitate towards comedy writing or performing either (leading to a dearth of comedy shows with conservative writers and performers). It's unfair to blame Comedy Central for that. Republicans tend to gravitate towards business school and political science, liberals tend to gravitate towards the liberal arts and more artistic fields (including writing and comedy). There are plenty of exceptions, of course, (including the aforementioned Colin Quinn) but let's not kid ourselves. Asking Comedy Central why it has so many liberal comedy writers would be like asking Wall Street why it has so many conservative stock brokers.
Not to overplay the "Republicans are a bunch of old humorless farts" stereotype, but let's face it, Republicans aren't exactly Comedy Central's chief demographic in general (and they sure aren't the primary audience of "The Daily Show" or "The Colbert Report"). Even when conservatives do come on Stewart or Colbert, it's generally a very uncomfortable interview (polite applause from the audience, host trying desperately to think of something good to say).
There have been a few attempts at more conservative humor. Colin Quinn used to have a show that followed Stewart that was more to the right (and very funny), but unfortunately it got cancelled after two or three seasons. And Fox News did a Daily Show-esque show called the "1/2 Hour News Hour" that was just abysmal to watch and not even close to funny (it ran for 13 episodes before the Fox conservatives abandoned their opposition to euthenasia long enough to grant it a mercy killing).
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You don't think Microsoft is pushing back? And much as I love open source, let's get real here. There are VERY few open software projects that even begin to compare to their commercial equivalents. Firefox is about the only one I can think of offhand (and don't EVEN say Gimp, because anyone who thinks that is even close to comparable to Photoshop is a complete r-tard).
Linden has been TALKING about open sourcing for years. So far, they've delivered very little.
...few have lived to tell the tale.
Seriously, though, you can expect a HUGE pushback on this from the publishing industry (college textbooks are a big moneymaker, especially considering how overpriced many textbooks are) and even from some professors (they write the books, after all).
And there is another issue too: Who is going to write these open source textbooks? Even though academics don't usually get paid particularly well for their writing, it's unlikely that many academics are going want to tackle something as big as a survey-level textbook for free (with the occasional exception like the professor in the article).
In Australia everything is backwards. Crates come in milk cartons.
Yeah, a bear will do that when you walk up to him and smack him in the nose.
I love Eve. It's a great griefer magnet that helps cut down on their time spent in better MMO's.
The day the National Archives agrees to preserve an oral history interview with Leroy Jenkins is the day Armageddon will begin.
OR ELSE!
Not to worry. An upcoming Pearl Jam reunion tour will decrease the local homeless population by five.
IT's against state law in Washington to charge for public toliets. Otherwise, they probably would have a small fee.
Just like the ones at Robert Downey's house.
If you adjust for inflation, NASA's budget is about half of what it was during the space race years in the 60's. You can't go to Mars on that. You probably can't even go back to the moon on that. And a paltry $2 billion isn't going to make much of a difference.
Obama is no more serious about NASA's lofty aspirations that Bush or Clinton. It's just political pandering for Florida. And I am tired of hearing promises from politicians that they know damn well they can never deliver on.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
It's easy for someone whose idea of heroism comes from simplistic TV shows and movies to to say "Stand up to the man!" But when you have a family to support, you can't just quit the job that pays for food, rent, and your kid's health care just to stand up for some abstract principle. It's a lot easier to move around and stand up for your scruples in the white-collar world. But in the blue-collar world where most security guards work, most people live paycheck to paycheck and can't afford to lose those paychecks just to help out a bunch of photographers/hippies/PETA assholes/etc.
Basically, with no capability to use a cablecard (much less switched digital video), MythTV is growing increasingly irrelevant in the DVR world. Sure, you could set up a complicated system using additional cable boxes from you cable company with some sort of IR channel switching, but the expense and hassle of that will keep MythTV on the far, far fringe. And if HDMI becomes the standard, MythTV is really screwed (it's able to record off of component outputs, but not HDMI).
I truly wish MythTV were practical (I hate DRM and the hassles of moving video from one form to another as much as anyone). But with an increasingly hostile cable companies (that want to lock you into THEIR DVR's), I don't think it is or will be again. It's hard enough to even get a Tivo to work on most cable systems today (with cablecards being wonky and Tivo still not able to do SDV), much less a DIY DVR.
I worked as a security guard all through my undergrad years (worked dorm security for the university I went to). For the most part it was a great job (quiet and great for study time), but the downside was that you were a total fall guy for your boss's stupidity. They would come up with some inane policy (or just tell you in private "Don't let people do such-and-such") and you were expected to enforce it, or get fired. But you could also get fired if you did enforce it and someone complained about the stupid policy. Most of the security guards I worked with had been "fired" at least once (and, almost always, promptly rehired 2 months later). The worst part was that we got blamed by the public for enforcing the stupid policies (as if we came up with them). I had people yell at me, get in my face, even had a few guys take a swing at me (watch out for the little guys, especially when they're drunk).
So before people blast the guards, they should realize that guards often get conflicting messages and stupid directives from the top. They're just trying to keep their jobs.
I don't even own the game and I still jerk off my Wiimote periodically.
In all fairness, who DOESN'T have a fallafel fetish?
"Tough Crowd" was actually my all-time favorite Comedy Central talk show (liked it way better than Stewart, Colbert, or Corolla). I loved its spontaneity and unpredictability. Sure, it was a little disorganized. But the gems that came out of those comedian's mouths from time-to-time would often have me on the floor laughing. The comedians were great at riffing on current news topics and even better at riffing on each other.
Jim Norton was particularly funny. If Norton was on the show, you could pretty much count on at least one comment so outrageous that it would shock the audience into a stunned silence. I remember more than a few that left many jaws dropped. "I was watching one of those ads for the Shirley Temple DVD collection the other night. I really liked that commercial and she was just adorable. And after if was over, I cleaned the spunk off my t-shirt and went to bed."
Anyone remember the old Saturday Night Live skit from the early 90's where the Olympic Committee decided to have an all-drug Olympics? I still remember Chris Farley as the weightlifter who had gotten so strong on "Steroids, hormones, and some sort of fish paralyzer" that he ripped his own arms off trying to do a world-record-shattering dead lift. I'm sure it would be on Youtube if NBC/Universal hadn't turned into such a bunch of party-pooping bastards and removed all the classic SNL content.
Republicans aren't humorless, but they generally don't gravitate towards comedy writing or performing either (leading to a dearth of comedy shows with conservative writers and performers). It's unfair to blame Comedy Central for that. Republicans tend to gravitate towards business school and political science, liberals tend to gravitate towards the liberal arts and more artistic fields (including writing and comedy). There are plenty of exceptions, of course, (including the aforementioned Colin Quinn) but let's not kid ourselves. Asking Comedy Central why it has so many liberal comedy writers would be like asking Wall Street why it has so many conservative stock brokers.
Not to overplay the "Republicans are a bunch of old humorless farts" stereotype, but let's face it, Republicans aren't exactly Comedy Central's chief demographic in general (and they sure aren't the primary audience of "The Daily Show" or "The Colbert Report"). Even when conservatives do come on Stewart or Colbert, it's generally a very uncomfortable interview (polite applause from the audience, host trying desperately to think of something good to say).
There have been a few attempts at more conservative humor. Colin Quinn used to have a show that followed Stewart that was more to the right (and very funny), but unfortunately it got cancelled after two or three seasons. And Fox News did a Daily Show-esque show called the "1/2 Hour News Hour" that was just abysmal to watch and not even close to funny (it ran for 13 episodes before the Fox conservatives abandoned their opposition to euthenasia long enough to grant it a mercy killing).
Yeah, but it's not clear that they ever agreed to that.
It's a Maori-tribal-tattoo/Peter-Jackson-barefoot/Lucy-Lawless-in-leather kind of thing.
Jesus will show me the way.
"Knob Gobbling" has a COMPLETELY different meaning in New Zealand, people!