The only thing *this* retard is doing downunder is trying to figure out whether Fabien Cousteau is imitating The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, or if it's the other way 'round.
I remember being a kid visiting Canada and walking over one of the bridges into NY State. You know, past the doughnut-munching border security guys that seemed so prevalent in those days. Anyway, I was happily scouting around in the American bush looking for stones (telling myself happily over and over that these were *American* stones I was looking at now), when my Dad saw me and almost had apoplexy.
Needless to say, 21 years later, I now have three passports and regularly travel within and outside of Europe. Things sure have changed since the "auld days". More security. More suspicion. And passports checks at EVERY airport or crossing, no matter if you're an EU citizen or not.
Y'know, part of me can't help but pine for those days when a foreign kid was able to slip into the States. The worst thing about the whole experience was that I only got offered ONE doughnut by one of the border security guards instead of two or more. If I managed to do the same things nowadays, I'm sure I'd be rectally examined, be screened for radiocative material, be slung into a dark corner somewhere while some idiotic US Senator called me a "jewvinyl turr'st" on the world media and generally wait for six months until the diplomatic shitstorm was over.
Slowly, but ever so surely, the world is turning into a more unpleasant place. Blame it on maximising shareholder value and short election cycles. Together - along with lawyers / solicitors / whatever-they-call-themselves-the-results-are-the- same - it's the unholy trinity that is ruining the world around us.
All he needs now is a tropical hideaway to stash his "goodies" and maybe a cat with a diamond collar. Henchman with metal teeth and bad case of acromegaly optional...
Personally, I hope Apple fervently gains as much market share as possible. I recently started writing a book and had to spend three weeks in the middle wrestling with Windows on various different fronts. Oh, you've changed your primary hard drive because you had to back up? Re-activate me. Oh, you've had to change your mobo becuase it's screwed? Re-activate me. Oh, you've had to change your hard drive again because you're setting up a RAID configuration? RE-ACTIVATE ME.
It's hard to describe the sheer frustration I have felt during the last re-build. Really. Think of one of those whistling kettles left to boil until the water disappears. However, no-one's moved it and it's still on the stove, just getting hotter and redder by the minute, slowly melting until it's one large, seething mess of non-radioactive meltdown. That was me. All I want to do is write, the ideas are *going* for crissakes, and yet good ol' Windows continues to throw BSOD's and "sorry sir, can't find that CD Drive you were talking about" comments every few minutes my way. Arrrgh!
Once it was (finally) sorted, I swore then and there - literally, writing a contract in my own blood sort of swearing - that this was *it* - no more Windows machines after this.
I'm not a coder, I just write. I also have a 2nd generation iMac which I'm thinking of using as my day-to-day system. It's (very) stable, it works, it doesn't jack me around, and of course, most importantly, it doesn't stoke my fantasies of tracking Bill Gates down and shoving my copy of Windows XP as far down his gullet as possible. Instead, it greets me in a reasonably cheery way (yeah, I know - a sucker for pseudo-human emotive interfaces, me), and it works? Errr, Bill? Hello?
If some company wishes to step forward and provide an alternative platform that even a writer can use (and not Linux kiddies; I'm think. I write. I don't have the time/ability to spend years on a PC), fantastique! Until then, Powerbook calls. No, if only I could port my ever beautiful ThinkPad to OS X...
SK
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The only thing *this* retard is doing downunder is trying to figure out whether Fabien Cousteau is imitating The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, or if it's the other way 'round.
Well? Any non-retards care to answer??
I remember being a kid visiting Canada and walking over one of the bridges into NY State. You know, past the doughnut-munching border security guys that seemed so prevalent in those days. Anyway, I was happily scouting around in the American bush looking for stones (telling myself happily over and over that these were *American* stones I was looking at now), when my Dad saw me and almost had apoplexy.
Needless to say, 21 years later, I now have three passports and regularly travel within and outside of Europe. Things sure have changed since the "auld days". More security. More suspicion. And passports checks at EVERY airport or crossing, no matter if you're an EU citizen or not.
Y'know, part of me can't help but pine for those days when a foreign kid was able to slip into the States. The worst thing about the whole experience was that I only got offered ONE doughnut by one of the border security guards instead of two or more. If I managed to do the same things nowadays, I'm sure I'd be rectally examined, be screened for radiocative material, be slung into a dark corner somewhere while some idiotic US Senator called me a "jewvinyl turr'st" on the world media and generally wait for six months until the diplomatic shitstorm was over.
Slowly, but ever so surely, the world is turning into a more unpleasant place. Blame it on maximising shareholder value and short election cycles. Together - along with lawyers / solicitors / whatever-they-call-themselves-the-results-are-the- same - it's the unholy trinity that is ruining the world around us.
All he needs now is a tropical hideaway to stash his "goodies" and maybe a cat with a diamond collar. Henchman with metal teeth and bad case of acromegaly optional...
Personally, I hope Apple fervently gains as much market share as possible. I recently started writing a book and had to spend three weeks in the middle wrestling with Windows on various different fronts. Oh, you've changed your primary hard drive because you had to back up? Re-activate me. Oh, you've had to change your mobo becuase it's screwed? Re-activate me. Oh, you've had to change your hard drive again because you're setting up a RAID configuration? RE-ACTIVATE ME. It's hard to describe the sheer frustration I have felt during the last re-build. Really. Think of one of those whistling kettles left to boil until the water disappears. However, no-one's moved it and it's still on the stove, just getting hotter and redder by the minute, slowly melting until it's one large, seething mess of non-radioactive meltdown. That was me. All I want to do is write, the ideas are *going* for crissakes, and yet good ol' Windows continues to throw BSOD's and "sorry sir, can't find that CD Drive you were talking about" comments every few minutes my way. Arrrgh! Once it was (finally) sorted, I swore then and there - literally, writing a contract in my own blood sort of swearing - that this was *it* - no more Windows machines after this. I'm not a coder, I just write. I also have a 2nd generation iMac which I'm thinking of using as my day-to-day system. It's (very) stable, it works, it doesn't jack me around, and of course, most importantly, it doesn't stoke my fantasies of tracking Bill Gates down and shoving my copy of Windows XP as far down his gullet as possible. Instead, it greets me in a reasonably cheery way (yeah, I know - a sucker for pseudo-human emotive interfaces, me), and it works? Errr, Bill? Hello? If some company wishes to step forward and provide an alternative platform that even a writer can use (and not Linux kiddies; I'm think. I write. I don't have the time/ability to spend years on a PC), fantastique! Until then, Powerbook calls. No, if only I could port my ever beautiful ThinkPad to OS X... SK