The handcuffs are not, as both British and American secret services have demonstrated a number of times, meant for prevention of cutpurse-style data theft, but for prevention of data loss due to forgetting the damn case in the cab.
Windows has had very decent "power user" support, in terms of consistent keyboard control, and I prefer the start button/task bar combo to the dock. So things like not being able to maximize a window etc get annoying on my iBook, even as I intellectually see it's a different philosophy
Strange.
I actually find OS X keyboard control more consistent than Windows', but to each his own.
Not maximizing a window took some getting used to, but I actually like it.
Especially when combined with all the floating toolbars and whatnot.
Again, though, to each his own.
A friend of mine got an iMac from her uncle as a birthday present and she really dislikes OS X. If it weren't a present, I'd have tried to trade her a good Windows machine for it. C'est la vie.
Well, I do know people who dislike Macs. Not many, at least among those who've actually used them, but they still do exist.
On the other hand, since I bought a MBP, a number of people have approached me to ask about its price, whether I was satisfied with it and so on and so forth -- because having seen it, they were considering buying it.
Most of them had had some Vista exposure. I find it very ominous that not-at-all-geeky people are becoming increasingly willing to save up for a non-Windows computer.
I have paid the Apple premium and have not regretted it.
When the ThinkPad I'd wanted to buy sold out (I think it was the T60p at the time, the version without the MS tax), I bought a MacBook Pro. I paid about the same amount of money for an equivalent machine.
I'd planned to put Gentoo on the ThinkPad, but now I can't bring myself to complete the install on the MBP. OS X is very pleasant to work in, very consistent, and I do most of my work in it. I'll probably get round to installing Linux as a 2nd OS and repairing my desktop PC some time in June, when I'm done with all my classes and at least some of my exams, but I really lack nothing.
I'm even considering an iMac for my next desktop, but I'll cross that bridge when I can afford the toll. I'm still just a college student, after all.
From what I see, their page is user-hostile because at this pre-alpha point, the distro is user-hostile as well. I certainly didn't read all that in their rather simple announcement: they're working on it, and no, they don't have anything to show for it yet.
I like Gentoo as it used to be, and I like the community, which is both technically versed and eager to help. I don't like what it's turning into, and I might consider trying Exherbo once it's production-ready.
Really, the attitude they display may be a bit harsh, but it's a no-nonsense attitude which promises... well, exactly what they put on their page, with no frills and embellishments.
I still expect a full acquisition to occur. Whether its $32, $33, or $34 or something else, we'll see...
I was just wondering... Yahoo's stock fell after Microsoft withdrew their original offer. Did it slide all the way back to pre-acquisition-attempt value or did it remain above that?
I knew immediately that Microsoft withdrew only to reduce Yahoo!'s value, but if Yahoo! decide to hold out again, the tactics may prove to be disadvantageous to Microsoft.
All in all, Microsoft is playing catch-up instead of innovating. Somehow, I think they will dominate the search market a year after Linux starts dominating the desktop market.
I don't know why Windows still includes games, but I do know what Solitaire is awfully good for: education.
All the computer-illiterate people I've taught found Solitaire an invaluable aid in learning how to use the mouse.
While to us geeks, the mouse is a natural extenstion of the hand, computer newbies have a really hard time with it; instead of looking at the screen, they look at the mouse, and left and right click are higher math. With Solitaire, they get something unimportant, yet interesting to look and click at; the game absorbs them and they forget about the mouse in the hand. Minesweeper is also great, but for advanced newbies -- after they've learned the basics of mouse usage, they can achieve precision playing Minesweeper.
For that reason, I use similar games under Linux as well when introducing newbies to the computer. First learn how to use the keyboard and the mouse, then we can get on with some real work. I found there was no use in teaching people advanced concepts when they still lose their way on the input devices.
Kind of like teaching aphasiacs the finer points in grammar.
I am a bit overweight, especially since I've stopped training for the last couple of years.
During my last physical, several years ago (while I still trained), the doctor told me I had to lose 20 kilos.
I'm 1.70, and weighed about 80 kilos at the time.
Anything below 75 kilos, for my build, is malnourishment; I weighed some 60-65 kilos when I was still a skinny 13-year-old.
[...] A few big name AV scanners had serious problems finding and removing active rootkits, such as Microsoft Windows Live OneCare 1.6.2111.32 and McAfee VirusScan 2008 11.2.121.
Yes, I know there's a comma, but it really sounds like both products are rootkits themselves.
Ah. So it's not just me and my non-native English comprehension.
Then again, maybe it's intentional.
How difficult is it to remove either of the two programs?[1]
Microsoft insisted that it is "deeply committed" to education and interoperability. More schools are upgrading to Windows Vista and Office 2007 as they recognize the benefit of "embracing technology to transform teaching and learning," I'm not sure I want teaching to get transformed like this. It doesn't sound pleasant.
Even worse, it doesn't sound useful.
To anyone but Microsoft, that is.
There is nothing in either Vista od Office 2007 that I am aware of that can "transform teaching and learning" in any significant way. Not for the better, in any case.
For one, I really don't see what makes Office 2007 better than any other office suite; it's not that high-school kids need all the functions provided in it.
I strongly object to schools becoming training grounds where certain software packages will be taught. Schools should be about teaching basic concepts, not specific programs.
(I wouldn't be ranting that much if Office 2007 didn't break compatibility both in file format and UI.)
Computers can be used in class. In certain cases, they may even be extremely useful.
There is much more to it, however, than Vista and Office.
I had written a long reply. But you'll just wave your arms and yell "propaganda" because, well, it's easier to label it all "propaganda" than it is to actually discuss something reasonably.
Actually, this time I will label it all idiocy and so much faulty logic that I'll first pinch myself and check if I'm talking to one of my creationist trolls.
Yes, it's that bad. Non sequiturs abound.
I think a cultural barrier is going to prevent us from ever really seeing eye-to-eye.
Yes, you can call it a cultural barrier, too, if you really want to.
Though that opens you up for a bunch of cheap shots about American culture, or lack thereof. I'll try not to make any, but just to let you know that I could.
But here's my issue with you:
You fault the American people for the mistakes our Government has made. Most notably, in your last post, about Iraq.
No, I most notably do not.
I have learned fairly well how democracy works on a larger scale (where "larger scale" is every and any scale at which people no longer personally know everyone else involved in the process), so I give the American people the benefit of a doubt.
I only take exception to presenting the will of your politicians as the will of the whole people, i.e. to mixing up - at will - the small scale and the large scale.
But, when it comes to extending the "nuclear umbrella" over NATO states, when it comes to intervening in and winning "The Great Patriotic War," for these things, it's "high politics" and a selfish act.
I explained my view on the nuclear umbrella and I maintain that you gained more than you gave.
As for the "Great Patriotic War", I don't even know which one you're talking about. I'll guess you meant the one war I talked about from my limited personal experience, i.e. the Croatian war for independence (capitalize as needed, I don't really care). If my guess is correct, then no, I never said nor expected you to intervene and win that war for us. Croatia was under a weapons embargo; lifting that would have sufficed.
However, since you so fervently maintain that you were protecting us, I feel I have a right to ask you: where were you then? Where was your altruism then?
I only ask that as a retort to your claims; otherwise it's all the same to me.
Well, you can't have it both ways. If our country, if our people, deserve your scorn for Iraq then that means that you believe that the American people are responsible due to who we chose to elect into power.
You simplify too much.
I know very well what it's like when a candidate with less than a real majority of votes comes to power; many of your fellow Americans apologized when Bush was re-elected. If Croatia were more important, I would probably have apologized in the same manner for our current leadership.
I do not attack the American people, once again. I attack your claims, I attack you. You just choose to hide behind the great mass that is the American people (this was not a slur on your average obesity level, though, in hindsight, it very well could have been).
Well, the American People could've elected in isolationist in 1940, 44, 48, 52, etc.
We could've sat idly by while Nazi's consume the people and resources of Europe for their own gain.
Now, I'll admit I've never liked history much, but IIRC, the USA was pretty passive right until Pearl Harbor. If that hadn't happened, you might have stayed equally passive, for all that I know.
However, since history is not one of my strong points, I will not debate it.
No matter what you want to believe Hitler, even if he'd been successful in Europe, posed no direct threat to our homeland. We weren't required to fight him to defend ourselves.
I vaguely remember something about Nazism and communism in Britain and in the US at that point in time, and a whole lot of s
I think the idea of applying the FOSS method to recipes is brilliant!
Especially since the idea of FOSS comes from recipes.
My father and my grandparents also can various foodstuffs at home, and the quality is vastly superior to anything you can buy in a store.
But it takes quite a bit of time.
remember that American dominance on its worst days is far better than Germanic or Soviet dominance on their best.
No. It is not.
I'm sure that some Polish, Czech or Hungarian reader can confirm that the best days of Soviet dominance were far better than, say, current American dominance in Iraq.
As long as you are in the position of dominance, it is so easy to think you are in the right and better than someone else who could be in that position. I assure you that the sentiment is not as readily shared by the ones you exert your dominance over.
FWIW, after all the things that happened to them after the war, a large number of Croatian patriots, who'd gone to war simply to defend their country, have told me that if Croatia were attacked again, they'd join the aggressor.
A dejected patriot is almost as bad as a scorned woman.
Read through my comment again; I think you'll find that you missed the point completely.
I haven't been traumatized by the war much. But I do know people who have.
And I'm just saying that I'm aware I will never feel about it as deeply as they do.
Of COURSE we benefited from the treaty. We wouldn't have passed it otherwise.
<snip>
My point is simple: we stood beside you. You can throw stones at the people of this country. But we stood beside you. You can deride our military. But we pledged our military to protect YOU if you needed it.
... because you saw interest in it.
To be more accurate, your government saw interest in pledging some of your military - therefore, someone else's lives - in case some other NATO member was attacked.
No-one ever thought about protecting me. And since my country wasn't in the NATO, we had no protection whatsoever. I remember the war, and the weapons embargo while we were being attacked.
You didn't do jack shit.
So please, please don't try to give me that self-righteous self-sacrificing crap. I grew up in a society ruled by war profiteers, listening to such propaganda. Please don't insult me by trying to feed me the same crap I'd gagged on when I was ten.
We're a flawed people. But you show me one that isn't.
Of course, I can't do that.
But I can show you a number of peoples who do not invade other peoples in order to force upon them their preferred version of freedom in a holy war.
Some flaws are more irritating than others. So please do not flame me.
Slashdot Mirror
The handcuffs are not, as both British and American secret services have demonstrated a number of times, meant for prevention of cutpurse-style data theft, but for prevention of data loss due to forgetting the damn case in the cab.
Strange.
I actually find OS X keyboard control more consistent than Windows', but to each his own.
Not maximizing a window took some getting used to, but I actually like it.
Especially when combined with all the floating toolbars and whatnot.
Again, though, to each his own.
A friend of mine got an iMac from her uncle as a birthday present and she really dislikes OS X. If it weren't a present, I'd have tried to trade her a good Windows machine for it. C'est la vie.
Well, I do know people who dislike Macs. Not many, at least among those who've actually used them, but they still do exist.
On the other hand, since I bought a MBP, a number of people have approached me to ask about its price, whether I was satisfied with it and so on and so forth -- because having seen it, they were considering buying it.
Most of them had had some Vista exposure. I find it very ominous that not-at-all-geeky people are becoming increasingly willing to save up for a non-Windows computer.
I have paid the Apple premium and have not regretted it.
When the ThinkPad I'd wanted to buy sold out (I think it was the T60p at the time, the version without the MS tax), I bought a MacBook Pro. I paid about the same amount of money for an equivalent machine.
I'd planned to put Gentoo on the ThinkPad, but now I can't bring myself to complete the install on the MBP. OS X is very pleasant to work in, very consistent, and I do most of my work in it. I'll probably get round to installing Linux as a 2nd OS and repairing my desktop PC some time in June, when I'm done with all my classes and at least some of my exams, but I really lack nothing.
I'm even considering an iMac for my next desktop, but I'll cross that bridge when I can afford the toll. I'm still just a college student, after all.
So, basically, Blender is like Lisp.
/duck
From what I see, their page is user-hostile because at this pre-alpha point, the distro is user-hostile as well. I certainly didn't read all that in their rather simple announcement: they're working on it, and no, they don't have anything to show for it yet.
I like Gentoo as it used to be, and I like the community, which is both technically versed and eager to help. I don't like what it's turning into, and I might consider trying Exherbo once it's production-ready.
Really, the attitude they display may be a bit harsh, but it's a no-nonsense attitude which promises... well, exactly what they put on their page, with no frills and embellishments.
I still expect a full acquisition to occur. Whether its $32, $33, or $34 or something else, we'll see...
I was just wondering... Yahoo's stock fell after Microsoft withdrew their original offer. Did it slide all the way back to pre-acquisition-attempt value or did it remain above that?
I knew immediately that Microsoft withdrew only to reduce Yahoo!'s value, but if Yahoo! decide to hold out again, the tactics may prove to be disadvantageous to Microsoft.
All in all, Microsoft is playing catch-up instead of innovating. Somehow, I think they will dominate the search market a year after Linux starts dominating the desktop market.
I don't know why Windows still includes games, but I do know what Solitaire is awfully good for: education.
All the computer-illiterate people I've taught found Solitaire an invaluable aid in learning how to use the mouse.
While to us geeks, the mouse is a natural extenstion of the hand, computer newbies have a really hard time with it; instead of looking at the screen, they look at the mouse, and left and right click are higher math. With Solitaire, they get something unimportant, yet interesting to look and click at; the game absorbs them and they forget about the mouse in the hand. Minesweeper is also great, but for advanced newbies -- after they've learned the basics of mouse usage, they can achieve precision playing Minesweeper.
For that reason, I use similar games under Linux as well when introducing newbies to the computer. First learn how to use the keyboard and the mouse, then we can get on with some real work. I found there was no use in teaching people advanced concepts when they still lose their way on the input devices.
Kind of like teaching aphasiacs the finer points in grammar.
I am a bit overweight, especially since I've stopped training for the last couple of years.
During my last physical, several years ago (while I still trained), the doctor told me I had to lose 20 kilos.
I'm 1.70, and weighed about 80 kilos at the time.
Anything below 75 kilos, for my build, is malnourishment; I weighed some 60-65 kilos when I was still a skinny 13-year-old.
BMI is simply idiotic.
How about some soylent green?
So how did "Click here if you're over 18, we can't allow access to kids" cognitive dissonance work?
A blazing success, I hear.
It seems the only way to avoid that kind of stuff is getting diplomatic immunity.
Pity it's not easily obtainable.
Yes, there is.
Just compare it with Troy.
(Disclaimer: I saw Troy shortly after reading Simmons' Ilium.)
Ah. So it's not just me and my non-native English comprehension.
Then again, maybe it's intentional.
How difficult is it to remove either of the two programs?[1]
[1] Not a frequent Windows user.
Even worse, it doesn't sound useful.
To anyone but Microsoft, that is.
There is nothing in either Vista od Office 2007 that I am aware of that can "transform teaching and learning" in any significant way. Not for the better, in any case.
For one, I really don't see what makes Office 2007 better than any other office suite; it's not that high-school kids need all the functions provided in it.
I strongly object to schools becoming training grounds where certain software packages will be taught. Schools should be about teaching basic concepts, not specific programs.
(I wouldn't be ranting that much if Office 2007 didn't break compatibility both in file format and UI.)
Computers can be used in class. In certain cases, they may even be extremely useful.
There is much more to it, however, than Vista and Office.
I had written a long reply. But you'll just wave your arms and yell "propaganda" because, well, it's easier to label it all "propaganda" than it is to actually discuss something reasonably.
Actually, this time I will label it all idiocy and so much faulty logic that I'll first pinch myself and check if I'm talking to one of my creationist trolls.
Yes, it's that bad. Non sequiturs abound.
I think a cultural barrier is going to prevent us from ever really seeing eye-to-eye.
Yes, you can call it a cultural barrier, too, if you really want to.
Though that opens you up for a bunch of cheap shots about American culture, or lack thereof. I'll try not to make any, but just to let you know that I could.
But here's my issue with you:
You fault the American people for the mistakes our Government has made. Most notably, in your last post, about Iraq.
No, I most notably do not.
I have learned fairly well how democracy works on a larger scale (where "larger scale" is every and any scale at which people no longer personally know everyone else involved in the process), so I give the American people the benefit of a doubt.
I only take exception to presenting the will of your politicians as the will of the whole people, i.e. to mixing up - at will - the small scale and the large scale.
But, when it comes to extending the "nuclear umbrella" over NATO states, when it comes to intervening in and winning "The Great Patriotic War," for these things, it's "high politics" and a selfish act.
I explained my view on the nuclear umbrella and I maintain that you gained more than you gave.
As for the "Great Patriotic War", I don't even know which one you're talking about. I'll guess you meant the one war I talked about from my limited personal experience, i.e. the Croatian war for independence (capitalize as needed, I don't really care). If my guess is correct, then no, I never said nor expected you to intervene and win that war for us. Croatia was under a weapons embargo; lifting that would have sufficed.
However, since you so fervently maintain that you were protecting us, I feel I have a right to ask you: where were you then? Where was your altruism then?
I only ask that as a retort to your claims; otherwise it's all the same to me.
Well, you can't have it both ways. If our country, if our people, deserve your scorn for Iraq then that means that you believe that the American people are responsible due to who we chose to elect into power.
You simplify too much.
I know very well what it's like when a candidate with less than a real majority of votes comes to power; many of your fellow Americans apologized when Bush was re-elected. If Croatia were more important, I would probably have apologized in the same manner for our current leadership.
I do not attack the American people, once again. I attack your claims, I attack you. You just choose to hide behind the great mass that is the American people (this was not a slur on your average obesity level, though, in hindsight, it very well could have been).
Well, the American People could've elected in isolationist in 1940, 44, 48, 52, etc.
We could've sat idly by while Nazi's consume the people and resources of Europe for their own gain.
Now, I'll admit I've never liked history much, but IIRC, the USA was pretty passive right until Pearl Harbor. If that hadn't happened, you might have stayed equally passive, for all that I know.
However, since history is not one of my strong points, I will not debate it.
No matter what you want to believe Hitler, even if he'd been successful in Europe, posed no direct threat to our homeland. We weren't required to fight him to defend ourselves.
I vaguely remember something about Nazism and communism in Britain and in the US at that point in time, and a whole lot of s
Especially since the idea of FOSS comes from recipes.
My father and my grandparents also can various foodstuffs at home, and the quality is vastly superior to anything you can buy in a store.
But it takes quite a bit of time.
No. It is not.
I'm sure that some Polish, Czech or Hungarian reader can confirm that the best days of Soviet dominance were far better than, say, current American dominance in Iraq.
As long as you are in the position of dominance, it is so easy to think you are in the right and better than someone else who could be in that position. I assure you that the sentiment is not as readily shared by the ones you exert your dominance over.
Oh, I wouldn't worry about that.
Nearly everyone has a boss whom they'd like to fire a lethal cat at.
FWIW, after all the things that happened to them after the war, a large number of Croatian patriots, who'd gone to war simply to defend their country, have told me that if Croatia were attacked again, they'd join the aggressor.
A dejected patriot is almost as bad as a scorned woman.
Ah, yes. The good ole lethal-dose-of-laughing-gas special ops trick.
Read through my comment again; I think you'll find that you missed the point completely.
I haven't been traumatized by the war much. But I do know people who have.
And I'm just saying that I'm aware I will never feel about it as deeply as they do.
<snip>
My point is simple: we stood beside you. You can throw stones at the people of this country. But we stood beside you. You can deride our military. But we pledged our military to protect YOU if you needed it.
... because you saw interest in it.
To be more accurate, your government saw interest in pledging some of your military - therefore, someone else's lives - in case some other NATO member was attacked.
No-one ever thought about protecting me. And since my country wasn't in the NATO, we had no protection whatsoever. I remember the war, and the weapons embargo while we were being attacked.
You didn't do jack shit.
So please, please don't try to give me that self-righteous self-sacrificing crap. I grew up in a society ruled by war profiteers, listening to such propaganda. Please don't insult me by trying to feed me the same crap I'd gagged on when I was ten.
We're a flawed people. But you show me one that isn't.Of course, I can't do that.
But I can show you a number of peoples who do not invade other peoples in order to force upon them their preferred version of freedom in a holy war.
Some flaws are more irritating than others. So please do not flame me.
But even warriors may be.
I was talking about people, not events. Especially since I haven't met War, one of the Riders of the Apocalypse, in person.
No, no, you got the joke all wrong! You used an article where you should have used a possessive pronoun.
I have mod points, but I'm not touching this thread with my ten foot pole.
I wouldn't touch it with yours, either.