Out of interest, do you really actually do that? I can't remember the last time I divided a bill up between the people I was with, and we bothered with anything lower than a pound or dollar.
<snip>
Ironically, you'd probably have to still be in primary-school to care about the 66 cents extra you're paying.
I do not live an English-speaking country.
I live in the Balkans.
And I'm a student, which is a social category here.
In the sense of being eternally broke.;)
One British pound is equal to two subsidised student meals.
Or a beer. (Or, if you're like me, a fruit juice.)
Anyway, since none of us have much money, we all try to pay our share. At least.
And scrounge a bit if someone doesn't have enough.
Oh, yes: I almost forgot. We do not live in a tipping culture.
I've never used (never had to use) an Imperial system, but from what I recall, I've only had to know how many lesser units there were in a larger unit when doing some primary-school math.
OTOH, dividing up a bill is quite common.
The Imperial monetary system seems more complex to learn, but way more practical once you master it.
Kind of like Linux and vi.
And 1:30 for Vista? Well that would be nice. I've only run Vista on my work PC which is an Athlon64 3000. It takes FIVE MINUTES to boot.
Well, well, well.
Ignoring the fact that there is probably something very wrong with some of your drivers, this boot time is comparable to Win95 on a minimal configuration (386, 4 MB RAM).
Though I have a friend who claims Vista's working just fine, he's much more of a MS advocate than I am a Linux or Mac advocate, so I'll take that with a grain of sodium chloride... especially since not all my other friends are very happy with Vista. I'll be staying away, if it's all the same to you...
It disturbs me that it's primarily native speakers of English who bear the brunt of PC. People who can speak another language can (and do) say whatever they want in their own languages and consume their own media (which is like their versions of our own pre-1970s media).
Not only that: we don't even see most of the issues your PC attempts to deal with.
In my sociolinguistics class, many things considered sexist in your society (and thus worthy of special PC care) are an endless source of ridicule. Of so-called issues as well as PC in general.
The good old toons, alas, got cancelled on Croatian TV as well several years ago, but because of different cultural contexts, they never were a source of racism or any other issue. Nor have I ever seen them interpreted in that way.
Then again, apart from a handful of skinheads, I've never even heard a racist remark in our society (I do not include jokes here; they do not reinforce the stereotypes, but ridicule them instead).
However, some PC has leaked into Croatian language, too... not so much linguistic as cultural contamination... But when all's said and done, I still consider PC a way to reinforce the negative stereotypes: you have to know what all not to say in any circumstance and why, so you think about it a lot and...
Well you aren't actually talking, it's the impulse in your brain that would cause speech to come from your mouth that drive this...but in this case you aren't actually speaking only thinking of speaking.
Yes, I know.
But there is really not much difference; I highly doubt this would be any faster than normal speech, so the only advantage over regular speech would be the fact that it's quiet.
And I'd still rather wear special gloves than have electrodes in my brain just to be able to talk to computers.
Then it shouldn't to hard to use the same impulses for control interfaces, so thinking of speaking and manipulating your computer, or other item.
Truth be told, I don't see what's the big deal with speech controlled interfaces: even if I could control the computer by speaking to it, I wouldn't.
Fist of all, it's too noisy; imagine an office full of people working all day talking to their computers.
Furthermore, it's too slow. It sounds nice when you see it on Star Trek, but the way computers are now, you'd still have to think and talk (or just think to talk) like a programmer. You'd have to find a way to think differently for text and commands (see the Vista speech recognition video for details), while the keyboard gives you quite a number of possibilities.
And I don't know what it's like in the USA, but in my culture, people don't like to talk to machines unless they're swearing.
We don't even leave messages on answering machines or voicemail.
I'd rather see a computer controlled by some sort of sign language; that could both speed up text input (at least on average) and retain the current level of control (or even improve it, though we'd have to step up from only one mouse or similar controller).
I remember running Windows 95 on a 100mhz system with 8mb of ram. The thing installed off 13 floppy disks, took up about 50mb of hd space, and considering the specs of the system, ran very well. If that's not a lean OS I don't know what is.
I remember installing Win95 on my mother's business 386 with 8 MB RAM.
From the 13 or so floppies, of course, since CD-ROM drives were a) expensive, b) unnecessary for such computers and c) expensive.
It was anything but lean.
It took quite a while to boot, paged all the time and was quite horrible in every aspect.
And that was on a configuration better than the minimal one.
Say what you want about Microsoft, but try running a modern Linux distro with KDE or Gnome on an older Machine (800mhz, 256mb) and let me know if it beats out XP in speed and responsiveness.
As it happens, I am running two such machines in the students' club. One is my own, the other belongs to the club.
My machine is a Duron 600, with 512 MB RAM (though I only added it two weeks ago; it used to have 256 MB), running Gentoo with Gnome, KDE, E17 - you name it.
The other machine is a Celeron 600, with 256 MB RAM (also upgraded recently from 128 MB), with a fresh install of WinXP SP2.
And yes, it is a pig, though a part of it may well be due to AVG Free Antivirus.
Scrolling in Firefox looks like stop-motion; everything is so. damn. slow.
Also, even when logging in into the pig that is Gnome, you still get a much more responsive and, yes, faster experience on the Linux machine.
Now I'm thinking about installing gOS on the Linux machine as it is bound to make it even more responsive, and with all the users, I'm running out of space for recompiles of major software items like KDE and Gnome. I just don't feel like investing more money in extra disk space.
For an even better setup, install Win2k on it, which even today will do everything you could possibly require, and it will run circles around modern Linux desktop environments.
Wrong again.
The Windows machine had Win2k installed until the memory upgrade and system reinstall.
And it was slow. Painfully slow.
Granted, I had no administrator rights on the machine back then, so I don't know what all was on the system, but it was painfully slow.
Not as slow as XP SP2, though.
The days of Linux being lean and mean are long gone, and suffers from the same "add more memory, better cpu, bigger hard drive" philosophy for every major release just as Microsoft does. When you compare similar functionally between the two, Microsoft always came on top, but then Vista happened.
While I do agree that Linux is not so lean and mean as before, my experience shows that on comparable machines it will still run circles around Windows.
Apple got much stronger thanks to iPod, and iPod has boosted Mac sales as well: not only do I know more people who own a Mac - I own a MacBook Pro myself. Five years ago it would have been not extravagant, but luxurious; now it's still a bit expensive, but not as uncommon.
Anyway, if iPod boosted Mac sales, then that means less sales for MS. And since MS has so plainly lost the initiative on every single field and is now a giant on the defensive, the only thing they can do is try to use the same strategy back at Apple.
Besides, even ten years ago it was obvious from Gates' interviews that MS intended to dominate not only computers, but TVs and stereos as well, controlling them from what is now called the Media Center computer. Therefore, they had to try and push out Sony, and the tactics is similar.
Even more so, Holmes was written that way because Doyle was actually quite gullible, and IIRC tried to use Sherlock's methods in real life, but failed.
I forgot who it was that Doyle based Holmes upon, but anyway.
Now, of course, the real debate begins. How much more will consumers be willing to pay for safe vehicles, and what limitations on speed will they accept? Rolling out this technology (if you'll excuse the play on words) will require changes in infrastructure, law, and cultural mentality. Especially here in the states. If it means saving this many lives, will you pay twice as much and drive at half speed, at least for a little while?
Half speed?
If you calculate the average speed in a traffic jam during the rush hour - hell, average it with a freeway while you're at it - you get half speed or worse.
That's why the automated public transport idea is so great.
Oh, forgot one more thing: my friend was assigned to sharpshooters because of his psych profile: he's just psychotic enough to be able to kill someone from far away and not care, which is apparently how our sharpshooters are selected. Sounds logical. Faced with the real world objective of taking out enemy targets when the lives of your unit are on the line, you don't want some pussy flaking out over an ethical quandary.
And according to the last wars fought here, civilians are also enemy targets.
Most certainly, you would not want a sharpshooter who wouldn't shoot a five-year-old.
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Out of interest, do you really actually do that? I can't remember the last time I divided a bill up between the people I was with, and we bothered with anything lower than a pound or dollar.
<snip>Ironically, you'd probably have to still be in primary-school to care about the 66 cents extra you're paying.
I do not live an English-speaking country.
I live in the Balkans.
And I'm a student, which is a social category here. ;)
In the sense of being eternally broke.
One British pound is equal to two subsidised student meals.
Or a beer. (Or, if you're like me, a fruit juice.)
Anyway, since none of us have much money, we all try to pay our share. At least.
And scrounge a bit if someone doesn't have enough.
Oh, yes: I almost forgot. We do not live in a tipping culture.
I've never used (never had to use) an Imperial system, but from what I recall, I've only had to know how many lesser units there were in a larger unit when doing some primary-school math.
OTOH, dividing up a bill is quite common.
The Imperial monetary system seems more complex to learn, but way more practical once you master it.
Kind of like Linux and vi.
Well, well, well.
Ignoring the fact that there is probably something very wrong with some of your drivers, this boot time is comparable to Win95 on a minimal configuration (386, 4 MB RAM).
Though I have a friend who claims Vista's working just fine, he's much more of a MS advocate than I am a Linux or Mac advocate, so I'll take that with a grain of sodium chloride... especially since not all my other friends are very happy with Vista. I'll be staying away, if it's all the same to you...
Not only that: we don't even see most of the issues your PC attempts to deal with.
In my sociolinguistics class, many things considered sexist in your society (and thus worthy of special PC care) are an endless source of ridicule. Of so-called issues as well as PC in general.
The good old toons, alas, got cancelled on Croatian TV as well several years ago, but because of different cultural contexts, they never were a source of racism or any other issue. Nor have I ever seen them interpreted in that way.
Then again, apart from a handful of skinheads, I've never even heard a racist remark in our society (I do not include jokes here; they do not reinforce the stereotypes, but ridicule them instead).
However, some PC has leaked into Croatian language, too... not so much linguistic as cultural contamination... But when all's said and done, I still consider PC a way to reinforce the negative stereotypes: you have to know what all not to say in any circumstance and why, so you think about it a lot and...
Maybe Mail.app is trying to tell you to grow up and move on?
I know I created a filter for my mother's messages, as she's my largest source of fwd: fwd: fwd: e-mails.
Oooh, nice one.
I think I'll use that.
I like my free time a lot; I most certainly don't want it to be interrupted by work whenever somebody else feels like it.
I sense a Ferengi joke in here somewhere...
And FireGPG works nice with Gmail.
Very convenient, too.
So, I'll always remain an open-source, file-sharing, anti-corporate commie?
/* scribbles a note: check this when I'm seventy */
I wonder, if robots can actually control swarms, could we perhaps make them lead the swarms not to world domination, but to some sort of... mishap?
There's gotta be some way to get rid of them.
FIFY.
Yes, I know.
But there is really not much difference; I highly doubt this would be any faster than normal speech, so the only advantage over regular speech would be the fact that it's quiet.
And I'd still rather wear special gloves than have electrodes in my brain just to be able to talk to computers.
Truth be told, I don't see what's the big deal with speech controlled interfaces: even if I could control the computer by speaking to it, I wouldn't.
Fist of all, it's too noisy; imagine an office full of people working all day talking to their computers.
Furthermore, it's too slow. It sounds nice when you see it on Star Trek, but the way computers are now, you'd still have to think and talk (or just think to talk) like a programmer. You'd have to find a way to think differently for text and commands (see the Vista speech recognition video for details), while the keyboard gives you quite a number of possibilities.
And I don't know what it's like in the USA, but in my culture, people don't like to talk to machines unless they're swearing.
We don't even leave messages on answering machines or voicemail.
I'd rather see a computer controlled by some sort of sign language; that could both speed up text input (at least on average) and retain the current level of control (or even improve it, though we'd have to step up from only one mouse or similar controller).
I remember running Windows 95 on a 100mhz system with 8mb of ram. The thing installed off 13 floppy disks, took up about 50mb of hd space, and considering the specs of the system, ran very well. If that's not a lean OS I don't know what is.
I remember installing Win95 on my mother's business 386 with 8 MB RAM.
From the 13 or so floppies, of course, since CD-ROM drives were a) expensive, b) unnecessary for such computers and c) expensive.
It was anything but lean.
Say what you want about Microsoft, but try running a modern Linux distro with KDE or Gnome on an older Machine (800mhz, 256mb) and let me know if it beats out XP in speed and responsiveness.It took quite a while to boot, paged all the time and was quite horrible in every aspect.
And that was on a configuration better than the minimal one.
As it happens, I am running two such machines in the students' club. One is my own, the other belongs to the club.
My machine is a Duron 600, with 512 MB RAM (though I only added it two weeks ago; it used to have 256 MB), running Gentoo with Gnome, KDE, E17 - you name it.
The other machine is a Celeron 600, with 256 MB RAM (also upgraded recently from 128 MB), with a fresh install of WinXP SP2.
And yes, it is a pig, though a part of it may well be due to AVG Free Antivirus.
Scrolling in Firefox looks like stop-motion; everything is so. damn. slow.
Also, even when logging in into the pig that is Gnome, you still get a much more responsive and, yes, faster experience on the Linux machine.
Now I'm thinking about installing gOS on the Linux machine as it is bound to make it even more responsive, and with all the users, I'm running out of space for recompiles of major software items like KDE and Gnome. I just don't feel like investing more money in extra disk space.
For an even better setup, install Win2k on it, which even today will do everything you could possibly require, and it will run circles around modern Linux desktop environments.Wrong again.
The Windows machine had Win2k installed until the memory upgrade and system reinstall.
And it was slow. Painfully slow.
Granted, I had no administrator rights on the machine back then, so I don't know what all was on the system, but it was painfully slow.
The days of Linux being lean and mean are long gone, and suffers from the same "add more memory, better cpu, bigger hard drive" philosophy for every major release just as Microsoft does. When you compare similar functionally between the two, Microsoft always came on top, but then Vista happened.Not as slow as XP SP2, though.
While I do agree that Linux is not so lean and mean as before, my experience shows that on comparable machines it will still run circles around Windows.
Um... Jax from Mortal Kombat?
Besides, Microsoft is copying Apple, as ever.
Apple got much stronger thanks to iPod, and iPod has boosted Mac sales as well: not only do I know more people who own a Mac - I own a MacBook Pro myself. Five years ago it would have been not extravagant, but luxurious; now it's still a bit expensive, but not as uncommon.
Anyway, if iPod boosted Mac sales, then that means less sales for MS. And since MS has so plainly lost the initiative on every single field and is now a giant on the defensive, the only thing they can do is try to use the same strategy back at Apple.
Besides, even ten years ago it was obvious from Gates' interviews that MS intended to dominate not only computers, but TVs and stereos as well, controlling them from what is now called the Media Center computer. Therefore, they had to try and push out Sony, and the tactics is similar.
Well, if the last few backups were blank, it's clear she had been planning it.
Even if paranoid procedures had been in place, she would have trashed the systems just as well, only a minute before resigning.
I must be hanging around here way too much, for I tried to imagine what music could be found in Goatse...
Alright, enough intertubes for me... gotta go and wash my eyes and ears with bleach.
Besides, even if we got rid of spam, and the bandwith was freed, we normal users wouldn't see a bit of difference.
Even more so, Holmes was written that way because Doyle was actually quite gullible, and IIRC tried to use Sherlock's methods in real life, but failed.
I forgot who it was that Doyle based Holmes upon, but anyway.
Half speed?
If you calculate the average speed in a traffic jam during the rush hour - hell, average it with a freeway while you're at it - you get half speed or worse.
That's why the automated public transport idea is so great.
And according to the last wars fought here, civilians are also enemy targets.
Most certainly, you would not want a sharpshooter who wouldn't shoot a five-year-old.
Why? Brad Pitt and Edward Norton don't look much alike. ;)
My point is, as long as I'm dead afterwards, I'll be in no position to care either way.
Well, supposing I'm at least unconscious beforehand.
Well, don't you get such groups in this way as well?
Anyway, I don't care as long as I'm dead after the organ harvesting.