A ThinkPad is a really nice laptop. When I was contemplating the jump to the Mac (which is what I ultimately did), I knew that if I got a PC laptop, it'd be a ThinkPad, because they're worth the extra money. Like Apple, Lenovo does things right. I've never heard a complaint about ThinkPads.
Seriously does anyone else have issues with how convoluted it really is to add mp3 files to an ipod touch?
Not me. Plug in to charge, unplug when you are leaving the house. Everything is already synced. That's convoluted?
Add a folder to your library, wait while itunes chugs and makes a COPY of each file before syncing.
As other posters have pointed out, you don't have to have it set up that way. If you want to have your music strewn all over your hard drive in random places that are hard to keep track of and hard to back up, Apple will oblidge.
I'm sorry that you don't know how to use the software, but I'm glad that all my music is in one folder.
Hit sync a few times and agree to all your old settings being overwritten (when all it really does is update).
This is the one I can't figure out. The only time I hit "sync" is when I've told the program not to sync automatically, or if I've changed some playlists or something while it is plugged in and already synced. I don't think I've ever had to hit it "a few times," and I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about with the "all your old settings will be overwritten" message. Are you sure you're not hitting "Restore?"
Again... I would like to humbly suggest that you do not know how to use the software.
A $10 mp3 player allows me to right click and say "Send to..."
Okay, that's cool. I don't see how that helps with podcast subscriptions, playlists, and certain subsets of the library syncing to one device and others going to others, or how that helps you keep star ratings synced so that Party Shuffle preferentially selects songs you like better, or basically how that would be better than having a single, highly-customizable program handle all that for you, but if you want to do it that way, why didn't you just buy one of those FongTech "Super-Maxi CyberSong Glory" MP3 players that are all the rage these days, instead of the pokey little iPod Touch?
I loved AVG for a long time, but since 8, it has been a resource hog and has added a bunch of crap I don't want and keeps asking me if I'd like to pay and keeps throwing up false positives.
Why as a consumer would I be so dumb as to buy anything Apple if they're only goal is to extract as much money from me as possible by forcing me to use only their products?
iPod
Nomad II
Nomad II MG
Nomad II c
Nomad Jukebox
Nomad Jukebox 20GB
Nomad Jukebox C
Novad MuVo
Rio One
Rio 500
Rio 600
Rio 800
Rio 900
Rio S10
Rio S11
Rio S30S
Rio S35S
Rio S50
Rio Chiba
Rio Fuse
Rio Cali
psa]play 60
psa]play 120
SoundSpace 2
My friends and I had one of those set up, too. It always went like this:
Friend1: I have a great idea! Let's blah blah blah!
Friend2: That won't work and is stupid.
Friend1: Well, yes, there are challenges, but isn't the idea sound?
Friend2: No, it's dumb and you're dumb. Now you want to hear a REALLY great idea...
Friend1: Bzzzt! Dumb.
Friend2: I haven't even said it!
Friend1: You should be thankful for that; I saved you from wasting your breath on a dumb idea.
Fast forward a year...
Friend1: OMFG, click this link. THAT'S MY "STUPID" IDEA!!!
Friend2: Huh, someone figured out the challenges.
Friend1: You know what? Fuck this.
You know what my "stupid" idea was? A car stereo with integrated iPod dock (when the iPod came out). Why was it "stupid?" The iPod is just a fad.
Now don't get me wrong; I know I was far from the first person to come up with that idea, but it was far from stupid, and in the "club" we had several audio buffs, several programmers, and two highly-skilled electrical engineer/chip designers. I still think we could have at least drawn up a spec or something... Even if we end up missing the boat, it would have probably led to other things.
I haven't heard much about China, but in Japan (8th highest suicide rate) "losing face" can end your career. Submitting a bad report and having your boss say "Maybe you should re-write that" is akin to a death sentance.
You read that in the American media, right?
Japanese people are not so precious. I've lived in Japan off and on (mostly on) for the last 10 years. Guess what? People here are the same as anywhere else.
The corporate culture you describe is something I have never seen or heard of, outside of stupid 80s movies about how Japan was going to take over the world, which were themselves just retreads of stupid WWII propaganda films about how Japan was going to take over the world. It is largely a fabrication based on a handful of isolated incidents. Does it happen? Of course. It happens in Western countries too. It's just far, far from common.
Full Disclosure: In addition to living here, I took 200 credits of Asian language, culture, history, and political science in college, studying both in the US and Japan. 'm not talking out of my ass here.
This seems extremely unlikely by these people, who love and worship the show, that they would risk its stability for their own greed.
Telling a prospective employer your minimum acceptable salary is greedy? How is that greed? Someone says, "hey, we'd like you to come back to work for us and be our product again," and you say "well, that sounds good, but I can't really see doing it for less than X," you're just telling them what the job is worth to you.
You do realize this is a job for these people, right? They don't make it out of the kindness of their hearts. Moreover, this is a profitable series with a rabid fanbase. That was built in no small part by the voice talent. Moreover, that number doesn't seem unreasonable to me at all, and there is no way that is over 10X what they were making before. If they were, then it really was charity work.
Asking to be paid for your work, and saying what you would need to do it, is not being greedy.
An example: Last year there was a university that needed a custom language placement test designed. They also needed all the data run and returned to them no more than 48 hours after they administered it. They approached my research partner and I, who ran such a test at our university. They offered us what I considered a pittance, even though we were not creating a test from scratch, but were, rather, editing an existing one down. Still, that's a lot of work and the stats that one runs on such a test are quite specialized. Also, this was during our break, when we would otherwise be spending time with family. So we countered with a quote way, way, way above what they offered and said, "take it or leave it." We weren't being greedy or trying to take advantage of the situation--the guy trying to contract us was a pretty close personal friend and former colleague; we were just saying what it was worth to us to do this project. That's what the loss of the time, etc. was worth to us--even though both of us like assessment.
It's not being greedy, it's being honest about your own work/life balance and keeping your priorities in line.
Fox is going to pay it, anyway. No one would watch it if they had a different cast.
The real solution is to sell games that I would want to continue playing longer than 3 months.
Yeah, and what's up with these 90 minute movies??? If I'm gonna be paying $10 to see it, I better not be stumbling out of that theater, pale and bloated from subsisting on nothing but Cherry Coke, Sour Patch Kids, and buttered popcorn, for at least two weeks!
WHAT??? You mean fundamentals of capitalist economics apply to video games, music, film, TV shows, and other media as well as physical goods??? But... But... I don't like paying for things!!!
If no one wants to pay for them, no one wants them produced. So if no one wants them to be produced... why should you produce them? (Kinda obvious, isn't it?)
They dont have to be produced if theres no market for them. (Kinda obvious, isn't it?)
Yeah, the video game market is only $18.8 billion; it is kinda obvious that no one wants these products.
Wow, you somehow jumped from "some people buy used games" to "there is no market for games."
it just happens to be the easiest way of syncing your iPod,
...If by "just happens," you mean "was designed for the express purpose of."
if you could do the same thing in VLC, WMP, etc most people would.
No, most people don't know what those are. Also, they blow in comparison. Also, last I checked, WinAmp also could sync iPods, as can DoubleTwist, and probably some others. People don't use them. I know about them and know how to work them and I don't use them.
Your idea of "most people" is way too influenced by reading the crusty geeks on Slashdot.
I'm just going to suggest that there are a lot of social differences between middle-aged scientists and 20somethings trained to kill. Basically, young soldiers are assholes. They're trained to be. It's a mean boys' club. I don't think we'd see that type of hazing on an exploratory mission unless we put a bunch of 20something submariners on it.
I don't have a military background, but my dad was an officer in Korea and one of my best friends was a submarine captain. I don't have the personal experience you have, of course, and I believe every word of what you've said. I just think that it would not be as you say. I'm sure some teasing would go on, but I just don't think that older people do that kind of thing. That's young, testosterone-fueled, monkey alpha behavior that people grow out of when testosterone levels go down.
Guy wants to do something bizarre and paranoid. Looks for an honest way of doing it. Concludes that would be too expensive, and notices that if he pretends to want a new cellphone, and pretends to want a set of web-based services for it, he can get them for $99, claim he doesn't like the phone or service, and cancel them up to 30 days later.
Plan works as intended and results in the exact same situation as if he didn't do the bizarre and paranoid thing (movers tell you they'll be at the destination at one time, but come at another).
Guy expresses shock that setting a phone up to report its location to a web service results in --gasp!-- the phone reporting its location to a web service!!! Notes that if you don't keep your web password or your phone secured, your security could be compromised!
Finishes by admitting he likes the phone, which is a relief because this isn't a story so much about hardware, but someone's lack of honesty and willingness to rip companies off in order to do a bizarre and paranoid thing.
Meanwhile I CAN'T keep that up while working 10 hrs a day 5 days a week plus some weekends, spending 3 hours a day in commute, doing chores till midnight when I get home and helping to raise a family.
My (wholly unqualified) diagnosis: You have a poisonous lifestyle.
Look around and see if I'm right: People who work fewer hours (and ladies and gentlemen around the world, please hear me when I say that you need to count commute time as "work") are healthier. It sounds like your parenting partner is working too. Another problem, which likely means that your family is not eating as healthily as they should.
Now, I know what you're going to say: This is what you have to do to eat.
I do not know your situation, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you probably are not in danger of starving, even if one of you (whoever makes less) quits or moves to part-time work, or starts working from home or something. Anyway, your household needs to scale back the amount of time spent working. This will result in a drop in income, but it will likely result in an increase in quality of life. Fewer toys, smaller place, older cars, but better in all the ways that actually count.
Anecdotal evidence: My brother and I. My brother always made the money choice. I made the time choice. He used to freak out if he didn't have at least $10k a month coming in. I was happy as a clam with $4k. He drove a Saab and a Benz, both on loans. My wife and I have a kei car, paid for in cash. He bought a big house. We live in a small, but cozy, useful, and stylish apartment. He drove 1.5hr to work. I'm at my desk 8min from leaving the apartment. He declared bankruptcy when the mortgage business (his business) tanked because he suddenly found himself unemployed. I keep putting away almost half of my paycheck (I make more now, but have actually reduced my bills). Now he works for two non-profits doing light construction for those less fortunate, looks great, is happier than I have seen him since high school, and recently admitted to me that he doesn't even know why he needed so much money in the old days--that he wants for naught with the pittance he's making now. I said, "See?"
Seriously, look around. The healthy people are the people with lots of free time. I don't even think most of them use that time to exercise (my brother still goes to the gym; I hate the gym--it's kind of fun for the first few times, but then the boredom sets in--but I haven't noticed any weight change in my adult life, no matter what I do, so I quit). I think they just have more time to take care of themselves and those they love and less stress.
I'm sure you're going to jump down my throat for this, but I hope you at least look for more ways to reduce the amount of time you're spending on work. It really will do more for your health and state of mind than anything else.
As an over-rated, oft-cited American author famously wrote: "Simplify. Simplify."
PS: I'm not a hippie. I eat meat and shower and cut my hair and listen to angry music. I just have more time to do those things than most.
I have no mod points, else I would heap them upon you.
I used to be an actor (theatre major), mostly doing comedies. Having had to deliver funny lines many times to audiences, I can tell you that the difference between a funny line and an embarrassing line are tiny, tiny differences in timing. People have good comedic timing (mine is pretty good) have an innate sense for when something is at peak funniness. It definitely has to have something to do with the speed at which people think, and the things that they will think, after the joke is set up. There is a moment during that process where the "interrupt request" of another line delivered will either knock the process out of whack or confirm what it was already beginning to predict was going to happen. This is why humor can be so hard to translate--it assumes a shared schema of the way the world works, so that one can assume that the listener is going to make the same connections as you.
Anyway, as you say, that all goes to hell when the user is in control.
Also, now that they're on Xbox Live, I encourage you to go back and play the Monkey Island games that seemed so funny when you were 12. They aren't.
and compact fluorescents are still more economical? why should we change then?
No one is going to force you.
just because of a more pleasing spectrum?
For some people (me), that is the second-biggest drawback. The first is the warm-up time. If you tell me to buy better bulbs, I swear to god... Let's just say I have the best bulbs I can find in Japan--a mix of Toshiba and Panasonic. They're good bulbs.
The "mercury" issue should be easily solved by disposing the bulbs in the correct way (i.e. recycle).
This makes no sense. It's not a "mercury" issue; it's a mercury issue, and mercury is nasty stuff. Even if--and that's a big "if"--I have such a service in my city (like most people, I don't), it's not like putting the bulbs in a specific bin makes the mercury disappear; there's a whole process someone has to go through to clean that trash.
If I could get an efficient incandescent, yes, I'd be all over that. You don't have to be, though.
How could you say such a thing??? Regulation is what caused most of Europe to be enslaved while a few noble families lived lives of absolute luxury, hiring goons to torture, rape, and kill the masses into compliance with a life of abject poverty followed by a very early death!
Oh wait... My bad. That was a total lack of regulation.
And we call it the Dark Ages.
"Libertarian" is just a euphemism for "feudalist."
Because every time--every time--I hear someone blathering on about how racist Japan is, it's someone who can barely carry on a conversation, and who is almost completely illiterate.
I'm just sayin'.
Now, let me temper that with this: Yes, there are some things that need to be worked on (piss-testing foreigners in Roppongi is really disturbing, but... Well, they wouldn't be piss-testing them if they thought that they wouldn't get a lot of them on drug violations), but over all my life is just fine. In fact, it's great. I have a well-paying job and a nice apartment and Japanese food is the best. I want for naught.
The foreigner community has just as much work ahead of them to more peacefully assimilate into the host community as the host community has to challenge some of their racist notions and policies. Just as a "driving while black" story loses much of its punch when it ends with "and then they found a little pot I was taking to the party," a "walking while foreign" story shouldn't end with "and then they found out that I forgot that my visa had expired." Foreigners are mistreated here, yes, but many of them mistreat the locals. They act like the Loyola researcher in this Slashdot story, and are similarly flummoxed when the absolutely predictable occurs.
To all the foreigners in Japan reading this, please, for all of us:
Learn Japanese. And not just enough to nampa a chick in Roppongi and order a beer. Actually learn how to read. Kanji. English is not the language of Japan; Japanese is. I'm sorry if someone told you otherwise. That person was wrong. No one is under any obligation whatsoever to provide all services to you in your native language. Only English speakers would be so arrogant as to need to be told this.
Pay your taxes. Don't try to game the system when you leave the country.
Cancel your cellphone service and pay what you owe. Don't just leave.
Pay your incidental fees when you change apartments. Yes, renter law here is utterly ridiculous, but when you take off without paying, it makes it harder for others to get a place (which is probably why you're bitter about your apartment in the first place!).
For god's sake put your goddamn visa expiry date on your goddamn calendar. There is no excuse for overstaying, and even if nothing comes of it, your overstay will be logged as "foreigner crime" which will let the cops bug us without anybody caring.
When you move, update your address on your gaijin card. This isn't a foreign-only thing, guys. Japanese people have to do it too. If you don't like the government knowing where you live, leave. That is the law here.
Get a Japanese driver's license. Stop whining and waving the little gray paper with you picture taped to it that you bought at AAA for ten bucks that says you can drive a car on holiday. That is not a license. Go get a real license. It is not that hard, because all you really have to do (if you're American) is get your US license translated, pass a silly multiple-choice test in English, and drive around a little car obstacle course. If you're from any other English-speaking country, it's even easier (since US driver's licenses are handled at the state level and the states' rules are different, Japan makes Americans take a slightly longer test--not true for other countries). It's easy. And it's the law.
Don't do illegal drugs. Seriously, guys. At least wait until holiday if you really want to. The laws are strict here, but be thankful Japan is enlightened enough not to hang you, like some other Asian countries. Just don't do it in Japan. If you do, you are a stupid person.
For the love of god don't make sexual remarks to or about every woman you see. People's foreign-language listening proficiency always far outstrips their speaking ability. They know what you are saying
eah the syllabus might talk about physics, or English. The subject taught might be more like "Ok class, for today's lesson I will demonstrate what corruption is and will also touch on the incorrect use of authority. See, it's ugly isn't it? Here's what not to do."
I have never had this in a physics class. Plenty of times, though, in English classes. I actually have no problem at all with profs making their personal opinions known, as long as it doesn't eat up that much of the class, and as long as the point of the class isn't to convert me to their way of thinking, and as long as my grade won't be hurt if I don't agree. Honestly, most profs strike that balance just fine, but I have had one or two who I thought were mis-using their position.
Actually, in the liberal arts, I think that if you don't get the prof's opinion--as someone who has researched and thought a lot about the subject at hand--you're kind of getting ripped off. If all you wanted to do was recite names and dates, you could just memorize that list. It's not useful information, however, without some suggestions on how to make sense of it and apply it to your understanding of the world.
If you're taking a physics class, though, of course, yeah, that really needs to be about physics only.
Slashdot Mirror
A ThinkPad is a really nice laptop. When I was contemplating the jump to the Mac (which is what I ultimately did), I knew that if I got a PC laptop, it'd be a ThinkPad, because they're worth the extra money. Like Apple, Lenovo does things right. I've never heard a complaint about ThinkPads.
You're comparing premium to premium.
Seriously does anyone else have issues with how convoluted it really is to add mp3 files to an ipod touch?
Not me. Plug in to charge, unplug when you are leaving the house. Everything is already synced. That's convoluted?
Add a folder to your library, wait while itunes chugs and makes a COPY of each file before syncing.
As other posters have pointed out, you don't have to have it set up that way. If you want to have your music strewn all over your hard drive in random places that are hard to keep track of and hard to back up, Apple will oblidge.
I'm sorry that you don't know how to use the software, but I'm glad that all my music is in one folder.
Hit sync a few times and agree to all your old settings being overwritten (when all it really does is update).
This is the one I can't figure out. The only time I hit "sync" is when I've told the program not to sync automatically, or if I've changed some playlists or something while it is plugged in and already synced. I don't think I've ever had to hit it "a few times," and I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about with the "all your old settings will be overwritten" message. Are you sure you're not hitting "Restore?"
Again... I would like to humbly suggest that you do not know how to use the software.
A $10 mp3 player allows me to right click and say "Send to..."
Okay, that's cool. I don't see how that helps with podcast subscriptions, playlists, and certain subsets of the library syncing to one device and others going to others, or how that helps you keep star ratings synced so that Party Shuffle preferentially selects songs you like better, or basically how that would be better than having a single, highly-customizable program handle all that for you, but if you want to do it that way, why didn't you just buy one of those FongTech "Super-Maxi CyberSong Glory" MP3 players that are all the rage these days, instead of the pokey little iPod Touch?
Or switch to a better AV product.
I loved AVG for a long time, but since 8, it has been a resource hog and has added a bunch of crap I don't want and keeps asking me if I'd like to pay and keeps throwing up false positives.
I just got rid of it the other day.
Since I'm not dumb enough to buy an iPod
Yes, only dumb people buy iPods.
(sigh) Slashdot.
Why as a consumer would I be so dumb as to buy anything Apple if they're only goal is to extract as much money from me as possible by forcing me to use only their products?
From here (for MacOS):
iPod Nomad II
Nomad II MG
Nomad II c
Nomad Jukebox
Nomad Jukebox 20GB
Nomad Jukebox C
Novad MuVo
Rio One
Rio 500
Rio 600
Rio 800
Rio 900
Rio S10
Rio S11
Rio S30S
Rio S35S
Rio S50
Rio Chiba
Rio Fuse
Rio Cali
psa]play 60
psa]play 120
SoundSpace 2
My friends and I had one of those set up, too. It always went like this:
Friend1: I have a great idea! Let's blah blah blah!
Friend2: That won't work and is stupid.
Friend1: Well, yes, there are challenges, but isn't the idea sound?
Friend2: No, it's dumb and you're dumb. Now you want to hear a REALLY great idea...
Friend1: Bzzzt! Dumb.
Friend2: I haven't even said it!
Friend1: You should be thankful for that; I saved you from wasting your breath on a dumb idea.
Fast forward a year...
Friend1: OMFG, click this link. THAT'S MY "STUPID" IDEA!!!
Friend2: Huh, someone figured out the challenges.
Friend1: You know what? Fuck this.
You know what my "stupid" idea was? A car stereo with integrated iPod dock (when the iPod came out). Why was it "stupid?" The iPod is just a fad.
Now don't get me wrong; I know I was far from the first person to come up with that idea, but it was far from stupid, and in the "club" we had several audio buffs, several programmers, and two highly-skilled electrical engineer/chip designers. I still think we could have at least drawn up a spec or something... Even if we end up missing the boat, it would have probably led to other things.
Ugh. Ideas. Bah.
2) Be drivable while drunk
You can still get a ticket while bicycling drunk. It's called a BUI.
I'm not kidding.
Believe me.
I haven't heard much about China, but in Japan (8th highest suicide rate) "losing face" can end your career. Submitting a bad report and having your boss say "Maybe you should re-write that" is akin to a death sentance.
You read that in the American media, right?
Japanese people are not so precious. I've lived in Japan off and on (mostly on) for the last 10 years. Guess what? People here are the same as anywhere else.
The corporate culture you describe is something I have never seen or heard of, outside of stupid 80s movies about how Japan was going to take over the world, which were themselves just retreads of stupid WWII propaganda films about how Japan was going to take over the world. It is largely a fabrication based on a handful of isolated incidents. Does it happen? Of course. It happens in Western countries too. It's just far, far from common.
Full Disclosure: In addition to living here, I took 200 credits of Asian language, culture, history, and political science in college, studying both in the US and Japan. 'm not talking out of my ass here.
You're an idiot.
This seems extremely unlikely by these people, who love and worship the show, that they would risk its stability for their own greed.
Telling a prospective employer your minimum acceptable salary is greedy? How is that greed? Someone says, "hey, we'd like you to come back to work for us and be our product again," and you say "well, that sounds good, but I can't really see doing it for less than X," you're just telling them what the job is worth to you.
You do realize this is a job for these people, right? They don't make it out of the kindness of their hearts. Moreover, this is a profitable series with a rabid fanbase. That was built in no small part by the voice talent. Moreover, that number doesn't seem unreasonable to me at all, and there is no way that is over 10X what they were making before. If they were, then it really was charity work.
Asking to be paid for your work, and saying what you would need to do it, is not being greedy.
An example: Last year there was a university that needed a custom language placement test designed. They also needed all the data run and returned to them no more than 48 hours after they administered it. They approached my research partner and I, who ran such a test at our university. They offered us what I considered a pittance, even though we were not creating a test from scratch, but were, rather, editing an existing one down. Still, that's a lot of work and the stats that one runs on such a test are quite specialized. Also, this was during our break, when we would otherwise be spending time with family. So we countered with a quote way, way, way above what they offered and said, "take it or leave it." We weren't being greedy or trying to take advantage of the situation--the guy trying to contract us was a pretty close personal friend and former colleague; we were just saying what it was worth to us to do this project. That's what the loss of the time, etc. was worth to us--even though both of us like assessment.
It's not being greedy, it's being honest about your own work/life balance and keeping your priorities in line.
Fox is going to pay it, anyway. No one would watch it if they had a different cast.
The real solution is to sell games that I would want to continue playing longer than 3 months.
Yeah, and what's up with these 90 minute movies??? If I'm gonna be paying $10 to see it, I better not be stumbling out of that theater, pale and bloated from subsisting on nothing but Cherry Coke, Sour Patch Kids, and buttered popcorn, for at least two weeks!
but then I also am the guy that pisses off the EB clerks and got Fallout 3 for $20.00 when they offered the guy turning it in $10.00 for it.
You are my hero.
WHAT??? You mean fundamentals of capitalist economics apply to video games, music, film, TV shows, and other media as well as physical goods??? But... But... I don't like paying for things!!!
If no one wants to pay for them, no one wants them produced. So if no one wants them to be produced... why should you produce them? (Kinda obvious, isn't it?)
They dont have to be produced if theres no market for them. (Kinda obvious, isn't it?)
Yeah, the video game market is only $18.8 billion; it is kinda obvious that no one wants these products.
Wow, you somehow jumped from "some people buy used games" to "there is no market for games."
For one, not many people really -like- iTunes,
[citation needed]
it just happens to be the easiest way of syncing your iPod,
...If by "just happens," you mean "was designed for the express purpose of."
if you could do the same thing in VLC, WMP, etc most people would.
No, most people don't know what those are. Also, they blow in comparison. Also, last I checked, WinAmp also could sync iPods, as can DoubleTwist, and probably some others. People don't use them. I know about them and know how to work them and I don't use them.
Your idea of "most people" is way too influenced by reading the crusty geeks on Slashdot.
I'm just going to suggest that there are a lot of social differences between middle-aged scientists and 20somethings trained to kill. Basically, young soldiers are assholes. They're trained to be. It's a mean boys' club. I don't think we'd see that type of hazing on an exploratory mission unless we put a bunch of 20something submariners on it.
I don't have a military background, but my dad was an officer in Korea and one of my best friends was a submarine captain. I don't have the personal experience you have, of course, and I believe every word of what you've said. I just think that it would not be as you say. I'm sure some teasing would go on, but I just don't think that older people do that kind of thing. That's young, testosterone-fueled, monkey alpha behavior that people grow out of when testosterone levels go down.
Guy wants to do something bizarre and paranoid. Looks for an honest way of doing it. Concludes that would be too expensive, and notices that if he pretends to want a new cellphone, and pretends to want a set of web-based services for it, he can get them for $99, claim he doesn't like the phone or service, and cancel them up to 30 days later.
Plan works as intended and results in the exact same situation as if he didn't do the bizarre and paranoid thing (movers tell you they'll be at the destination at one time, but come at another).
Guy expresses shock that setting a phone up to report its location to a web service results in --gasp!-- the phone reporting its location to a web service!!! Notes that if you don't keep your web password or your phone secured, your security could be compromised!
Finishes by admitting he likes the phone, which is a relief because this isn't a story so much about hardware, but someone's lack of honesty and willingness to rip companies off in order to do a bizarre and paranoid thing.
Meanwhile I CAN'T keep that up while working 10 hrs a day 5 days a week plus some weekends, spending 3 hours a day in commute, doing chores till midnight when I get home and helping to raise a family.
My (wholly unqualified) diagnosis: You have a poisonous lifestyle.
Look around and see if I'm right: People who work fewer hours (and ladies and gentlemen around the world, please hear me when I say that you need to count commute time as "work") are healthier. It sounds like your parenting partner is working too. Another problem, which likely means that your family is not eating as healthily as they should.
Now, I know what you're going to say: This is what you have to do to eat.
I do not know your situation, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you probably are not in danger of starving, even if one of you (whoever makes less) quits or moves to part-time work, or starts working from home or something. Anyway, your household needs to scale back the amount of time spent working. This will result in a drop in income, but it will likely result in an increase in quality of life. Fewer toys, smaller place, older cars, but better in all the ways that actually count.
Anecdotal evidence: My brother and I. My brother always made the money choice. I made the time choice. He used to freak out if he didn't have at least $10k a month coming in. I was happy as a clam with $4k. He drove a Saab and a Benz, both on loans. My wife and I have a kei car, paid for in cash. He bought a big house. We live in a small, but cozy, useful, and stylish apartment. He drove 1.5hr to work. I'm at my desk 8min from leaving the apartment. He declared bankruptcy when the mortgage business (his business) tanked because he suddenly found himself unemployed. I keep putting away almost half of my paycheck (I make more now, but have actually reduced my bills). Now he works for two non-profits doing light construction for those less fortunate, looks great, is happier than I have seen him since high school, and recently admitted to me that he doesn't even know why he needed so much money in the old days--that he wants for naught with the pittance he's making now. I said, "See?"
Seriously, look around. The healthy people are the people with lots of free time. I don't even think most of them use that time to exercise (my brother still goes to the gym; I hate the gym--it's kind of fun for the first few times, but then the boredom sets in--but I haven't noticed any weight change in my adult life, no matter what I do, so I quit). I think they just have more time to take care of themselves and those they love and less stress.
I'm sure you're going to jump down my throat for this, but I hope you at least look for more ways to reduce the amount of time you're spending on work. It really will do more for your health and state of mind than anything else.
As an over-rated, oft-cited American author famously wrote: "Simplify. Simplify."
PS: I'm not a hippie. I eat meat and shower and cut my hair and listen to angry music. I just have more time to do those things than most.
In at least some states (Massachusetts for one) out-of-state ID isn't accepted for alcohol purchases, but federal ID like a passport is.
Whenever I've run into that, I've pointed out that it is clearly unconstitutional (Article IV, Section 1; full faith and credit clause).
I have no mod points, else I would heap them upon you.
I used to be an actor (theatre major), mostly doing comedies. Having had to deliver funny lines many times to audiences, I can tell you that the difference between a funny line and an embarrassing line are tiny, tiny differences in timing. People have good comedic timing (mine is pretty good) have an innate sense for when something is at peak funniness. It definitely has to have something to do with the speed at which people think, and the things that they will think, after the joke is set up. There is a moment during that process where the "interrupt request" of another line delivered will either knock the process out of whack or confirm what it was already beginning to predict was going to happen. This is why humor can be so hard to translate--it assumes a shared schema of the way the world works, so that one can assume that the listener is going to make the same connections as you.
Anyway, as you say, that all goes to hell when the user is in control.
Also, now that they're on Xbox Live, I encourage you to go back and play the Monkey Island games that seemed so funny when you were 12. They aren't.
and compact fluorescents are still more economical? why should we change then?
No one is going to force you.
just because of a more pleasing spectrum?
For some people (me), that is the second-biggest drawback. The first is the warm-up time. If you tell me to buy better bulbs, I swear to god... Let's just say I have the best bulbs I can find in Japan--a mix of Toshiba and Panasonic. They're good bulbs.
The "mercury" issue should be easily solved by disposing the bulbs in the correct way (i.e. recycle).
This makes no sense. It's not a "mercury" issue; it's a mercury issue, and mercury is nasty stuff. Even if--and that's a big "if"--I have such a service in my city (like most people, I don't), it's not like putting the bulbs in a specific bin makes the mercury disappear; there's a whole process someone has to go through to clean that trash.
If I could get an efficient incandescent, yes, I'd be all over that. You don't have to be, though.
How could you say such a thing??? Regulation is what caused most of Europe to be enslaved while a few noble families lived lives of absolute luxury, hiring goons to torture, rape, and kill the masses into compliance with a life of abject poverty followed by a very early death!
Oh wait... My bad. That was a total lack of regulation.
And we call it the Dark Ages.
"Libertarian" is just a euphemism for "feudalist."
When you say "more liberal", do you mean "more left-wing"?
No, he means "git yer gubmit off my lawn."
One question: How is your Japanese?
Because every time--every time--I hear someone blathering on about how racist Japan is, it's someone who can barely carry on a conversation, and who is almost completely illiterate.
I'm just sayin'.
Now, let me temper that with this: Yes, there are some things that need to be worked on (piss-testing foreigners in Roppongi is really disturbing, but... Well, they wouldn't be piss-testing them if they thought that they wouldn't get a lot of them on drug violations), but over all my life is just fine. In fact, it's great. I have a well-paying job and a nice apartment and Japanese food is the best. I want for naught.
The foreigner community has just as much work ahead of them to more peacefully assimilate into the host community as the host community has to challenge some of their racist notions and policies. Just as a "driving while black" story loses much of its punch when it ends with "and then they found a little pot I was taking to the party," a "walking while foreign" story shouldn't end with "and then they found out that I forgot that my visa had expired." Foreigners are mistreated here, yes, but many of them mistreat the locals. They act like the Loyola researcher in this Slashdot story, and are similarly flummoxed when the absolutely predictable occurs.
To all the foreigners in Japan reading this, please, for all of us:
eah the syllabus might talk about physics, or English. The subject taught might be more like "Ok class, for today's lesson I will demonstrate what corruption is and will also touch on the incorrect use of authority. See, it's ugly isn't it? Here's what not to do."
I have never had this in a physics class. Plenty of times, though, in English classes. I actually have no problem at all with profs making their personal opinions known, as long as it doesn't eat up that much of the class, and as long as the point of the class isn't to convert me to their way of thinking, and as long as my grade won't be hurt if I don't agree. Honestly, most profs strike that balance just fine, but I have had one or two who I thought were mis-using their position.
Actually, in the liberal arts, I think that if you don't get the prof's opinion--as someone who has researched and thought a lot about the subject at hand--you're kind of getting ripped off. If all you wanted to do was recite names and dates, you could just memorize that list. It's not useful information, however, without some suggestions on how to make sense of it and apply it to your understanding of the world.
If you're taking a physics class, though, of course, yeah, that really needs to be about physics only.