Crime continues to be a problem in the United States, although it's been declining now for quite a long time. It's important to note, however, that signs show that crime is on the rise in Europe. But the thing that irks me here is that for all the attention, some of it deserved, that the Aurora and Newtown shootings get, everyone ignores on-going inner city crime. That kind of crime is far more detrimental to quality of life and touches on persistent social problems. These are problems born out of a lack of education, entitlement mentality and pop culture.
That said, countries measure statistics quite differently. Let's take infant mortality, which is frequently brought up as an example of how miserable healthcare in the US is. But everyone neglects to point out that European standards differ dramatically. The bar for what constitutes infant mortality in Europe is much higher, resulting in fewer deaths counted. Or, more egregious, let's take China where crime and mortality figures are incredibly low but the circumstantial evidence consistently show that things are worse than the government claims.
I agree that there is a problem with violence in the United States and guns definitely facilitate that. I fully support stronger gun control across the board, but I think we need to examine the culture as well. I recall once walking out of a Target and overhearing one employee tell another about how he wanted to beat someone up. It occurred to me that the US is the only country I've been to where regular people talk casually about inflicting violence on someone else. That is a serious problem, and one that goes back to my initial point.
I'm surprised Watson is able to function at all after being exposed to Urban Dictionary. I've found that the majority of terms and definitions appearing on that site are meaningless to nearly everyone outside for the tiny circle of friends who decided to post. It's like everyone wants their cute little definition on the site.
That said, I've never been in a situation where I haven't found what I was looking for.
I don't think there's any ambiguity to the term "fun for the family". Regardless of what may constitute a family I think it's very well understood that when people and companies use that expression they mean children.
There are also parents who think it's okay to expose their kids to anything and everything; people have differing opinions and degrees of responsibility. Usually, but certainly not always, the point of a term is to help offer some degree of specificity.
My big problem is that too many gamers associate "mature" with sex and graphic violence. It's maturity seen from the perspective of a teenager. I have a hard time comprehending why violence and adult should be mutually inclusive beyond the basic fact that it's what sells. People can get on their high horse about free speech, but from the perspective of developers and publishers all that matters is the revenue.
Honestly, I'm surprised that Discovery Channel is still involved with projects like these as they appear to be headed on the same path as TLC (The Learning Channel, talk about an oxymoron). They seem to be firmly ensconced in reality television, what with quality content like Property Wars, Moonshiners and Amish Mafia. I predict this giant squid footage is going to be presented in a heavy-handed manner where it's all going to feel like we're watching footage of the Loch Ness monster. A legitimate topic is going to be presented like it's pseudo-science.
Clearly, management has decided they weren't making enough money by going the educational route. So they're trying to appeal to a dumber demographic who's less likely to be analytical about the advertising they're exposed to and more likely to spend money carelessly. This is my fear with the government withdrawing support for public television. It's only a matter of time before they devolve into the same sort of crap.
This is a fairly common problem in Asia, and possibly more prevalent in Chinese speaking nations. Sons continue to be revered to the point of being spoiled rotten. So they go through school and enter the workforce incapable of handling the responsibilities and stresses of life. They expect everything handed to them and many have trouble being told want to do in the workplace. It's not fundamentally different than the entitlement culture parents are creating in the west, but it's a bit more focused in Asia and manifests itself a little different.
Where American youth expect they should be free to pursue a life of leisure young men in Asia have it in their heads that they're budding entrepreneurs. So they'll refuse to get a job because they don't want to work for the man. They leech off the parents and because of the strong sense of family and obligation parents will support them indefinitely. They'll even go as far as helping them start a business which doesn't improve their work ethic. For the guys with wealthy and connected parents they'll get a cushy, high paying job doing not much of anything. The irony is that the daughters still get the short of the stick, but end up being the responsible ones who in the end support the parents and the slacker brothers.
Of course, there is the subset who have no aspirations whatsoever, like this guy. So his father didn't kick him in the ass when he should have, let the problem persist and grow, and now is trying to do something about it when it's too late.
I'm sure he was fully aware that the authorities and the media would try to understand him. I'd guess his intent was to do something horrible, hitting the most vulnerable part of society in order to inflict maximum pain. That he could leave everyone with questions to which they'd never have answers was the final aspect of his plan.
All you need to do is spend $50 on TurboTax and you'll have access to almost every tax loophole available. Spend $150 and you can find a certified accountant to do an even better job. Given that you're looking at a potential refund in the hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, it more than pays for itself.
If you're having to pay year after year, then you're doing something wrong.
Even the summary states that these are consumer organizations. This is not the same thing as the German government. We have consumer protection groups doing similar things in the United States. As far as whether the US or the EU is better for privacy I'd say it's a wash; Europe is better in some areas, America is better in others.
I see the Windows 8 hate train is making daily stops here.
I wonder how many have actually used the damn OS. I installed it well over a month ago on a 5+ year old Dell. My impression has been that it's a fabulous OS. It does away with a lot of the clutter and performs extremely well. I think gesture control has been implemented very well, not once have I felt like lacking a touchscreen has compromised my experience. I like the tile interface and don't find it cumbersome at all to switch between apps, it's certainly a lot better than Apple's attempts at full screen mode.
For your average consumer who doesn't do much more than browse the web, check emails and maybe use Office it's going to offer a clean, intuitive experience. One of the biggest turn offs for Windows has always been that users feel like they're fighting the OS, that the inner workings rise to the surface far too often. It's been one of the appealing attributes of OSX and definitely iOS. So Windows 8 runs with that concept and offers great online integration. Even your average office worker who spends their entire day with Outlook or Office is going to get a better experience with this OS. And given that you can clear out the start screen of everything except the essentials, it will make things even easier for them.
The nature of my work, however, demands that I work in a windowed environment. Being constrained to full screen mode is cumbersome. Windows 8 does offer desktop mode, and for anyone so repulsed by the tiles, you can use your start screen strictly as a glorified start bar, if at all. But I do agree that there's a bit of a disconnect between the two modes. Transitioning between the two isn't too bad, but there really should be a way for those metro apps to jump switch to windowed.
I'm not suggesting anyone needs to like the new OS, but at least look being the Microsoft bias and appreciate what they're trying to do. The problems are there, but it's not the sort of thing that's going to be evident in a cursory review.
While the integration is nice, it also turns things into a bit of a mess. I've ended up with a lot of duplicated contact info which I've yet to sort through. And the problem is that linking accounts is dangerous because it's far too aggressive in looking for similarities. Sometimes it will link accounts merely because two individuals have the same first name. And if you have a lot of contacts it gets overwhelming trying to fix it all. My Android phone did a lot better job with this.
Messaging and Skype is a bit of a mess. I'm currently in a situation where the few Messenger I still have and I see each other as offline regardless of our actual status. And the rampant linking of accounts makes it difficult to sort things out, especially if you've got stuff like Facebook tied into it. You can link Skype to your account but once you've done so it's permanently link. To separate it from your Microsoft account you actually have to get in touch with customer support.
Early on I had an issue where despite being logged into Xbox Live games weren't seeing this and wouldn't log in. The problem there is that instead of spitting back a message the games would just crash. Eventually it all just started working; I'm not sure what I did, if anything, to fix it.
The way bookmarks are handled in the metro version of Explorer is a joke. It gives you this impractically long band of bookmarks you're supposed to sift through.
If you're going to complain about Microsoft at least find a target that makes sense. I think from a fundamental UI standpoint Windows 8 is great. It's in the details and always have been in the details that Microsoft stumbles. My overall experience is great, but then I run into an issue, or some intuitive hiccup and there's this creeping sense that there's an insurmountable mess just hiding under the surface.
But then, I fire up GIMP on my Mac and am reminded of how miserable an experience open source can be. And I'm running one of the more highly recommended packages. Sure,
For a long time I've had the impression that these developers only put marginal effort in optimizing code because the goal is to offer a game that's a resource hog. As long as the game is halfway decent you've given yourself months of free marketing. In an effort to stay relevant publications will immediately include these games in performance testing.
As if Autism Spectrum Disorder isn't already misdiagnosed enough. And Asperger's Syndrome is another one that gets nonsense diagnoses. It's really gotten to a point where a kid who's slightly different will get diagnosed with autism. In fact, I've seen a school try that with a friend's son. I've interacted with this kid many a time; he's perfectly normal. It's like lack of conformity is an illness.
But I can't help but wonder if there aren't monied interests behind all this. This sort of thing is a huge money-making machine. And it's a convenient scapegoat for parents. Is your kid poorly behaved? Lack of discipline? Give him a disorder and it's no longer your fault.
What gets me is that no one questions the statistics. In 1980 the autism rate was over 1 in 1000. Earlier this year it was claimed to be 1 in 88. How is that possible? Some of the suspected causes have been disproved. So far nothing in our environment has been found to coincide with this rise. The only thing I can possible think of is the rise of wireless technology. But I think the real culprit is simple misdiagnosis.
Real autism is nothing like the crap people bring up. A family friend has a daughter with autism, and she can't function without being cared for constantly. She told us an interesting story about New Jersey. It was found that the autism rates there were exceptionally high compared to the rest of the country. Someone did some digging and realized that the reason for this is that parents with autistic kids were moving to the state because that's where a lot of the best research was occurring. That said, I continue to find articles talking about epidemic levels of autism in the state. The reality is even hinted at in some of those articles, but "journalists" would never let those facts get in the way of sensationalism.
I didn't realize life was defined by establishing conditions for survival. What about all the other cells in our body? What about single celled organisms that can only survive within very specific environments?
An embryo meets all the important criteria for being alive. This isn't some random carbon based chemical reaction that would spontaneously occur if the right compounds came in contact with each other. Well, I realize in some ways it is, but I don't want to get into a game of semantics here because we all know what I'm talking about.
But then, that's the problem: by playing with semantics the argument is easier to make. Let's be honest here. Yes, it is life; yes, it will grow into a human. I'm not arguing against abortion, necessarily, but putting the argument on a sensible level. Because once all this is acknowledged the argument ceases to be about superfluous nonsense. Does life at such an early phase outweigh the needs and obligations of the living mother? From a standpoint of pure logic, that answer would be no. From a moral standpoint it becomes harder to define, but then that's where the core of this whole debate lies.
It's amusing that people would advocate this when statistics show that college graduates not only face a lower unemployment rate, but they average higher incomes as well.
As others have pointed out, you'll notice that the successful entrepreneurs who dropped out either went to ivy league schools or had wealthy parents. Even if they had to scrape for their own money, their backgrounds conferred instant confidence in their abilities amongst anyone they approached. One of the most important aspects of a successful business, contacts, where there from the start.
A second important factor here is that these guys were already actively engaged in whatever lead to their success. They would have been successful just the same had they completed college because the drive was already there. These aren't random students more interested in partying than schoolwork. But sure, let's perpetuate the idea that we don't need college so that we end up with an even bigger group of resentful individuals resentful for not having been multimillionaires.
Of course, we should be talking about the cost of an education. College tuition is seriously overpriced but instead everyone harps on student loans. And the government backing those loans simply adds fuel to the fire, creating a massive bubble. Certainly, we should be looking at trade schools, but I think the real problem in the US is perception. Most people think trade schools are beneath them. But when you've got MBA's sucking everyone else dry in a race to bottom, who can blame them?
Why wouldn't it make sense? Have you used Windows 8? I have and it's far more intuitive and efficient than I've ever found Windows to be. The smartest thing they've done is bury all the technical stuff. It's still there, just like desktop mode is still present. But as has long been an advantage of OSX users don't feel like they're fighting the OS. Except that Microsoft has gone the extra step and not only offered excellent integration with online media but they've evolved the desktop environment. And for all the emphasis on touchscreens it works incredibly well with an conventional mouse and keyboard setup.
Sure, it might not be ideal for some, although I don't see why that would be the case as the desktop is still there. But regardless, just because miners need dump trucks doesn't mean that all drivers should own one.
Of course, if Microsoft had given us a rehash of XP for Windows 8 many here would be decrying the lack of innovation and progress.
The funny thing I've found throughout my is that companies run and inevitably staffed by younger people tend to be a mess. Everything is done inefficiently, emotions affect decisions and everyone is far too comfortable working excessively long hours. They're definitely a lot more in tune with the latest trends, but they're also a lot more likely to waste their time on unproductive nonsense.
Companies run by an older group tend to be far more stable and productive. Ironically, you're also a lot more likely to be appreciated. The challenge, however, is not getting stuck somewhere that's stagnated.
On the employee side, however, if you want job security in the long term you'd better be considering management or a very special niche for yourself.
No offense, but I've got some serious doubts about your abilities as an IT expert. I just rolled over from my Mac to the PC on which I recently installed Windows 8 and I can uninstall every single app I tried, including weather, stocks messenger and even email. Not only that, but I just have to right-click on the damn tile and the option is right there.
I'm also curious to know what your basis is for defining Windows 8 as an amateur OS. What makes it less refined than the multitude of crappy open sources OS's available? Is a mature OS defined by the lack of integration, or the need to hunt for an ideal distro?
As far as I'm concerned Windows 8 is specifically suited to anyone who has to do serious work. The start screen offers you a direct path to your apps without having to wade through a clutter of irrelevant secondary apps or confusing user-unfriendly utilities. I takes a basic principle that has enable Apple to be successful, but takes it the next step by offering even better integration with a multitude of content. I figured Windows 8 would make it even easier to manage users.
It's unfortunate that crapware continues to be a problem given that it's long been Windows' biggest detriment.
I'm curious, how is this RFID badge any different than what corporate employees everywhere use on a daily basis? It seems to me that the whole point of this technology is to ensure safety and convenience. Instead of walking around with a plastic card some school employee has to visually inspect all you need here are wall mounted sensors. The school even offered disabling the card so. And seriously, what kind of privacy concerns would this kid possibly have?
Of all the legitimate concerns out there this one seems rather ridiculous. I notice some people complaining that it's a mark of conformity. This has always struck me as one of the more obnoxious aspects of American culture, the whole mentality that you should "be yourself." But the irony is that no culture seems so comfortable pigeonholing itself like Americans do. They're more likely to have their entire lives defined by specific interests. They're "being themselves" by wholly conforming to whatever niche to which they've decided they belong.
What the hell does carrying a damn card have to do with conformity anyway? You're in school to learn. If conformity is that big a concern, perhaps you should consider home schooling.
In Asia, almost nobody sues because they have a cultural aversion to litigation and the court systems are fucked. In Europe, lawsuits are less common because the public supports strong government regulatory bodies that ultimately limit the need for people to sue.
You clearly don't know much about the rest of the world, otherwise you wouldn't be making such ridiculous claims.
People do sue in Asia, and more than you'd expect. The problem is that they payouts are so paltry as to not be worth the effort. So the best people can hope for is that a company gets so much bad press that they're forced into addressing the complaints. And even then, the penalties are going to be small by American standards. But generally companies tend to win. This applies for the top economies; Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. In China good luck ever getting any semblance of justice, especially if corporate management has ties to the government.
As for Europe, they don't live in this fantasy land of safety where the government shelters them from all the evils of the world. I think most Americans would be rather surprised to learn that the US is every bit as regulated as Europe is, but it varies by industry. Consumer abuse is every bit as prevalent there as it is in the US, but it's really on a nation by nation basis. In some countries it's better than the US, in others it's much worse.
The fundamental reason why lawsuits aren't so prevalent there is because the odds of getting a verdict in your favor are smaller. And like Asia, the payouts are smaller. So less incentive to give it a shot.
There are some significant problems with the American legal system. But without question, our system gives people much better recourse for having grievances addressed.
Financial problems are not unique to the US postal service. The same kinds of issues are affecting mail carriers the world over. That said, our situation is particularly absurd. Keep in mind that this is the same entity that decided to eliminate clocks from post offices so that customers in line wouldn't have as clear a sense of how long they had been waiting. And they've got a tracking system that is complete and utter garbage. The service I've experienced from postal services overseas is better than what I get here.
There are two fundamental problems here: the first is the complete and utter chaos of a government run entity, although private corporations aren't necessarily any better, and second, the insane burden of employee entitlement programs. You've got these excessively generous pensions that should have never been offered to begin with and guaranteed pay raises. Why should government workers be entitled to these pensions? Don't they have social security, investments and personal savings like the rest of us?
I'd like to point out that Foxconn is not Chinese, it's Taiwanese. Their Chinese name is Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., but like most Taiwanese they operate under a Westernized, Foxconn, name for the sake of international business. They have factories in Eastern Europe, South America and elsewhere in Asia other than China.
They do have a heavy presence in China for obvious reasons. It's close to their home base in Taiwan, but much cheaper for manufacturing and there's no language barrier. That said, there are short-comings to a Taiwanese company doing business in China. Foxconn's business practices are standard amongst Chinese companies. In fact, conditions and pay are almost always better at foreign companies, which is why Chinese workers tend to flock to them.
Not that things are ideal by any stretch of the imagination. Even in a corporate environment management tends to treat office workers like crap, by American standards. But the same could be said about companies all over Asia.
I think the important thing here is that while China is normally very quick to quash protests they've been surprisingly lax with what's happened at Foxconn. Given that Foxconn manufactures a significant percentage of the world's electronics I'd expect the reports of oppressive conditions to be more widespread. Either clients have more say in the manufacturing process than we realize, which doesn't speak well for Apple, or the Chinese government is taking advantage of this situation. We've got a Taiwanese company manufacturing products for one of the most desirable pieces of consumer electronics in the world. Given China's own economic problems, I wouldn't be surprised at all.
Now, the problem here is that I would have expected that one of the fundamental reasons for outsourcing manufacturing costs is reduced labor costs. If workers are going to be replaced by robots that benefit evaporates. Do the cost savings elsewhere continue to outweigh inflation, a long supply chain and increasingly expensive shipping costs? I suppose they may for now, but I don't expect that to continue, which is probably why Foxconn has operations in South America. I expect we're going to see a lot more of our electronics coming from Mexico or Brazil.
Currently petroleum is still relatively inexpensive. Why not keep these supplies untapped and in our back pocket for when there is real demand. Rushing to get at these reserves merely to push down prices slightly or reduce foreign dependency seems foolish.
Furthermore, despite the incessant mantra, the majority of our oil does not come from the Middle East.
The Republicans probably outsourced IT management to India, but you're fool if you don't believe that Democrats aren't also going to give us a police state. The first four years of Obama's term should have already clued you in.
I will point out that they're generally tucked out of the way to the right end of all the content. Except for games, when you do the daily challenges you're get hit with a full screen 30 second commercial on an infrequent basis. With the exception of those games I didn't find them to be invasive at all.
However, it did get me thinking... I was shocked to find myself not particularly bothered by that advertising. Barely 10 years ago I would have been thrown into an apoplectic rage and the suggestion that I'd have to see adds in software I've paid for. I railed at the presence of in game marketing, where advertising first extended it's tendrils into the non-web space. To this day I use Ad-blocker. But here I am, face to face with a freaking 30 second commercial I can't skip and I see it as a minor inconvenience. If anything, I started thinking that it would be nice to be able to pay a little extra to eliminate those ads.
Clearly I've been desensitized. And this was exactly the fear I had years ago, that companies will push and push until consumers no longer care. If I had to identify what led to this gradual submission, it would have to be online advertising and ads in mobile and iPad apps. This stuff always comes in small steps.
Unfortunately, where 10 years ago I was young, having nothing better to do and subject to few responsibilities, nowadays I'm far too busy to worry about stuff like this.
I personally think that this is evidence that IQ tests have some fundamental limitations. What they reflect is educational quality and exposure to culture. Take someone living in the most remote of villages, give him an IQ test and, assuming he could understand the language, he would be found to be retarded. Asian students are more likely to excel at IQ tests for the reason that culturally they're big into testing; that experience helps.
Humans have more knowledge than they've possessed at any time in history. That, however, doesn't make them any smarter. In terms of fundamental understanding we're no smarter than the Greeks were. In terms of human interaction, there's no difference whatsoever. Your average teenager would almost certainly come off as incompetent, uncouth and quite stupid compared to a teenager from prior eras. This is inspite their ability to operate and understand the operation of, on a basic level, modern technology.
But we are all exposed to massive amounts of information and technology does tend to require more learning from. So from that perspective we do have the appearance of being smarter. A problem I have seen, however, is that people know a little about a lot of things. They are incapable of comprehending the reality behind everything around them. It gives rise to unrealistic expectations. And I think it leads to gullibility. Advertisers and the entertainment industry capitalize on that tendency. And in effect they perpetuate stupidity because it's the thing that leads to more profits. There's a reason why American Idol and Monday Night Football have the most expensive ad spots; it's why prime time television and networks like Comedy Central are bombarded with constant advertising. The demographic that gravitates towards all that content is less likely to apply rational thought to purchasing decisions.
So, despite more practical knowledge humans are as stupid as they've always been.
China needs the West far, far more than the West needs China. If we lose China as a manufacturing base we'll just move elsewhere; South East Asia, India, South America, Africa. And a lot of that capability could always come back home. China understands this, which is why they're expanding into Africa. Furthermore, as their international reach grows their ability to keep out international politics is diminished. Nations are expecting them to get more involved which introduces them to all the problems the US has faced for at least a century. Unfortunately, they have the tendency to align themselves with oppressive governments which has been drawing ire, particularly in Africa.
A lot of what's been drawing China's success is the expectation amongst Western companies that they have this massive untapped market. It's all based on a potential that has largely failed to materialize. It's not that dissimilar to investors dumping millions into dot coms in the hope that a large userbase will eventually lead to profits. So far it isn't paying off quite like people have hoped.
Slashdot Mirror
Crime continues to be a problem in the United States, although it's been declining now for quite a long time. It's important to note, however, that signs show that crime is on the rise in Europe. But the thing that irks me here is that for all the attention, some of it deserved, that the Aurora and Newtown shootings get, everyone ignores on-going inner city crime. That kind of crime is far more detrimental to quality of life and touches on persistent social problems. These are problems born out of a lack of education, entitlement mentality and pop culture.
That said, countries measure statistics quite differently. Let's take infant mortality, which is frequently brought up as an example of how miserable healthcare in the US is. But everyone neglects to point out that European standards differ dramatically. The bar for what constitutes infant mortality in Europe is much higher, resulting in fewer deaths counted. Or, more egregious, let's take China where crime and mortality figures are incredibly low but the circumstantial evidence consistently show that things are worse than the government claims.
I agree that there is a problem with violence in the United States and guns definitely facilitate that. I fully support stronger gun control across the board, but I think we need to examine the culture as well. I recall once walking out of a Target and overhearing one employee tell another about how he wanted to beat someone up. It occurred to me that the US is the only country I've been to where regular people talk casually about inflicting violence on someone else. That is a serious problem, and one that goes back to my initial point.
I'm surprised Watson is able to function at all after being exposed to Urban Dictionary. I've found that the majority of terms and definitions appearing on that site are meaningless to nearly everyone outside for the tiny circle of friends who decided to post. It's like everyone wants their cute little definition on the site.
That said, I've never been in a situation where I haven't found what I was looking for.
I don't think there's any ambiguity to the term "fun for the family". Regardless of what may constitute a family I think it's very well understood that when people and companies use that expression they mean children.
There are also parents who think it's okay to expose their kids to anything and everything; people have differing opinions and degrees of responsibility. Usually, but certainly not always, the point of a term is to help offer some degree of specificity.
My big problem is that too many gamers associate "mature" with sex and graphic violence. It's maturity seen from the perspective of a teenager. I have a hard time comprehending why violence and adult should be mutually inclusive beyond the basic fact that it's what sells. People can get on their high horse about free speech, but from the perspective of developers and publishers all that matters is the revenue.
Honestly, I'm surprised that Discovery Channel is still involved with projects like these as they appear to be headed on the same path as TLC (The Learning Channel, talk about an oxymoron). They seem to be firmly ensconced in reality television, what with quality content like Property Wars, Moonshiners and Amish Mafia. I predict this giant squid footage is going to be presented in a heavy-handed manner where it's all going to feel like we're watching footage of the Loch Ness monster. A legitimate topic is going to be presented like it's pseudo-science.
Clearly, management has decided they weren't making enough money by going the educational route. So they're trying to appeal to a dumber demographic who's less likely to be analytical about the advertising they're exposed to and more likely to spend money carelessly. This is my fear with the government withdrawing support for public television. It's only a matter of time before they devolve into the same sort of crap.
This is a fairly common problem in Asia, and possibly more prevalent in Chinese speaking nations. Sons continue to be revered to the point of being spoiled rotten. So they go through school and enter the workforce incapable of handling the responsibilities and stresses of life. They expect everything handed to them and many have trouble being told want to do in the workplace. It's not fundamentally different than the entitlement culture parents are creating in the west, but it's a bit more focused in Asia and manifests itself a little different.
Where American youth expect they should be free to pursue a life of leisure young men in Asia have it in their heads that they're budding entrepreneurs. So they'll refuse to get a job because they don't want to work for the man. They leech off the parents and because of the strong sense of family and obligation parents will support them indefinitely. They'll even go as far as helping them start a business which doesn't improve their work ethic. For the guys with wealthy and connected parents they'll get a cushy, high paying job doing not much of anything. The irony is that the daughters still get the short of the stick, but end up being the responsible ones who in the end support the parents and the slacker brothers.
Of course, there is the subset who have no aspirations whatsoever, like this guy. So his father didn't kick him in the ass when he should have, let the problem persist and grow, and now is trying to do something about it when it's too late.
I'm sure he was fully aware that the authorities and the media would try to understand him. I'd guess his intent was to do something horrible, hitting the most vulnerable part of society in order to inflict maximum pain. That he could leave everyone with questions to which they'd never have answers was the final aspect of his plan.
All you need to do is spend $50 on TurboTax and you'll have access to almost every tax loophole available. Spend $150 and you can find a certified accountant to do an even better job. Given that you're looking at a potential refund in the hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, it more than pays for itself.
If you're having to pay year after year, then you're doing something wrong.
It's just you.
Even the summary states that these are consumer organizations. This is not the same thing as the German government. We have consumer protection groups doing similar things in the United States. As far as whether the US or the EU is better for privacy I'd say it's a wash; Europe is better in some areas, America is better in others.
I see the Windows 8 hate train is making daily stops here.
I wonder how many have actually used the damn OS. I installed it well over a month ago on a 5+ year old Dell. My impression has been that it's a fabulous OS. It does away with a lot of the clutter and performs extremely well. I think gesture control has been implemented very well, not once have I felt like lacking a touchscreen has compromised my experience. I like the tile interface and don't find it cumbersome at all to switch between apps, it's certainly a lot better than Apple's attempts at full screen mode.
For your average consumer who doesn't do much more than browse the web, check emails and maybe use Office it's going to offer a clean, intuitive experience. One of the biggest turn offs for Windows has always been that users feel like they're fighting the OS, that the inner workings rise to the surface far too often. It's been one of the appealing attributes of OSX and definitely iOS. So Windows 8 runs with that concept and offers great online integration. Even your average office worker who spends their entire day with Outlook or Office is going to get a better experience with this OS. And given that you can clear out the start screen of everything except the essentials, it will make things even easier for them.
The nature of my work, however, demands that I work in a windowed environment. Being constrained to full screen mode is cumbersome. Windows 8 does offer desktop mode, and for anyone so repulsed by the tiles, you can use your start screen strictly as a glorified start bar, if at all. But I do agree that there's a bit of a disconnect between the two modes. Transitioning between the two isn't too bad, but there really should be a way for those metro apps to jump switch to windowed.
I'm not suggesting anyone needs to like the new OS, but at least look being the Microsoft bias and appreciate what they're trying to do. The problems are there, but it's not the sort of thing that's going to be evident in a cursory review.
While the integration is nice, it also turns things into a bit of a mess. I've ended up with a lot of duplicated contact info which I've yet to sort through. And the problem is that linking accounts is dangerous because it's far too aggressive in looking for similarities. Sometimes it will link accounts merely because two individuals have the same first name. And if you have a lot of contacts it gets overwhelming trying to fix it all. My Android phone did a lot better job with this.
Messaging and Skype is a bit of a mess. I'm currently in a situation where the few Messenger I still have and I see each other as offline regardless of our actual status. And the rampant linking of accounts makes it difficult to sort things out, especially if you've got stuff like Facebook tied into it. You can link Skype to your account but once you've done so it's permanently link. To separate it from your Microsoft account you actually have to get in touch with customer support.
Early on I had an issue where despite being logged into Xbox Live games weren't seeing this and wouldn't log in. The problem there is that instead of spitting back a message the games would just crash. Eventually it all just started working; I'm not sure what I did, if anything, to fix it.
The way bookmarks are handled in the metro version of Explorer is a joke. It gives you this impractically long band of bookmarks you're supposed to sift through.
If you're going to complain about Microsoft at least find a target that makes sense. I think from a fundamental UI standpoint Windows 8 is great. It's in the details and always have been in the details that Microsoft stumbles. My overall experience is great, but then I run into an issue, or some intuitive hiccup and there's this creeping sense that there's an insurmountable mess just hiding under the surface.
But then, I fire up GIMP on my Mac and am reminded of how miserable an experience open source can be. And I'm running one of the more highly recommended packages. Sure,
For a long time I've had the impression that these developers only put marginal effort in optimizing code because the goal is to offer a game that's a resource hog. As long as the game is halfway decent you've given yourself months of free marketing. In an effort to stay relevant publications will immediately include these games in performance testing.
As if Autism Spectrum Disorder isn't already misdiagnosed enough. And Asperger's Syndrome is another one that gets nonsense diagnoses. It's really gotten to a point where a kid who's slightly different will get diagnosed with autism. In fact, I've seen a school try that with a friend's son. I've interacted with this kid many a time; he's perfectly normal. It's like lack of conformity is an illness.
But I can't help but wonder if there aren't monied interests behind all this. This sort of thing is a huge money-making machine. And it's a convenient scapegoat for parents. Is your kid poorly behaved? Lack of discipline? Give him a disorder and it's no longer your fault.
What gets me is that no one questions the statistics. In 1980 the autism rate was over 1 in 1000. Earlier this year it was claimed to be 1 in 88. How is that possible? Some of the suspected causes have been disproved. So far nothing in our environment has been found to coincide with this rise. The only thing I can possible think of is the rise of wireless technology. But I think the real culprit is simple misdiagnosis.
Real autism is nothing like the crap people bring up. A family friend has a daughter with autism, and she can't function without being cared for constantly. She told us an interesting story about New Jersey. It was found that the autism rates there were exceptionally high compared to the rest of the country. Someone did some digging and realized that the reason for this is that parents with autistic kids were moving to the state because that's where a lot of the best research was occurring. That said, I continue to find articles talking about epidemic levels of autism in the state. The reality is even hinted at in some of those articles, but "journalists" would never let those facts get in the way of sensationalism.
I didn't realize life was defined by establishing conditions for survival. What about all the other cells in our body? What about single celled organisms that can only survive within very specific environments?
An embryo meets all the important criteria for being alive. This isn't some random carbon based chemical reaction that would spontaneously occur if the right compounds came in contact with each other. Well, I realize in some ways it is, but I don't want to get into a game of semantics here because we all know what I'm talking about.
But then, that's the problem: by playing with semantics the argument is easier to make. Let's be honest here. Yes, it is life; yes, it will grow into a human. I'm not arguing against abortion, necessarily, but putting the argument on a sensible level. Because once all this is acknowledged the argument ceases to be about superfluous nonsense. Does life at such an early phase outweigh the needs and obligations of the living mother? From a standpoint of pure logic, that answer would be no. From a moral standpoint it becomes harder to define, but then that's where the core of this whole debate lies.
It's amusing that people would advocate this when statistics show that college graduates not only face a lower unemployment rate, but they average higher incomes as well.
As others have pointed out, you'll notice that the successful entrepreneurs who dropped out either went to ivy league schools or had wealthy parents. Even if they had to scrape for their own money, their backgrounds conferred instant confidence in their abilities amongst anyone they approached. One of the most important aspects of a successful business, contacts, where there from the start.
A second important factor here is that these guys were already actively engaged in whatever lead to their success. They would have been successful just the same had they completed college because the drive was already there. These aren't random students more interested in partying than schoolwork. But sure, let's perpetuate the idea that we don't need college so that we end up with an even bigger group of resentful individuals resentful for not having been multimillionaires.
Of course, we should be talking about the cost of an education. College tuition is seriously overpriced but instead everyone harps on student loans. And the government backing those loans simply adds fuel to the fire, creating a massive bubble. Certainly, we should be looking at trade schools, but I think the real problem in the US is perception. Most people think trade schools are beneath them. But when you've got MBA's sucking everyone else dry in a race to bottom, who can blame them?
Why wouldn't it make sense? Have you used Windows 8? I have and it's far more intuitive and efficient than I've ever found Windows to be. The smartest thing they've done is bury all the technical stuff. It's still there, just like desktop mode is still present. But as has long been an advantage of OSX users don't feel like they're fighting the OS. Except that Microsoft has gone the extra step and not only offered excellent integration with online media but they've evolved the desktop environment. And for all the emphasis on touchscreens it works incredibly well with an conventional mouse and keyboard setup.
Sure, it might not be ideal for some, although I don't see why that would be the case as the desktop is still there. But regardless, just because miners need dump trucks doesn't mean that all drivers should own one.
Of course, if Microsoft had given us a rehash of XP for Windows 8 many here would be decrying the lack of innovation and progress.
The funny thing I've found throughout my is that companies run and inevitably staffed by younger people tend to be a mess. Everything is done inefficiently, emotions affect decisions and everyone is far too comfortable working excessively long hours. They're definitely a lot more in tune with the latest trends, but they're also a lot more likely to waste their time on unproductive nonsense.
Companies run by an older group tend to be far more stable and productive. Ironically, you're also a lot more likely to be appreciated. The challenge, however, is not getting stuck somewhere that's stagnated.
On the employee side, however, if you want job security in the long term you'd better be considering management or a very special niche for yourself.
No offense, but I've got some serious doubts about your abilities as an IT expert. I just rolled over from my Mac to the PC on which I recently installed Windows 8 and I can uninstall every single app I tried, including weather, stocks messenger and even email. Not only that, but I just have to right-click on the damn tile and the option is right there.
I'm also curious to know what your basis is for defining Windows 8 as an amateur OS. What makes it less refined than the multitude of crappy open sources OS's available? Is a mature OS defined by the lack of integration, or the need to hunt for an ideal distro?
As far as I'm concerned Windows 8 is specifically suited to anyone who has to do serious work. The start screen offers you a direct path to your apps without having to wade through a clutter of irrelevant secondary apps or confusing user-unfriendly utilities. I takes a basic principle that has enable Apple to be successful, but takes it the next step by offering even better integration with a multitude of content. I figured Windows 8 would make it even easier to manage users.
It's unfortunate that crapware continues to be a problem given that it's long been Windows' biggest detriment.
I'm curious, how is this RFID badge any different than what corporate employees everywhere use on a daily basis? It seems to me that the whole point of this technology is to ensure safety and convenience. Instead of walking around with a plastic card some school employee has to visually inspect all you need here are wall mounted sensors. The school even offered disabling the card so. And seriously, what kind of privacy concerns would this kid possibly have?
Of all the legitimate concerns out there this one seems rather ridiculous. I notice some people complaining that it's a mark of conformity. This has always struck me as one of the more obnoxious aspects of American culture, the whole mentality that you should "be yourself." But the irony is that no culture seems so comfortable pigeonholing itself like Americans do. They're more likely to have their entire lives defined by specific interests. They're "being themselves" by wholly conforming to whatever niche to which they've decided they belong.
What the hell does carrying a damn card have to do with conformity anyway? You're in school to learn. If conformity is that big a concern, perhaps you should consider home schooling.
You clearly don't know much about the rest of the world, otherwise you wouldn't be making such ridiculous claims.
People do sue in Asia, and more than you'd expect. The problem is that they payouts are so paltry as to not be worth the effort. So the best people can hope for is that a company gets so much bad press that they're forced into addressing the complaints. And even then, the penalties are going to be small by American standards. But generally companies tend to win. This applies for the top economies; Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. In China good luck ever getting any semblance of justice, especially if corporate management has ties to the government.
As for Europe, they don't live in this fantasy land of safety where the government shelters them from all the evils of the world. I think most Americans would be rather surprised to learn that the US is every bit as regulated as Europe is, but it varies by industry. Consumer abuse is every bit as prevalent there as it is in the US, but it's really on a nation by nation basis. In some countries it's better than the US, in others it's much worse.
The fundamental reason why lawsuits aren't so prevalent there is because the odds of getting a verdict in your favor are smaller. And like Asia, the payouts are smaller. So less incentive to give it a shot.
There are some significant problems with the American legal system. But without question, our system gives people much better recourse for having grievances addressed.
Financial problems are not unique to the US postal service. The same kinds of issues are affecting mail carriers the world over. That said, our situation is particularly absurd. Keep in mind that this is the same entity that decided to eliminate clocks from post offices so that customers in line wouldn't have as clear a sense of how long they had been waiting. And they've got a tracking system that is complete and utter garbage. The service I've experienced from postal services overseas is better than what I get here.
There are two fundamental problems here: the first is the complete and utter chaos of a government run entity, although private corporations aren't necessarily any better, and second, the insane burden of employee entitlement programs. You've got these excessively generous pensions that should have never been offered to begin with and guaranteed pay raises. Why should government workers be entitled to these pensions? Don't they have social security, investments and personal savings like the rest of us?
I'd like to point out that Foxconn is not Chinese, it's Taiwanese. Their Chinese name is Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., but like most Taiwanese they operate under a Westernized, Foxconn, name for the sake of international business. They have factories in Eastern Europe, South America and elsewhere in Asia other than China.
They do have a heavy presence in China for obvious reasons. It's close to their home base in Taiwan, but much cheaper for manufacturing and there's no language barrier. That said, there are short-comings to a Taiwanese company doing business in China. Foxconn's business practices are standard amongst Chinese companies. In fact, conditions and pay are almost always better at foreign companies, which is why Chinese workers tend to flock to them.
Not that things are ideal by any stretch of the imagination. Even in a corporate environment management tends to treat office workers like crap, by American standards. But the same could be said about companies all over Asia.
I think the important thing here is that while China is normally very quick to quash protests they've been surprisingly lax with what's happened at Foxconn. Given that Foxconn manufactures a significant percentage of the world's electronics I'd expect the reports of oppressive conditions to be more widespread. Either clients have more say in the manufacturing process than we realize, which doesn't speak well for Apple, or the Chinese government is taking advantage of this situation. We've got a Taiwanese company manufacturing products for one of the most desirable pieces of consumer electronics in the world. Given China's own economic problems, I wouldn't be surprised at all.
Now, the problem here is that I would have expected that one of the fundamental reasons for outsourcing manufacturing costs is reduced labor costs. If workers are going to be replaced by robots that benefit evaporates. Do the cost savings elsewhere continue to outweigh inflation, a long supply chain and increasingly expensive shipping costs? I suppose they may for now, but I don't expect that to continue, which is probably why Foxconn has operations in South America. I expect we're going to see a lot more of our electronics coming from Mexico or Brazil.
Currently petroleum is still relatively inexpensive. Why not keep these supplies untapped and in our back pocket for when there is real demand. Rushing to get at these reserves merely to push down prices slightly or reduce foreign dependency seems foolish.
Furthermore, despite the incessant mantra, the majority of our oil does not come from the Middle East.
The Republicans probably outsourced IT management to India, but you're fool if you don't believe that Democrats aren't also going to give us a police state. The first four years of Obama's term should have already clued you in.
I will point out that they're generally tucked out of the way to the right end of all the content. Except for games, when you do the daily challenges you're get hit with a full screen 30 second commercial on an infrequent basis. With the exception of those games I didn't find them to be invasive at all.
However, it did get me thinking... I was shocked to find myself not particularly bothered by that advertising. Barely 10 years ago I would have been thrown into an apoplectic rage and the suggestion that I'd have to see adds in software I've paid for. I railed at the presence of in game marketing, where advertising first extended it's tendrils into the non-web space. To this day I use Ad-blocker. But here I am, face to face with a freaking 30 second commercial I can't skip and I see it as a minor inconvenience. If anything, I started thinking that it would be nice to be able to pay a little extra to eliminate those ads.
Clearly I've been desensitized. And this was exactly the fear I had years ago, that companies will push and push until consumers no longer care. If I had to identify what led to this gradual submission, it would have to be online advertising and ads in mobile and iPad apps. This stuff always comes in small steps.
Unfortunately, where 10 years ago I was young, having nothing better to do and subject to few responsibilities, nowadays I'm far too busy to worry about stuff like this.
I personally think that this is evidence that IQ tests have some fundamental limitations. What they reflect is educational quality and exposure to culture. Take someone living in the most remote of villages, give him an IQ test and, assuming he could understand the language, he would be found to be retarded. Asian students are more likely to excel at IQ tests for the reason that culturally they're big into testing; that experience helps.
Humans have more knowledge than they've possessed at any time in history. That, however, doesn't make them any smarter. In terms of fundamental understanding we're no smarter than the Greeks were. In terms of human interaction, there's no difference whatsoever. Your average teenager would almost certainly come off as incompetent, uncouth and quite stupid compared to a teenager from prior eras. This is inspite their ability to operate and understand the operation of, on a basic level, modern technology.
But we are all exposed to massive amounts of information and technology does tend to require more learning from. So from that perspective we do have the appearance of being smarter. A problem I have seen, however, is that people know a little about a lot of things. They are incapable of comprehending the reality behind everything around them. It gives rise to unrealistic expectations. And I think it leads to gullibility. Advertisers and the entertainment industry capitalize on that tendency. And in effect they perpetuate stupidity because it's the thing that leads to more profits. There's a reason why American Idol and Monday Night Football have the most expensive ad spots; it's why prime time television and networks like Comedy Central are bombarded with constant advertising. The demographic that gravitates towards all that content is less likely to apply rational thought to purchasing decisions.
So, despite more practical knowledge humans are as stupid as they've always been.
China needs the West far, far more than the West needs China. If we lose China as a manufacturing base we'll just move elsewhere; South East Asia, India, South America, Africa. And a lot of that capability could always come back home. China understands this, which is why they're expanding into Africa. Furthermore, as their international reach grows their ability to keep out international politics is diminished. Nations are expecting them to get more involved which introduces them to all the problems the US has faced for at least a century. Unfortunately, they have the tendency to align themselves with oppressive governments which has been drawing ire, particularly in Africa.
A lot of what's been drawing China's success is the expectation amongst Western companies that they have this massive untapped market. It's all based on a potential that has largely failed to materialize. It's not that dissimilar to investors dumping millions into dot coms in the hope that a large userbase will eventually lead to profits. So far it isn't paying off quite like people have hoped.