Snow storms don't bother me, because we're, for the most part, prepared to deal with them as a society, and I am as an individual. It's all a matter of knowing your limits. If it's snowing very hard, I don't go to work. If it's moderate, I make a judgement call and usually go to work and drive extra carefully. And during the winter months, I always make sure I have good snow tires, my car is in good shape, I have an emergency kit in my car, and I drive carefully, even in fairly nice weather, in case of black ice.
In the grand scheme of possible natural disasters, I'll take winter weather over the rest any day.
Oh God, those crazy pirates... I can just see it now... They get sued, and then counter, saying "According to Pirate Nation of Sealand, suing over copyright law is illegal and punishable by death." Then...
I won't go into the long story, but let's just say I lost hundreds, closed my PayPal account, and have been smiling ever since. I won't advertise what I use now, because that's not the point. However, the very very few success stories out there can never be sufficient to supplant the absolutely tremendous number of horror stories, some of which involve losing literally thousands of dollars over an error by PayPal!
On a nation-state level, I agree with you. However, I find that the wealthy individuals of the world tend to become increasingly altruistic and non-concerned with their personal financial situation (within limits... they're not gonna let themselves go bankrupt). I think this is perhaps the benefit of reaching the "top": You stop focusing on attaining the top, so you stand back, take a good look at yourself and the world around you, and realize everything you've been ignoring to rise to the top is in very bad shape, and you decide to try and fix it.
See, this post makes much more sense to me. Your (note: correct usage of "your" instead of "you're") original post did not convey this message, probably do to increased sarcasm with the "hot young chicks" jokes.
My God, you're school must suck. I mean, honestly... Is this the norm in colleges across the country? If so, me and my friends must just be remarkably lucky.
Admittedly, my collegiate experience, both direct and via hearsay, is only 3 colleges wide. However, those few have not been even close to what you have described, and in the case of my own institution, is directly opposite. For instance, with the exception of a very few obviously tenure-produced offices (Department of Internal Organizational Oversight... What the hell is that?) that are the result of universities being remarkably loyal to their constituents and keeping them employed and active, the vast majority of the offices and office workers are courteous, hard working and dedicated (they'd have to be, since they service over ten thousand students yearly with few if any complaints), and the professors I have dealt with (at least 3/4 of which hold a PhD) are some of most engaging, intelligent and dedicated teachers I could have imagined. And they are equally dedicated to (and open to discussion about) their research and development work done on campus.
Maybe your school blows, but don't tell people that all university jobs are a sham, because they'll end up being sorely disappointed.
You can run all applications virtually, using virtualization software. What does the browser have to do with being "virtual"? Running a web-based app is not "virtualizing" the previously local software, but rather just running a similar application in a web interface.
Just because you are now "adjusted" to the poor UI design of Office as it stands doesn't mean something better can't come along. Just because it's different doesn't make it bad. And if the new design is, in fact, better than the previous one, then the learning curve should not be even close to as steep as it was for the previous UI, and you should be able to learn the new features quickly and get back to work.
Change is usually good. Not always, of course, but to be afraid of any change is how you will quickly fall behind.
Everyone keeps talking about Bush like he is some evil, snickering sociopath, sitting in his dark cave-like office, cackling at his new diabolical plan to become ruler of the world. However, I see it very differently: Has anyone even considered that he is probably just genuinely terrified of the perceived terrorist threats, and that is why he is acting in a panicky, reactive manner and making stupid, irresponsible policies and decisions? I find that much more likely.
I personally very much disagree with a lot of his actions, and cannot wait for his term to come to an end, but I see him much more as a scared kid trying to fend off an attack that he can't see but knows is coming rather than a conniving, malicious dictator-wannabe.
While normally I'd agree with you, the article is from the Washington Post, and is very well supported. Not to mention that there is little "bashing" and much more statistical support.
I am by no means a Microsoft hater. I use many of their products (specifically Windows and Office) because they are simply better than the alternatives, even the free ones. However, I am also not a Microsoft zealot, and realize the company has it's flaws (not talking about business practices, just software) and IE is one of them. I have been with Firefox for several years now, and while that is not perfect either, it is far superior to IE. That isn't intended to be MS bashing, just the cold, hard truth.
It may not get rid of the text, but you can definately block a host entirely, including embedded images and content. And it's not hard to do, and does not rely on reconstructing pages.
You are making wild assumptions. While you may know Costco's profit margin, you are assuming Facebook's is "probably" negative, which I highly doubt. The cost of running an effective web server is very small these days. You can purchase the machine for under two grand, then if you host your machinery in a data center, you are looking at very small annual operating costs. Considering the advertising revenue alone is probably staggeringly high (Ever tried to advertise on Facebook? Do an announcement? See how much it costs per ad, then see how many ads run each and every day on one school's portal, then multiply that by every school/business/region on their networks).
While I don't know anything about the inner financial workings of Facebook, I can assure you that their profit margin is very unlikely to be negative, and could very well be higher than a retailer like Costco.
I'm sorry, but you're wrong. I am growing very tired of people thinking and arguing that because a company is immensely popular, it is somehow "indebted" to society, and is a "social service" because of that popularity. That is flat wrong.
For Google to have any obligation beyond itself and its shareholders, they would have to have governmental approval to become the only search engine on the web, thus shutting down Yahoo!, MSN Search, Ask.com, and the host of other search engines that could easily be substituted for Google.
Just because you rely on Google doesn't mean Google owes anything to you. If they want to do something, and you don't like it, you have a huge array of other options for your searching needs. Just because you don't feel like using another one doesn't mean Google is indebted to you in any way.
When people refer to "iPhone", what they basically mean is an Apple phone. The name clearly won't be "iPhone" as another company owns the copyright on that name. However, that does not mean that Apple will not come out with a phone that will compete in the mobile market.
Now, it is my personal belief that they will not be doing this, for various reasons, but just because someone refers to an "iPhone" doesn't make them non-believers in the existing copyrights, but rather showing laziness, in that it is easier to call it an iPhone than to say "Apple created cellular phone".
Here's the list of major accomplishments that have been achieved since they announced it back in 1997: http://duke.a-13.net/ Science and Technology
* The United States' entire program to put a man on the moon, from Kennedy's challenge to the landing.
Wars:
* The American War for Independence
* The United States Civil War
* World War I
* World War II and the entire Manhattan Project.
* The United State's involvement in the Vietnam War.
Wow! That... is startling awesome!
The problem here, then, is how you define "vaporware", because I'm realizing we have startling different definitions.
Personally, I define vaporware as something that is likely to never be completed, despite company protests to the contrary. DNF is vaporware, because I believe it will never be done even though the company claims it will be. The A380 is NOT vaporware, because it is very near completion, and will be released, as promised.
Simply not releasing something on time does not make it vaporware, it just makes it delayed.
I'm going to go ahead and suggest Ubuntu. I know most people already are suggesting that, and it would therefore be "cool" to suggest some other major distro, but Ubuntu is clearly the most newb-capable distro. I did NOT say that is was the best distro, but just that it is most suitable for newb, especially those who are (and let's face it, most of them will be) coming from Windows.
Ubuntu has what they would be looking for: An easy, quick, and clean installation with very few required settings to be worked out before the installation is complete. Then, once done, all settings can be set from a windowed environment. Oh, sure, the shell is there for you to use if you want, but it's not required to work the machine. Also, it comes with a host of good programs pre-installed: Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, games, IM client, etc. And the mechanism for getting new software is a snap, with the package manager retrieving all files and dependencies you need for you, thus reducing the need for building source (which may be better for us, but from a new user coming straight from Windows-world, building from source is not the most familiar thing).
While Ubuntu may not be perfect, it certainly makes it much easier for new users to migrate from Windows into the wonderful world of Linux easily and painlessly.
My first ever non-Windows system was Ubuntu, and I haven't looked back since. I'll admit that I was never an amateur in the computing world, but the system was clearly very easy to use, cleanly coded, fast and well designed. It's few drawbacks, such as the obvious "no Microsoft software" and such are outweighed by the immense support offered by the community and the huge number of powerful applications available for free and easily using the package manager.
If any Linux environment is going to gain serious market share away from the Windows-only non-experts of the world, it's going to be a free and easy-to-use system like Ubuntu.
Well, for one, I was 10 at the time...
Plus, in a later post, I realized my mistake and apologized... This guy wasn't talking about driving under the influence, but cycling, which still isn't that smart (you can hurt yourself, I would imagine), but at least the only life at stake is his own, so that's his own personal decision.
You're just an idiot, then. I have 2 alcoholics in my family, and almost everyone on my dad's side drinks, and every single one of them say they're "fine" and genuinely believe it with all their heart EVEN AFTER their harrowing drive, in which sober-me is in the passenger seat, which they say went off without a hitch, even after only 1 or 2 drinks. Everyone who drinks thinks they're fine, it's just part of the territory. But the simple fact is, you're not... Period. And just because you haven't died yet or killed anyone doesn't mean you're fine when you drive after having a drink, and eventually, it will happen. I just hope you only kill yourself, you selfish son of a bitch.
Ever since my life got more stressful, and consequently, more frustrating (hence more bad moods), I've been sick a lot more, whereas in my care-free youth, I got sick maybe once every 2-3 years.
My solution is clear: Quit my job, and start playing kickball all summer. I'll live forever!
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Snow storms don't bother me, because we're, for the most part, prepared to deal with them as a society, and I am as an individual. It's all a matter of knowing your limits. If it's snowing very hard, I don't go to work. If it's moderate, I make a judgement call and usually go to work and drive extra carefully. And during the winter months, I always make sure I have good snow tires, my car is in good shape, I have an emergency kit in my car, and I drive carefully, even in fairly nice weather, in case of black ice.
In the grand scheme of possible natural disasters, I'll take winter weather over the rest any day.
Oh God, those crazy pirates... I can just see it now... They get sued, and then counter, saying "According to Pirate Nation of Sealand, suing over copyright law is illegal and punishable by death." Then...
*BANG!*
"Mwu-hahahahahah!"
I won't go into the long story, but let's just say I lost hundreds, closed my PayPal account, and have been smiling ever since. I won't advertise what I use now, because that's not the point. However, the very very few success stories out there can never be sufficient to supplant the absolutely tremendous number of horror stories, some of which involve losing literally thousands of dollars over an error by PayPal!
On a nation-state level, I agree with you. However, I find that the wealthy individuals of the world tend to become increasingly altruistic and non-concerned with their personal financial situation (within limits... they're not gonna let themselves go bankrupt). I think this is perhaps the benefit of reaching the "top": You stop focusing on attaining the top, so you stand back, take a good look at yourself and the world around you, and realize everything you've been ignoring to rise to the top is in very bad shape, and you decide to try and fix it.
Oh lordy, I guess it must have... *sigh* ;-)
See, this post makes much more sense to me. Your (note: correct usage of "your" instead of "you're") original post did not convey this message, probably do to increased sarcasm with the "hot young chicks" jokes.
Nah, that means my high school sucked. ;-)
My God, you're school must suck. I mean, honestly... Is this the norm in colleges across the country? If so, me and my friends must just be remarkably lucky.
Admittedly, my collegiate experience, both direct and via hearsay, is only 3 colleges wide. However, those few have not been even close to what you have described, and in the case of my own institution, is directly opposite. For instance, with the exception of a very few obviously tenure-produced offices (Department of Internal Organizational Oversight... What the hell is that?) that are the result of universities being remarkably loyal to their constituents and keeping them employed and active, the vast majority of the offices and office workers are courteous, hard working and dedicated (they'd have to be, since they service over ten thousand students yearly with few if any complaints), and the professors I have dealt with (at least 3/4 of which hold a PhD) are some of most engaging, intelligent and dedicated teachers I could have imagined. And they are equally dedicated to (and open to discussion about) their research and development work done on campus.
Maybe your school blows, but don't tell people that all university jobs are a sham, because they'll end up being sorely disappointed.
You can run all applications virtually, using virtualization software. What does the browser have to do with being "virtual"? Running a web-based app is not "virtualizing" the previously local software, but rather just running a similar application in a web interface.
Why are so many people so afraid of change?
Just because you are now "adjusted" to the poor UI design of Office as it stands doesn't mean something better can't come along. Just because it's different doesn't make it bad. And if the new design is, in fact, better than the previous one, then the learning curve should not be even close to as steep as it was for the previous UI, and you should be able to learn the new features quickly and get back to work.
Change is usually good. Not always, of course, but to be afraid of any change is how you will quickly fall behind.
Everyone keeps talking about Bush like he is some evil, snickering sociopath, sitting in his dark cave-like office, cackling at his new diabolical plan to become ruler of the world. However, I see it very differently: Has anyone even considered that he is probably just genuinely terrified of the perceived terrorist threats, and that is why he is acting in a panicky, reactive manner and making stupid, irresponsible policies and decisions? I find that much more likely.
I personally very much disagree with a lot of his actions, and cannot wait for his term to come to an end, but I see him much more as a scared kid trying to fend off an attack that he can't see but knows is coming rather than a conniving, malicious dictator-wannabe.
While normally I'd agree with you, the article is from the Washington Post, and is very well supported. Not to mention that there is little "bashing" and much more statistical support.
I am by no means a Microsoft hater. I use many of their products (specifically Windows and Office) because they are simply better than the alternatives, even the free ones. However, I am also not a Microsoft zealot, and realize the company has it's flaws (not talking about business practices, just software) and IE is one of them. I have been with Firefox for several years now, and while that is not perfect either, it is far superior to IE. That isn't intended to be MS bashing, just the cold, hard truth.
It may not get rid of the text, but you can definately block a host entirely, including embedded images and content. And it's not hard to do, and does not rely on reconstructing pages.
You are making wild assumptions. While you may know Costco's profit margin, you are assuming Facebook's is "probably" negative, which I highly doubt. The cost of running an effective web server is very small these days. You can purchase the machine for under two grand, then if you host your machinery in a data center, you are looking at very small annual operating costs. Considering the advertising revenue alone is probably staggeringly high (Ever tried to advertise on Facebook? Do an announcement? See how much it costs per ad, then see how many ads run each and every day on one school's portal, then multiply that by every school/business/region on their networks).
While I don't know anything about the inner financial workings of Facebook, I can assure you that their profit margin is very unlikely to be negative, and could very well be higher than a retailer like Costco.
I'm sorry, but you're wrong. I am growing very tired of people thinking and arguing that because a company is immensely popular, it is somehow "indebted" to society, and is a "social service" because of that popularity. That is flat wrong.
For Google to have any obligation beyond itself and its shareholders, they would have to have governmental approval to become the only search engine on the web, thus shutting down Yahoo!, MSN Search, Ask.com, and the host of other search engines that could easily be substituted for Google.
Just because you rely on Google doesn't mean Google owes anything to you. If they want to do something, and you don't like it, you have a huge array of other options for your searching needs. Just because you don't feel like using another one doesn't mean Google is indebted to you in any way.
Or you could just block those links. It's much simpler, and just as effective.
When people refer to "iPhone", what they basically mean is an Apple phone. The name clearly won't be "iPhone" as another company owns the copyright on that name. However, that does not mean that Apple will not come out with a phone that will compete in the mobile market.
Now, it is my personal belief that they will not be doing this, for various reasons, but just because someone refers to an "iPhone" doesn't make them non-believers in the existing copyrights, but rather showing laziness, in that it is easier to call it an iPhone than to say "Apple created cellular phone".
The problem here, then, is how you define "vaporware", because I'm realizing we have startling different definitions.
Personally, I define vaporware as something that is likely to never be completed, despite company protests to the contrary. DNF is vaporware, because I believe it will never be done even though the company claims it will be. The A380 is NOT vaporware, because it is very near completion, and will be released, as promised.
Simply not releasing something on time does not make it vaporware, it just makes it delayed.
I'm going to go ahead and suggest Ubuntu. I know most people already are suggesting that, and it would therefore be "cool" to suggest some other major distro, but Ubuntu is clearly the most newb-capable distro. I did NOT say that is was the best distro, but just that it is most suitable for newb, especially those who are (and let's face it, most of them will be) coming from Windows.
Ubuntu has what they would be looking for: An easy, quick, and clean installation with very few required settings to be worked out before the installation is complete. Then, once done, all settings can be set from a windowed environment. Oh, sure, the shell is there for you to use if you want, but it's not required to work the machine. Also, it comes with a host of good programs pre-installed: Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, games, IM client, etc. And the mechanism for getting new software is a snap, with the package manager retrieving all files and dependencies you need for you, thus reducing the need for building source (which may be better for us, but from a new user coming straight from Windows-world, building from source is not the most familiar thing).
While Ubuntu may not be perfect, it certainly makes it much easier for new users to migrate from Windows into the wonderful world of Linux easily and painlessly.
My first ever non-Windows system was Ubuntu, and I haven't looked back since. I'll admit that I was never an amateur in the computing world, but the system was clearly very easy to use, cleanly coded, fast and well designed. It's few drawbacks, such as the obvious "no Microsoft software" and such are outweighed by the immense support offered by the community and the huge number of powerful applications available for free and easily using the package manager.
If any Linux environment is going to gain serious market share away from the Windows-only non-experts of the world, it's going to be a free and easy-to-use system like Ubuntu.
Well, for one, I was 10 at the time... Plus, in a later post, I realized my mistake and apologized... This guy wasn't talking about driving under the influence, but cycling, which still isn't that smart (you can hurt yourself, I would imagine), but at least the only life at stake is his own, so that's his own personal decision.
Shit, I'm sorry... I just realized you were talking about cycling... My apologies!
You're just an idiot, then. I have 2 alcoholics in my family, and almost everyone on my dad's side drinks, and every single one of them say they're "fine" and genuinely believe it with all their heart EVEN AFTER their harrowing drive, in which sober-me is in the passenger seat, which they say went off without a hitch, even after only 1 or 2 drinks. Everyone who drinks thinks they're fine, it's just part of the territory. But the simple fact is, you're not... Period. And just because you haven't died yet or killed anyone doesn't mean you're fine when you drive after having a drink, and eventually, it will happen. I just hope you only kill yourself, you selfish son of a bitch.
Ever since my life got more stressful, and consequently, more frustrating (hence more bad moods), I've been sick a lot more, whereas in my care-free youth, I got sick maybe once every 2-3 years.
My solution is clear: Quit my job, and start playing kickball all summer. I'll live forever!