Translation: "We violate labor laws and expect you to like it. You'll be working 65 hours per week and paid for only 40. If you actually use your vacation time that will be taken into consideration at your annual performance review."
I did something REALLY stupid when I was about 10 years old. I knew enough about parallel vs. series battery piles to be dangerous. Did you ever lick a 9V battery to see if it was good? If you got a really painful sting, it was good, and if it didn't hurt, it was probably too dead to run the game? Well, have you ever tried connecting 20 of those in series, making a pigtail and licking the conductors to see if it worked? I did. I learned a very quick lesson about that. I saw a flash of light and was dazed for a little while. I'm embarrassed to admit that here, but hey, I was only about 10 years old. Yep, I've always been a bit of a geek like that. That year I learned a lot of lessons: why a lot of batteries wired in series can be as dangerous as mains (my first mishap with electricity was when I was about five years old where the batteries in my pinball machine went dead so I made a cord to plug it into the mains - I fried both the outlet and the pinball machine internals), I learned why one should check the flyback circuit cables to make sure there is NO dry rot when working on internals a live (CRT) TV (or end up with a numb arm if there is a crack in the line and the screwdriver goes near it), why a magneto on a motorbike engine should not be played with while it's running. Those lessons were painful!:-D
And neither of them are capable of producing "music" even remotely worth listening to.
That's not true. With the help of voice processors almost anyone can sing and sound good. What do you mean Britney has nothing worth listening to? She has two or three songs that are actually pretty good, and it took her only (according to Wikipedia) six albums to produce that much material that doesn't sound like total crap. Now that's talent!;)
Seriously though, you're right. It's unlikely there will ever be another band like Pink Floyd, Queen, Yes, The Police, Genesis, like any of the other dinosaurs who are considered musical genius. With labels looking for instant hits and unwilling to take risks to create new dinosaurs (and I mean dinosaur as in huge, not old) with long-term success, and their over-compressing of the dynamic range of the music, we're not going to see (hear) many if any masterpieces. It's going to be a combination of the Indie labels, a LOT of self-promotion through a lot of live gigs in key venues, and luck.
There won't be another Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, or Johnny Mathis for the same reason. Labels are not interested in long-term investments. Now, these artists are in a completely different category but the point still remains; none were an instant success. They made it because the labels were still trying to figure out the industry and actually had to make long-term investments.
I love progressive and psychedelic rock because with the structure they are almost akin to a modern form of classical. I like concept albums intended to be listened to straight through. I love music with purpose. Labels today hate all of that because they don't catch on instantly but take 2-3 albums to gain critical mass, the tracks are often much longer than the 2-3 minutes today's ADHD society has the attention span for, and they require far more talent.
Why not just have in-house session musicians and writers and use some scantily-clad teenager (soon-to-be drug addict and slut) to "perform?" She doesn't even have to sing! Let her just lip sync. The target market won't appreciate the difference anyhow. Besides, you can market toys, clothes, and so forth based on the "artist's" image you conjured up. Make fast money now!
Actually that's the whole problem with the economy as a whole. The mortgage industry, run by baby-boomers, loved Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac because they could make a really fast buck and screw the younger generations. The major corps run by baby boomers LOVED outsourcing offshore because they could lower their costs and boost short-term profits so they could rake in obscene bonuses. The problem is, now we gen-xers and the upcoming Gen-y are totally fucked. We are inheriting an insane amount of debt and are almost unemployable because our country doesn't MANUFACTURE anything any more.
The labels' thinking is symptomatic of the economy of the whole; short-term greed is what is killing their long-term viability.
What will it take to fix? Either our parents' generation needs to get a clue, we need to start speaking up and taking the corporations and politicians back, or there needs to be a revolution. Unfortunately so many of us gen-xers have drunk the kool-aid our hippie parents taught in school so all too many of us really believe in the "global" line of thinking, and all too many of us think deregulation and socialization is a good thing. Why do ANY of us think there is any such thing as a free lunch?
The labels are entitlement thinkers. They had a great business model for so many years that they think they are entitled to it. Where is my entitlement? Where is yours?
Offshore all the jobs and deregulate key areas like medicine and the utilities, drop tariffs and encourage offshoring while our "trading partners" (including "most favored" trading partners) keep very high tariffs on imports, and there won't BE any money in the average person's budget for music purchases.
hich is where things got muddy. After it hit the App store, one of the original developers of XPilot told us he feels adamantly that we're betraying the spirit of the GPL by charging for it."
B.S. - the original developers ought to have read the GPL before releasing the code under it. The GPL explicitly allows for sale of derivative binaries so long as an offer for the code is made available. One may even charge reasonable distribution costs for the code when customers take them up on the offer for the code. Now, the "reasonable" fee for the code is open to debate, but whether or not binaries could/should be sold is not as the GPL is crystal-clear on the matter.
I don't know about you, but I didn't see this one coming. I mean, Billy West, Katey Sagal, John Di Maggio, Dan Castellaneta, Phil Lamar, and everyone else on the cast are all expendable and anyone can do the voices they do.
Okay, Leela _could_ be replaced, but would anyone buy Leela as Leela with any voice other than that of Peggy Bundy? Amy Wong can be replaced, but why would you want to? It would only serve as a distraction and land you in a JTS category. (for the record as an aside: if Fry and Leela do it, I don't think it'd be a JTS moment. I hope Fry+Leela eventually happens because that can open up whole new story lines to explore)
I know, other hit animations have changed voice actors (Meg Griffin) without too much impact, but the magic of Futurama is like the beatles - the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. It's not just the great writing, it's not just the unique blend of 3D rendering and conventional 2D cel animation, and it's not just the individual character voices. It's the great chemistry throughout the entire team. It's a damn shame Futurama was ever cancelled in the first place (allegedly due to corporate politics) and I don't understand why it was harder to resurrect than Family Guy was. I mean, I know more people who like Futurama than Family Guy (I happen to enjoy both shows, but I wouldn't adjust my schedule around Family Guy like I did for Futurama).
Family Guy offends a lot of people. I don't know anyone who is offended by Futurama. Non-geeks/non-engineers I know who watch Futurama watch it for the low-brow humor (it includes some LCD humor for the low-IQ segment of the population) and while they don't get the math and science jokes they love it nonetheless. Almost every well-educated person I know who has seen Futurama loves it: engineers, doctors, chemists, programmers, help desk workers, architects. The only person I know who hates it also hates The Simpsons, and it's for this reason: he is a graphic design artist, and detests the simplicity of the 2D animation. Unlike most fans, he doesn't see Groening's style as having its own unique charm, but sees it as a hack and as lack of talent/laziness. I happen to see genius in Groening's style; in that he lets the writing and quality of the team as a whole convey the story rather than producing poorly-written, poorly-acted eye candy. If you want eye candy, go see a Disney flick. You'll get dreadfully boring eye candy.
Who wants to be the first asshat and go to one of those stores and ask to buy a laptop with no OS preloaded, or better yet, a laptop with Linux preloaded on it?
Better yet, after purchasing a laptop, open it up, boot it, reject the EULA, and then request a refund for the windows license.:)
I live in Massachusetts and drive 30K to 45K miles per year, and I see a LOT of masshattery. I've been in so many near misses arising from people who use the highways as their own personal slalom, people who tailgate, and from people who have no clue what red lights, stop signs, and yield signs mean.
Usually I own and drive fast cars. For a number of years I had a Ford F-150 and then a GMC Sierra 1500. I always hated driving those things because 0-60 and 50-70 could be measured in weeks (exaggeration, obviously) - unsafe for avoidance.
A few weeks ago I was stopped in a traffic jam on the parking lot we affectionately call Route 128. I was rear-ended by a semi. He wasn't going fast but the problem was he just wasn't paying attention and he mis-shifted, and a mass of 30K to 60K pounds isn't easy to stop. So, my truck was toast. The bumper and frame were bent, and the bed shifted over. I managed to get the bed on straight (all by myself - yes, I know how to use breaker bars and sockets) but the truck was on its last legs anyhow so I junked it.
Well, from there I decided it was time to get something more sporty. I was looking at the Rav4 w/V6 because I need cargo space for work, but we decided that if the company needs a truck, the company should buy one, not me. So, that freed me up to buy something different. I went with a Saab. Now I feel safe again.
Why do I think a (relatively) fast car is needed? I encounter a LOT of asshattery. About six years ago, I had two simultaneous collisions happen in front of me (lane drop, massholes being massholes and not yielding to the left lane, and someone in the left lane wanted to pass on the right). The collisions were too close for me to stop, so I just nailed it and navigated through unscathed.
Since I bought this car last week I've had massholes weaving through traffic almost broadside my driver-side fender, some charlie-uniform-november-tango pull right out in front of me, and so forth. People are too impatient. I drive the limit, understand right of way, and the way people drive in Massachusetts drives me nuts.
I have a clean driving record and drive very conservatively when there are other cars around. Why can't everyone do the same? Why can't people drive sensibly when there are other people on the road? It's partially because of other people I choose performance-oriented vehicles (that, and on empty rural roads they're just fun!).
It's due to ignorance of others that we have the ridiculous 65mph speed limit instead of unlimited speed on rural highways. It's due to asshattery that insurance rates are outrageous. It's due to masshattery that the gubbament can justify traffic light cameras.
It's due to ignorant asshole drivers that my door has a dent in it. I parked my car, went into the store, came out, and found that someone had opened their door against mine, right at the B pillar. So now, my car door looks like I opened it against a wall or something. The other car's paint rubbed off so there is no mar, but now every time I walk up to the car my eye is drawn right to that ding. I had the thing only four days, I parked out in the boonies, and some asshole still managed to ding my car. It's amazing.
Asshattery. It's human nature. Massholes are the perfect example of that.
I may be a masshole, but I refuse to drive like one. Even if one is self-centered/selfish, they should think about how their driving like assholes affects their own insurance rates and spawns new legislation restricting their own rights - if they won't think about how their actions will affect others. If you're selfish, think of the negative consequences for being a jerk. If everyone followed the law and also courtesy, traffic jams would be rare. Want to jockey for position? Just go ahead. I won't be bothered. I usually take off quick but if someone is jockeying, I just let them go. It's not worth the aggravation and the risk.
"10 times smaller than our own Milky Way galaxy and 100 times less massive"
10 times smaller? 100 times less massive?
Isn't it 1/10 the size and 1/100 the mass?
In order to be "10 times smaller than $foo" or "100 times less massive than $foo" doesn't there need to be another point of reference?
I know I'm picking nits, but this is slashdot. People should know better. This bugs me like less vs. fewer, there/their/they're, your/you're, and so forth. I understand it is simply a colloquialism arising from poor grammar among the masses, but in the case of a scientific article, poor writing makes it more difficult to take the writer seriously.
I'm 37 and I have horrible penmanship. Up through high school I had very good penmanship but since them, I haven't had to write. Everything is typed - personal communication (emails, letters, etc.), documentation, notes, banking, etc. You name it, I do it electronically. On the go? I have both Windows Mobile and iPhone for PDAs. If I am driving, I have voice recorders. I have little to no need to write English.
I do write a little in Hebrew, and it's weird - my Hebrew is actually neat. I can also draw. I just can't write English cursive. The problem is not that I can't, but that I won't be bothered to write neatly. Why should I when all of my banking, utilities, cable/itnernet, phone, and so forth can all be paid online, I can apply for loans online, and so on? What need or incentive is there for me to write neatly?
Wrong.On a convergence device like the iPhone where you are forced to buy an unlimited data service, you are practically guaranteed to have connectivity to the cloud. That is not so on a standalone desktop or notebook. iPhone is down? Just drive a mile or two away and get perfect high-speed connection. Your cable or DSL is down? Make an appointment with your ISP and wait days to weeks for a resolution.
OEMs using Android simply don't understand the user as well as Apple does.
Really?
How many generations did it take for Apple to concede that Copy&Paste is a necessity on a PDA? THREE genertions of the iPhone?
They also don't value openness, hence jailbreak opening up the phone to give a TON more functionality, including bash, ssh, and so forth.
How long did it take Apple to admit that turn-by-turn GPS is a necessity? It has existed from day one on Windows Mobile, but did Apple allow turn-by-turn GPS? Oh no, of course not.
One drawback it has is no background apps - apps are suspended when calls come in. I don't know about you, but when I am driving I want the GPS to remain in the foreground, and I want voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions. I'll be buying TomTom for the iPhonewhen it makes its way to iTunes, but I will be hanging on to my Windows Mobile devices until Apple fixes that annoyance. The phone can
I finally bought an iPhone, and I love it, but I'm not blind to its glaring problems - which mostly stem from Apple's closed nature, which in turn is almost a form of arrogance.
"NOES! They'll destroy the historic bootprints!" - Idiot who believes that lack of erosion signals lack of change. The bootprints are likely long gone, due to heating and cooling of the rocks, vibrations from the ground and, at the landing sites proper, the exhaust from the ascent stage of the lander. Nobody but your high school science teacher seriously thinks they'll last a hundred years, or whatever numeric value you were told.
Don't you know that in the year 3000 after landing on the moon and proclaiming "one small step for Fry" and then wandering out of the lunar amusement park (the one that's the happiest place orbiting Earth), Phillip J. Fry is going to destroy the footprint? Sheesh! That's how we know the footprint is still going to be there at the end of this millennium!
It's time to bring back the "get firefox" banners and link buttons on web sites, with a little blurb like this:
"Does this site look lousy in your browser? It's because of that abusive monopolist company Microsoft ignoring the standards everyone else in the Universe follows, all while claiming to embrace those standards. Upgrade to Firefox, Safari, or Opera now to get a browser which actually adheres to those standards."
If you think it's just utter stupidity, you are sorely mistaken. The intent is far more insidious. As one of the investors in the LHC they took a bath when the LHC turned out to be an utter failure. They wondered how they could achieve their goal.
Then it struck them, and it was a PHB up top who came up with the idea, much to the surprise of the team. If you create a lawsuit which is utterly idiotic, such as a fortune 100 company suing itself, you are bound to create a singularity.
That's it folks. They are betting on the stupidity and greed of lawyers being enough to trigger the creation of a sustained artificial singularity.
The next step is to figure out how to make it profitable, but like the modern American dream, they are going to leave that to the developing Asian countries to figure out.
Slashdot Mirror
Translation: "We violate labor laws and expect you to like it. You'll be working 65 hours per week and paid for only 40. If you actually use your vacation time that will be taken into consideration at your annual performance review."
I did something REALLY stupid when I was about 10 years old. I knew enough about parallel vs. series battery piles to be dangerous. Did you ever lick a 9V battery to see if it was good? If you got a really painful sting, it was good, and if it didn't hurt, it was probably too dead to run the game? Well, have you ever tried connecting 20 of those in series, making a pigtail and licking the conductors to see if it worked? I did. I learned a very quick lesson about that. I saw a flash of light and was dazed for a little while. I'm embarrassed to admit that here, but hey, I was only about 10 years old. Yep, I've always been a bit of a geek like that. That year I learned a lot of lessons: why a lot of batteries wired in series can be as dangerous as mains (my first mishap with electricity was when I was about five years old where the batteries in my pinball machine went dead so I made a cord to plug it into the mains - I fried both the outlet and the pinball machine internals), I learned why one should check the flyback circuit cables to make sure there is NO dry rot when working on internals a live (CRT) TV (or end up with a numb arm if there is a crack in the line and the screwdriver goes near it), why a magneto on a motorbike engine should not be played with while it's running. Those lessons were painful! :-D
Are you sure about that?
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2178-boy-takes-swing-at-us-patents.html
Vote it down in Firehose
You need to jailbreak the phone to install it though. Apple rejected it from the iTunes store because it duplicated their native functionality.
That's not true. With the help of voice processors almost anyone can sing and sound good. What do you mean Britney has nothing worth listening to? She has two or three songs that are actually pretty good, and it took her only (according to Wikipedia) six albums to produce that much material that doesn't sound like total crap. Now that's talent! ;)
Seriously though, you're right. It's unlikely there will ever be another band like Pink Floyd, Queen, Yes, The Police, Genesis, like any of the other dinosaurs who are considered musical genius. With labels looking for instant hits and unwilling to take risks to create new dinosaurs (and I mean dinosaur as in huge, not old) with long-term success, and their over-compressing of the dynamic range of the music, we're not going to see (hear) many if any masterpieces. It's going to be a combination of the Indie labels, a LOT of self-promotion through a lot of live gigs in key venues, and luck.
There won't be another Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, or Johnny Mathis for the same reason. Labels are not interested in long-term investments. Now, these artists are in a completely different category but the point still remains; none were an instant success. They made it because the labels were still trying to figure out the industry and actually had to make long-term investments.
I love progressive and psychedelic rock because with the structure they are almost akin to a modern form of classical. I like concept albums intended to be listened to straight through. I love music with purpose. Labels today hate all of that because they don't catch on instantly but take 2-3 albums to gain critical mass, the tracks are often much longer than the 2-3 minutes today's ADHD society has the attention span for, and they require far more talent.
Why not just have in-house session musicians and writers and use some scantily-clad teenager (soon-to-be drug addict and slut) to "perform?" She doesn't even have to sing! Let her just lip sync. The target market won't appreciate the difference anyhow. Besides, you can market toys, clothes, and so forth based on the "artist's" image you conjured up. Make fast money now!
Actually that's the whole problem with the economy as a whole. The mortgage industry, run by baby-boomers, loved Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac because they could make a really fast buck and screw the younger generations. The major corps run by baby boomers LOVED outsourcing offshore because they could lower their costs and boost short-term profits so they could rake in obscene bonuses. The problem is, now we gen-xers and the upcoming Gen-y are totally fucked. We are inheriting an insane amount of debt and are almost unemployable because our country doesn't MANUFACTURE anything any more.
The labels' thinking is symptomatic of the economy of the whole; short-term greed is what is killing their long-term viability.
What will it take to fix? Either our parents' generation needs to get a clue, we need to start speaking up and taking the corporations and politicians back, or there needs to be a revolution. Unfortunately so many of us gen-xers have drunk the kool-aid our hippie parents taught in school so all too many of us really believe in the "global" line of thinking, and all too many of us think deregulation and socialization is a good thing. Why do ANY of us think there is any such thing as a free lunch?
The labels are entitlement thinkers. They had a great business model for so many years that they think they are entitled to it. Where is my entitlement? Where is yours?
Offshore all the jobs and deregulate key areas like medicine and the utilities, drop tariffs and encourage offshoring while our "trading partners" (including "most favored" trading partners) keep very high tariffs on imports, and there won't BE any money in the average person's budget for music purchases.
I know I seemingly went
Especially Iceland. Who is/are Iceland's enemy/-ies anyhow?
B.S. - the original developers ought to have read the GPL before releasing the code under it. The GPL explicitly allows for sale of derivative binaries so long as an offer for the code is made available. One may even charge reasonable distribution costs for the code when customers take them up on the offer for the code. Now, the "reasonable" fee for the code is open to debate, but whether or not binaries could/should be sold is not as the GPL is crystal-clear on the matter.
I don't know about you, but I didn't see this one coming. I mean, Billy West, Katey Sagal, John Di Maggio, Dan Castellaneta, Phil Lamar, and everyone else on the cast are all expendable and anyone can do the voices they do.
Okay, Leela _could_ be replaced, but would anyone buy Leela as Leela with any voice other than that of Peggy Bundy? Amy Wong can be replaced, but why would you want to? It would only serve as a distraction and land you in a JTS category. (for the record as an aside: if Fry and Leela do it, I don't think it'd be a JTS moment. I hope Fry+Leela eventually happens because that can open up whole new story lines to explore)
I know, other hit animations have changed voice actors (Meg Griffin) without too much impact, but the magic of Futurama is like the beatles - the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. It's not just the great writing, it's not just the unique blend of 3D rendering and conventional 2D cel animation, and it's not just the individual character voices. It's the great chemistry throughout the entire team. It's a damn shame Futurama was ever cancelled in the first place (allegedly due to corporate politics) and I don't understand why it was harder to resurrect than Family Guy was. I mean, I know more people who like Futurama than Family Guy (I happen to enjoy both shows, but I wouldn't adjust my schedule around Family Guy like I did for Futurama).
Family Guy offends a lot of people. I don't know anyone who is offended by Futurama. Non-geeks/non-engineers I know who watch Futurama watch it for the low-brow humor (it includes some LCD humor for the low-IQ segment of the population) and while they don't get the math and science jokes they love it nonetheless. Almost every well-educated person I know who has seen Futurama loves it: engineers, doctors, chemists, programmers, help desk workers, architects. The only person I know who hates it also hates The Simpsons, and it's for this reason: he is a graphic design artist, and detests the simplicity of the 2D animation. Unlike most fans, he doesn't see Groening's style as having its own unique charm, but sees it as a hack and as lack of talent/laziness. I happen to see genius in Groening's style; in that he lets the writing and quality of the team as a whole convey the story rather than producing poorly-written, poorly-acted eye candy. If you want eye candy, go see a Disney flick. You'll get dreadfully boring eye candy.
Sir, do you have a concealed oscilloscope permit?
Your idea is better. :)
Who wants to be the first asshat and go to one of those stores and ask to buy a laptop with no OS preloaded, or better yet, a laptop with Linux preloaded on it?
Better yet, after purchasing a laptop, open it up, boot it, reject the EULA, and then request a refund for the windows license. :)
I live in Massachusetts and drive 30K to 45K miles per year, and I see a LOT of masshattery. I've been in so many near misses arising from people who use the highways as their own personal slalom, people who tailgate, and from people who have no clue what red lights, stop signs, and yield signs mean.
Usually I own and drive fast cars. For a number of years I had a Ford F-150 and then a GMC Sierra 1500. I always hated driving those things because 0-60 and 50-70 could be measured in weeks (exaggeration, obviously) - unsafe for avoidance.
A few weeks ago I was stopped in a traffic jam on the parking lot we affectionately call Route 128. I was rear-ended by a semi. He wasn't going fast but the problem was he just wasn't paying attention and he mis-shifted, and a mass of 30K to 60K pounds isn't easy to stop. So, my truck was toast. The bumper and frame were bent, and the bed shifted over. I managed to get the bed on straight (all by myself - yes, I know how to use breaker bars and sockets) but the truck was on its last legs anyhow so I junked it.
Well, from there I decided it was time to get something more sporty. I was looking at the Rav4 w/V6 because I need cargo space for work, but we decided that if the company needs a truck, the company should buy one, not me. So, that freed me up to buy something different. I went with a Saab. Now I feel safe again.
Why do I think a (relatively) fast car is needed? I encounter a LOT of asshattery. About six years ago, I had two simultaneous collisions happen in front of me (lane drop, massholes being massholes and not yielding to the left lane, and someone in the left lane wanted to pass on the right). The collisions were too close for me to stop, so I just nailed it and navigated through unscathed.
Since I bought this car last week I've had massholes weaving through traffic almost broadside my driver-side fender, some charlie-uniform-november-tango pull right out in front of me, and so forth. People are too impatient. I drive the limit, understand right of way, and the way people drive in Massachusetts drives me nuts.
I have a clean driving record and drive very conservatively when there are other cars around. Why can't everyone do the same? Why can't people drive sensibly when there are other people on the road? It's partially because of other people I choose performance-oriented vehicles (that, and on empty rural roads they're just fun!).
It's due to ignorance of others that we have the ridiculous 65mph speed limit instead of unlimited speed on rural highways. It's due to asshattery that insurance rates are outrageous. It's due to masshattery that the gubbament can justify traffic light cameras.
It's due to ignorant asshole drivers that my door has a dent in it. I parked my car, went into the store, came out, and found that someone had opened their door against mine, right at the B pillar. So now, my car door looks like I opened it against a wall or something. The other car's paint rubbed off so there is no mar, but now every time I walk up to the car my eye is drawn right to that ding. I had the thing only four days, I parked out in the boonies, and some asshole still managed to ding my car. It's amazing.
Asshattery. It's human nature. Massholes are the perfect example of that.
I may be a masshole, but I refuse to drive like one. Even if one is self-centered/selfish, they should think about how their driving like assholes affects their own insurance rates and spawns new legislation restricting their own rights - if they won't think about how their actions will affect others. If you're selfish, think of the negative consequences for being a jerk. If everyone followed the law and also courtesy, traffic jams would be rare. Want to jockey for position? Just go ahead. I won't be bothered. I usually take off quick but if someone is jockeying, I just let them go. It's not worth the aggravation and the risk.
"10 times smaller than our own Milky Way galaxy and 100 times less massive"
10 times smaller?
100 times less massive?
Isn't it 1/10 the size and 1/100 the mass?
In order to be "10 times smaller than $foo" or "100 times less massive than $foo" doesn't there need to be another point of reference?
I know I'm picking nits, but this is slashdot. People should know better. This bugs me like less vs. fewer, there/their/they're, your/you're, and so forth. I understand it is simply a colloquialism arising from poor grammar among the masses, but in the case of a scientific article, poor writing makes it more difficult to take the writer seriously.
I'm 37 and I have horrible penmanship. Up through high school I had very good penmanship but since them, I haven't had to write. Everything is typed - personal communication (emails, letters, etc.), documentation, notes, banking, etc. You name it, I do it electronically. On the go? I have both Windows Mobile and iPhone for PDAs. If I am driving, I have voice recorders. I have little to no need to write English.
I do write a little in Hebrew, and it's weird - my Hebrew is actually neat. I can also draw. I just can't write English cursive. The problem is not that I can't, but that I won't be bothered to write neatly. Why should I when all of my banking, utilities, cable/itnernet, phone, and so forth can all be paid online, I can apply for loans online, and so on? What need or incentive is there for me to write neatly?
Wrong.On a convergence device like the iPhone where you are forced to buy an unlimited data service, you are practically guaranteed to have connectivity to the cloud. That is not so on a standalone desktop or notebook. iPhone is down? Just drive a mile or two away and get perfect high-speed connection. Your cable or DSL is down? Make an appointment with your ISP and wait days to weeks for a resolution.
Really?
How many generations did it take for Apple to concede that Copy&Paste is a necessity on a PDA? THREE genertions of the iPhone?
They also don't value openness, hence jailbreak opening up the phone to give a TON more functionality, including bash, ssh, and so forth.
How long did it take Apple to admit that turn-by-turn GPS is a necessity? It has existed from day one on Windows Mobile, but did Apple allow turn-by-turn GPS? Oh no, of course not.
One drawback it has is no background apps - apps are suspended when calls come in. I don't know about you, but when I am driving I want the GPS to remain in the foreground, and I want voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions. I'll be buying TomTom for the iPhonewhen it makes its way to iTunes, but I will be hanging on to my Windows Mobile devices until Apple fixes that annoyance. The phone can
I finally bought an iPhone, and I love it, but I'm not blind to its glaring problems - which mostly stem from Apple's closed nature, which in turn is almost a form of arrogance.
He could just not sign that agreement and get OEM Windows from Ingram Micro, MA LABS, and other distributors.
Don't you know that in the year 3000 after landing on the moon and proclaiming "one small step for Fry" and then wandering out of the lunar amusement park (the one that's the happiest place orbiting Earth), Phillip J. Fry is going to destroy the footprint? Sheesh! That's how we know the footprint is still going to be there at the end of this millennium!
Godzilla? What's that? Don't you mean Godzirra?
It's time to bring back the "get firefox" banners and link buttons on web sites, with a little blurb like this:
"Does this site look lousy in your browser? It's because of that abusive monopolist company Microsoft ignoring the standards everyone else in the Universe follows, all while claiming to embrace those standards. Upgrade to Firefox, Safari, or Opera now to get a browser which actually adheres to those standards."
I don't know about you, but I am rooting for Wells Fargo Bank NA in this case!!
If you think it's just utter stupidity, you are sorely mistaken. The intent is far more insidious. As one of the investors in the LHC they took a bath when the LHC turned out to be an utter failure. They wondered how they could achieve their goal.
Then it struck them, and it was a PHB up top who came up with the idea, much to the surprise of the team. If you create a lawsuit which is utterly idiotic, such as a fortune 100 company suing itself, you are bound to create a singularity.
That's it folks. They are betting on the stupidity and greed of lawyers being enough to trigger the creation of a sustained artificial singularity.
The next step is to figure out how to make it profitable, but like the modern American dream, they are going to leave that to the developing Asian countries to figure out.
re:
For many slashdotters, that is not off-site storage. ;)
Yeah, but do those clods run Linux? or are they in Soviet Russia, where Linux runs them?