Excellent post. Is it exactly this kind of dialog that promotes the friendliness between our two nations.
I would imagine that a lot of the American people have no idea that America even does a lot of business with Canada. During the 3 years of various call centre work that I did, it was amazing how many American citizens could not believe that a U.S. company would outsource their support/service lines to Canada(although I mostly chalk that particular example up to the idea that most Americans, rightly so, don't believe in the outsourcing of any industry). A great many yet, didn't believe that we had the technical prowess/know-how and infrastructure to support such an operation.
In contrast, a great deal of Canadians know about the things that we provide the rest of the world, from soft lumber to robotic arms to vast quantities of Canadian Whisky/Beer/Maple syrup.;) And not necessarily is that because we all WANT to know. To be Canadian, one must accept that they will have Canadiana(?) stuffed down their throats quite forcibly(The Tragically Hip or Hockey anyone?). Although I imagine that can, in fact, be worse in America, as the symbols of a nation as proud and strong as America are surely waved wildy and in abundance(Toby Keith anyone?)
To the point, if a country/company/person does something very well and no other country/company/person is offering to do it as well or better, than why change? To "keep it exciting"? Just "for kicks"? No. If they do it well, they deserve to keep doing it well, until either they stop doing it well or somebody else does it better.
Again, great comment. I'm glad to see examples of our two countries getting along at every level.:D
Given the situation here in North America, I cannot bring myself to even begin to feel bad for them. The crap we put up with here, it actually makes me GLAD that they are capped like that.
I've noticed that as well. People just start mentioning it.
I remember when the PS2 came out. Everyone I knew just had to have one and if anyone recalls, there was ridiculous problems with the lasers on the DVD drives and such, especially with I think it was with brown bottom DVDs as well I believe, as the blue bottom DVDs. Then the lasers were just crapping out, burning out I think. After extended use, the laser would burn out. Some people fixed them by opening the unit up and adjusting the potentiometer adjusting the laser's voltage. Hell, when my BOTH of my Brothers-in-law bought launch PS3s, they bricked on the first firmware upgrade that went out. They had to wait 3 weeks to get replacements.
Come on hardware manufacturers. I still have a VIRTUAL BOY, and it works like the day I bought it. I only have the 2 or 3 games that came out for it, but it works!;)
I've got an original Gameboy still...doesn't have a battery compartment door anymore, it's definately not the same colour gray as it used to be and I have had it since the Christmas of the year they came out ('89?), and that piece of wonderfully engineered hardware runs as well now, as it did the first time out of the box. I will agree that it is sort of an apples and oranges sort of comparison, but to make it more direct, you need only look at the NES, the SNES, the Genesis and so on. Those old pieces of hardware stood up. I never had hardware failures back then.
There was a day and an age when I felt game consoles were better than PC's, at least in terms of reliability and ruggedness. Now they are simply glorified PC's, with a couple custom parts or a partially re-engineered solution of some sort, just to make it a liiiiiiitle bit different.
And before someone mentions it, yes, yes in fact a lot of us used to(and still do on occasion) have to blow into our NES and SNES cartridges to get them to play, but I've had my 360 in for RRoD repair twice now. I would blow someone at Microsoft to keep my hardware free of repair...I mean...it works for 15+ year old hardware.
If computers still cost ~$1000 for even a basic machine, then I could understand some real complaining, but nowadays you can buy one from Walmart for something in the neighbourhood of around $400. That's a substantial difference.
If you don't want to upgrade, then don't. Plain and simple, but don't complain when you get left behind. Our science will continue to provide us new tools to work with and those who won't accept that upgrade path, well, those people still run Win98SE or OS9 or some other legacy system. Tough luck, you said no to upgrades.
And the money argument doesn't carry much weight either, unfortunately, because when you factor in what the average North American (for the sake of example), spends every year of just Coffee, then you will start to see how spending a few hundred to get a new PC, isn't that much money. Let's do some quick math. $500 / 12months = $41.67 So, for just less than $42/month, you can have a new PC. I make a really shitty wage and only get 21 hours of work a week and even I can save $42 a month. A single PC/Console game in most modern cases, costs on average of around $50 and people manage to buy those en masse.
Keep up or get off the grid and find a nice horse and carriage.
These laws are good. What could be better is to make bullying based on sexual orientation more severely punishable. Many bullying victimes are gays, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. Oftentimes schools do nothing to help the victim or punish the bully; much of this inaction is due to homophobia on the part of the school authorities. What's good about these kind of laws is that they force school administrators to ditch their own homophobia and go after the bullies and perhaps support the victims. Why should bullying based on sexual orientation deserve more sever punishment? Not everything in Western culture revolves around Homosexuality and alternative life styles. People of a varying sexual preference need only be treated as well as everyone else, not treated better, not treated worse. We're all Human, with rights.
Who are you to decide that a child should be punished more severely for bullying someone who is a Homosexual, versus bullying another child that has Down syndrome or other genetic "flaws" (for lack of a better term). Sounds to me like you are speaking of situations in your life, or the lives of people you know. Think of the bigger picture here, think of someone other than yourself. Part of the reason that folks of different sexual orientation are even still getting media attention is that people won't drop it and accept that they are people, just like everyone of a more "traditional"(again, lack of a better term at the moment) sexual orientation. Why did you even bring this up?
Bullying is bullying, I hate to break the news that someone other than the "gays" get it, but it's true. I was pushed around as a child, because I was overweight back then, but you don't hear me calling for more severe punishment of bullying that revolves around a person's body weight.
Bullying itself needs to be dealt with, of course, but a lot of that should start at home. Too many kids are babysat by the television, because nobody at home gives enough of a shit to teach their child about right and wrong.
It can be quite difficult to track down the source of the bullying, but it has happened for quite a long time and will most likely continue to happen. Please don't turn this into conversation all about how Homosexuals are treated differently than everyone else. It's about bullys and laws.
If Google is to ever become the "World's hub of information", they need to seriously consider purchasing Wikipedia. I can only imagine the possibilities that would open up. It would also mean a Tonne of funding for wikipedia.
Whichever of the formats Walmart chooses to put on it's shelves, is going to be the winner of this battle. It's no different than the "Videogames are created for Walmart" situation.
Lose Walmart as your sales point, and you've lost a lot.
I have to agree with you here.
I have used Windows and Office for years. Sure there ARE bugs, I can only name 2 or 3 pieces of software that I use that are TOTALLY bug free.
Again, there are bugs, that is the nature of the beast I suppose, especially when every PC is different. With a Mac it is a different deal, because those computers can ONLY be certain computers. They have "certain" hardware and Apple can code the OS accordingly, because they have a good idea of what it will be running on. With Windows....BOOM! How many users that have issues with their PC, also have cheap, knock-off hardware built in a part of the world where there isn't exactly.....the most re-assuring quality standards?
There ARE and always WILL BE bugs and flaws in EVERY OS, and I don't think that there will ever be much of a way around that. All we can do is try to alter our usage, so as to not walk into any of those bugs.
I have an XP Sp2 system, and I am going on my 26th day of uptime. Benchmarks still show numbers I like to see. Performance has hardly degraded at all.:D
Consider me second in line.
I can't tell you how much of an improvement for the species this will be. Better yet, the blind may finally have a hope of actually receiving ACTUAL replacement vision, not a poor substitute.:D
Thta was exactly my thoughts. What on Earth, in the broadband age, gives someone the idea that 80Mb is "Mammoth"?!? That's rediculous.
I have.PSD files almost that large. I decided to download OO to furthur my point, it took me just less than 6 minutes. 6 Minutes! Doesn't seem Mammoth to me. Then again, in this country there isn't many folks that still have dial-up. The U.S. hasn't really had much of a broadband adoption yet.
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Excellent post. Is it exactly this kind of dialog that promotes the friendliness between our two nations. I would imagine that a lot of the American people have no idea that America even does a lot of business with Canada. During the 3 years of various call centre work that I did, it was amazing how many American citizens could not believe that a U.S. company would outsource their support/service lines to Canada(although I mostly chalk that particular example up to the idea that most Americans, rightly so, don't believe in the outsourcing of any industry). A great many yet, didn't believe that we had the technical prowess/know-how and infrastructure to support such an operation. In contrast, a great deal of Canadians know about the things that we provide the rest of the world, from soft lumber to robotic arms to vast quantities of Canadian Whisky/Beer/Maple syrup. ;) And not necessarily is that because we all WANT to know. To be Canadian, one must accept that they will have Canadiana(?) stuffed down their throats quite forcibly(The Tragically Hip or Hockey anyone?). Although I imagine that can, in fact, be worse in America, as the symbols of a nation as proud and strong as America are surely waved wildy and in abundance(Toby Keith anyone?)
To the point, if a country/company/person does something very well and no other country/company/person is offering to do it as well or better, than why change? To "keep it exciting"? Just "for kicks"? No. If they do it well, they deserve to keep doing it well, until either they stop doing it well or somebody else does it better.
Again, great comment. I'm glad to see examples of our two countries getting along at every level. :D
Two years? It says 1988, not 1998.
Given the situation here in North America, I cannot bring myself to even begin to feel bad for them. The crap we put up with here, it actually makes me GLAD that they are capped like that.
No doubt the same type of Notebook that just happens to contain personal information about customers and will undoubtedly get stolen.
Only on Slashdot, would somebody attempt to bring up Linux after a murder trial. If the guy worked for Pepsi Co, would we be discussing soft drinks?
I hope their families die in a motor vehicle collision, pinned under a truck of blank media.
(Long comment discarded) Let's just call everyone we know on the telephone and play our free downloaded music through it.
I've noticed that as well. People just start mentioning it. I remember when the PS2 came out. Everyone I knew just had to have one and if anyone recalls, there was ridiculous problems with the lasers on the DVD drives and such, especially with I think it was with brown bottom DVDs as well I believe, as the blue bottom DVDs. Then the lasers were just crapping out, burning out I think. After extended use, the laser would burn out. Some people fixed them by opening the unit up and adjusting the potentiometer adjusting the laser's voltage. Hell, when my BOTH of my Brothers-in-law bought launch PS3s, they bricked on the first firmware upgrade that went out. They had to wait 3 weeks to get replacements. Come on hardware manufacturers. I still have a VIRTUAL BOY, and it works like the day I bought it. I only have the 2 or 3 games that came out for it, but it works! ;)
Couldn't have been said better!
I've got an original Gameboy still...doesn't have a battery compartment door anymore, it's definately not the same colour gray as it used to be and I have had it since the Christmas of the year they came out ('89?), and that piece of wonderfully engineered hardware runs as well now, as it did the first time out of the box. I will agree that it is sort of an apples and oranges sort of comparison, but to make it more direct, you need only look at the NES, the SNES, the Genesis and so on. Those old pieces of hardware stood up. I never had hardware failures back then.
There was a day and an age when I felt game consoles were better than PC's, at least in terms of reliability and ruggedness. Now they are simply glorified PC's, with a couple custom parts or a partially re-engineered solution of some sort, just to make it a liiiiiiitle bit different.
And before someone mentions it, yes, yes in fact a lot of us used to(and still do on occasion) have to blow into our NES and SNES cartridges to get them to play, but I've had my 360 in for RRoD repair twice now. I would blow someone at Microsoft to keep my hardware free of repair...I mean...it works for 15+ year old hardware.
What are you, a 70 year old, conservative who listens to Conway Twitty?
I get so tired of hearing these arguments.
If computers still cost ~$1000 for even a basic machine, then I could understand some real complaining, but nowadays you can buy one from Walmart for something in the neighbourhood of around $400. That's a substantial difference.
If you don't want to upgrade, then don't. Plain and simple, but don't complain when you get left behind. Our science will continue to provide us new tools to work with and those who won't accept that upgrade path, well, those people still run Win98SE or OS9 or some other legacy system. Tough luck, you said no to upgrades.
And the money argument doesn't carry much weight either, unfortunately, because when you factor in what the average North American (for the sake of example), spends every year of just Coffee, then you will start to see how spending a few hundred to get a new PC, isn't that much money. Let's do some quick math. $500 / 12months = $41.67 So, for just less than $42/month, you can have a new PC. I make a really shitty wage and only get 21 hours of work a week and even I can save $42 a month. A single PC/Console game in most modern cases, costs on average of around $50 and people manage to buy those en masse.
Keep up or get off the grid and find a nice horse and carriage.
Many bullying victimes are gays, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. Oftentimes schools do nothing to help the victim or punish the bully; much of this inaction is due to homophobia on the part of the school authorities.
What's good about these kind of laws is that they force school administrators to ditch their own homophobia and go after the bullies and perhaps support the victims. Why should bullying based on sexual orientation deserve more sever punishment? Not everything in Western culture revolves around Homosexuality and alternative life styles. People of a varying sexual preference need only be treated as well as everyone else, not treated better, not treated worse. We're all Human, with rights.
Who are you to decide that a child should be punished more severely for bullying someone who is a Homosexual, versus bullying another child that has Down syndrome or other genetic "flaws" (for lack of a better term). Sounds to me like you are speaking of situations in your life, or the lives of people you know. Think of the bigger picture here, think of someone other than yourself. Part of the reason that folks of different sexual orientation are even still getting media attention is that people won't drop it and accept that they are people, just like everyone of a more "traditional"(again, lack of a better term at the moment) sexual orientation. Why did you even bring this up?
Bullying is bullying, I hate to break the news that someone other than the "gays" get it, but it's true. I was pushed around as a child, because I was overweight back then, but you don't hear me calling for more severe punishment of bullying that revolves around a person's body weight.
Bullying itself needs to be dealt with, of course, but a lot of that should start at home. Too many kids are babysat by the television, because nobody at home gives enough of a shit to teach their child about right and wrong.
It can be quite difficult to track down the source of the bullying, but it has happened for quite a long time and will most likely continue to happen. Please don't turn this into conversation all about how Homosexuals are treated differently than everyone else. It's about bullys and laws.
If Google is to ever become the "World's hub of information", they need to seriously consider purchasing Wikipedia. I can only imagine the possibilities that would open up. It would also mean a Tonne of funding for wikipedia.
"The real potential is back in the Camaro Cradle... the Beemer Bedroom... in short, in the Tranny House!"
A BMW automobile is a BIMMER. A BMW motorcycle is a BEEMER.
"when I have a SLI Voodoo card at home that can run Quake at 1600x1200 on a 21 inch CRT?"
I had no idea that the SLI technology was that old. I doubt you'll ever hear nVidia admit they weren't the first.
Didn't Marco Polo walk through a swimming pool?
j/k
Ultimately, Walmart chooses the winner.
Whichever of the formats Walmart chooses to put on it's shelves, is going to be the winner of this battle. It's no different than the "Videogames are created for Walmart" situation.
Lose Walmart as your sales point, and you've lost a lot.
I'll add the obvious "well, when Linux or OSx runs on as many machines as Windows, we'll see how secure they are." line.
I have to agree with you here. I have used Windows and Office for years. Sure there ARE bugs, I can only name 2 or 3 pieces of software that I use that are TOTALLY bug free. Again, there are bugs, that is the nature of the beast I suppose, especially when every PC is different. With a Mac it is a different deal, because those computers can ONLY be certain computers. They have "certain" hardware and Apple can code the OS accordingly, because they have a good idea of what it will be running on. With Windows....BOOM! How many users that have issues with their PC, also have cheap, knock-off hardware built in a part of the world where there isn't exactly.....the most re-assuring quality standards? There ARE and always WILL BE bugs and flaws in EVERY OS, and I don't think that there will ever be much of a way around that. All we can do is try to alter our usage, so as to not walk into any of those bugs. I have an XP Sp2 system, and I am going on my 26th day of uptime. Benchmarks still show numbers I like to see. Performance has hardly degraded at all. :D
I was truly hoping somebody would make a Halo crack! :D
Good job.
It's as cold here as your blind bigotry and predjudice.
Consider me second in line. I can't tell you how much of an improvement for the species this will be. Better yet, the blind may finally have a hope of actually receiving ACTUAL replacement vision, not a poor substitute. :D
Thta was exactly my thoughts. What on Earth, in the broadband age, gives someone the idea that 80Mb is "Mammoth"?!? That's rediculous. I have .PSD files almost that large. I decided to download OO to furthur my point, it took me just less than 6 minutes. 6 Minutes! Doesn't seem Mammoth to me. Then again, in this country there isn't many folks that still have dial-up. The U.S. hasn't really had much of a broadband adoption yet.