Perhaps get Dolly the sheep to sign up as a surrogate mother?
No, they're not cloning sheep. It's the same sheep! I saw Harry Blackstone do that trick with two goats and a handkerchief on the old Dean Martin show!
I have to go with AM2 to use a dual core processor from AMD, right? Or can I use an affordable dual core cpu in 939? And if I can, what do I need to buy?
Nope, the X2s are very affordable in the 939 socket. I'm running a X2 4200 on my main desktop right now, and it's very nice. Honestly, unless you have a specific price restriction, I cannot imagine why you'd buy an outdated socket when similar core duos are very close in price to the X2s. I bought my X2 when Intel's lines sucked. There's no point in brand loyalty. It's about what you get for the money. Use the company, don't let the company use you.
seriously. people buy cd's (and books and movies) as much for owning an artefact than for the actual content. people want to have personal libraries and large music collections and so they will buy books and movies. history proves it.
Maybe most people. For me, actually, the prime reason for MP3s is the fact that you can have a virtual collection which is more easily managed and without taking up actual physical space.
I believe the same thing goes with movies. They should honestly make a media-less way to store things that you buy and still use them in conventional ways, as this is the way of the future IMO.
Given that you aren't purchasing anything physical, there also has to be a break on price, a buck a song just isn't going to cut it in the longterm. Not when essentially I'm paying the tax to store your product in the way of hard drive space. The product itself isn't worth a dollar a song over manufacturing costs. Which was supposed to be the original reason CDs had to cost 20 bucks each...in case they forgot.
I get just as much joy from my albums directory, and it's a lot bigger than most peoples' CD collections.
Tilt sensing actually does suck. It makes the games harder to play than just using the analog stick and if it's not the focus of the game all of the time, you can easily be tilting the controller without knowing it.
Microsoft tried this bit years ago with one of their controllers, and I bought it and I've never had a less pleasurable gaming experience than falling off the motorcycle because I tilted the controller wrong while trying to grab a drink. Dumb idea.
That being said, I don't know if Nintendo's controller is strictly a tilt sensing thing. Besides, the control is a lot more like you would have for an arcade game in that there's a certain understanding that you will be using the way your hand is positioned to determine a great deal of the action because the controller is unique. With a regular controller and tilt sensoring, you are more prone to tilt it because you forget that you are supposed to be watching yourself. It's when they make the tilt sensoring a side attraction or an "added feature" on a game that it sucks. Using alternative control mechanisms doesn't necessarily suck. Although I will reserve my final opinion until I see both implementations, I believe Nintendo's idea looks more believable as a way to attract customers. (Not that that means anything, Wii could easily come in last place).
My local bank has a Diebold ATM. Both this one and the one it replaced play a tune when dispensing bills. It is a short tune as if played on a piccolo with a trill at the end. It has been bugging me for years. Why does the ATM need to play a tune?
It's probably a default setting, just use the admin password and turn it off. And while you are at it, might as well grab some compensation for years of having to put up with the jingle.
...breed out the gene that attracts psycho women who think they're a witch, read their stars religously every day, and treat their cat as if it were their child? On second thoughts I like having a clear sign that a chick is nuts. Without this men would fall prey to the psycho chicks more often.
So you banged her too, huh? My advice is to not let her know where you live.
Sure, nobody can know for certain what the future will bring specifically, but one incontrovertable observation is that since the beginning of time overall progress has been accelerating exponentially.
Everyone always tosses around the word "progress", my contention is that how do you know if you are progressing if you don't have a goal. What is it exactly that we are progressing toward and are closer to now than 100 years ago? Immortality? What? Sure, things are easier and more convenient but we more or less work the same amount and get less sleep, are more busy, more stressed and have fewer meaningful relationships with one another. With all of this taken into account, how exactly have we progressed?
If our goal is to churn out immeasurable amounts of crap and ruin the Earth in the process, then yes we have definitely progressed bucketloads toward achieving that.
So, what you're saying is, "If you don't defy the herd, the herd should enforce herd defiance behavior!"
Welcome to the herd, bubba!
I understand the remark was in jest, but honestly that wasn't what he was saying. He was saying like what you like without shame. It's a small subset of the larger "be yourself" point. Many people preach this shit without really believing it or doing it. If I liked the backstreet boys I'd ruin everyone else's ears with them by playing them loudly in my car as I drove past. You can't be ashamed of yourself, it's a ridiculous high school "cool police" mentality that you are supposed to grow out of once you grow ball hair. But I guess some people never get there.
If I wanted to listen to New Kids on the Block without letting my Metallica friends know, I'd just go out and buy the tape and hide it in a different place than my regular tapes.
Are you still in high school? I hope so, because having hidden tastes that you are ashamed of is pathetic. Who cares what the hell you like to listen to. They don't have to listen to it so screw them and anyone else that wants to judge you for such petty matters.
If you are a metallica fan and like new kids on the block and are openly admitting it, that's an odd choice I must say, but more than likely if your friends are your friends they might make jab smart ass remarks from time to time, but they aren't going to banish you from their ranks. And if they would, they can screw off anyway.
And their logic is always "If you don't have anything to hide, you don't have anything to worry about". To which I say, "If I don't have anything to hide, why do they need to spy on me?"
What I hate about this argument is the fact is that nearly everyone has something to hide. If you were to seriously apply all the laws all the time and have a 100% catch and enforcement rate, none of us would have driver's licenses, most people would be in jail or paying the RIAA for copyright violations. The whole point of their biblical story is that man isn't perfect, if they truly believe that, they should probably lose the "you have nothing to hide anyway? right? *nudge* *nudge*" line of logic.
If you do everything by the book, never look at porn or lie or do anything even remotely dishonest, have non-embarassing interests and perfect relationships then sure you have nothing to hide. But even these politicians (or anyone else for that matter) wouldn't live up to those standards.
It is not as if child pornography is such a huge problem anyway. I'm sure it is, and what can be done to prevent it within limits of our own freedoms should be done to make it go away, but to do blanket spying in order to find child pornographers is to make the method of enforcing the law worse than the original problem was in scope to begin with.
This is what they always do though, drum up a bullshit issue. Plus it makes their side agenda (the fearmongering don't leave the house someone will rape you and kill you and force your children to take nudy pictures while the terrorists blow the nation apart agenda) appear like it's deserving of legislation. These are politics of fear straight and simple.
When you are able to physically distance yourself from the physical aspect of things (you know actually talking to someone), many people seem to be able to overcome their inhibitions.
This is definitely true, and is probably the reason I spent most of my socializing time on the computer earlier on in life. There's no present danger on the computer, you can say what you like and inhibitions go by the way side. However, in a way you are seriously just avoiding your fears of rejection or fears of whatever else that might be holding you back instead of exploring your personality with others in a concrete sense. You might be able to blab to someone all day online, but if you have no personality in real life due to these social inhibitions being present as you say "actually talking to someone" then you learn nothing and you improve nothing. Hell, even if you meet someone online you are liable to be socially awkward when you meet them in real life then, even if you have established common ground.
People underestimate how much "being an introvert" in most cases really has to do with a decrease in quality of life, and meeting people or having an "online life" is never really avoiding these factors. It might make okay training wheels, but in the end you have to be able to balance yourself in real life.
It's a lonely world out there unless you get over your inhibitions (at least for a man), so avoiding this transformation is simply wasting your time.
Why do people still use IE? It's been shown time and time and time and time and time again that it's just not a suitable browser to expose to the dangers of the Internet. And it's not like people don't have alternatives; they do! Opera is free and available on most platforms. Firefox is free and available on most platforms. Seamonkey is free and available on most platforms.
People use IE due to a variety of factors, I know because I help these people:
It's the only thing installed. Many people, believe it or not, don't even know how to install 3rd party applications, unless it's a set of screensavers that will give them a handful of trojans.
They don't know it even exists. Many people assume that not only is IE the only browser, or just about the only browser, but they possibly think that you have to use it, or in the real edge cases, that IE is the Internet in some way.
They don't recognize IE as the problem. Many people think that they need better virus scanners, better spyware protection, etc. and they blame the spyware, viruses, and trojans they encounter on not having these 3rd party pieces of software.
My honest suggestion on this, is to get the word out. Everytime you encounter a computer loaded with crapware take the time to introduce them to firefox, show them how it's pretty much just like IE, tell them how it's not as easily exploitable. Download it and install it for them, ask them if they want it as their default browser. Most people couldn't care less. Explain to them how IE is loaded with bugs and that it's not typically (except in super lame users that like to download weirdo screensavers) their behavior but the browser they are using. I personally used to have a boatload of issues with spyware due to the sites I was visiting with IE a few years back. I got firefox and magically the problems disappeared. I tell this story anytime anyone asks what is causing the spyware and using IE as their browser at the same time.
For the people that don't read slashdot or aren't technologically aware, you must realize that their sources of information are TV, newspapers, magazines and word of mouth. They aren't tied into the Internet the way you are, and they are only going off of what they had heard from these sources. In most cases, these sources are very unreliable on the things they tell consumers or they print for people to read in the paper. People believe that spyware, malware, and viruses are inherent computer problems that will always arise regardless of software or system, and the only way they can prevent them is by buying off the shelf products at their local bestbuy.
While you are at it, if they ask for another install of that Microsoft Office, or pirated Office or whatever they want, suggest OpenOffice and other alternatives. You are their source of info, so be a good one and explain all these things without condescending.
Although it's not the smartest tactical move, it does make some sense that Zune won't play PlaysForSure content, as it guarantees some additional revenue (beyond the PlaysForSure licensing fees MS charges those other vendors) as customers are forced to use the MS music store.
Which is actually funny when you think about it, because in this case, although both companies involved DRM, Microsoft tried to actually play fair with competition on this one. Apple has had this store lockdown for ages. Sure you can play MP3 files, but there's only one place to buy that (eMusic) and most people don't know about it, transferring regular MP3 files off and on an iPod takes a bit of technical wizardry (I don't even own an iPod but I had to help the neighbors). Meanwhile PlaysForSure devices, DRM and all, seemed to at least provide a platform for competition between online stores. Turns out that since Apple got away with these pseudo-monopolistic procedures, Microsoft figures it must be okay and is now going to give it a shot itself. Me, I'd prefer to buy 3rd party, drag and drop your files and you are done. There's no question about my downloaded MP3 files working on a player that shows up like a hard drive. Perhaps the public hasn't figured this out yet though, they think it's more complicated than it really is.
I deem media as unnecessary nowadays anyway. With the right cabling you can hook up your computer directly to your TV and skip the middle man and you'll never need media for anything you downloaded ever again. The great part about it is that not only is it better, and in some cases you can already download HD files, but it's also cheaper, easier, and they won't be able to track you with their 1984 big brother devices.
So yes I'd say this puts another mark in the reasons to pirate column.
Everything in socialism is a "safety net"; Social Security, universal health care, public education... these are all things that end up holding back high acheivers to raise up the level of under achievers.
There's truly not a lot holding up "under achievers" in this country, and the amount that these functions hold back "high achievers" is definitely negligible when you account for the overall quality of life for those who work jobs you wouldn't touch for less pay than you'd ever take. Most "high achievers" and this is our version of capitalism's chief fallacy aren't "high achievers" by being self-starting people and working their way up from nothing. Most of the people that own all the land and control everything had it handed down from their parents, get breaks from the tax system and buy their way into the highest quality education and jobs afterward. George W. Bush is a typical example of what a "high achiever" in our version of capitalism really is. You can rattle on about lassez faire capitalism and its great aspects, but we don't live in that kind of system. Same as with idealistic communism, idealistic capitalism doesn't work in the real world and needs bounds because there's no accounting for certain factors.
You say that public transportation is better run by private organizations. In the suburbs, this is definitely how it is done. But you know what it leads to? $30 one way on a bus driving to a location an hour away, and very few bus terminals so that even getting to the bus stop requires transportation. I'd love to rely on public transportation and quit driving (I think it would save money too), but it's not even an option in my area of the country and the same goes for a lot of other people. And our buses are private run.
Some socialist things really aren't that bad. Public transportation is a safety net. In the less well built places in the nation, if you don't have a car or a friend willing to drive you around, you don't have a job. Part of the reason people get so tense when they lose a job in this country is everything is usually tied to it: health care, transportation, etc. and it can often be difficult to find a new one.
Not to mention it'll cut down on drinking and driving, because there is an alternative.
With wireless devices becoming more popular everyday, it's only a matter of time before there's an MP3 player with wireless adhoc network capability to transfer files. As it stands, I can already with my wired connection and my archos player transfer files via wire to other players without lame DRM or other interference. Which is really neat when you want to share something with someone who has a MP3 player that is classified under USB mass-storage. It's only a matter of time before free wireless sharing between 3rd party players emerges. I was almost 100% certain MS would screw this up somehow, and it looks like they did quite a job of it. The possibilities are cool, but with the DRM, very limited. And you can bet I'd be looking elsewhere for my next player.
I suppose it's to be expected, these are the same people that went out of their way to store Media Center files in a proprietary format making it almost impossible to watch on Linux or just about any other computer. What a shame.
That's your opinion, and it could be right in their eyes. But the fact remains that no technical support question is going to be as complicated as the 9 marble problem or playing a shitload of rounds of mastermind. I do tech support at this and a number of other jobs and I have no problems putting up with that. So if their intention is to create a falsely tense environment that is in ways more stressing than the job and then grilling you like George Foreman afterward then they have succeeded admirably. If their intention was to find qualified candidates, then I'd say they need to re-think their strategy.
It seems to me that the corporate world has completely disappeared up its own ass when it comes to hiring processes. In my last phone interview I was asked to solve a puzzle involving 8 1oz marbles, 1 1.5oz marble and a two pan scale and two weighs to find the 1.5 oz marble. I eventually arrived at the correct answer, then in the beginning of the job interview, almost before hi how are you, they have me play 3 or 4 rounds of mastermind. Then begin with grilling questions. All of this for some $30,000 help desk jockey job that includes a 2-9 week training period with a test with 80% or more required or they let you go anyway.
By the time we got down to the interview I was so thrown off by the BS that I became completely uncomfortable. Next time I get a logic question on a phone interview I'm hanging up the phone. I'd rather shovel shit for a living than go through these pansy interview processes involving roleplaying, logic puzzles for menial jobs which you are trained for anyway. My opinion is that they've given to many HR people too much time to dream up new ways to mess with peoples' heads.
Mastermind and marble weighing problems have so very little to do with tech support, let's be honest. And I'm not just saying that because I didn't get the job or pass those tests. I ended up failing on the actual interview questions because of being so flustered by these other ridiculous hoops I had to leap through.
It's left me disallusioned with working in the industry entirely and I'm now considering going back to school for something else.
Nah I got a tape deck/FM/CD changer combo in my car and I was glad to see the tape deck, because it's much easier than either running an aux using whatever method the stereo makers use, or putting in a new head unit and then auxing off of that. Tis not really that bad of a thing. The latest thing in head units is to put ports directly on the units, so conceivably any MP3 player that could be charged via USB will get all the features you just mentioned.
Ipod docks for cars are mainly an FM transmitter with some type of "iPod" port attached. Most of the accessories for the Ipod are mostly ripoffs targeted at people who have Ipods because they are popular. It's very simple to integrate any digital player in your car, plug it in with a casette adaptor, the dock units they sell still aren't better quality than that anyway.
$600 also buys you wi-fi, a 60 Gb harddrive, 512Mb, a multi-core processor all of which combine to give you a games console, multimedia and internet system that sits under your TV.
Yep! And enough DRM to not use any of it properly!
I think one of the main problems she's having is the reason genders have differences. You add the sexual harassment factor into the equation and it's all over. Girls expect people to welcome them and embrace them and make them feel at home not knowing how guys function. Guys don't make you feel at home, you have to make yourself feel at home by being social. You have to spark the social life, it doesn't come to your door like it does in female circles. If you don't talk to anyone they won't talk to you except for his and goodbyes. Personally, I don't care cuz I'm usually trying to get with the females at my jobs and so I'm probably a future sexual harassment suit, but I feel as though if you meet someone at your job and you are both okay with it it never becomes inappropriate unless you make it that way.
Slashdot Mirror
No, they're not cloning sheep. It's the same sheep! I saw Harry Blackstone do that trick with two goats and a handkerchief on the old Dean Martin show!
Nope, the X2s are very affordable in the 939 socket. I'm running a X2 4200 on my main desktop right now, and it's very nice. Honestly, unless you have a specific price restriction, I cannot imagine why you'd buy an outdated socket when similar core duos are very close in price to the X2s. I bought my X2 when Intel's lines sucked. There's no point in brand loyalty. It's about what you get for the money. Use the company, don't let the company use you.
Maybe most people. For me, actually, the prime reason for MP3s is the fact that you can have a virtual collection which is more easily managed and without taking up actual physical space.
I believe the same thing goes with movies. They should honestly make a media-less way to store things that you buy and still use them in conventional ways, as this is the way of the future IMO.
Given that you aren't purchasing anything physical, there also has to be a break on price, a buck a song just isn't going to cut it in the longterm. Not when essentially I'm paying the tax to store your product in the way of hard drive space. The product itself isn't worth a dollar a song over manufacturing costs. Which was supposed to be the original reason CDs had to cost 20 bucks each...in case they forgot.
I get just as much joy from my albums directory, and it's a lot bigger than most peoples' CD collections.
Tilt sensing actually does suck. It makes the games harder to play than just using the analog stick and if it's not the focus of the game all of the time, you can easily be tilting the controller without knowing it. Microsoft tried this bit years ago with one of their controllers, and I bought it and I've never had a less pleasurable gaming experience than falling off the motorcycle because I tilted the controller wrong while trying to grab a drink. Dumb idea. That being said, I don't know if Nintendo's controller is strictly a tilt sensing thing. Besides, the control is a lot more like you would have for an arcade game in that there's a certain understanding that you will be using the way your hand is positioned to determine a great deal of the action because the controller is unique. With a regular controller and tilt sensoring, you are more prone to tilt it because you forget that you are supposed to be watching yourself. It's when they make the tilt sensoring a side attraction or an "added feature" on a game that it sucks. Using alternative control mechanisms doesn't necessarily suck. Although I will reserve my final opinion until I see both implementations, I believe Nintendo's idea looks more believable as a way to attract customers. (Not that that means anything, Wii could easily come in last place).
Umm, soon, that's what the whole solid state HDD movement is about...
It's probably a default setting, just use the admin password and turn it off. And while you are at it, might as well grab some compensation for years of having to put up with the jingle.
So you banged her too, huh? My advice is to not let her know where you live.
Everyone always tosses around the word "progress", my contention is that how do you know if you are progressing if you don't have a goal. What is it exactly that we are progressing toward and are closer to now than 100 years ago? Immortality? What? Sure, things are easier and more convenient but we more or less work the same amount and get less sleep, are more busy, more stressed and have fewer meaningful relationships with one another. With all of this taken into account, how exactly have we progressed?
If our goal is to churn out immeasurable amounts of crap and ruin the Earth in the process, then yes we have definitely progressed bucketloads toward achieving that.
I understand the remark was in jest, but honestly that wasn't what he was saying. He was saying like what you like without shame. It's a small subset of the larger "be yourself" point. Many people preach this shit without really believing it or doing it. If I liked the backstreet boys I'd ruin everyone else's ears with them by playing them loudly in my car as I drove past. You can't be ashamed of yourself, it's a ridiculous high school "cool police" mentality that you are supposed to grow out of once you grow ball hair. But I guess some people never get there.
Are you still in high school? I hope so, because having hidden tastes that you are ashamed of is pathetic. Who cares what the hell you like to listen to. They don't have to listen to it so screw them and anyone else that wants to judge you for such petty matters.
If you are a metallica fan and like new kids on the block and are openly admitting it, that's an odd choice I must say, but more than likely if your friends are your friends they might make jab smart ass remarks from time to time, but they aren't going to banish you from their ranks. And if they would, they can screw off anyway.
What I hate about this argument is the fact is that nearly everyone has something to hide. If you were to seriously apply all the laws all the time and have a 100% catch and enforcement rate, none of us would have driver's licenses, most people would be in jail or paying the RIAA for copyright violations. The whole point of their biblical story is that man isn't perfect, if they truly believe that, they should probably lose the "you have nothing to hide anyway? right? *nudge* *nudge*" line of logic.
If you do everything by the book, never look at porn or lie or do anything even remotely dishonest, have non-embarassing interests and perfect relationships then sure you have nothing to hide. But even these politicians (or anyone else for that matter) wouldn't live up to those standards.
It is not as if child pornography is such a huge problem anyway. I'm sure it is, and what can be done to prevent it within limits of our own freedoms should be done to make it go away, but to do blanket spying in order to find child pornographers is to make the method of enforcing the law worse than the original problem was in scope to begin with.
This is what they always do though, drum up a bullshit issue. Plus it makes their side agenda (the fearmongering don't leave the house someone will rape you and kill you and force your children to take nudy pictures while the terrorists blow the nation apart agenda) appear like it's deserving of legislation. These are politics of fear straight and simple.
This is definitely true, and is probably the reason I spent most of my socializing time on the computer earlier on in life. There's no present danger on the computer, you can say what you like and inhibitions go by the way side. However, in a way you are seriously just avoiding your fears of rejection or fears of whatever else that might be holding you back instead of exploring your personality with others in a concrete sense. You might be able to blab to someone all day online, but if you have no personality in real life due to these social inhibitions being present as you say "actually talking to someone" then you learn nothing and you improve nothing. Hell, even if you meet someone online you are liable to be socially awkward when you meet them in real life then, even if you have established common ground.
People underestimate how much "being an introvert" in most cases really has to do with a decrease in quality of life, and meeting people or having an "online life" is never really avoiding these factors. It might make okay training wheels, but in the end you have to be able to balance yourself in real life.
It's a lonely world out there unless you get over your inhibitions (at least for a man), so avoiding this transformation is simply wasting your time.
People use IE due to a variety of factors, I know because I help these people:
My honest suggestion on this, is to get the word out. Everytime you encounter a computer loaded with crapware take the time to introduce them to firefox, show them how it's pretty much just like IE, tell them how it's not as easily exploitable. Download it and install it for them, ask them if they want it as their default browser. Most people couldn't care less. Explain to them how IE is loaded with bugs and that it's not typically (except in super lame users that like to download weirdo screensavers) their behavior but the browser they are using. I personally used to have a boatload of issues with spyware due to the sites I was visiting with IE a few years back. I got firefox and magically the problems disappeared. I tell this story anytime anyone asks what is causing the spyware and using IE as their browser at the same time.
For the people that don't read slashdot or aren't technologically aware, you must realize that their sources of information are TV, newspapers, magazines and word of mouth. They aren't tied into the Internet the way you are, and they are only going off of what they had heard from these sources. In most cases, these sources are very unreliable on the things they tell consumers or they print for people to read in the paper. People believe that spyware, malware, and viruses are inherent computer problems that will always arise regardless of software or system, and the only way they can prevent them is by buying off the shelf products at their local bestbuy.
While you are at it, if they ask for another install of that Microsoft Office, or pirated Office or whatever they want, suggest OpenOffice and other alternatives. You are their source of info, so be a good one and explain all these things without condescending.
Which is actually funny when you think about it, because in this case, although both companies involved DRM, Microsoft tried to actually play fair with competition on this one. Apple has had this store lockdown for ages. Sure you can play MP3 files, but there's only one place to buy that (eMusic) and most people don't know about it, transferring regular MP3 files off and on an iPod takes a bit of technical wizardry (I don't even own an iPod but I had to help the neighbors). Meanwhile PlaysForSure devices, DRM and all, seemed to at least provide a platform for competition between online stores. Turns out that since Apple got away with these pseudo-monopolistic procedures, Microsoft figures it must be okay and is now going to give it a shot itself. Me, I'd prefer to buy 3rd party, drag and drop your files and you are done. There's no question about my downloaded MP3 files working on a player that shows up like a hard drive. Perhaps the public hasn't figured this out yet though, they think it's more complicated than it really is.
I deem media as unnecessary nowadays anyway. With the right cabling you can hook up your computer directly to your TV and skip the middle man and you'll never need media for anything you downloaded ever again. The great part about it is that not only is it better, and in some cases you can already download HD files, but it's also cheaper, easier, and they won't be able to track you with their 1984 big brother devices.
So yes I'd say this puts another mark in the reasons to pirate column.
There's truly not a lot holding up "under achievers" in this country, and the amount that these functions hold back "high achievers" is definitely negligible when you account for the overall quality of life for those who work jobs you wouldn't touch for less pay than you'd ever take. Most "high achievers" and this is our version of capitalism's chief fallacy aren't "high achievers" by being self-starting people and working their way up from nothing. Most of the people that own all the land and control everything had it handed down from their parents, get breaks from the tax system and buy their way into the highest quality education and jobs afterward. George W. Bush is a typical example of what a "high achiever" in our version of capitalism really is. You can rattle on about lassez faire capitalism and its great aspects, but we don't live in that kind of system. Same as with idealistic communism, idealistic capitalism doesn't work in the real world and needs bounds because there's no accounting for certain factors.
You say that public transportation is better run by private organizations. In the suburbs, this is definitely how it is done. But you know what it leads to? $30 one way on a bus driving to a location an hour away, and very few bus terminals so that even getting to the bus stop requires transportation. I'd love to rely on public transportation and quit driving (I think it would save money too), but it's not even an option in my area of the country and the same goes for a lot of other people. And our buses are private run.
Some socialist things really aren't that bad. Public transportation is a safety net. In the less well built places in the nation, if you don't have a car or a friend willing to drive you around, you don't have a job. Part of the reason people get so tense when they lose a job in this country is everything is usually tied to it: health care, transportation, etc. and it can often be difficult to find a new one.
Not to mention it'll cut down on drinking and driving, because there is an alternative.
With wireless devices becoming more popular everyday, it's only a matter of time before there's an MP3 player with wireless adhoc network capability to transfer files. As it stands, I can already with my wired connection and my archos player transfer files via wire to other players without lame DRM or other interference. Which is really neat when you want to share something with someone who has a MP3 player that is classified under USB mass-storage. It's only a matter of time before free wireless sharing between 3rd party players emerges. I was almost 100% certain MS would screw this up somehow, and it looks like they did quite a job of it. The possibilities are cool, but with the DRM, very limited. And you can bet I'd be looking elsewhere for my next player.
I suppose it's to be expected, these are the same people that went out of their way to store Media Center files in a proprietary format making it almost impossible to watch on Linux or just about any other computer. What a shame.
That's your opinion, and it could be right in their eyes. But the fact remains that no technical support question is going to be as complicated as the 9 marble problem or playing a shitload of rounds of mastermind. I do tech support at this and a number of other jobs and I have no problems putting up with that. So if their intention is to create a falsely tense environment that is in ways more stressing than the job and then grilling you like George Foreman afterward then they have succeeded admirably. If their intention was to find qualified candidates, then I'd say they need to re-think their strategy.
It seems to me that the corporate world has completely disappeared up its own ass when it comes to hiring processes. In my last phone interview I was asked to solve a puzzle involving 8 1oz marbles, 1 1.5oz marble and a two pan scale and two weighs to find the 1.5 oz marble. I eventually arrived at the correct answer, then in the beginning of the job interview, almost before hi how are you, they have me play 3 or 4 rounds of mastermind. Then begin with grilling questions. All of this for some $30,000 help desk jockey job that includes a 2-9 week training period with a test with 80% or more required or they let you go anyway.
By the time we got down to the interview I was so thrown off by the BS that I became completely uncomfortable. Next time I get a logic question on a phone interview I'm hanging up the phone. I'd rather shovel shit for a living than go through these pansy interview processes involving roleplaying, logic puzzles for menial jobs which you are trained for anyway. My opinion is that they've given to many HR people too much time to dream up new ways to mess with peoples' heads.
Mastermind and marble weighing problems have so very little to do with tech support, let's be honest. And I'm not just saying that because I didn't get the job or pass those tests. I ended up failing on the actual interview questions because of being so flustered by these other ridiculous hoops I had to leap through.
It's left me disallusioned with working in the industry entirely and I'm now considering going back to school for something else.
Nah I got a tape deck/FM/CD changer combo in my car and I was glad to see the tape deck, because it's much easier than either running an aux using whatever method the stereo makers use, or putting in a new head unit and then auxing off of that. Tis not really that bad of a thing. The latest thing in head units is to put ports directly on the units, so conceivably any MP3 player that could be charged via USB will get all the features you just mentioned.
You care about integrity? No wonder you don't work for MS.
Ipod docks for cars are mainly an FM transmitter with some type of "iPod" port attached. Most of the accessories for the Ipod are mostly ripoffs targeted at people who have Ipods because they are popular. It's very simple to integrate any digital player in your car, plug it in with a casette adaptor, the dock units they sell still aren't better quality than that anyway.
Yep! And enough DRM to not use any of it properly!
I think one of the main problems she's having is the reason genders have differences. You add the sexual harassment factor into the equation and it's all over. Girls expect people to welcome them and embrace them and make them feel at home not knowing how guys function. Guys don't make you feel at home, you have to make yourself feel at home by being social. You have to spark the social life, it doesn't come to your door like it does in female circles. If you don't talk to anyone they won't talk to you except for his and goodbyes. Personally, I don't care cuz I'm usually trying to get with the females at my jobs and so I'm probably a future sexual harassment suit, but I feel as though if you meet someone at your job and you are both okay with it it never becomes inappropriate unless you make it that way.