Yes, Photoshop has features that are considered as standard in graphic design and so what? Vendors make digital point-and-shoot cameras with instant print button, do you think 99.99% of people give crap about editing their photos taken with $150 cameras?
For those who actually do - a fraction of the 0.01% - most of them are not professionals and the Gimp is more than enough for their image editing needs - level and gamma adjustment, a little sharpen, etc. The UI of the Gimp is ok - I have been using Gimp at home for the last five years and now it's the Photoshop / Illustrator interface that freaks me out. It's a question of getting used to.
>It's much more discreet for the sender (can send text from meeting/class/dinner)
Still very impolite.
Also, the number of 50 sms/ day indicates that these all together make up short conversations that could have been done in a single, 2 minutes call, instead of texting half an hour a day, interrupting other activities like driving? paying attention in class ? having dinner with family?
>> A lot of doctors are quitting the profession specifically because they are *losing* money due to underpaying insurance
You are confusing things there - the doctor has nothing to do with how much I pay for bloodwork, it's between me and the company doing the analysis.
Second thing is, I had the chance to compare prices between continents. The $50 bloodwork billed $500 can be done with profit for...$20. And I am not speaking about third world countries ( Hungary ).
>>>I don't know where you live but where I'm at there are ~10 different hospitals choose from. 30 if I expand my search to the next closest cities. There's as much competition in health as there is for grocery stores. I think the system works just fine.
That is why the US spends almost 2x as much per capita on health care than any other country and has a terrible life expectancy.
Also, choice does not mean that there is competition. Just look at broadband internet;)
>>>So stop buying insurance and just pay cash
I cannot because once I'd become uninsured, I'd be overbilled into oblivion for the simplest thing. This is the problem I have been speaking about, hope you'll get it this time.
Even if you were right ( you are not ), think this over :
My doctor asks for a complete blood test, billed $500 to me. My health insurance then takes over and responds to Labcorp: "we agreed that we'll pay you $50 for this test ". Labcorp agrees and finally accepts $50 for the same service. I guess they still make profit so this means that they mark their prices up by >1000% to someone who walks in w/o insurance.
Could you try to charge services / sell products with 1000% profit on a market where there is real competition? I don't think so.
Is there a complicity between health care providers and the insurance sector ? Probably yes, I'd even call it a sort of mafia - if you don't pay the "protection money" for the insurance company, their friends the service providers will overcharge you 10x for everything.
Unless this changes, you don't have much bragging rights about health care in the US.
Where is that?
The cheapest DSL offer they have on their site at this moment is $19.99 if you are already a Verizon customer.
If not? Starts at $29.99 with 1 year contract.
Had triple the bandwidth + unlimited phone calls nationwide for for the same price in 2005 in France.
Internet and phone is freaking expensive in the US, prices are definitely hiked up thanks to providers agreeing on the price.
The Tour de France is widely considered as being stricken by generalized doping(it is true) and we had Angel Heredia tell the fine details of how Marion Jones did it.""
It is know that you have some very nice stuff that is impossible to detect from urine/blood, like IGF. Injected under the skin where needed, it is practically a growth hormone. Side effects: those similar to acromeglay ("Pronounced brow protrusion, often with ocular distension; Pronounced lower jaw protrusion with attendant macroglossia and teeth gapping" from Wikipedia).
Saying that the US Swim team manages producing the spectacular results because they have optimized their movements and have fancy "shark suits" sounds like trying to make us look at a tree in order to conceal a forest.
160$B market cap - 40$B in cash = 120$B, / $3B annually in profit = if you bought Apple now for it's market cap, your could start seeing profit after 40 years.
Since it is highly unlikely that Apple will continue to make $3B or more in profits annually, for _40y_, I guess their market cap is overestimated. Just as it is the case for many other companies listed on the stock exchange. I find this quite surrealistic but I guess it's just the economy ( me stupid ).
Not a secret - capsaicin opens the Vanilloid Receptor 1, also known as TRPV1, when binding. So it does "open up" the cell membrane but these openings are quite specific and small, the open VR1 will mostly let through hydrated Ca2+ ions.
And not all cells express the VR1 - it is mostly nerve cells responsible for transmitting signals for inflammatory and neuropathic pain and epithelial cells like the skin lining our mouths.
Unlucky for those who like to feel their mouth burn when eating a good chili con carne(like me), the receptor is also expressed in the cells of the anal region - hence the burning feeling in the butt, when going to crap 1-2 days after eating the hot dish...:)
Wiki link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRPV1
The gene is called TRPV1 or simply vanilloid receptor, discovered around 1997.
It is activated by noxious heat - >42C - or by the molecule capsaicin commonly found in hot chili peppers and alike. And yes, if you knock-out this gene the resulting animals show decreased sensitivity to heat
a very nice example experiment was done with fruit-fly larvae: they normally wriggle away when touched by a hot metallic rod but only stop moving when the rod is at ambient temperature. larvae deprived of the "hot" receptor did not show a difference in their reaction when touched by a 42C or RT rod.
An interesting point not to miss: we both have proteins that act as molecular thermometers but can also be tricked using small molecules - like capsaicin for the heat receptor and menthol for the cold
I stand by what I wrote before.
The Gimp is not Photoshop. If you don't like it because you don't find the same exact funcionality, that's too bad for you.
OSS works - I use it exclusively at home (desktop PC), at work (desktop PC) and on my laptop. Not a minute of windows since 1.5 years and I don't miss a thing.
And all this without having any informatics related education, i'm a biologist so I can't even fix software problems - why don't you, instead of thrashing something that works for millions?
#1 Imagine relearning all they know about their desktop in a Linux environment.
A little learning never hurt anybody - especially if it would only be learning which icon will start the Browser or Mail client?
#2 The Linux alternatives for a designer are mostly jokes (like Gimp, where you can't even draw a rounded rectangle without installing specially crafted Script-Fu commands).
Apparently you never took time to find the right tool for the job. Have you ever heard of Inkscape? You can draw all the rounded rectangles you want...
Linux is easy to use once correctly installed by someone. The only thing preventing it's more widespread adoption and eating away M$ marketshare is the resistance of ordinary users to encounter and learn anything new.
When I saw dell offering PCs in the 250Euro price range with WinXp home preinstalled, I knew something ain't right - the same machine with Ubuntu should cost 150Euro?!
In my opinion, big vendors pay maximum 10-15$ to Microsoft per each WinXp they sell preinstalled - that's why we don't see any real price difference between PCs sold with WinXP / Linux / sans OS. The OS sold is profit for MS only - they earn what they earn by selling PCs.
To further support my case: how many people have you seen in the last 3 years buying a boxed WinXP from the shelf? It's out - barely anyone does it anymore. MS sells it for peanuts, but in large volumes for the little fish, makes big money on the big fish (corporate clients)
IMO, if people were really made to pay the full price for using WinXP at home when buying a home PC, we would see many more people giving Linux an honest try.
It's true that I did not explain myself 100% clearly:
The "let them choose" meant that kids might develop prefences toward using a certain distro if more than one present in the same classroom?
And if ever such a thing would become apparent, it is logical to equip more PCs with the given distro.
I really don't think that would be of such a big problem - as soon as you get the hang of using any of the most popular distros, you're set to use most of the others (again, speaking about the popular ones like Fedora, Suse, Mandriva, Ubuntu, etc).
I started with Mandrake 9.2, suffered like hell for a few months, two years later I use Ubuntu at work and Gentoo ~x86 a home.
So as long as they see something else than Windows, it will be a largely beneficial experience, making them learn more!
Idealism apart, one should still assure that the workstations deployed fulfill a few criteria:
1. have functional local networking capacity
Samba works like charm
2. network printing
CUPS
3. don't be distro package format limited when installing software
what I mean: I often had problems with Mandrake 9.2 in such regard that the compile toolchain was broken - the distro of choice sould give you the capacity to compile anything from source. In such case, the sysadmin is not tearing his hair out when tryong o install something that is not in the correct.rpm/.deb/whatever format.
And why standardize the Linux distro to be deployed? Let the kids choose which distro suits them best.After all, all these distros aim at the same thing : be a capable and functional desktop OS
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Yes, Photoshop has features that are considered as standard in graphic design and so what? Vendors make digital point-and-shoot cameras with instant print button, do you think 99.99% of people give crap about editing their photos taken with $150 cameras?
For those who actually do - a fraction of the 0.01% - most of them are not professionals and the Gimp is more than enough for their image editing needs - level and gamma adjustment, a little sharpen, etc. The UI of the Gimp is ok - I have been using Gimp at home for the last five years and now it's the Photoshop / Illustrator interface that freaks me out. It's a question of getting used to.
>It's much more discreet for the sender (can send text from meeting/class/dinner)
Still very impolite.
Also, the number of 50 sms/ day indicates that these all together make up short conversations that could have been done in a single, 2 minutes call, instead of texting half an hour a day, interrupting other activities like driving? paying attention in class ? having dinner with family?
>> A lot of doctors are quitting the profession specifically because they are *losing* money due to underpaying insurance
You are confusing things there - the doctor has nothing to do with how much I pay for bloodwork, it's between me and the company doing the analysis. ...$20. And I am not speaking about third world countries ( Hungary ).
Second thing is, I had the chance to compare prices between continents. The $50 bloodwork billed $500 can be done with profit for
>>>I don't know where you live but where I'm at there are ~10 different hospitals choose from. 30 if I expand my search to the next closest cities. There's as much competition in health as there is for grocery stores. I think the system works just fine.
That is why the US spends almost 2x as much per capita on health care than any other country and has a terrible life expectancy. ;)
Also, choice does not mean that there is competition. Just look at broadband internet
>>>So stop buying insurance and just pay cash
I cannot because once I'd become uninsured, I'd be overbilled into oblivion for the simplest thing. This is the problem I have been speaking about, hope you'll get it this time.
"Monopoly healthcare. No choice healthcare."
Even if you were right ( you are not ), think this over :
My doctor asks for a complete blood test, billed $500 to me. My health insurance then takes over and responds to Labcorp: "we agreed that we'll pay you $50 for this test ". Labcorp agrees and finally accepts $50 for the same service. I guess they still make profit so this means that they mark their prices up by >1000% to someone who walks in w/o insurance.
Could you try to charge services / sell products with 1000% profit on a market where there is real competition? I don't think so.
Is there a complicity between health care providers and the insurance sector ? Probably yes, I'd even call it a sort of mafia - if you don't pay the "protection money" for the insurance company, their friends the service providers will overcharge you 10x for everything.
Unless this changes, you don't have much bragging rights about health care in the US.
Where is that? The cheapest DSL offer they have on their site at this moment is $19.99 if you are already a Verizon customer. If not? Starts at $29.99 with 1 year contract. Had triple the bandwidth + unlimited phone calls nationwide for for the same price in 2005 in France. Internet and phone is freaking expensive in the US, prices are definitely hiked up thanks to providers agreeing on the price.
image from the website of the Tsien Lab
The Tour de France is widely considered as being stricken by generalized doping(it is true) and we had Angel Heredia tell the fine details of how Marion Jones did it."" It is know that you have some very nice stuff that is impossible to detect from urine/blood, like IGF. Injected under the skin where needed, it is practically a growth hormone. Side effects: those similar to acromeglay ("Pronounced brow protrusion, often with ocular distension; Pronounced lower jaw protrusion with attendant macroglossia and teeth gapping" from Wikipedia). Saying that the US Swim team manages producing the spectacular results because they have optimized their movements and have fancy "shark suits" sounds like trying to make us look at a tree in order to conceal a forest.
160$B market cap - 40$B in cash = 120$B, / $3B annually in profit = if you bought Apple now for it's market cap, your could start seeing profit after 40 years. Since it is highly unlikely that Apple will continue to make $3B or more in profits annually, for _40y_, I guess their market cap is overestimated. Just as it is the case for many other companies listed on the stock exchange. I find this quite surrealistic but I guess it's just the economy ( me stupid ).
Not a secret - capsaicin opens the Vanilloid Receptor 1, also known as TRPV1, when binding. So it does "open up" the cell membrane but these openings are quite specific and small, the open VR1 will mostly let through hydrated Ca2+ ions.
And not all cells express the VR1 - it is mostly nerve cells responsible for transmitting signals for inflammatory and neuropathic pain and epithelial cells like the skin lining our mouths.
Unlucky for those who like to feel their mouth burn when eating a good chili con carne(like me), the receptor is also expressed in the cells of the anal region - hence the burning feeling in the butt, when going to crap 1-2 days after eating the hot dish...:)
Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRPV1
The gene is called TRPV1 or simply vanilloid receptor, discovered around 1997.
It is activated by noxious heat - >42C - or by the molecule capsaicin commonly found in hot chili peppers and alike. And yes, if you knock-out this gene the resulting animals show decreased sensitivity to heat
a very nice example experiment was done with fruit-fly larvae: they normally wriggle away when touched by a hot metallic rod but only stop moving when the rod is at ambient temperature. larvae deprived of the "hot" receptor did not show a difference in their reaction when touched by a 42C or RT rod.
a few links to those really interested:
An interesting point not to miss: we both have proteins that act as molecular thermometers but can also be tricked using small molecules - like capsaicin for the heat receptor and menthol for the cold
Regards,
K
I stand by what I wrote before.
The Gimp is not Photoshop. If you don't like it because you don't find the same exact funcionality, that's too bad for you.
OSS works - I use it exclusively at home (desktop PC), at work (desktop PC) and on my laptop. Not a minute of windows since 1.5 years and I don't miss a thing.
And all this without having any informatics related education, i'm a biologist so I can't even fix software problems - why don't you, instead of thrashing something that works for millions?
Regards,
I just want to react to two of your sentences:
#1 Imagine relearning all they know about their desktop in a Linux environment.
A little learning never hurt anybody - especially if it would only be learning which icon will start the Browser or Mail client?
#2 The Linux alternatives for a designer are mostly jokes (like Gimp, where you can't even draw a rounded rectangle without installing specially crafted Script-Fu commands).
Apparently you never took time to find the right tool for the job. Have you ever heard of Inkscape? You can draw all the rounded rectangles you want...
Linux is easy to use once correctly installed by someone. The only thing preventing it's more widespread adoption and eating away M$ marketshare is the resistance of ordinary users to encounter and learn anything new.
Regards,
When I saw dell offering PCs in the 250Euro price range with WinXp home preinstalled, I knew something ain't right - the same machine with Ubuntu should cost 150Euro?!
In my opinion, big vendors pay maximum 10-15$ to Microsoft per each WinXp they sell preinstalled - that's why we don't see any real price difference between PCs sold with WinXP / Linux / sans OS. The OS sold is profit for MS only - they earn what they earn by selling PCs.
To further support my case: how many people have you seen in the last 3 years buying a boxed WinXP from the shelf? It's out - barely anyone does it anymore. MS sells it for peanuts, but in large volumes for the little fish, makes big money on the big fish (corporate clients)
IMO, if people were really made to pay the full price for using WinXP at home when buying a home PC, we would see many more people giving Linux an honest try.
Regards,
Sorry,
It's true that I did not explain myself 100% clearly:
The "let them choose" meant that kids might develop prefences toward using a certain distro if more than one present in the same classroom?
And if ever such a thing would become apparent, it is logical to equip more PCs with the given distro.
I really don't think that would be of such a big problem - as soon as you get the hang of using any of the most popular distros, you're set to use most of the others (again, speaking about the popular ones like Fedora, Suse, Mandriva, Ubuntu, etc).
.rpm/.deb/whatever format.
I started with Mandrake 9.2, suffered like hell for a few months, two years later I use Ubuntu at work and Gentoo ~x86 a home.
So as long as they see something else than Windows, it will be a largely beneficial experience, making them learn more!
Idealism apart, one should still assure that the workstations deployed fulfill a few criteria:
1. have functional local networking capacity
Samba works like charm
2. network printing
CUPS
3. don't be distro package format limited when installing software
what I mean: I often had problems with Mandrake 9.2 in such regard that the compile toolchain was broken - the distro of choice sould give you the capacity to compile anything from source. In such case, the sysadmin is not tearing his hair out when tryong o install something that is not in the correct
And why standardize the Linux distro to be deployed? Let the kids choose which distro suits them best.After all, all these distros aim at the same thing : be a capable and functional desktop OS
try if using console...
Alternatively, under X:
mouse right-click --> create file and name it , then try editing/saving.
It worked for me...
Regards,