The logical answer, my friend, is a good old-fashioned station wagon. You get as just as much interior space as a SUV (probably more than the small SUVs, in fact), and almost the same gas milage as a sedan.
OK, I know station wagons aren't exactly considered chic in the US, but there are quite a lot of modern ones being made for the European market that could easily be sold in the US. And the reason SUVs are popular in the first place is because of marketing, I bet you could do the same for station wagons (come up with a new name, bling them up)...
The price difference between ebooks and paper ones is actually quite small in practice. In addition, paper books can often be found discounted, but this is not so usual with electronically distributed material, for some strange reason (no back stock to get rid of?). Ebooks are sold under license, so you cannot usually sell them on legally either, which is a huge reduction in value.
I think this is the main reason why traditional distribution still dominates, as you are offering a sub-standard product at almost the same price as the traditional product. This is starting to change in the music world, with non-DRMed (OK, so it is still a compressed file unlike a CD, but the reduction in value is much less).
Considering the incremental cost for an additional copy of an electronic work is essentially zero, I think electronically distributed works (either software, music or ebooks) are usually way over-priced. This is very unfortunate. If books, newspapers, software, movies, music etc. all moved to electronic form, there would amongst other things be huge environmental benefits. You would also think that there would be clear benefits for the creator, as you would cut out a lot of middle men and distribution (all that is required is a website).
Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of authors/"content creators" are much more scared if they are "losing out" in any way than if they are interested in the possible opportunities. Business-wise, selling 1000 ebooks at $1 a pop and having 10000 people pirate it still means more money in your pocket than if you sell 50 paper books at $10 each and have no piracy.
Besides, putting a book out on paper or DRMed ebook is no guarantee that it won't be pirated, the nature of digital distribution means that it only takes one guy with a scanner or one hacker to enable the rest of the world to copy it freely.
For most authors, I think the major problem is becoming well-known to your potential audience. The example of Cory Docorow is apt for my own sake, I would never have heard of the guy unless he had given away some of his material for free.
You obviously haven't ever programmed for an embedded system. In low-end embedded, you can either view the situation as getting twice the performance at the same price, or you can view it as getting the same performance at half the price (not quite, because things like packaging costs become significant for the low-end stuff).
Result?
State-of-the-art low-cost hardware is an 8-bit AVR or 16-bit MSP430 running at 16 MHz with 8 kB of flash and 1 kB of RAM. Try running Java (or even C++) on that, buddy.
To be honest, I am appalled at how much resources (CPU time, memory) is wasted because of developer laziness. The instance of Internet Explorer I'm using to post this message is using 150 MB (!) of RAM. For displaying a web page, that's amazing in my mind. For shrink-wrap software, there is one developer and maybe millions of users. The users should not be inconvenienced just for conveniencing the developer. For custom software, it is another matter entirely.
I think that multiple ways of accomplishing things is good, but the main problem is when different applications do things in different days - one of the key problems of the old DOS days, when every program had its own ideas of which function keys to assign to which commands. Over time, this was standardized pretty well for example in menus in OS/2 and in Windows (Microsoft likes to mess it up again now and then - witness the new Internet Explorer as an example).
Sure, I agree that language is good for putting in this type of functionality - but you are really talking about programming. For the primary use of the program (graphics editing), I think that GUI/WYSIWIG is the superior method. Most of the time I get into discussions about GUI/CLI, the main group of people that are pro-CLI are programmers. Ask around in the graphical/arts/creative field and you will get very different answers. I think it is dangerous to say that this is because these users are less sophisticated - on the contrary they are very effective on getting their type of work done.
Rather, I would say that different applications work well with different paradigms, and that trying to find a "one-size-fits-all" solution is not fruitful.
For example, in your case, often the artistic/creative person is not interested in putting "a perfect circle" at a specific location. There are some very important differences between CAD and creative drawing. It all depends on what you are trying to achieve.
Personally, I have done dabbled in a lot of different applications, and have different preferences for text or graphical approaches depending on what I want to achieve. I am currently employed in the electronics field, and here the preference for digital chip design is to use language (HDL - Hardware Description Languages) that describes the functionality you want, and is then "compiled" to yield the circuit. In the analog domain, the schematic is still the dominating paradigm, and people prefer to work with graphical objects.
For file management, some tasks are better done using the command line (especially when using wildcards etc.), while other tasks are better accomplished by using graphical tools. I used to use Norton Commander quite a lot back in the DOS days as I found it be more convenient in many cases than using the "naked" command line, and you still had the command line available when you needed it.
It is also important to remember that people's minds work differently, so what is natural for one person may be very unnatural for others. I find that my brain is wired so that I have a much easier time when I can visually see what options I have ("out of sight out of mind") - yours is probably different. Making a blanket statement that "GUI=baby talk" is very simplistic.
As to the matter at hand, I can very well understand that Linux is having trouble being "ready for the desktop" if many of the developers share your opinions on GUI vs. CLI. Remember that computers are used for a lot of other tasks in addition to programming!
Not necessarily true. If you look at sophisticated GUI programs, you will see that there are ways to "script" without having to write code. The example you use is possible in Photoshop or IrfanView without writing a line of code.
As to the superiority of text, I think this is a preconception programmers often have. For programming, I agree that text is hugely superior to any "graphical" programming tool that has been created - LabView etc. is really only only suited to those who haven't spent the time to learn traditional programming.
However, there are other tasks which are by nature suited to a graphical interface - for example drawing and photo editing (Photoshop), and music creation (Cubase). In these environments, being restricted to text input would be a huge step backwards. You have abstactions in the graphical realm too - look at the use of folders in a file manager, or the use of tracks->groups->notes in a music application. I would make the case that a graphical approach is superior when manipulating objects directly, while text input is best for more abstract usage.
Sorry, but I think you are wrong here. Text is a good way of specifying behaviour in some circumstances, such as with programming. In many other situations, a graphical interface is a better way of approaching things. Just think, when somebody wants to explain something difficult, they usually turn to a whiteboard/blackboard and draw. A few figures can explain better than many pages of text. Today's OSes generally let you do both, and this is a very good thing.
As to talking to a computer, I think this is a terrible idea. It is slower and less accurate than typing. The main reason for using it would be if your hands are tied up doing something else.
On the other hand, I do think it is possible to come up with even better ways of manipulating objects than the ordinary computer mouse.
They aren't even a good marketing organization - as then they would make what their customers actually want. I think a better description is that Microsoft is going more and more in the direction of the record business - a business that lives off its past and is preoccupied with trying to shaft its own customers in as many ways as it can get away with.
About time that someone realizes that there is more to gaming than Halo and WoW. It seems that gaming is being heavily stereotyped, I'm a little bit afraid that the industry will take the "casual" moniker too far as well and we will be drowning in "Brain Game"-lookalikes.
That said, it doesn't take genius to figure out that there is a bigger market for casual games than the hard-core, as the majority of the population isn't willing to put 40 hours+ per week into playing WoW (I'm quite amazed that WoW has attracted as many players as it has - it looks like hard work instead of play to me).
At least here in Europe, the casual trend preceded the launch of the Wii, and games like Buzz, Guitar Hero and Singstar have been doing very well in the top-ten sales lists for a long time.
What amazes me is that Sony and Nintendo seem to get it, the Xbox games lineup seems to consist of 70% FPS, with a few sports and driving games thrown in for good measure. Viva Pinata and Scene it don't really measure up to the Sony and Nintendo titles. And, it seems that most Xbox titles are optimized for Live, and that there are very few titles that are actually geared towards multiple players playing on the same console. To me, this is the most fun part of console gaming, ever since I played 4-player paddle games on the Atari 2600. Microsoft, you need to wake up here! (A 6-month licensing ban on FPSes would be a good start)
I only have the older model Sony (you have to be pretty compulsive to have multiple eBook readers at this point), here are my $0.05:
Forget about the DRMed Sony store, the premise is in content available otherwise. The Sony doesn't have the world's best PDF renderer, but there are freeware utilities which will render PDFs to Sony's native format and do a much better job (have a look around http://www.mobileread.com/forums/index.php). Text files work fine, and then you can resize the text to your liking. The Gutenberg Project and similar sites are great. There are also quite a lot of progressive publishers who will sell you non-DRMed files. Basically, just as in the music world, skip Britney Spears and buy from the people that will sell you stuff in the format you want.
You won't believe how nice the ePaper screen is until you try it. It is just as comfortable as reading from paper
You can fit a massive number of books on a decent size SD card. Actually, the limitation is more that it takes time to browse through the list of books.
You do notice that it is still a new technology, the Sony PC program is a crap iTunes knock-off and not everything is as streamlined as it could be. There is also a lot of functionality that is still in the future (newspaper subscriptions, web-browsing etc.), but even for what it is today, eBook readers are great. If you are a book-lover on the move, by all means buy one.
Just think about how stupid it is to waste tons of paper each day to print newspapers. Already, people are reading newspapers on the web, but the paper version is nice to carry around. eBook readers solve this problem. There are a few industries that are going the way of the dodo; newspaper printers are one, video rental stores (as soon as movies are liberated from physical media) is another.
Haven't people thought about how silly it is to go to a store to buy software? I mean, it is not like you can test it or get decent information about how it works or anything at the typical big box store? Think about it!
You are not locked to Sony's store. Any document you get your hands on can be converted to a readable file with the appropriate utilities. You can carry and access hundreds of documents in a device smaller than a trade paperback.
Again, eBooks are not only what you can buy in Sony's store. Progressive publishers will sell you books in non-DRMed formats.
No, even better: You can download any book you like from the likes of the Gutenberg project and keep it for as long as you like, share with your friends etc. So what if it is only for expired copyright: lots of great stuff here (Moby Dick, H. P. Lovecraft, Tom Sawyer and Hucklebery Finn etc etc)
Scanning equipment is coming down in price, there are even automatic jigs that will turn pages for you. Buy used books and digitize them! (Hey, it works for books as well as MP3s: I'm pretty sure that ripping is how most people get their music, it is a little bit more involved for books, but it can be done)
Again, you don't have to buy DRM, just as you don't have to buy your music from iTunes. If your books are digital, they can be backed up. If your house burns, all your paper books are gone. If you have good backup procedures, all your digital content is safe. (I'm trying to tell people that digital photographs are safer than negatives, as you can take a ton of backups and stash them in multiple locations. If something happens to the negatives, they are gone forever)
Lack of imagination, I would say. Just like with the iPod, once you get used to having your entire music collection always with you, being able to do the same with books will grow on you. What about being able to search through all your books? eBook readers are still primitive, but even now there are a lot of benefits to the technology. There is a real environmental benefit as well, think about the paper that can be saved!
eBook does not equal DRM. Sony et al. have learned from the ATRAC fiasco: although they use proprietary DRMed formats, the readers also support PDF, TXT and so on. Also, there is content available, both free and paid, in unprotected formats.
Yes - this would be like saying nobody should have bought iPods. What happens in the ebook business will be a mirror image of what is already happening in the music business - you will end up with ebooks being sold in non-DRMed formats.
As for Sony, the Sony readers will happely display PDF and txt, the Sony of 2008 is not the Sony of 2000 (amazingly, the Reader can use SD cards as well as Memory Stick).
Buying a DRMed ebook reader isn't a problem, as long as it supports un-DRMed formats as well.
Excel - Plagiarised from Lotus 1-2-3. The two were basically playing leapfrog in feature sets before 1-2-3 bit the dust.
Were you actually using spreadsheets when Excel was new? 1-2-3 was a difficult-to-use text-mode program. Excel was graphical from the start, and it was extremely easy to use. Also, unlike the early incarnations of Word, it was rock-solid and never crashed. Excel was so good that people bought Windows just to run Excel. If 30% of Microsoft's software was as good as Excel, they would be a totally different company.
It's fair to bitch about other Microsoft software, but Excel deserves respect, man!
4) I hesitate to suggest this since they seem incapable of getting even simple things right, but replace SIM cards with SD cards (they're effectively a commodity now, $20 for 2GB). Poof, instant long-play pocket audio recorder!
No, the SIM card is a Subscriber Identity Module, which is the device that ties your phone to your subscription and phone number. It is NOT a storage device (the fact that you can store contact numbers and SMSes nonwithstanding). You do not want to replace the SIM with an SD card. You want to have both. It would kind of suck to lose your phone number if you swap out SD cards.
And, this is already here. Any half decent new phone over here (Europe) lets you put in a micro-SD card. You can use an adaptor to use this in a device that supports full-size SD cards.
Moreover, why is ANYONE "against" convergence? Seriously? Do you really WANT to be carrying around a camera, a phone, a PDA, and a laptop?
A phone can never replace a proper camera, as you will never get the same quality and that really matters to anybody who cares about pictures. I can barely tolerate the quality I get out of my Sony camera, and it is pretty much the smallest available camera out there. It is still bigger than most cellphones. Optics take up space. If I know there will be something worth photographing, I bring my DSLR.
PDA: I'll agree with you on this one. I never found stand-alone PDAs useful. Too little storage space, too little screen, pretty much too little anything to stand a chance of replacing a laptop. And, these days a smartphone can pretty much do anything a PDA can.
Laptop: Essential. Ever tried modifying a document on a smartphone? Hah, I'll rather have my nails pulled out slowly with red-hot pliers, thanks. Even viewing a PDF document is an excersise in futility with the small screens. On the other hand, a laptop is too big and cumbersome (even if I carry a 12") to serve well as a portable game console or an MP3 player, so I carry a PSP and an iPod classic as well.
Convergence is pretty much twarted by two forces: the laws of physics and user interface concerns (ease-of-use, boot time, screen size, entry method etc.)
I'm not sure if the signal-to-noise ratio was much better then than now. People have selective memories; they tend to remember only the good ones. Spend some time browsing through the MAME listing or a listing of Atari 2600 games, there were some god-awful games back then as well (E.T. is only the best known). I would say that there were only 20-30 really good 2600 games, and there were a LOT of 2600 games. You've always had to hunt for good games, I really cannot say that I've used a platform were good games were close to being in the majority. But it's worth it!
As opposed to the Dubya syndrome: When reality doesn't agree with your view, don't bother too much with reality... Me responsible? Hell, no, I'm always right!
I'd agree on the faucet - for some strange reason, the Brits are extremely conservative on certain issues. My grandmother's old faucet was dual (as in two faucets side by side), but here we adopted the American style around 20 years ago.
As for the women, the main problem with American women is the over-use of make-up. I like my women natural and curvey (sp?) (BTW, I'm married, and she is both of the above). Now we have really gotten far off the beaten track from the original post... Cheers!
As to the trolling, it is when the topic diverges that things get interesting. BTW, I am actually from Norway, which has plenty of blondes too. Don't get me started on American women, suffice to say I am very happy with our own supply...:-)
I am not the original poster, I just thought that that comment was pretty funny and your response missed the mark as I see the original post as a joke and not as something to take seriously. I think we are both reading too much into each other's comments, I am not implying that the US has not been a major contributor to technology, and in your last post you state that you only see US a A player in technology and not THE player (I got the impression from your original post that you saw the US as the pretty much the only source of technology).
This is the problem with./, I'm sure we would have an amicable discussion over a beer or two. So I think that we basically agree, but the forum for discussion tends to polarize arguments.
I have no problems in acknowledging that there are a lot of smart people in the US. I know, I work for a company that got acquired by a US company, and I go to the US 4-5 times a year. My major beef with the US is that there is a tendency for some people not to see (or care) about what happens beyond your borders. I am not saying that this applies to everybody.
Singling me out for nationalism is the pot calling the kettle black. It was because of your excessive belief in America that I cared enough to write a post. And please do not think that you have a monopoly on hard work - there are plenty of people out there who work hard.
Yes, I am writing this on a PC. That PC has an Intel processor, but also a Taiwanese motherboard, a Korean monitor, a Swiss mouse, Japanese speakers - you get the idea.
You quickly skipped past my comment that actually most of the TI cell phone IC design work is not done in the US - it is done in Europe. The problem with that is that once you outsource manufacturing and outsource design - what is left? Marketing? Maybe that can be outsourced too. What will you live off then - working at McDonalds?
I agree that there are worrying things about China, but this is also true about the US. A lot of people are terrified that you are willing to to throw away "the land of the free" because of one incident (Think about the UK living under terror from the IRA for many years, the Germans and Italians under threat from communist terrorists in the 70s, the Spaniards under threat from Basque separatists). Also, when it comes to conditions for all people, many Europeans are appalled at how the US treats its poor. And when some of your allies include Saudi Arabia and Pakistan - do you really need enemies?
Slashdot Mirror
OK, I know station wagons aren't exactly considered chic in the US, but there are quite a lot of modern ones being made for the European market that could easily be sold in the US. And the reason SUVs are popular in the first place is because of marketing, I bet you could do the same for station wagons (come up with a new name, bling them up)...
I think this is the main reason why traditional distribution still dominates, as you are offering a sub-standard product at almost the same price as the traditional product. This is starting to change in the music world, with non-DRMed (OK, so it is still a compressed file unlike a CD, but the reduction in value is much less). Considering the incremental cost for an additional copy of an electronic work is essentially zero, I think electronically distributed works (either software, music or ebooks) are usually way over-priced. This is very unfortunate. If books, newspapers, software, movies, music etc. all moved to electronic form, there would amongst other things be huge environmental benefits. You would also think that there would be clear benefits for the creator, as you would cut out a lot of middle men and distribution (all that is required is a website).
Besides, putting a book out on paper or DRMed ebook is no guarantee that it won't be pirated, the nature of digital distribution means that it only takes one guy with a scanner or one hacker to enable the rest of the world to copy it freely.
For most authors, I think the major problem is becoming well-known to your potential audience. The example of Cory Docorow is apt for my own sake, I would never have heard of the guy unless he had given away some of his material for free.
Result?
State-of-the-art low-cost hardware is an 8-bit AVR or 16-bit MSP430 running at 16 MHz with 8 kB of flash and 1 kB of RAM. Try running Java (or even C++) on that, buddy.
To be honest, I am appalled at how much resources (CPU time, memory) is wasted because of developer laziness. The instance of Internet Explorer I'm using to post this message is using 150 MB (!) of RAM. For displaying a web page, that's amazing in my mind. For shrink-wrap software, there is one developer and maybe millions of users. The users should not be inconvenienced just for conveniencing the developer. For custom software, it is another matter entirely.
I think that multiple ways of accomplishing things is good, but the main problem is when different applications do things in different days - one of the key problems of the old DOS days, when every program had its own ideas of which function keys to assign to which commands. Over time, this was standardized pretty well for example in menus in OS/2 and in Windows (Microsoft likes to mess it up again now and then - witness the new Internet Explorer as an example).
Rather, I would say that different applications work well with different paradigms, and that trying to find a "one-size-fits-all" solution is not fruitful.
For example, in your case, often the artistic/creative person is not interested in putting "a perfect circle" at a specific location. There are some very important differences between CAD and creative drawing. It all depends on what you are trying to achieve.
Personally, I have done dabbled in a lot of different applications, and have different preferences for text or graphical approaches depending on what I want to achieve. I am currently employed in the electronics field, and here the preference for digital chip design is to use language (HDL - Hardware Description Languages) that describes the functionality you want, and is then "compiled" to yield the circuit. In the analog domain, the schematic is still the dominating paradigm, and people prefer to work with graphical objects.
For file management, some tasks are better done using the command line (especially when using wildcards etc.), while other tasks are better accomplished by using graphical tools. I used to use Norton Commander quite a lot back in the DOS days as I found it be more convenient in many cases than using the "naked" command line, and you still had the command line available when you needed it.
It is also important to remember that people's minds work differently, so what is natural for one person may be very unnatural for others. I find that my brain is wired so that I have a much easier time when I can visually see what options I have ("out of sight out of mind") - yours is probably different. Making a blanket statement that "GUI=baby talk" is very simplistic.
As to the matter at hand, I can very well understand that Linux is having trouble being "ready for the desktop" if many of the developers share your opinions on GUI vs. CLI. Remember that computers are used for a lot of other tasks in addition to programming!
As to the superiority of text, I think this is a preconception programmers often have. For programming, I agree that text is hugely superior to any "graphical" programming tool that has been created - LabView etc. is really only only suited to those who haven't spent the time to learn traditional programming.
However, there are other tasks which are by nature suited to a graphical interface - for example drawing and photo editing (Photoshop), and music creation (Cubase). In these environments, being restricted to text input would be a huge step backwards. You have abstactions in the graphical realm too - look at the use of folders in a file manager, or the use of tracks->groups->notes in a music application. I would make the case that a graphical approach is superior when manipulating objects directly, while text input is best for more abstract usage.
As to talking to a computer, I think this is a terrible idea. It is slower and less accurate than typing. The main reason for using it would be if your hands are tied up doing something else.
On the other hand, I do think it is possible to come up with even better ways of manipulating objects than the ordinary computer mouse.
They aren't even a good marketing organization - as then they would make what their customers actually want. I think a better description is that Microsoft is going more and more in the direction of the record business - a business that lives off its past and is preoccupied with trying to shaft its own customers in as many ways as it can get away with.
That said, it doesn't take genius to figure out that there is a bigger market for casual games than the hard-core, as the majority of the population isn't willing to put 40 hours+ per week into playing WoW (I'm quite amazed that WoW has attracted as many players as it has - it looks like hard work instead of play to me).
At least here in Europe, the casual trend preceded the launch of the Wii, and games like Buzz, Guitar Hero and Singstar have been doing very well in the top-ten sales lists for a long time.
What amazes me is that Sony and Nintendo seem to get it, the Xbox games lineup seems to consist of 70% FPS, with a few sports and driving games thrown in for good measure. Viva Pinata and Scene it don't really measure up to the Sony and Nintendo titles. And, it seems that most Xbox titles are optimized for Live, and that there are very few titles that are actually geared towards multiple players playing on the same console. To me, this is the most fun part of console gaming, ever since I played 4-player paddle games on the Atari 2600. Microsoft, you need to wake up here! (A 6-month licensing ban on FPSes would be a good start)
Haven't people thought about how silly it is to go to a store to buy software? I mean, it is not like you can test it or get decent information about how it works or anything at the typical big box store? Think about it!
Lack of imagination, I would say. Just like with the iPod, once you get used to having your entire music collection always with you, being able to do the same with books will grow on you. What about being able to search through all your books? eBook readers are still primitive, but even now there are a lot of benefits to the technology. There is a real environmental benefit as well, think about the paper that can be saved!
eBook does not equal DRM. Sony et al. have learned from the ATRAC fiasco: although they use proprietary DRMed formats, the readers also support PDF, TXT and so on. Also, there is content available, both free and paid, in unprotected formats.
As for Sony, the Sony readers will happely display PDF and txt, the Sony of 2008 is not the Sony of 2000 (amazingly, the Reader can use SD cards as well as Memory Stick).
Buying a DRMed ebook reader isn't a problem, as long as it supports un-DRMed formats as well.
Were you actually using spreadsheets when Excel was new? 1-2-3 was a difficult-to-use text-mode program. Excel was graphical from the start, and it was extremely easy to use. Also, unlike the early incarnations of Word, it was rock-solid and never crashed. Excel was so good that people bought Windows just to run Excel. If 30% of Microsoft's software was as good as Excel, they would be a totally different company.
It's fair to bitch about other Microsoft software, but Excel deserves respect, man!
No, the SIM card is a Subscriber Identity Module, which is the device that ties your phone to your subscription and phone number. It is NOT a storage device (the fact that you can store contact numbers and SMSes nonwithstanding). You do not want to replace the SIM with an SD card. You want to have both. It would kind of suck to lose your phone number if you swap out SD cards.
And, this is already here. Any half decent new phone over here (Europe) lets you put in a micro-SD card. You can use an adaptor to use this in a device that supports full-size SD cards.
A phone can never replace a proper camera, as you will never get the same quality and that really matters to anybody who cares about pictures. I can barely tolerate the quality I get out of my Sony camera, and it is pretty much the smallest available camera out there. It is still bigger than most cellphones. Optics take up space. If I know there will be something worth photographing, I bring my DSLR.
PDA: I'll agree with you on this one. I never found stand-alone PDAs useful. Too little storage space, too little screen, pretty much too little anything to stand a chance of replacing a laptop. And, these days a smartphone can pretty much do anything a PDA can.
Laptop: Essential. Ever tried modifying a document on a smartphone? Hah, I'll rather have my nails pulled out slowly with red-hot pliers, thanks. Even viewing a PDF document is an excersise in futility with the small screens. On the other hand, a laptop is too big and cumbersome (even if I carry a 12") to serve well as a portable game console or an MP3 player, so I carry a PSP and an iPod classic as well.
Convergence is pretty much twarted by two forces: the laws of physics and user interface concerns (ease-of-use, boot time, screen size, entry method etc.)
Amen, brother. Franchise=crap concept we rehash every year.
I'm not sure if the signal-to-noise ratio was much better then than now. People have selective memories; they tend to remember only the good ones. Spend some time browsing through the MAME listing or a listing of Atari 2600 games, there were some god-awful games back then as well (E.T. is only the best known). I would say that there were only 20-30 really good 2600 games, and there were a LOT of 2600 games. You've always had to hunt for good games, I really cannot say that I've used a platform were good games were close to being in the majority. But it's worth it!
Disclosure: I don't like either of them.
As for the women, the main problem with American women is the over-use of make-up. I like my women natural and curvey (sp?) (BTW, I'm married, and she is both of the above). Now we have really gotten far off the beaten track from the original post... Cheers!
As to the trolling, it is when the topic diverges that things get interesting. BTW, I am actually from Norway, which has plenty of blondes too. Don't get me started on American women, suffice to say I am very happy with our own supply... :-)
This is the problem with ./, I'm sure we would have an amicable discussion over a beer or two. So I think that we basically agree, but the forum for discussion tends to polarize arguments.
I have no problems in acknowledging that there are a lot of smart people in the US. I know, I work for a company that got acquired by a US company, and I go to the US 4-5 times a year. My major beef with the US is that there is a tendency for some people not to see (or care) about what happens beyond your borders. I am not saying that this applies to everybody.
Yes, I am writing this on a PC. That PC has an Intel processor, but also a Taiwanese motherboard, a Korean monitor, a Swiss mouse, Japanese speakers - you get the idea.
You quickly skipped past my comment that actually most of the TI cell phone IC design work is not done in the US - it is done in Europe. The problem with that is that once you outsource manufacturing and outsource design - what is left? Marketing? Maybe that can be outsourced too. What will you live off then - working at McDonalds?
I agree that there are worrying things about China, but this is also true about the US. A lot of people are terrified that you are willing to to throw away "the land of the free" because of one incident (Think about the UK living under terror from the IRA for many years, the Germans and Italians under threat from communist terrorists in the 70s, the Spaniards under threat from Basque separatists). Also, when it comes to conditions for all people, many Europeans are appalled at how the US treats its poor. And when some of your allies include Saudi Arabia and Pakistan - do you really need enemies?