It didn't work for Saturn either. They had a strict no-haggle, what-you-see-is-what-you-pay pricing system at their dealerships. Turns out people like to haggle when buying cars, even if they end up paying no less than the MSRP anyway. They still feel like they got a deal, and that's what is important to them.
Another one for the Saturns. I had a 1992 SL2 that I bought from my brother around 2004/2005-ish (he bought it brand new). When I got it, it had about 190k miles on it, and ran great. It had maintenance issues, mostly a few troubled parts that seems to go bad every couple years, but other than that, it ran great. It had a slight oil burn because the piston rings were fried. It still got 30+ mpg, and was very reliable. At 255k miles, I had the engine and transmission rebuilt, because at the time, I didn't see myself affording a new or used car of the same quality at any point in the near future, and I wanted to make sure the car lasted a lot longer. I traded it in last year because I needed a truck, but I have no doubt that it could have gone another 250k miles with a driver who took care of the car and did regular maintenance.
I hear a lot of people claiming Saturns aren't reliable. I've found that only to be true if you don't change the damn oil regularly. Those engines are very intolerable of dirty oil.
Chiming in on the don't get it sentiment. It becomes very repetitive, very fast, which to me equates to boredom. Perhaps the popularity is related to simple minds being amused by simple things?
If I had mod points, I would mod you up. I can't agree more that they are using the wrong definition of major version. Now, it may be true that if they said minor version the chart might still look the same, with the iPhones being green the whole way across. However, I don't think minor versions are a big thing to showcase here, as the minor versions don't have that much differentiation. Maybe some UI changes, but that's about it. And the UI is up to the manufacturer in a lot of cases (HTC and Motorola for instance).
If you go by actual major version, and exclude 3.x, then the original Motorola Droid is just now one major version behind. I'd be willing to bet that this is the case with a lot of the other phones as well.
Also, release schedule should be a factor in this as well. iOS has had their major version releases about one year apart for each release. All of which I think have been released with a new version of the iPhone. Android major releases have had a similar release schedule (except for 3.x, but as we're not considering that a major version for phones, we shouldn't consider it here, either), but the phones have come out on a much faster release schedule (not to mention there are a hell of a lot more of them).
One last thing to consider about this chart is the scale between phones on the timeline. It's technically correct, but is positioned in such a way to lead the viewer into seeing that the iPhones have been on the latest version more than the other phones. It might come off better if the chart spanned the 4 years that it actually spanned, with the phones positioned where their 3 years actually took place, and showed some sort of "unknown" color for the portion of the three years that has yet to happen.
I don't think it's entitlement so much as a lack of curiosity and drive. I'm in no way a prodigy (intelligent, sure, but not beyond normal levels), but went through much of the same in high school. In grade school and middle school, most things were new and interesting, so I was almost always engaged in what I was doing and did very well. In high school, I attempted to push myself by taking honors classes or higher level classes. I quickly found out that for history and literature, I just flat out didn't care, and my grades in those classes suffered as a result. It wasn't because the material was tough, because it wasn't; I was just more inclined to actually do the work for my math and science classes. When I dropped back down to the normal level of history and literature, I was still bored, but could largely ignore the classes and still get decent grades. In my senior year of high school, I simply became bored with everything, and just skated by. It was never because the work was too difficult; it was always because it was boring and I just didn't want to do it. Fast forward to college, and things were new and interesting again. I excelled at the classes because I was learning new things, and things I wanted to learn.
The point is, someone can be the most intelligent person in the world, but if they have no drive or don't want to achieve greatness, no amount of pushing and prodding is going make them do so.
Celibacy would be a more correct term than abstinence for what you and the parent poster are implying. I think abstinence typically refers to something more temporary, like chastity.
This reminds me of the scene in X-Men 2 where Magneto pulls all the pins out of the soldiers' grenades while they are are still attached to their vests. I imagine a Jedi would do something similar. Or just use the Force to stop the blast entirely. I would think a Jedi could just stop a grenade from exploding.
Agreed. I think 2-Wire does a lot of things right. Initial connection to a factory default router automatically initiates a setup process, which IIRC, will not give you internet access until completed. This process also forces you to change the default password, and, again IIRC, has the default wireless security set as WEP. Though, it has been a very long time since I set one up (they tend to last quite a long time, too); I may not be remembering things quite right.
They also tend to be smart enough to "notice" when you do things that the typical joe sixpack user would not do, like connect other routers up behind them, and it does some somewhat smart things in automatically configuring itself to handle those situations properly.
Of all the routers that I've used, I'd have to say that 2-Wire are currently my favorite, and Linksys are currently my most hated.
What you've said doesn't invalidate my point. I was just explaining that the parent was incorrect in his assumption that brakes are always stronger than the engine. This is simply not true, due to a variety of reasons, one of which could be some sort of computer control system. For instance, like you've said, ABS kicks in, and for some reason fails. If the throttle is wide open (due to your foot being on the pedal or mechanical/computer malfunction; it doesn't matter which), and some component of the braking system is faulty or fails, it is unlikely that you will be able to stop the car by braking alone.
1) brakes are always stronger than the engine. There is no car in the world that will not stop when braked, even if the accelerator is held full down. It's a basic safety requirement. The Prius has an _additional_ system that cuts power when the brakes are held down.
2) the emergency brake operates through a limited strength wire that pulls only the rear brakes (typically) and has far less braking power than the brake peddle.
3) every car on the planet will mechanically cut all power to the drive wheels by shifting into neutral.
1) Not if the brakes are bad, installed improperly, or computer controlled. All ABS brakes have some sort of computer control system. If it's the same system that controls the throttle... well, there you have it.
2) Agreed, but in a front wheel drive car, unless the wire is stretched from overuse or designed to do otherwise, the rear wheels should at least lock (or near lock) to some extent.
3) SHOULD, yes. DOES, not necessarily. Transmission inputs can be computer controlled as well, especially in automatic transmission vehicles.
Welcome to arguing with people who argue simply for the sake of the argument. What you say could be 100% true and infallible, but they will always come up with some ridiculous scenario that makes you wrong, usually involving quantum physics, space/time continuum, parallel universes, or completely contradictory statements to your point. You will never be right, no matter how hard you try. There's always a "but, if...". Good luck.
Except that the Chinese government would be perfectly happy to be cut off from the rest of the Internet. If we cut them off, they can just blame it on the US and claim they've done nothing to censor anything. You'd be giving them exactly what they wanted.
I agree with this, but would also add to it that a good driver doesn't cause others to collide with things either.
For instance, I may be able to handle my car perfectly well at 80mph on the highway, but if I can't do it without adversely affecting the other drivers on the road, then I am not a "good" driver. However, if I can zoom down the highway at 80mph, not cause people to panic, swerve out of my way, not hit anything, and still be courteous to others who wish to drive the speed limit, then one might consider me to be a "good" driver.
The other problem I've found with NFS is that in a lot of them, the rubberbanding turns into physics defying cheating by the computer at some point, like being able to take a hairpin turn at 190 MPH in a Honda Civic, without hitting any walls, skidding, or even slowing down. The computer should not be able to break the limits of the game in order to catch back up. Sure, let them drive a perfect lap, but the limits of their car shouldn't be increased. If my car is fully upgraded, and I'm hitting max speed on a straightaway, the computer shouldn't be able to pass me driving the same car like I'm sitting still.
The title is "Choosing a Personal Printer For the Long Haul", so I assume he's wanting a consumer level printer, not a workhorse intended for an office setting. I do agree, though, that HP's business level printers are some of the better ones you can get.
I've had terrible luck with HP printers. It seems like they're only recognized properly about 1/3 of the time, and if I do get a computer to recognize it, it will randomly stop recognizing it at some point in the future. Not to mention the terrible software that it seems is pretty much required in order for the damn things to work. I don't think I should have to install software at this day and age to be able to use a damn printer.
I second this. I hate programmers that use inheritance and polymorphism simply for the sake of using it. For the love of God, if you don't actually need it, or if it doesn't make everything simpler, don't use it!
However, depending on how the spaghetti code has been done, it can be just as annoying. If they're using GOTOs at all, or returning from functions in odd places that aren't obvious, it's not fun to debug, but I'd still prefer this to overengineering.
If they've combined overengineering with spaghetti code, it takes all my strength to keep from stabbing them in the face.
I also love people that use clever ways of causing functions to get called automagically. Like using the get/set of a property to call some method that's only slightly related to that property, but also does something incredibly important for the functionality of whatever class that property is in.
I see a lot of people commenting on how this is a bad idea because the case is the most reusable piece of a computer. While that may be true, how many people do you think actually reuse the case of their computer when they upgrade? I'd be willing to bet that most Joe Sixpack type consumers simply replace the entire machine when they're ready to upgrade. Sure, the/. crowd may upgrade parts until they can upgrade no more, and finally replace the entire guts, but do we realistically think that grandma is going to do the same? No, she'll buy an entirely new computer, and throw her current one out.
Don't get me wrong, I think a cardboard case is a terrible idea. There are just so many things that can go wrong (fire, water, instability due to vibrations, etc, etc). I just think that saying it's a terrible idea because a normal case can be reused isn't an entirely realistic argument.
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It didn't work for Saturn either. They had a strict no-haggle, what-you-see-is-what-you-pay pricing system at their dealerships. Turns out people like to haggle when buying cars, even if they end up paying no less than the MSRP anyway. They still feel like they got a deal, and that's what is important to them.
"Have you ever tried simply turning off the TV, sitting down with your children, and hitting them?"
Another one for the Saturns. I had a 1992 SL2 that I bought from my brother around 2004/2005-ish (he bought it brand new). When I got it, it had about 190k miles on it, and ran great. It had maintenance issues, mostly a few troubled parts that seems to go bad every couple years, but other than that, it ran great. It had a slight oil burn because the piston rings were fried. It still got 30+ mpg, and was very reliable. At 255k miles, I had the engine and transmission rebuilt, because at the time, I didn't see myself affording a new or used car of the same quality at any point in the near future, and I wanted to make sure the car lasted a lot longer. I traded it in last year because I needed a truck, but I have no doubt that it could have gone another 250k miles with a driver who took care of the car and did regular maintenance.
I hear a lot of people claiming Saturns aren't reliable. I've found that only to be true if you don't change the damn oil regularly. Those engines are very intolerable of dirty oil.
Are you really implying that the physically fit have lower IQs than the physically weak or vulnerable? If so, I question your own IQ, my good sir.
Chiming in on the don't get it sentiment. It becomes very repetitive, very fast, which to me equates to boredom. Perhaps the popularity is related to simple minds being amused by simple things?
If I had mod points, I would mod you up. I can't agree more that they are using the wrong definition of major version. Now, it may be true that if they said minor version the chart might still look the same, with the iPhones being green the whole way across. However, I don't think minor versions are a big thing to showcase here, as the minor versions don't have that much differentiation. Maybe some UI changes, but that's about it. And the UI is up to the manufacturer in a lot of cases (HTC and Motorola for instance).
If you go by actual major version, and exclude 3.x, then the original Motorola Droid is just now one major version behind. I'd be willing to bet that this is the case with a lot of the other phones as well.
Also, release schedule should be a factor in this as well. iOS has had their major version releases about one year apart for each release. All of which I think have been released with a new version of the iPhone. Android major releases have had a similar release schedule (except for 3.x, but as we're not considering that a major version for phones, we shouldn't consider it here, either), but the phones have come out on a much faster release schedule (not to mention there are a hell of a lot more of them).
One last thing to consider about this chart is the scale between phones on the timeline. It's technically correct, but is positioned in such a way to lead the viewer into seeing that the iPhones have been on the latest version more than the other phones. It might come off better if the chart spanned the 4 years that it actually spanned, with the phones positioned where their 3 years actually took place, and showed some sort of "unknown" color for the portion of the three years that has yet to happen.
I don't think it's entitlement so much as a lack of curiosity and drive. I'm in no way a prodigy (intelligent, sure, but not beyond normal levels), but went through much of the same in high school. In grade school and middle school, most things were new and interesting, so I was almost always engaged in what I was doing and did very well. In high school, I attempted to push myself by taking honors classes or higher level classes. I quickly found out that for history and literature, I just flat out didn't care, and my grades in those classes suffered as a result. It wasn't because the material was tough, because it wasn't; I was just more inclined to actually do the work for my math and science classes. When I dropped back down to the normal level of history and literature, I was still bored, but could largely ignore the classes and still get decent grades. In my senior year of high school, I simply became bored with everything, and just skated by. It was never because the work was too difficult; it was always because it was boring and I just didn't want to do it. Fast forward to college, and things were new and interesting again. I excelled at the classes because I was learning new things, and things I wanted to learn.
The point is, someone can be the most intelligent person in the world, but if they have no drive or don't want to achieve greatness, no amount of pushing and prodding is going make them do so.
Celibacy would be a more correct term than abstinence for what you and the parent poster are implying. I think abstinence typically refers to something more temporary, like chastity.
This reminds me of the scene in X-Men 2 where Magneto pulls all the pins out of the soldiers' grenades while they are are still attached to their vests. I imagine a Jedi would do something similar. Or just use the Force to stop the blast entirely. I would think a Jedi could just stop a grenade from exploding.
Where are our claws? Fangs?
Clearly, you have not looked a primate in the mouth, ever. http://www.google.com/images?q=primate+fangs
Agreed. I think 2-Wire does a lot of things right. Initial connection to a factory default router automatically initiates a setup process, which IIRC, will not give you internet access until completed. This process also forces you to change the default password, and, again IIRC, has the default wireless security set as WEP. Though, it has been a very long time since I set one up (they tend to last quite a long time, too); I may not be remembering things quite right.
They also tend to be smart enough to "notice" when you do things that the typical joe sixpack user would not do, like connect other routers up behind them, and it does some somewhat smart things in automatically configuring itself to handle those situations properly.
Of all the routers that I've used, I'd have to say that 2-Wire are currently my favorite, and Linksys are currently my most hated.
What you've said doesn't invalidate my point. I was just explaining that the parent was incorrect in his assumption that brakes are always stronger than the engine. This is simply not true, due to a variety of reasons, one of which could be some sort of computer control system. For instance, like you've said, ABS kicks in, and for some reason fails. If the throttle is wide open (due to your foot being on the pedal or mechanical/computer malfunction; it doesn't matter which), and some component of the braking system is faulty or fails, it is unlikely that you will be able to stop the car by braking alone.
1) brakes are always stronger than the engine. There is no car in the world that will not stop when braked, even if the accelerator is held full down. It's a basic safety requirement. The Prius has an _additional_ system that cuts power when the brakes are held down.
2) the emergency brake operates through a limited strength wire that pulls only the rear brakes (typically) and has far less braking power than the brake peddle.
3) every car on the planet will mechanically cut all power to the drive wheels by shifting into neutral.
1) Not if the brakes are bad, installed improperly, or computer controlled. All ABS brakes have some sort of computer control system. If it's the same system that controls the throttle... well, there you have it.
2) Agreed, but in a front wheel drive car, unless the wire is stretched from overuse or designed to do otherwise, the rear wheels should at least lock (or near lock) to some extent.
3) SHOULD, yes. DOES, not necessarily. Transmission inputs can be computer controlled as well, especially in automatic transmission vehicles.
Eyes wide, mouth vomiting is not what that looks like.
Welcome to arguing with people who argue simply for the sake of the argument. What you say could be 100% true and infallible, but they will always come up with some ridiculous scenario that makes you wrong, usually involving quantum physics, space/time continuum, parallel universes, or completely contradictory statements to your point. You will never be right, no matter how hard you try. There's always a "but, if...". Good luck.
Except that the Chinese government would be perfectly happy to be cut off from the rest of the Internet. If we cut them off, they can just blame it on the US and claim they've done nothing to censor anything. You'd be giving them exactly what they wanted.
I agree with this, but would also add to it that a good driver doesn't cause others to collide with things either. For instance, I may be able to handle my car perfectly well at 80mph on the highway, but if I can't do it without adversely affecting the other drivers on the road, then I am not a "good" driver. However, if I can zoom down the highway at 80mph, not cause people to panic, swerve out of my way, not hit anything, and still be courteous to others who wish to drive the speed limit, then one might consider me to be a "good" driver.
The other problem I've found with NFS is that in a lot of them, the rubberbanding turns into physics defying cheating by the computer at some point, like being able to take a hairpin turn at 190 MPH in a Honda Civic, without hitting any walls, skidding, or even slowing down. The computer should not be able to break the limits of the game in order to catch back up. Sure, let them drive a perfect lap, but the limits of their car shouldn't be increased. If my car is fully upgraded, and I'm hitting max speed on a straightaway, the computer shouldn't be able to pass me driving the same car like I'm sitting still.
The title is "Choosing a Personal Printer For the Long Haul", so I assume he's wanting a consumer level printer, not a workhorse intended for an office setting. I do agree, though, that HP's business level printers are some of the better ones you can get.
I've had terrible luck with HP printers. It seems like they're only recognized properly about 1/3 of the time, and if I do get a computer to recognize it, it will randomly stop recognizing it at some point in the future. Not to mention the terrible software that it seems is pretty much required in order for the damn things to work. I don't think I should have to install software at this day and age to be able to use a damn printer.
I'll second this. They generally don't require any software to work properly either. Just plug it in, and it's good to go.
I second this. I hate programmers that use inheritance and polymorphism simply for the sake of using it. For the love of God, if you don't actually need it, or if it doesn't make everything simpler, don't use it!
However, depending on how the spaghetti code has been done, it can be just as annoying. If they're using GOTOs at all, or returning from functions in odd places that aren't obvious, it's not fun to debug, but I'd still prefer this to overengineering.
If they've combined overengineering with spaghetti code, it takes all my strength to keep from stabbing them in the face.
I also love people that use clever ways of causing functions to get called automagically. Like using the get/set of a property to call some method that's only slightly related to that property, but also does something incredibly important for the functionality of whatever class that property is in.
This place: http://focusdesigns.com/ has a working version that you can buy today, apparently. It's also more than twice as fast at 10 MPH.
Actually, a lot of people have done this before. Just google "self balancing unicycle" or "powered unicycle".
I see a lot of people commenting on how this is a bad idea because the case is the most reusable piece of a computer. While that may be true, how many people do you think actually reuse the case of their computer when they upgrade? I'd be willing to bet that most Joe Sixpack type consumers simply replace the entire machine when they're ready to upgrade. Sure, the /. crowd may upgrade parts until they can upgrade no more, and finally replace the entire guts, but do we realistically think that grandma is going to do the same? No, she'll buy an entirely new computer, and throw her current one out.
Don't get me wrong, I think a cardboard case is a terrible idea. There are just so many things that can go wrong (fire, water, instability due to vibrations, etc, etc). I just think that saying it's a terrible idea because a normal case can be reused isn't an entirely realistic argument.
Too bad that extension doesn't work for FF3.x