Lawyers in general are only class-restricted to lawful. Certain prestige classes which are extensions of the lawyer class (see: Corporate Counsel, *AA Fiend, Politician) are further restricted to lawful evil, but there certainly exist lawful good examples (see: Civil Rights Advocate, EFF Volunteer), and a vast number of lawful neutrals as well (see: Probate Drone, Public Defender).
Don't be silly, power and profit are the exact same motive. People/corporations/governments seek more power as a means of acquiring more profit and more profit as a means of acquiring more power.
The system is broken and nobody in the mainstream (not even that racist lunatic Dr. Paul) has any interest in actually fixing it. One side wants to speed the whole thing and squeeze as much as they can out of it before the whole thing explodes and the other wants to try and throw on a fresh coat paint and hope it keeps going just a little bit longer, neither side wants to address the fact that when it breaks it is entirely possible that life as we know it will cease.
According to your own link Taylorism was both highly influential on newer management theories and is still in widespread (if unpleasant) use in many industries.
They won't until the health insurance company gets their greedy little hands on the data. Keep in mind that most companies do not actually provide their own health insurance, opting instead to purchase it through a normal insurance company. Because of the way group health insurance works, it is not in the interest of a company to share this data with the insurer unless the insurer creates one (which would probably be illegal).
Employee's of health insurance companies, however...
You didn't actually read what was behind that link, did you? FYI, it's a long list of bills proposed by Ron Paul with brief explanations of how and why they are anti-progressive, anti-libertarian, or downright silly.
On what basis do you assume that such facts will make one shred of difference to the mainstream press if Sony does have such a plan?
Sure, in an ideal world where journalistic integrity is actually permitted by the publishers reality would be a crucial factor in what the news outlets say and do... but ever since they learned that it was far easier to make money by ditching any semblance of self-respect or civic responsibility and simply pandering to the deepest pockets around we have not lived in such a world.
"You know where those numbers come from? Zealots."
What numbers? What zealots? I dual boot Windows because as such as I like Linux it still doesn't have all the functionality I want (though it certainly has all I need; your needs may vary).
"I haven't seen a single person install Linux all year."
I'm sensing that "people" aren't really your thing... so that's probably for the best.
"You know what I see."
Your mom's basement?
"Big damn Blade servers running non-Linux OS's using Linux variants in a virtual machine setting."
On desktops... wow, you must really not be a "people person". Sarcasm aside, this obviously has nothing to do with the topic at hand, and there are plenty of non-VM Linux servers out there, many of which run non-Linux OSs in a virtual machine setting. What's your point again?
"1993-200* was the year of Linux. Nobody cares anymore. We all learned our lesson 8 years ago."
If by "nobody" you mean yourself, then you are shown for a liar by the fact that you care enough to troll on/. about it. If you really think Linux is cooked and we're all so stupid, then why are you bothering with us at all? 8 years ago Linux was at least a decade from being ready to take the desktop market, apply your arithmetic skills and you'll see that it still has 2 to go before it is even feasible.
"Fuck talking about 15 year old technology and move on. Watching a penguin slide down a hill with hard as shit controls and crappy graphics while calling it "Groundbreaking" does not make me believer. Nor does OpenOffice, or Fire "Give me memory...what, you only have 600gigs? I'll eat your pagefile then!!!!!!!" Fox or Mplayer with all the fucking plugins you have to install."
So TuxRacer (which is basically a demo), Firefox (in which I've still yet to experience this infamous memory leak after over three years of use) and MPlayer (which requires no more plugins than WMP) now comprise the best features of Linux? Please.
"Ubuntu = Vista Linux - I don't want to have to supply a password for every thing I want to do. Who thought that was a good idea?"
I do plenty of things in Ubuntu without supplying a password. Sudo is intended to make sure potentially risky operations are performed only by admin users and only intentionally; the only thing wrong with the Vista ripoff is that they just make you click a box that says OK, it would be much more solid if it required a password... and if it only asked on things that are non-trivial.
While I too doubt the estimate that the number of users running Linux has doubled in 2007, I don't doubt it by much. I know that between 1/1 2007 and 12/31 2007 I have seen more new people install and run Linux than any other year in my memory, and I have not seen any of them abandon it after a few weeks or days. The very fact that user survey participation on Linux specific sites has more than doubled is a strong sign that, even if the actual number of users didn't double, at least the number of people interested in it has, and that's big. If only Dell would take their Ubuntu machines off of the separate page and let us install it on more than two models as a drop down alternative to Vista/XP (with a big warning dialog to scare clueless buyers away from a product they probably don't want) I think 2008 would definitely see the number of Linux desktops double.
Just as importantly, I've seen a massive move toward non-MS products even on Windows machines. My college has Firefox installed on virtually every machine, and I can't even remember the last time I saw an open IE window; I've even seen a few installs of OpenOffice next to Office 2007 on the least frozen machines. The more cross platform apps gain steam, the less reason anyone has to pay the Microsoft tax, and the less likely people are to actually do so.
So yes, doubled is probably an exaggeration, but it's definitely been a banner year for (GNU/)Linux and FOSS in general.
In this particular hypothetical (since it was a prank, that's what this amounts to), I think it can be safely assumed that anyone using common sense would be able to recognize a web site (particularly if using it was assigned by the person in question), perhaps even to the point that one would have to carefully examine what that specific child was doing in order to even notice the difference between IE logos/UI and Firefox logos/UI which, for all that they are different, are not readily apparent to a casual observer looking from a distance greater than a few feet.
I factoring into my analysis that any individual savvy enough to instantly spot the difference between IE and Firefox viewing the same web page and be able to differentiate them (or at least tell that one was not the other at a glance) should be able to reason out that, while the software, or even UI, being used might be different from what they were expecting, it was clearly bringing them to the same information on the same website and in a very similar way.
In that case, the only reason to discipline the student would be a misguided effort to "save face" and re-assert complete intellectual superiority over the other students rather than simply saying something to the effect of "oh, I thought I saw something else, I must have been mistaken, carry on." which not only avoids extraneous disciplinary action for the child, but also for yourself if/when they DO take it to an administrator or IT staff member... it also serves to not undermine your authority in the first place by making your ignorance a matter of public knowledge.
And no, I do not agree that complying with instructions and then failing to tell them that you have not is inappropriate or disorderly in the slightest, nor is failing to comply with impossible directives. If the student was doing the assigned work, and was not playing a game, then they were in compliance to all the valid instructions, and failed only on the directive to "close the game" which was not open to begin with. Again, anyone savvy enough to actually figure out the name of the program and close enough to actually see it is also, clearly, close enough to see that nothing inappropriate is taking place. Update aside, this was a pretty strong indication that the incident was either a hoax or a gross misrepresentation.
As someone who plans to be a teacher and comes from a family of educators and school administrators, that's bullshit.
Teachers are not omnipotent or all knowing, and any teacher who is too arrogant to accept that they might be mistaken has no business educating our future, especially if they are so intellectually dishonest as to punish a student for knowing something that they do not. Some day the kids are going to be smarter than us anyway, so gracefully acknowledging that they might know some information we do not is simply common sense.
Furthermore, schools SHOULD NOT teach children how to mindlessly follow instructions and obey orders. It should teach them to think, and provide the framework tools necessary to doing so and participating in our culture without having to reinvent the wheel. Questioning authority is part of that, and one that we cannot afford to stamp out.
Well, last I heard the deficit was increasing at about $1m per minute, 4.6b / 1m = 4600, so at 360 minutes per day it should keep us from getting further into debt for about 12-13 days. Two weeks was actually a very good estimate, kudos to you.
Do you really believe that, or are you demanding a research essay because you disagree with his statement? Or is it because he claimed to hold a position of particular knowledge on the subject, and you resent the assertion that somebody might know more about a subject than you, or even that there might BE more to know?
Slashdot comments aren't held to your silly pie in the sky requirements by virtue of being a type of informal discourse, not candidate articles for peer reviewed academic journals. Get a grip.
He's had a long and successful career representing my state in the US Senate... and I'm sorry, but vehicular manslaughter just isn't relevant to that.
Maybe if people stopped expecting politicians to be perfect god-like beings and were willing to settle for people who are good at doing their job and generally (or universally, although this is unlikely to happen) make good policy choices it would be obvious why those of us responsible for continuously re-electing Ted Kennedy are apparently unconcerned by a 20 year old car accident that may or may not (really narrows things down...) have a conspiracy attached.
To re-phrase, come back and we'll talk when your senator has done a better job than mine.
With the important caveat that this is only for the purposes of melee combat and the calculations of attack range, adjacency, and related numbers that represent perceptual, rather than actual, distances.
Perceived distance is quite relative: a mile is a lot farther if you're walking than if you're driving; a child may view the top of a refrigerator as unreachable while an adult can reach it with ease; being 10 ft. from your opponent is a lot farther away when you're holding a knife than when you're holding a pike.
Repeat customers? How cute. We don't care about that here, because we find it more effective to bilk everyone out of every last cent and then submerge all competition in a flood of shit so as to give our angry disgruntled consumers no choice but to go through the exact same experience again next time.
Yea, all the wasted effort... keep in mind the movie took at least twice longer to shoot because they had to use blue screens even for a scene with nothing special in it (only to assist the post-production assembling of the planes). --
That sounds like the MO alright. I almost have trouble calling these guys directors, because I have in my head this silly idea that when more than half the stuff in the shot is computer-generated, it's not a live action movie anymore. Who Framed Roger Rabbit doesn't even have this much animation in it for fuck's sake.
At least I'm reasonably sure that Speed Racer won't be a carbon copy of The Matrix, or even have much in common with it (well, besides the drawn out action scenes with no conclusions or payoff... look, Neo just fought with Smith for 20 minutes just so he could run away like a little pussy, awesome!), so they still have that over George Lucas (recasting Palpatine as a women, Luke as a hobbit, Han Solo as Han Solo with a sword, and Darth Vader as some lame-ass in a skull helmet doesn't change the fact that Willow is so similar to Star Wars that it hurts.
Keep in mind that in NH, people wish everything would just be legal, that guns are everywhere, and that a larger than average portion of the population are convicted felons (many from surrounding states move there because of looser restrictions on what they can do, and tighter restrictions on who can look into their histories; the Manchester area is notorious for this). They can't afford to be mean.
I have bought something as the result of a banner ad ONCE. I was reading UF and saw a banner ad for an independent space shooter with a free demo, I downloaded and enjoyed the demo, and then bought the game. I don't regret it even a little.
I've also followed a few other banner ads for various things that looked interesting to me, generally for things I never would have searched for because I'd never heard of them before. Not being Flash based (or, if they are, being very subdued with it) is also greatly beneficial to anyone who wants my traffic from their ads.
Meaningful legislation... on baseball? Seriously, and I mean this in the nicest non-trolliest way possible: get a fucking life.
Why not demand meaningful legislation to prevent plot inconsistencies in comic books while we're at it... goddamned Spiderman and his thousand slightly different origins.
Anyway, steroids didn't make Barry Bonds any better at being able to see a 90 mph fast ball, or move his hands quickly and expertly enough to hit the ball once he does. Steroids don't help him maintain one of the most extreme diet and excercise regimens in professional sports. Steroids didn't get Barry Bonds his place in the Big Leagues or his record setting contract (the accusations of steroid use all begin well after both events).
You don't know that he couldn't have done this without steroids, and you don't know that Hank Aaron didn't use anything either; steroids were around back then, players were using, everyone knows this, and usually the explanation for why none looked quite so massive is the same explanation as why the pitching and running were slower, and why "steroids" referred only to a handful of expensive and difficult to acquire compounds... we've made massive advances in both training technique and in steroid technology. Baseball players have always used anything that would give them any sort of advantage over the competition, it's the nature of professional sports, where huge money is at stake and even the "worst" players are so good it could make your head spin. I'm not saying that Hank Aaron used steroids, or anything else for that matter, I'm just saying that we have no way of knowing either way, and that hating Barry Bonds for "stealing" his record by using unfair steroids is spurious and foolish at best.
Mac was taking it on the chin prior to about 2003 (when was it that Steve came back again?), their machines were lackluster and their marketing was weak. The release of OSX and their renewed marketing drive has brought them back from obscurity.
This had nothing to do with FOSS, and everything to do with Apple reclaiming a large chunk of its niche who had moved to Windows (as a group, that is; many of the old school Mac users probably didn't migrate, but new users coming into the traditional Mac niches weren't flocking to Mac fast enough to maintain market share) in the absence of anything from Apple that could inspire them to pay the premium.
"I think it's horrendous that society thinks the only way to interest teenage girls in things like math and science is to trick them into it with horoscopes and shoes."
While I agree, I must also point out that there are probably a few dozen major publications which are targeted almost exclusively at teen girls and cover very little else, and that retailers have long known that some of the highest margins and sales can be had on clothing and shoes marketed at that demographic. Marketers and ad agencies are very smart, and whatever conclusions they come up with about peoples' attitudes I, for one, will at least give serious consideration to... even when I wish the reality couldn't be that bad. Like another poster said, if it works then that's a good thing, even if we find it reprehensible ourselves.
"And math shouldn't be dumbed down by renaming things because words like 'reciprocal' are just too hard."
I have to admit, I think that's actually a pretty good mnemonic. It's a decent way of remembering what a reciprocal does, so long as you can remember the name; there are people of all genders who have trouble keeping that sort of thing straight.
One cannot simply close their eyes, open them, and announce the problem is gone; one must close their eyes, recite the appropriate ritual no less than four times, then open their eyes and announce that the problem is no more.
If everyone listened to heretics like you, nothing would work and the world would fall apart. I've reported you to the Ministry of Truth so your lies will not continue.
Slashdot Mirror
Lawyers in general are only class-restricted to lawful. Certain prestige classes which are extensions of the lawyer class (see: Corporate Counsel, *AA Fiend, Politician) are further restricted to lawful evil, but there certainly exist lawful good examples (see: Civil Rights Advocate, EFF Volunteer), and a vast number of lawful neutrals as well (see: Probate Drone, Public Defender).
Don't be silly, power and profit are the exact same motive. People/corporations/governments seek more power as a means of acquiring more profit and more profit as a means of acquiring more power.
The system is broken and nobody in the mainstream (not even that racist lunatic Dr. Paul) has any interest in actually fixing it. One side wants to speed the whole thing and squeeze as much as they can out of it before the whole thing explodes and the other wants to try and throw on a fresh coat paint and hope it keeps going just a little bit longer, neither side wants to address the fact that when it breaks it is entirely possible that life as we know it will cease.
According to your own link Taylorism was both highly influential on newer management theories and is still in widespread (if unpleasant) use in many industries.
So no, we probably haven't.
They won't until the health insurance company gets their greedy little hands on the data. Keep in mind that most companies do not actually provide their own health insurance, opting instead to purchase it through a normal insurance company. Because of the way group health insurance works, it is not in the interest of a company to share this data with the insurer unless the insurer creates one (which would probably be illegal).
Employee's of health insurance companies, however...
You didn't actually read what was behind that link, did you? FYI, it's a long list of bills proposed by Ron Paul with brief explanations of how and why they are anti-progressive, anti-libertarian, or downright silly.
Just thought you should know.
On what basis do you assume that such facts will make one shred of difference to the mainstream press if Sony does have such a plan?
Sure, in an ideal world where journalistic integrity is actually permitted by the publishers reality would be a crucial factor in what the news outlets say and do... but ever since they learned that it was far easier to make money by ditching any semblance of self-respect or civic responsibility and simply pandering to the deepest pockets around we have not lived in such a world.
"You know where those numbers come from? Zealots."
/. about it. If you really think Linux is cooked and we're all so stupid, then why are you bothering with us at all? 8 years ago Linux was at least a decade from being ready to take the desktop market, apply your arithmetic skills and you'll see that it still has 2 to go before it is even feasible.
What numbers? What zealots? I dual boot Windows because as such as I like Linux it still doesn't have all the functionality I want (though it certainly has all I need; your needs may vary).
"I haven't seen a single person install Linux all year."
I'm sensing that "people" aren't really your thing... so that's probably for the best.
"You know what I see."
Your mom's basement?
"Big damn Blade servers running non-Linux OS's using Linux variants in a virtual machine setting."
On desktops... wow, you must really not be a "people person". Sarcasm aside, this obviously has nothing to do with the topic at hand, and there are plenty of non-VM Linux servers out there, many of which run non-Linux OSs in a virtual machine setting. What's your point again?
"1993-200* was the year of Linux. Nobody cares anymore. We all learned our lesson 8 years ago."
If by "nobody" you mean yourself, then you are shown for a liar by the fact that you care enough to troll on
"Fuck talking about 15 year old technology and move on. Watching a penguin slide down a hill with hard as shit controls and crappy graphics while calling it "Groundbreaking" does not make me believer. Nor does OpenOffice, or Fire "Give me memory...what, you only have 600gigs? I'll eat your pagefile then!!!!!!!" Fox or Mplayer with all the fucking plugins you have to install."
So TuxRacer (which is basically a demo), Firefox (in which I've still yet to experience this infamous memory leak after over three years of use) and MPlayer (which requires no more plugins than WMP) now comprise the best features of Linux? Please.
"Ubuntu = Vista Linux - I don't want to have to supply a password for every thing I want to do. Who thought that was a good idea?"
I do plenty of things in Ubuntu without supplying a password. Sudo is intended to make sure potentially risky operations are performed only by admin users and only intentionally; the only thing wrong with the Vista ripoff is that they just make you click a box that says OK, it would be much more solid if it required a password... and if it only asked on things that are non-trivial.
No, it's sad because it isn't. Instead it will probably be used to spend another couple of months there.
While I too doubt the estimate that the number of users running Linux has doubled in 2007, I don't doubt it by much. I know that between 1/1 2007 and 12/31 2007 I have seen more new people install and run Linux than any other year in my memory, and I have not seen any of them abandon it after a few weeks or days. The very fact that user survey participation on Linux specific sites has more than doubled is a strong sign that, even if the actual number of users didn't double, at least the number of people interested in it has, and that's big. If only Dell would take their Ubuntu machines off of the separate page and let us install it on more than two models as a drop down alternative to Vista/XP (with a big warning dialog to scare clueless buyers away from a product they probably don't want) I think 2008 would definitely see the number of Linux desktops double.
Just as importantly, I've seen a massive move toward non-MS products even on Windows machines. My college has Firefox installed on virtually every machine, and I can't even remember the last time I saw an open IE window; I've even seen a few installs of OpenOffice next to Office 2007 on the least frozen machines. The more cross platform apps gain steam, the less reason anyone has to pay the Microsoft tax, and the less likely people are to actually do so.
So yes, doubled is probably an exaggeration, but it's definitely been a banner year for (GNU/)Linux and FOSS in general.
In this particular hypothetical (since it was a prank, that's what this amounts to), I think it can be safely assumed that anyone using common sense would be able to recognize a web site (particularly if using it was assigned by the person in question), perhaps even to the point that one would have to carefully examine what that specific child was doing in order to even notice the difference between IE logos/UI and Firefox logos/UI which, for all that they are different, are not readily apparent to a casual observer looking from a distance greater than a few feet.
I factoring into my analysis that any individual savvy enough to instantly spot the difference between IE and Firefox viewing the same web page and be able to differentiate them (or at least tell that one was not the other at a glance) should be able to reason out that, while the software, or even UI, being used might be different from what they were expecting, it was clearly bringing them to the same information on the same website and in a very similar way.
In that case, the only reason to discipline the student would be a misguided effort to "save face" and re-assert complete intellectual superiority over the other students rather than simply saying something to the effect of "oh, I thought I saw something else, I must have been mistaken, carry on." which not only avoids extraneous disciplinary action for the child, but also for yourself if/when they DO take it to an administrator or IT staff member... it also serves to not undermine your authority in the first place by making your ignorance a matter of public knowledge.
And no, I do not agree that complying with instructions and then failing to tell them that you have not is inappropriate or disorderly in the slightest, nor is failing to comply with impossible directives. If the student was doing the assigned work, and was not playing a game, then they were in compliance to all the valid instructions, and failed only on the directive to "close the game" which was not open to begin with. Again, anyone savvy enough to actually figure out the name of the program and close enough to actually see it is also, clearly, close enough to see that nothing inappropriate is taking place. Update aside, this was a pretty strong indication that the incident was either a hoax or a gross misrepresentation.
As someone who plans to be a teacher and comes from a family of educators and school administrators, that's bullshit.
Teachers are not omnipotent or all knowing, and any teacher who is too arrogant to accept that they might be mistaken has no business educating our future, especially if they are so intellectually dishonest as to punish a student for knowing something that they do not. Some day the kids are going to be smarter than us anyway, so gracefully acknowledging that they might know some information we do not is simply common sense.
Furthermore, schools SHOULD NOT teach children how to mindlessly follow instructions and obey orders. It should teach them to think, and provide the framework tools necessary to doing so and participating in our culture without having to reinvent the wheel. Questioning authority is part of that, and one that we cannot afford to stamp out.
Well, last I heard the deficit was increasing at about $1m per minute, 4.6b / 1m = 4600, so at 360 minutes per day it should keep us from getting further into debt for about 12-13 days. Two weeks was actually a very good estimate, kudos to you.
Do you really believe that, or are you demanding a research essay because you disagree with his statement? Or is it because he claimed to hold a position of particular knowledge on the subject, and you resent the assertion that somebody might know more about a subject than you, or even that there might BE more to know?
Slashdot comments aren't held to your silly pie in the sky requirements by virtue of being a type of informal discourse, not candidate articles for peer reviewed academic journals. Get a grip.
He's had a long and successful career representing my state in the US Senate... and I'm sorry, but vehicular manslaughter just isn't relevant to that.
Maybe if people stopped expecting politicians to be perfect god-like beings and were willing to settle for people who are good at doing their job and generally (or universally, although this is unlikely to happen) make good policy choices it would be obvious why those of us responsible for continuously re-electing Ted Kennedy are apparently unconcerned by a 20 year old car accident that may or may not (really narrows things down...) have a conspiracy attached.
To re-phrase, come back and we'll talk when your senator has done a better job than mine.
With the important caveat that this is only for the purposes of melee combat and the calculations of attack range, adjacency, and related numbers that represent perceptual, rather than actual, distances.
Perceived distance is quite relative: a mile is a lot farther if you're walking than if you're driving; a child may view the top of a refrigerator as unreachable while an adult can reach it with ease; being 10 ft. from your opponent is a lot farther away when you're holding a knife than when you're holding a pike.
Repeat customers? How cute. We don't care about that here, because we find it more effective to bilk everyone out of every last cent and then submerge all competition in a flood of shit so as to give our angry disgruntled consumers no choice but to go through the exact same experience again next time.
Perjury isn't a civil offense, so no, they cannot.
At least I'm reasonably sure that Speed Racer won't be a carbon copy of The Matrix, or even have much in common with it (well, besides the drawn out action scenes with no conclusions or payoff... look, Neo just fought with Smith for 20 minutes just so he could run away like a little pussy, awesome!), so they still have that over George Lucas (recasting Palpatine as a women, Luke as a hobbit, Han Solo as Han Solo with a sword, and Darth Vader as some lame-ass in a skull helmet doesn't change the fact that Willow is so similar to Star Wars that it hurts.
"their cops are atleast nice when they stop you."
Keep in mind that in NH, people wish everything would just be legal, that guns are everywhere, and that a larger than average portion of the population are convicted felons (many from surrounding states move there because of looser restrictions on what they can do, and tighter restrictions on who can look into their histories; the Manchester area is notorious for this). They can't afford to be mean.
Actually, I believe they were planning on DX20...
I have bought something as the result of a banner ad ONCE. I was reading UF and saw a banner ad for an independent space shooter with a free demo, I downloaded and enjoyed the demo, and then bought the game. I don't regret it even a little.
I've also followed a few other banner ads for various things that looked interesting to me, generally for things I never would have searched for because I'd never heard of them before. Not being Flash based (or, if they are, being very subdued with it) is also greatly beneficial to anyone who wants my traffic from their ads.
Meaningful legislation... on baseball? Seriously, and I mean this in the nicest non-trolliest way possible: get a fucking life.
Why not demand meaningful legislation to prevent plot inconsistencies in comic books while we're at it... goddamned Spiderman and his thousand slightly different origins.
Anyway, steroids didn't make Barry Bonds any better at being able to see a 90 mph fast ball, or move his hands quickly and expertly enough to hit the ball once he does. Steroids don't help him maintain one of the most extreme diet and excercise regimens in professional sports. Steroids didn't get Barry Bonds his place in the Big Leagues or his record setting contract (the accusations of steroid use all begin well after both events).
You don't know that he couldn't have done this without steroids, and you don't know that Hank Aaron didn't use anything either; steroids were around back then, players were using, everyone knows this, and usually the explanation for why none looked quite so massive is the same explanation as why the pitching and running were slower, and why "steroids" referred only to a handful of expensive and difficult to acquire compounds... we've made massive advances in both training technique and in steroid technology. Baseball players have always used anything that would give them any sort of advantage over the competition, it's the nature of professional sports, where huge money is at stake and even the "worst" players are so good it could make your head spin. I'm not saying that Hank Aaron used steroids, or anything else for that matter, I'm just saying that we have no way of knowing either way, and that hating Barry Bonds for "stealing" his record by using unfair steroids is spurious and foolish at best.
[/ot response]
Mac was taking it on the chin prior to about 2003 (when was it that Steve came back again?), their machines were lackluster and their marketing was weak. The release of OSX and their renewed marketing drive has brought them back from obscurity.
This had nothing to do with FOSS, and everything to do with Apple reclaiming a large chunk of its niche who had moved to Windows (as a group, that is; many of the old school Mac users probably didn't migrate, but new users coming into the traditional Mac niches weren't flocking to Mac fast enough to maintain market share) in the absence of anything from Apple that could inspire them to pay the premium.
This was totally unrelated to Linux/FOSS.
"I think it's horrendous that society thinks the only way to interest teenage girls in things like math and science is to trick them into it with horoscopes and shoes."
While I agree, I must also point out that there are probably a few dozen major publications which are targeted almost exclusively at teen girls and cover very little else, and that retailers have long known that some of the highest margins and sales can be had on clothing and shoes marketed at that demographic. Marketers and ad agencies are very smart, and whatever conclusions they come up with about peoples' attitudes I, for one, will at least give serious consideration to... even when I wish the reality couldn't be that bad. Like another poster said, if it works then that's a good thing, even if we find it reprehensible ourselves.
"And math shouldn't be dumbed down by renaming things because words like 'reciprocal' are just too hard."
I have to admit, I think that's actually a pretty good mnemonic. It's a decent way of remembering what a reciprocal does, so long as you can remember the name; there are people of all genders who have trouble keeping that sort of thing straight.
Blasphemy and lies!
One cannot simply close their eyes, open them, and announce the problem is gone; one must close their eyes, recite the appropriate ritual no less than four times, then open their eyes and announce that the problem is no more.
If everyone listened to heretics like you, nothing would work and the world would fall apart. I've reported you to the Ministry of Truth so your lies will not continue.