I was not defending American politics. They do indeed suck. I was pointing out that the Americans people are much more nuanced than how the GP described them. The biggest problem is apathy. So few Americans bother to vote; it's no wonder many of our politicians are not representative. I would also remind you that Bush's incompetency is somewhat of an anomaly as US presidents go. Clinton, Herbert Walker, Reagan, even Nixon and Ford, had much more intellectual and competent administrations (abuses and corruption aside). Even Carter managed to redeem himself. I don't see that with Bush.
You are clearly not an American, b/c your criticisms are characteratures of the polar extremes of America that Europeans (not all, just the lazy-thinking ones) love to lampoon and use as examples of American demise to make them feel better about themselves. Few Americans vote party lines (if at all, but that's a different issue), the school boards who put creationism in the science curriculum are quickly voted out of office in the following election (even in Kansas), and I think if you bothered to meet some normal Americans (rather than the party operatives who play ones on TV), you would find that Americans have a very pragmatic approach to everyday life, which includes views on life, business, and policy.
I would also not attach our foreign policy blunders to the collective views of the American people. The administration has consistently been a lone cowboy (pun intended) in this area - very few viewpoints had a place at the table in the last 8 years (even our own secretary of state was sidelined). Many of us lament the moral high ground our country has lost since the end of the cold war because of the lapses in judgment with regards to torture, just war, and diplomacy that a handful of reckless unelected officials with too much power have conducted on our behalf.
I wonder how many 15 yr olds see high-profile hacking felonies as their golden ticket into the "legitimate security consultant," career path? Is this the best way to get street cred as a consultant?
There are two Americas. In one America, people get paid according to hours worked and in accordance with clearly stated policies. The other America is IT.
I don't work in IT, but I've never had a salaried 9-5 job. Most salaried knowledge workers get paid an annual fee for delivering a product, project, or service to a company or firm. If you want to get "paid according to hours worked and in accordance with clearly stated policies," I suggest you take up cleaning toilets or flipping burgers. There are very few salaried jobs that exist with those parameters.
The MS ad represented a heck of a lot more walks of life than the Apple ads.
All of this is irrelevant anyway. Microsoft will have a lot easier time connecting with consumers when windows is easier to use. The user experience plays more of a role in defining the brand than the advertising.
Many jobs in marketing, pr, and administrative have writing tests. Also, let's take a look at the other professions mentioned: law - they have the Bar exam; accountant - CPA and CFA exams; sales - commission-based with low base salary, so less risk to hire; HR - well, there would be no HR "professionals" if they had to be accountable for knowing anything.
You are confusing individual actions with legal protections. No one is saying that various public entities like cops don't try to abuse the system. But there is a legal framework in place to hold them accountable. Unlike in China, your friend has legal recourse. He has the right to take the cops to criminal and/or civil court.
Did you even RTFA you linked to? The gag order was lifted. MBTA is trying to silence the students, but the courts prevented the transport authority from doing so.
Mod parent up. My understanding is that rule was meant to protect kids as much as it was to standardize the competition. It's not so much designed to minimize the advantages of younger gymnasts, but to minimize the advantages of countries who have no moral limitations when it comes to removing 3-yr-old kids from their homes and shipping them off to an athletic mill.
I believe it's called waterboarding in the Bush administration.
Calm down, Guardian reader. For all it's faults, the US is the most staunch defender of free speech. No one is getting tortured for reporting truth to power on US soil.
In contrast, most people buying a Mac end up having to fiddle around for hours choosing and installing the applications they need. And many people end up buying and installing one little Macintosh hack after another to work around the limitations and annoyances of the Mac interface.
I'm going to get modded a troll, but someone needs to point out that you're f'ing nuts. I'm all about bashing Apple for their DRM or their ridiculous iPhone developer policies, but no other system gets up and running out of the box better than a Mac. iLife, Mail and Safari work right out of the box. It takes 2 minutes to download and install Firefox. By "little Macintosh hacks" do you mean Quicksilver? That's a very unique user experience that, to my knowledge, is no easier to replicate in Windows or *nix.
I'd like to see the data for Hukabee's or Ron Paul's appearances separated from the aggregate. While Republicans on better-know-a-district probably don't benefit from being lampooned, I bet Hukabee and Paul had a bump in polls or online support after their appearances.
Face it : who gives out money ? The government. The amount of money printed is the inflation.
Technically, inflation is the amount of money printed in excess of real GDP growth. If people kept producing more things to buy without an increase in money supply, you would have deflation.
You need one more point: 3. I own AAPL. It's a lot more fun to "root" for Apple when you have some skin in the game -- even if its a small position. Open a Zecco account and buy a couple shares.
Slashdot Mirror
I was not defending American politics. They do indeed suck. I was pointing out that the Americans people are much more nuanced than how the GP described them. The biggest problem is apathy. So few Americans bother to vote; it's no wonder many of our politicians are not representative. I would also remind you that Bush's incompetency is somewhat of an anomaly as US presidents go. Clinton, Herbert Walker, Reagan, even Nixon and Ford, had much more intellectual and competent administrations (abuses and corruption aside). Even Carter managed to redeem himself. I don't see that with Bush.
You are clearly not an American, b/c your criticisms are characteratures of the polar extremes of America that Europeans (not all, just the lazy-thinking ones) love to lampoon and use as examples of American demise to make them feel better about themselves. Few Americans vote party lines (if at all, but that's a different issue), the school boards who put creationism in the science curriculum are quickly voted out of office in the following election (even in Kansas), and I think if you bothered to meet some normal Americans (rather than the party operatives who play ones on TV), you would find that Americans have a very pragmatic approach to everyday life, which includes views on life, business, and policy.
I would also not attach our foreign policy blunders to the collective views of the American people. The administration has consistently been a lone cowboy (pun intended) in this area - very few viewpoints had a place at the table in the last 8 years (even our own secretary of state was sidelined). Many of us lament the moral high ground our country has lost since the end of the cold war because of the lapses in judgment with regards to torture, just war, and diplomacy that a handful of reckless unelected officials with too much power have conducted on our behalf.
I'm getting too old for this slashdot shit, I guess.
+ 1 insightful
You don't have to be a student to get an internship. Save the $100K and offer to be an intern for one of your target companies.
I wonder how many 15 yr olds see high-profile hacking felonies as their golden ticket into the "legitimate security consultant," career path? Is this the best way to get street cred as a consultant?
There are two Americas. In one America, people get paid according to hours worked and in accordance with clearly stated policies. The other America is IT.
I don't work in IT, but I've never had a salaried 9-5 job. Most salaried knowledge workers get paid an annual fee for delivering a product, project, or service to a company or firm. If you want to get "paid according to hours worked and in accordance with clearly stated policies," I suggest you take up cleaning toilets or flipping burgers. There are very few salaried jobs that exist with those parameters.
The MS ad represented a heck of a lot more walks of life than the Apple ads.
All of this is irrelevant anyway. Microsoft will have a lot easier time connecting with consumers when windows is easier to use. The user experience plays more of a role in defining the brand than the advertising.
Exactly! NASA obviously needs to do a better job of keeping the lense clean. :-P
Those darn Water Bears are already causing havoc.
Many jobs in marketing, pr, and administrative have writing tests. Also, let's take a look at the other professions mentioned: law - they have the Bar exam; accountant - CPA and CFA exams; sales - commission-based with low base salary, so less risk to hire; HR - well, there would be no HR "professionals" if they had to be accountable for knowing anything.
"It is not to be an alternative tech support channel for Microsoft as this has no financial return beyond improved customer satisfaction"
If they are not providing tech support, where does the improved customer satisfaction come from?
Might as well get the others out of the way... In Soviet Russia, Beowulf clusters all your base.
Carry on.
beowulf cluster?
That's nice.
Meanwhile, as of last week, we STILL cannot buy FIOS in Philadelphia. No matter how much I want to give Verizon my money, they just won't take it.
Isn't Comcast's headquarters in Philly? Hate to break it to you, but you'll never get FIOS in Comcast's back yard.
I'm guessing most of these databases are keeping CYA information, most of which will never be used.
You are confusing individual actions with legal protections. No one is saying that various public entities like cops don't try to abuse the system. But there is a legal framework in place to hold them accountable. Unlike in China, your friend has legal recourse. He has the right to take the cops to criminal and/or civil court.
Did you even RTFA you linked to? The gag order was lifted. MBTA is trying to silence the students, but the courts prevented the transport authority from doing so.
I challenge you to name one US citizen who has gone to jail for something they said.
Mod parent up. My understanding is that rule was meant to protect kids as much as it was to standardize the competition. It's not so much designed to minimize the advantages of younger gymnasts, but to minimize the advantages of countries who have no moral limitations when it comes to removing 3-yr-old kids from their homes and shipping them off to an athletic mill.
I believe it's called waterboarding in the Bush administration.
Calm down, Guardian reader. For all it's faults, the US is the most staunch defender of free speech. No one is getting tortured for reporting truth to power on US soil.
In contrast, most people buying a Mac end up having to fiddle around for hours choosing and installing the applications they need. And many people end up buying and installing one little Macintosh hack after another to work around the limitations and annoyances of the Mac interface.
I'm going to get modded a troll, but someone needs to point out that you're f'ing nuts. I'm all about bashing Apple for their DRM or their ridiculous iPhone developer policies, but no other system gets up and running out of the box better than a Mac. iLife, Mail and Safari work right out of the box. It takes 2 minutes to download and install Firefox. By "little Macintosh hacks" do you mean Quicksilver? That's a very unique user experience that, to my knowledge, is no easier to replicate in Windows or *nix.
Be careful what you wish for.
I'd like to see the data for Hukabee's or Ron Paul's appearances separated from the aggregate. While Republicans on better-know-a-district probably don't benefit from being lampooned, I bet Hukabee and Paul had a bump in polls or online support after their appearances.
Money IS a pyramid scheme.
Face it : who gives out money ? The government. The amount of money printed is the inflation.
Technically, inflation is the amount of money printed in excess of real GDP growth. If people kept producing more things to buy without an increase in money supply, you would have deflation.
It's also not really a shock, because Apple's annual Revenue, Gross Profit, Total Assets, and Net Change in Cash are larger than Google's.
You need one more point: 3. I own AAPL. It's a lot more fun to "root" for Apple when you have some skin in the game -- even if its a small position. Open a Zecco account and buy a couple shares.