If Indiana is anything like Arizona, the president of the university is not a state employee, but rather an appointee of a Board of Regents or College of Deans. The Board of Regents here are a semi-private business, that does report to the governor and whose members are appointed by the governor, but maintains its own control over the university employees, including the president.
Here in Arizona, drunk driving is a pretty severe offense. I myself have never been arrested or convicted, but I know people who have. They're high-level misdemeanors at best, and felonies at worst.
Aside from the mark on the record, even pleading guilty and not hiring a lawyer will run you a few large. Bring lawyers into it, and you could see a bill for $5,000 or more, win or lose.
If you are convicted, you lose your license for 90 days, and have to spend not less than 24 hours and not more than 10 days in jail. Depending on some factors, a provisional 'work only' license may be issued.
DUI is a serious offense, don't get me wrong. It can cause all kinds of problems for the driver and other motorists and pedestrians. But I'm not sure why we don't spend as many resources preventing it as we do punishing it.
Also, if DUI is so dangerous (which I agree that it is), why not make red-light and stop sign running a similar offense? A friend of mine was killed last year while crossing at a crosswalk because some jerk-off ran a stop sign. He was cited for failure to stop at a stop sign.
Studies have repeatedly shown that talking on a cell phone while driving approximates the impairment level of a person past the legal limit for alcohol.
So why not start cracking down on ALL drivers who, through negligence or poor decisions, put others at risk? Why not either require all cars to have Interlock devices (sure, they can be beaten, but that justifies higher penalties for doing so), and/or make the law zero tolerance?
Unfortunately, I can only surmise that the reason things are the way they are regarding DUI here is because it's a slam-dunk, high-dollar case for the courts generating healthy city income. People would complain too much about having to put down their cell phones, and would cry about civil liberties with mandatory intoxalyzers in the car (despite that most states in the US make you sign a waiver giving up certain search and seizure laws upon getting a driver license).
I'm not sure what market penetration is, but of 'professional' software outside of everyone's favorite productivity suite, I'll bet it's either one of, or the most popular application.
Photoshop, although a complicated piece of software, is easy enough to use, and works with a type of file that nearly everyone has an interest in: pictures. At $700, it's a nice complement to Joe Bob's $3000 digital camera.
Besides Joe Bob, graphic designers use it, Web designers use it, photographers use it, digital painters use it, etc. I'd bet that nearly every modern business (small, medium or large) has at least one workstation with Photoshop on it.
Look at the piracy too. I bet that the Creative Suite is almost as pirated as Office or Windows. It's one of the easiest pieces of software to find on various torrent sites. Even if people aren't buying it, many still use it.
And from a practical standpoint, even if only 2% of computer users justifiably NEED Photoshop to do their jobs, there is nothing out there that works anywhere near as well. And as much as I wish it weren't the case, GIMP is not only not in the same class, I'm not sure if they're even playing in the same league.
I'll cite CYMK support, memory management (Pshop is a hog, GIMP is worse), PSD compatibility, respect for EXIF and IPTC, and a lack of support for standard third party plugins.
Where I'm at in Arizona, we pay right around nine bucks per ticket for a movie. For my wife and I to go see a flick, the cheapest we can do it is $18 (not including gas). Snacks, etc. can easily double that price.
For that 18 bucks, we too get 15-30 minutes of ads, not to mention whatever products are whored in the movie itself.
For those same 18 bucks, we also get to hear cellphones ringing, kids making jokes, children to young for the theater crying, inane comments and questions from the poor bastards guarding the door of the theater and so on and so forth.
At this point, I do not go to the theater anymore, and my wife might go 2-3 times a year with one of her friends.
For $18 I can BUY the movie on DVD, watch it on my big nice TV, in my big quiet living room, and on that environment, pants are optional. If the movie turns out to be shite, I can take it to one of the many videogame or used bookstores in town and unload it for about half of what I paid. If it's a good flick, then I'll watch it again or loan it out to friends or whatever. No commercials, no crying kids, no ridiculous mark-ups, no drive to the theater, no nothing.
So remind me again: What is so great about the movies these days that people are willing to shell out a very high fee for essentially a single-viewing license? Where I'm at, the theaters themselves are enough to keep me away, but beyond that I am consistently disappointed with the Mad Libs that become movies today.
"digital camera market has standardized to RAW for cases where JPEG isn't good enough"
.
Um. No. Working with RAW files is still a mondo pain in the ass, and no two pieces of software, be they Photoshop or manufacturer hand-outs handle them the same way.
As a person who works as a professional photographer, I can tell you that for ANY printing or publishing, there is one or maybe two options. 1)TIFF 2)JPG.
I fail to see the benefit of Adobe's DNG files, and I only use PSDs when I must save layers for one reason or another.
I'm almost 29 (matter of days now), my wife is 25 and we're quite happily married. Maybe you read my post out of context, or maybe I wasn't clear in my meaning/intent.
This seems to me like Sony scrambling to offer SOME feature that will move these things off the store shelves. What next? A toaster and removable HDD MP3 player?
Games, guys, games. That's what this thing is made to do. And right now, nearly a year after launch, the titles are the same old crap. And crap available already on other platforms too.
One of the saddest days of my life was the afternoon after the day I banged, probably, my last teen. I was not quite 23, and had a simple feeling that after that I'd be too old for the 18-19 crowd. I mean, how fun is it to date someone who can't go to the bar with you, and how likely are you to meet a teen (legal teen, that is) at any of your usual post-21 haunts.
These days, as I near 30 I still very often work around girls in their late teens and very early twenties. I'm a photographer and most of the fashion and lifestyle models I work with are 18-22 or 30-40. As I get older though, I realize that the teens and young 20's I'm working around, as attractive as many of them are, wouldn't really be worth it to me (even if I weren't married). There is just too much emotional immaturity with most of folks I meet. They very easily become too emotionally attached, OR are acting promiscuously for the purpose of 'getting even with dad' or something which I think would just make me feel dirty.
Plus, most of the people in the 18-22 range are fairly inexperienced. 22-35 is an entirely different story. Women are, in my opinion, like wines. They do get better with age, so long as they're well maintained, you get them before they turn to vinegar.
I totally agree with you there, buddy. The fruits of life are there to be enjoyed responsibly and with moderation.
For most of us, every day involves riding or driving in a car. Look at the statistics. Do some basic math. Now tell me that driving a car isn't one of the most dangerous things one can do. And yet, every day, we get in our cars, talk on our phones, fuck with the radio, shave, put on makeup, or do whatever else in the car.
Live life. Take active measures to keep yourself safe in all that you do, but don't let the fear of tomorrow prevent you from enjoying today responsibly.
They say that people only use 10% of their brains, and I doubt that they 'use' much more of their lives.
The act of sexual intercourse is a very natural human instinct. I would bet that a majority of people out there have sex, or at least have had sex at some point.
In theory, 50% of the people out there, teens or otherwise, are in the middle of the intelligence spectrum. The remainder of the population naturally gravitate to one of the other extremes.
Now, by definition, people approaching either extreme of the curve are increasingly further away from the 'average middle'.
I don't have handy any information about what the personal habits of 'non-normal' people are (when plotted across a curve of intelligence), but since the mind is perhaps our singular most defining feature as a species, I would hypothesize that people of average intelligence behave in very average ways.
Since sexual intercourse is a 'normal' or 'average' behavior, I bet that most of the people with 'normal' or 'average' intelligence participate in the act according to the average frequency of their peers.
I would also hypothesize that deviations from 'average' intelligence on either side of the curve change a great many behavioral characteristics. Since sexual behavior is (in my opinion) a baser, hard-wired bit of evolutionary programming, no doubt intelligence has some relationship with sexual behavior.
A lot of the relationship here, though is probably due to basic statistics and very difficult-to-quantify variables. A majority of people behave as the majority of people do.
I think that limitations on OSX gaming have more do do with the complete lack of DirectX and Direct 3D support than anything else. The fact of the matter is that there is a perception (and for all I know, it could be true) amongst game developers that the D3D is a 'better' option than OpenGL on Windows systems for gaming performance-wise. Since the clear and vast majority of machines out there are Windows-based, why use OpenGL graphics? By choosing not to use OpenGL, developers are shutting the door on non-PC operating systems.
Interestingly enough, I suspect that in the coming years console gaming is really going to capture a huge share of the pc gaming market. The game prices themselves are comparable for at least the major titles, and the high-end console manufacturers are going HD and using generic (if not crippled) USB inputs. There has been talk for a long time that Microsoft will be releasing a keyboard for the Xbox 360, and what MS does, Sony will inevitably copy.
As the PS3 lags behind MS and Nintendo in sales, I think that the more hard-core gamers will go the way of the Xbox. Developers would like that because the internals of the Xbox are much more PC-like than the PS3 internals. We may yet see the transformation of gaming computers into gaming consoles.
1) You have, upon purchase, a grace period under which the reseller MUST give you at least a partial refund for a product purchased under good faith. AFAIK, Apple was offering a 30-day return period. Don't like it? Return it.
2) No one forced you to buy an iPhone, and as long as it works as advertised, you're screwed. If they advertised a 'user-serviceable battery', you would likely have a case.
3) Who wins even if the claimant(s) win the CA case? The lawyers on both sides. Likely, Apple will settle out of court, either giving one-time free battery replacements to people who bought the phone prior to the filing, OR they will reduce the price of replacing the battery for everyone (perhaps again limited by the purchase date). The lawyers will walk away with truckloads of money.
As much as I hate it when ANY manufacturer makes it difficult to repair or replace wearable parts (ever try to change the battery on a car with the battery mounted INSIDE THE WHEELWELL?), they are well within their rights to do that.
So let me get this straight. The savior party that promised to end the war in Iraq, fix the clusterfuck that is healthcare, stop the overreaching civil-rights grab at the hands of the Republicans are now so *busy* doing all those things that they have time to worry about protecting the mafIAA?
All I've seen come out of the Hill recently has been meaningless resolutions, pointless infighting and a lot of hot air.
I'm all in favor of recalling every fucking one of them and putting a big dent in the problem by passing a term-limit bill on ALL elected and appointed government officials. I mean, fuck it. If they weren't so worried about having a career in politics, they would focus more on doing the right thing for the good of the people. And the bad ones would probably get out of the game forever.
The goddamned democrats these days are every bit as worthless as the republicans.
I would bet that, outside of the enterprise/gaming groups, tech 'upgrades' only happen because generally speaking with computers, only the latest and greatest are available.
I can't tell you the number of people I know who have purchased entirely new computers because they've become glutted with spyware, viruses, or have experienced a relatively simple hardware failure like an HDD spin-out or a dead RAM stick. Instead of dropping money on a replacement part and possibly installation services, they just buy a new computer.
And that comes with good reason too. Look at places like Dell. A $499 desktop isn't too bad at all. And I can promise that system will do everything that 85% of computer users will use it for. Most people don't play hardcore games. Most people don't use applications more processor intensive than productivity suites. Heck, for most people, the computer will be used only for email, Web, watching streaming video and maybe ripping their own CDs to put them on the iDevice of choice.
But that's the rub. At Best Buy or Dell or any of the retailers, even on their cheapest PCs, you're getting a pretty damn fast machine. You can't get an older/slower/cheaper desktop unless you're willing to buy old parts on Ebay and piece something together yourself.
For the big retailers, they can't even afford to keep the old hardware in stock, as storing it costs more than the retail value of the computer.
It really doesn't cost that much more to get a better computer with the current pricing structure. I wonder what would happen if all-of-a-sudden people could get a $150 laptop capable of Web, word processing, basic networking and email?
Remember how wildly successful Wal Mart was with the $35 DVD player a bunch of years back? It worked because it was so cheap that people either didn't demand top quality, or realized that they didn't need the $1,000 Sony 5-disc DVD changer with DTS surround and optical outputs.
I think it's funny that so many people are so willing to blame TV/movies/videogames/books/comics/etc. for foul language usage and other inappropriate behavior.
I remember the first time I said 'fuck' in front of my dad. It took him less than a second to give me an, in his words, a goddamned good open-palm reason to say 'oh, fuck'. If I recall, I was about 7. He didn't care where I heard the word. Could've been the playground, him, mom, or anywhere else. It didn't matter. I violated his disciplinary code in my usage of that word.
Eventually, through juvenile social experimentation, I learned that there are times, places, and situations where it is ok to use foul language. I also learned that there is a great difference in saying, 'oh, fuck' as opposed to 'fuck you'.
If people would step in and be parents, we wouldn't be so reliant on governments to pass legislation in 'think-of-the-children' ways. If we educate our children that life is full of environments and choices, we can train them to be contributing members of society in all those situations and environments.
With everything else going on in the world today, I wouldn't be nearly so concerned about sheltering my children from foul language, as I would be in providing them with the tools to be successful, productive members of society.
As for the Wal-Mart f-bomb, I see plenty of out-of-control children who don't use foul language. I'm not advocating child abuse or indiscriminate violence of any kind, but we really need to get away from this 'spare the whip and spoil the child' crap. Just as there are varying degrees of crime and unacceptable behavior, so should there be various levels of punishment; from a "Johnny, quit it" to a firm smack across the ass.
I have a feeling I'll get modded down for saying it, but a lot of the posts I'm seeing here are pro-FLOSS in an anti-FLOSS way.
I'm not a lawyer, and don't pretend to have a complete understanding of GPLv2 and GPLv3. However, I do think it is generally A Good Thing when companies like Apple (despite their less-than-stellar FLOSS history) buy out projects like CUPS.
Sure, there is a lot of really great FLOSS software out there that comes completely free to use. A lot of people donate their time to projects. However, with the growing popularity of desktop *NIX, especially desktop Linux, the pseudo-commercialization of the software is bound to happen.
So long as people get to modify the original code, it only encourages developers if companies like Apple (or Microsoft, or Novell, or whoever) take the original code and make it their own proprietary code. It gives otherwise volunteer developers a way of being financially rewarded for their work.
The argument about all this comes from something much bigger: the patent/copyright situation. People don't want to see a portion of really useful code locked up for a really long time. But that's kind of the nature of the beast, hunh? You're going to go to whoever has the best product. Companies will seek market advantage by trying to build the best product.
The wise naval captain never fears the hardware, only the man commanding it.
I agree with others that it's probably intentionally left out in the open, as the best way to scare someone with a weapon is to show it to them.
Since the Chinese navy has been one step short of completely useless since the 15th Century, I am curious to see if this class of boat is a sign of the revitalization of the navy, or just another experiment in a long line of PRC naval failures.
The design of the boat itself is quite antiquated. I have no doubt that the inner workings of the ship are somewhat advanced, but as the Russians proved, their much-feared boats were well behind their Western (specifically, American) counterparts. Even for the economic powerhouse China has become, they lack the requisite experience to build a boat as sophisticated and deadly as what British, French and American sailors put to sea in. My bet is that it's mildly improved Soviet surplus tech bought cheap as a big warning to the West.
Tons and tons of businesses are based in Delaware and Virgina to enjoy certain tax benefits, as well as ease of incorporation in those states. In my state of Arizona, you better be prepared to do a lot of hoop-jumping to get your business of the ground legally.
As for California, I can only surmise that many of them are based in California, because Los Angeles is a, ahem, a hub of American Culture producers and sellers.
Maybe since we're talking about immobilizers, we can extend that to requiring intoxalyzers in cars.
I mean, we (in the US) already require people applying for driver licenses to give up certain rights as a prerequisite for the privilege to drive, why not make cares harder to steal and harder to drive while drunk?
We've legislated against private property owners with respect to tobacco use, we've made it illegal (in some places) to sell food with trans-fats and all this in the name of "public health".
Last time I checked, drunk drivers injured and killed many more people than either trans fats or second-hand tobacco smoke.
Heck, without cops having to dedicate so many resources to fighting DUI, they could be out serving the community in other ways.
I'm a professional editorial and commercial photographer as well, and I'd happily join you in extending a big middle finger to NYC, should they decide to go that route.
I've watched national parks begin charging ludicrous 'permit fees' in recent years, as well as Patriot Act extensions prohibiting photography of Federal buildings, etc.
Hopefully our friends at the NYTimes and the AP will stand up to NY. But probably not; they're pretty spineless and impotent of late.
I might be mistaken here, but I'm under the impression that microwaves are generated with relatively low power supplies. I would not at all be surprised to find out that, although there is an energy cost in this conversion, that the cost is less than, say, plugging an all-electric car into a coal-fed power outlet.
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You forgot Mandarin/Szechuan/Cantonese.
That was exactly my point.
From the summary...
"StarOffice includes...tools for Microsoft Office migration"
I think that they suspect that they can wean people off some of the Office stuff rather than just forcing them to go cold turkey.
If Indiana is anything like Arizona, the president of the university is not a state employee, but rather an appointee of a Board of Regents or College of Deans. The Board of Regents here are a semi-private business, that does report to the governor and whose members are appointed by the governor, but maintains its own control over the university employees, including the president.
Here in Arizona, drunk driving is a pretty severe offense. I myself have never been arrested or convicted, but I know people who have. They're high-level misdemeanors at best, and felonies at worst.
Aside from the mark on the record, even pleading guilty and not hiring a lawyer will run you a few large. Bring lawyers into it, and you could see a bill for $5,000 or more, win or lose.
If you are convicted, you lose your license for 90 days, and have to spend not less than 24 hours and not more than 10 days in jail. Depending on some factors, a provisional 'work only' license may be issued.
DUI is a serious offense, don't get me wrong. It can cause all kinds of problems for the driver and other motorists and pedestrians. But I'm not sure why we don't spend as many resources preventing it as we do punishing it.
Also, if DUI is so dangerous (which I agree that it is), why not make red-light and stop sign running a similar offense? A friend of mine was killed last year while crossing at a crosswalk because some jerk-off ran a stop sign. He was cited for failure to stop at a stop sign.
Studies have repeatedly shown that talking on a cell phone while driving approximates the impairment level of a person past the legal limit for alcohol.
So why not start cracking down on ALL drivers who, through negligence or poor decisions, put others at risk? Why not either require all cars to have Interlock devices (sure, they can be beaten, but that justifies higher penalties for doing so), and/or make the law zero tolerance?
Unfortunately, I can only surmise that the reason things are the way they are regarding DUI here is because it's a slam-dunk, high-dollar case for the courts generating healthy city income. People would complain too much about having to put down their cell phones, and would cry about civil liberties with mandatory intoxalyzers in the car (despite that most states in the US make you sign a waiver giving up certain search and seizure laws upon getting a driver license).
I'm not sure what market penetration is, but of 'professional' software outside of everyone's favorite productivity suite, I'll bet it's either one of, or the most popular application.
Photoshop, although a complicated piece of software, is easy enough to use, and works with a type of file that nearly everyone has an interest in: pictures. At $700, it's a nice complement to Joe Bob's $3000 digital camera.
Besides Joe Bob, graphic designers use it, Web designers use it, photographers use it, digital painters use it, etc. I'd bet that nearly every modern business (small, medium or large) has at least one workstation with Photoshop on it.
Look at the piracy too. I bet that the Creative Suite is almost as pirated as Office or Windows. It's one of the easiest pieces of software to find on various torrent sites. Even if people aren't buying it, many still use it.
And from a practical standpoint, even if only 2% of computer users justifiably NEED Photoshop to do their jobs, there is nothing out there that works anywhere near as well. And as much as I wish it weren't the case, GIMP is not only not in the same class, I'm not sure if they're even playing in the same league.
I'll cite CYMK support, memory management (Pshop is a hog, GIMP is worse), PSD compatibility, respect for EXIF and IPTC, and a lack of support for standard third party plugins.
Yeah, I hear ya.
Where I'm at in Arizona, we pay right around nine bucks per ticket for a movie. For my wife and I to go see a flick, the cheapest we can do it is $18 (not including gas). Snacks, etc. can easily double that price.
For that 18 bucks, we too get 15-30 minutes of ads, not to mention whatever products are whored in the movie itself.
For those same 18 bucks, we also get to hear cellphones ringing, kids making jokes, children to young for the theater crying, inane comments and questions from the poor bastards guarding the door of the theater and so on and so forth.
At this point, I do not go to the theater anymore, and my wife might go 2-3 times a year with one of her friends.
For $18 I can BUY the movie on DVD, watch it on my big nice TV, in my big quiet living room, and on that environment, pants are optional. If the movie turns out to be shite, I can take it to one of the many videogame or used bookstores in town and unload it for about half of what I paid. If it's a good flick, then I'll watch it again or loan it out to friends or whatever. No commercials, no crying kids, no ridiculous mark-ups, no drive to the theater, no nothing.
So remind me again: What is so great about the movies these days that people are willing to shell out a very high fee for essentially a single-viewing license? Where I'm at, the theaters themselves are enough to keep me away, but beyond that I am consistently disappointed with the Mad Libs that become movies today.
"digital camera market has standardized to RAW for cases where JPEG isn't good enough"
.Um. No. Working with RAW files is still a mondo pain in the ass, and no two pieces of software, be they Photoshop or manufacturer hand-outs handle them the same way.
As a person who works as a professional photographer, I can tell you that for ANY printing or publishing, there is one or maybe two options. 1)TIFF 2)JPG.
I fail to see the benefit of Adobe's DNG files, and I only use PSDs when I must save layers for one reason or another.
I'm almost 29 (matter of days now), my wife is 25 and we're quite happily married. Maybe you read my post out of context, or maybe I wasn't clear in my meaning/intent.
This seems to me like Sony scrambling to offer SOME feature that will move these things off the store shelves. What next? A toaster and removable HDD MP3 player?
Games, guys, games. That's what this thing is made to do. And right now, nearly a year after launch, the titles are the same old crap. And crap available already on other platforms too.
One of the saddest days of my life was the afternoon after the day I banged, probably, my last teen. I was not quite 23, and had a simple feeling that after that I'd be too old for the 18-19 crowd. I mean, how fun is it to date someone who can't go to the bar with you, and how likely are you to meet a teen (legal teen, that is) at any of your usual post-21 haunts.
These days, as I near 30 I still very often work around girls in their late teens and very early twenties. I'm a photographer and most of the fashion and lifestyle models I work with are 18-22 or 30-40. As I get older though, I realize that the teens and young 20's I'm working around, as attractive as many of them are, wouldn't really be worth it to me (even if I weren't married). There is just too much emotional immaturity with most of folks I meet. They very easily become too emotionally attached, OR are acting promiscuously for the purpose of 'getting even with dad' or something which I think would just make me feel dirty.
Plus, most of the people in the 18-22 range are fairly inexperienced. 22-35 is an entirely different story. Women are, in my opinion, like wines. They do get better with age, so long as they're well maintained, you get them before they turn to vinegar.
I totally agree with you there, buddy. The fruits of life are there to be enjoyed responsibly and with moderation.
For most of us, every day involves riding or driving in a car. Look at the statistics. Do some basic math. Now tell me that driving a car isn't one of the most dangerous things one can do. And yet, every day, we get in our cars, talk on our phones, fuck with the radio, shave, put on makeup, or do whatever else in the car.
Live life. Take active measures to keep yourself safe in all that you do, but don't let the fear of tomorrow prevent you from enjoying today responsibly.
They say that people only use 10% of their brains, and I doubt that they 'use' much more of their lives.
The act of sexual intercourse is a very natural human instinct. I would bet that a majority of people out there have sex, or at least have had sex at some point.
In theory, 50% of the people out there, teens or otherwise, are in the middle of the intelligence spectrum. The remainder of the population naturally gravitate to one of the other extremes.
Now, by definition, people approaching either extreme of the curve are increasingly further away from the 'average middle'.
I don't have handy any information about what the personal habits of 'non-normal' people are (when plotted across a curve of intelligence), but since the mind is perhaps our singular most defining feature as a species, I would hypothesize that people of average intelligence behave in very average ways.
Since sexual intercourse is a 'normal' or 'average' behavior, I bet that most of the people with 'normal' or 'average' intelligence participate in the act according to the average frequency of their peers.
I would also hypothesize that deviations from 'average' intelligence on either side of the curve change a great many behavioral characteristics. Since sexual behavior is (in my opinion) a baser, hard-wired bit of evolutionary programming, no doubt intelligence has some relationship with sexual behavior.
A lot of the relationship here, though is probably due to basic statistics and very difficult-to-quantify variables. A majority of people behave as the majority of people do.
I think that limitations on OSX gaming have more do do with the complete lack of DirectX and Direct 3D support than anything else. The fact of the matter is that there is a perception (and for all I know, it could be true) amongst game developers that the D3D is a 'better' option than OpenGL on Windows systems for gaming performance-wise. Since the clear and vast majority of machines out there are Windows-based, why use OpenGL graphics? By choosing not to use OpenGL, developers are shutting the door on non-PC operating systems.
Interestingly enough, I suspect that in the coming years console gaming is really going to capture a huge share of the pc gaming market. The game prices themselves are comparable for at least the major titles, and the high-end console manufacturers are going HD and using generic (if not crippled) USB inputs. There has been talk for a long time that Microsoft will be releasing a keyboard for the Xbox 360, and what MS does, Sony will inevitably copy.
As the PS3 lags behind MS and Nintendo in sales, I think that the more hard-core gamers will go the way of the Xbox. Developers would like that because the internals of the Xbox are much more PC-like than the PS3 internals. We may yet see the transformation of gaming computers into gaming consoles.
1) You have, upon purchase, a grace period under which the reseller MUST give you at least a partial refund for a product purchased under good faith. AFAIK, Apple was offering a 30-day return period. Don't like it? Return it.
2) No one forced you to buy an iPhone, and as long as it works as advertised, you're screwed. If they advertised a 'user-serviceable battery', you would likely have a case.
3) Who wins even if the claimant(s) win the CA case? The lawyers on both sides. Likely, Apple will settle out of court, either giving one-time free battery replacements to people who bought the phone prior to the filing, OR they will reduce the price of replacing the battery for everyone (perhaps again limited by the purchase date). The lawyers will walk away with truckloads of money.
As much as I hate it when ANY manufacturer makes it difficult to repair or replace wearable parts (ever try to change the battery on a car with the battery mounted INSIDE THE WHEELWELL?), they are well within their rights to do that.
Caveat emptor, bitches. Caveat emptor.
So let me get this straight. The savior party that promised to end the war in Iraq, fix the clusterfuck that is healthcare, stop the overreaching civil-rights grab at the hands of the Republicans are now so *busy* doing all those things that they have time to worry about protecting the mafIAA?
All I've seen come out of the Hill recently has been meaningless resolutions, pointless infighting and a lot of hot air.
I'm all in favor of recalling every fucking one of them and putting a big dent in the problem by passing a term-limit bill on ALL elected and appointed government officials. I mean, fuck it. If they weren't so worried about having a career in politics, they would focus more on doing the right thing for the good of the people. And the bad ones would probably get out of the game forever.
The goddamned democrats these days are every bit as worthless as the republicans.
I would bet that, outside of the enterprise/gaming groups, tech 'upgrades' only happen because generally speaking with computers, only the latest and greatest are available.
I can't tell you the number of people I know who have purchased entirely new computers because they've become glutted with spyware, viruses, or have experienced a relatively simple hardware failure like an HDD spin-out or a dead RAM stick. Instead of dropping money on a replacement part and possibly installation services, they just buy a new computer.
And that comes with good reason too. Look at places like Dell. A $499 desktop isn't too bad at all. And I can promise that system will do everything that 85% of computer users will use it for. Most people don't play hardcore games. Most people don't use applications more processor intensive than productivity suites. Heck, for most people, the computer will be used only for email, Web, watching streaming video and maybe ripping their own CDs to put them on the iDevice of choice.
But that's the rub. At Best Buy or Dell or any of the retailers, even on their cheapest PCs, you're getting a pretty damn fast machine. You can't get an older/slower/cheaper desktop unless you're willing to buy old parts on Ebay and piece something together yourself.
For the big retailers, they can't even afford to keep the old hardware in stock, as storing it costs more than the retail value of the computer.
It really doesn't cost that much more to get a better computer with the current pricing structure. I wonder what would happen if all-of-a-sudden people could get a $150 laptop capable of Web, word processing, basic networking and email?
Remember how wildly successful Wal Mart was with the $35 DVD player a bunch of years back? It worked because it was so cheap that people either didn't demand top quality, or realized that they didn't need the $1,000 Sony 5-disc DVD changer with DTS surround and optical outputs.
I think it's funny that so many people are so willing to blame TV/movies/videogames/books/comics/etc. for foul language usage and other inappropriate behavior.
I remember the first time I said 'fuck' in front of my dad. It took him less than a second to give me an, in his words, a goddamned good open-palm reason to say 'oh, fuck'. If I recall, I was about 7. He didn't care where I heard the word. Could've been the playground, him, mom, or anywhere else. It didn't matter. I violated his disciplinary code in my usage of that word.
Eventually, through juvenile social experimentation, I learned that there are times, places, and situations where it is ok to use foul language. I also learned that there is a great difference in saying, 'oh, fuck' as opposed to 'fuck you'.
If people would step in and be parents, we wouldn't be so reliant on governments to pass legislation in 'think-of-the-children' ways. If we educate our children that life is full of environments and choices, we can train them to be contributing members of society in all those situations and environments.
With everything else going on in the world today, I wouldn't be nearly so concerned about sheltering my children from foul language, as I would be in providing them with the tools to be successful, productive members of society.
As for the Wal-Mart f-bomb, I see plenty of out-of-control children who don't use foul language. I'm not advocating child abuse or indiscriminate violence of any kind, but we really need to get away from this 'spare the whip and spoil the child' crap. Just as there are varying degrees of crime and unacceptable behavior, so should there be various levels of punishment; from a "Johnny, quit it" to a firm smack across the ass.
I have a feeling I'll get modded down for saying it, but a lot of the posts I'm seeing here are pro-FLOSS in an anti-FLOSS way.
I'm not a lawyer, and don't pretend to have a complete understanding of GPLv2 and GPLv3. However, I do think it is generally A Good Thing when companies like Apple (despite their less-than-stellar FLOSS history) buy out projects like CUPS.
Sure, there is a lot of really great FLOSS software out there that comes completely free to use. A lot of people donate their time to projects. However, with the growing popularity of desktop *NIX, especially desktop Linux, the pseudo-commercialization of the software is bound to happen.
So long as people get to modify the original code, it only encourages developers if companies like Apple (or Microsoft, or Novell, or whoever) take the original code and make it their own proprietary code. It gives otherwise volunteer developers a way of being financially rewarded for their work.
The argument about all this comes from something much bigger: the patent/copyright situation. People don't want to see a portion of really useful code locked up for a really long time. But that's kind of the nature of the beast, hunh? You're going to go to whoever has the best product. Companies will seek market advantage by trying to build the best product.
The wise naval captain never fears the hardware, only the man commanding it.
I agree with others that it's probably intentionally left out in the open, as the best way to scare someone with a weapon is to show it to them.
Since the Chinese navy has been one step short of completely useless since the 15th Century, I am curious to see if this class of boat is a sign of the revitalization of the navy, or just another experiment in a long line of PRC naval failures.
The design of the boat itself is quite antiquated. I have no doubt that the inner workings of the ship are somewhat advanced, but as the Russians proved, their much-feared boats were well behind their Western (specifically, American) counterparts. Even for the economic powerhouse China has become, they lack the requisite experience to build a boat as sophisticated and deadly as what British, French and American sailors put to sea in. My bet is that it's mildly improved Soviet surplus tech bought cheap as a big warning to the West.
I'll be watching this closely.
Tons and tons of businesses are based in Delaware and Virgina to enjoy certain tax benefits, as well as ease of incorporation in those states. In my state of Arizona, you better be prepared to do a lot of hoop-jumping to get your business of the ground legally.
As for California, I can only surmise that many of them are based in California, because Los Angeles is a, ahem, a hub of American Culture producers and sellers.
Maybe since we're talking about immobilizers, we can extend that to requiring intoxalyzers in cars.
I mean, we (in the US) already require people applying for driver licenses to give up certain rights as a prerequisite for the privilege to drive, why not make cares harder to steal and harder to drive while drunk?
We've legislated against private property owners with respect to tobacco use, we've made it illegal (in some places) to sell food with trans-fats and all this in the name of "public health".
Last time I checked, drunk drivers injured and killed many more people than either trans fats or second-hand tobacco smoke.
Heck, without cops having to dedicate so many resources to fighting DUI, they could be out serving the community in other ways.
Sorry to hijack the thread.
I'm a professional editorial and commercial photographer as well, and I'd happily join you in extending a big middle finger to NYC, should they decide to go that route.
I've watched national parks begin charging ludicrous 'permit fees' in recent years, as well as Patriot Act extensions prohibiting photography of Federal buildings, etc.
Hopefully our friends at the NYTimes and the AP will stand up to NY. But probably not; they're pretty spineless and impotent of late.
Fsck you, New York.
Now that collusion in the form of price-fixing is basically legal, let me ask: Are there any other pro photographers in the room?
I'm kinda tired of having to compete. Why don't we all just sign contracts with each other indicating that the smallest hourly rate we accept is $200?
Let me say this loud and proud, again. I am sick and fucking tired of this shitbox government. Nothing more than the whores to Big Business' pimp.
I might be mistaken here, but I'm under the impression that microwaves are generated with relatively low power supplies. I would not at all be surprised to find out that, although there is an energy cost in this conversion, that the cost is less than, say, plugging an all-electric car into a coal-fed power outlet.