There is a town in northern Maine, Calais, on the Canadian border. Mainers pronounce it exactly like the word 'callous'.
Yup, it's even worse than how we mess up Presque Isle. Of course, it was always hilarious to listen to people from out of state try to pronounce Orono. Then I moved to Massachusetts, where we have Billerica. Take a guess how that's pronounced around here (hint: you're wrong).
In recent months they already talked of banning the veil for women in public spaces and tried to have some national debate on the "French identity".
Because trying to fight "terrorists" by doing something that doesn't at all hinder terrorist activity but is guaranteed to piss off "terrorists" is a great improvement in security.
It doesn't work. Kopete fails to connect, instead getting some error from the server about an unsupported XMPP version.
I get that error, too, and there was at least one other person on the mailing list that also got it. I don't think anyone has figured out why it happens (it isn't a KDE/Kopete version issue, apparently). The best guess so far is that it's a Facebook server problem.
The US is still oppressing their rules and wishes onto the rest of the world.
Nothing has changed.
Obama is using diplomacy to get other countries to do what we want, while Bush used more or less thinly veiled threats. Whether or not that's better is debatable, but at least in theory it will give other countries more of a choice in the matters.
Anyway, towns can't just go around passing any law they feel like. They do have a partial responsibility to their state and national governments and populations.
Um, that's kind of the whole problem with this ruling. "Community standards" are used to define what is obscene. This ruling would effective say that something on the Internet can be compared with the standards of any community that has Internet access. So if I can create a community of 50 people that consider MySpace obscene and get us all Internet connections, I can sue News Corp for publishing obscene material in my community.
The ruling could be as reasonable as forcing US websites to be legal everywhere in the US.
That wouldn't be reasonable at all. At that point, I could easily get 50 people together to incorporate a new town and then pass a local law that says MySpace is illegal in our town, and then MySpace would be illegal in the entire US.
The simple reason is that Ubuntu and Gnome feel more finished than KDE did to me
That's not a problem with KDE, but a consequence of the fact that Ubuntu focuses far more on Gnome than on KDE. I still use Kubuntu at home, but from what I've read, other distributions that give more attention to KDE might work better.
Absolutely correct. And believe me, I wish it wasn't a problem, but the sad reality is that a lot of people would rather silence someone they disagree with than conduct an open discussion or simply accept that others have different opinions. Unfortunately, I don't see that vanishing from humanity in the near future.
I was only using those as examples. The point I was trying to make is that the majority of the cost in producing a book isn't printing and distribution, it's the original writing, editing, and, more in the case of textbooks than normal fiction or nonfiction, layout and artwork. If the printing and distribution are only 5% of the cost of a book, eliminating printing and distribution won't reduce the price by more than 5%.
Well of course you won't see any marketing that says "We do most of what you need." And for the people that don't care about that 5% of obscure features that OpenOffice doesn't support, it isn't a barrier for switching to Linux. There may be other barriers though, such as the few annoying web sites that still don't work in anything other than Internet Explorer.
I don't understand how people can simultaneously claim that OpenOffice can read and write MS Office files and then turn around and say MS customers are "trapped".
The word you're missing is "mostly". OpenOffice's compatibility with MS Office files is probably in the 95-98% range. For most home users and probably a lot of businesses, that's good enough. There are some times, though, when a customer has done something that MS Office saves in a way that OpenOffice can't handle, so your only choices are to just use MS Office or lose business. Until formats that are truly and completely open become standard, this problem will continue.
I know there's a bunch of front end costs in there, but you've cut out almost all of the physical costs, why isn't the book cheaper?
My guess would be that the physical costs are a small part of the overall cost. If a music CD only costs $0.25 to manufacture, why do you pay $10 for one? If the silicon in that CPU is only worth $5, why do you pay $200 for one?
The right to free speech is not the right to anonymous speech. The proverbial soapbox was never anonymous. Why should political speech be anonymous? I can see how it might make some folks happy, but I don't see why it has to be right. Just let me vote secretly.
Lack of anonymous speech isn't really a problem by itself, it's the backlash that people often receive when they say something unpopular. If there were a way to guarantee safety, from both the government and other individuals, because of unpopular speech, anonymous speech probably wouldn't be necessary. Since that's highly unlikely any time soon, though, I can understand the requirement for anonymous political speech.
The population of the country, or the population of the United States Senate that wrote the paycheck of the DOE that made this loan?
In theory, the House of Representatives controls spending, which would mean that representation in budget decisions isn't biased towards smaller states. Whether or not reality follows this is open for debate.
The N900 is nice, but the price is a bit off putting for the masses.
The price only seems high because you can't get it subsidized by a carrier (at least as far as I know in the US). If you look at the regular retail prices of most Android phones and the iPhone, you'll find that they're in the same range as the N900. If you get service from T-Mobile, you can even save $10 per month if you don't get a subsidized phone, so if you put that $240 (or more, if you plan on keeping the phone more than two years), towards the price of the phone, it's the equivalent of a $300 subsidized phone.
I've been checking out T-Mobile's plans lately (I'm working on convincing myself that's it okay to spend the $550 on an N900), and as far as I can tell, it's only $10 less, but it is on every plan, both individual and family.
The other day, over a Mexican Coca Cola (real sugar), I said
to my companion something along the lines of "drink up, this is
the ONLY benefit of Free Trade for the common man".
I've seen advertisements for Pepsi "Throwback", which is apparently regular Pepsi, but with real sugar. I almost cried at the realization that we've now come full circle.
Slashdot Mirror
There is a town in northern Maine, Calais, on the Canadian border. Mainers pronounce it exactly like the word 'callous'.
Yup, it's even worse than how we mess up Presque Isle. Of course, it was always hilarious to listen to people from out of state try to pronounce Orono. Then I moved to Massachusetts, where we have Billerica. Take a guess how that's pronounced around here (hint: you're wrong).
I think spent nuclear fuel should be stored in the U.S. Capitol.
I'm pretty sure that they're already way over the legal limit when it comes to how much waste you can keep in one place.
The morals and philosophy attributed to Jesus are almost completely diametrically opposed to most Republicans.
In a comparative religion textbook or perhaps creative writing. Right next to elephants standing on turtles
Blind Io will have your ass for that one.
In recent months they already talked of banning the veil for women in public spaces and tried to have some national debate on the "French identity".
Because trying to fight "terrorists" by doing something that doesn't at all hinder terrorist activity but is guaranteed to piss off "terrorists" is a great improvement in security.
It doesn't work. Kopete fails to connect, instead getting some error from the server about an unsupported XMPP version.
I get that error, too, and there was at least one other person on the mailing list that also got it. I don't think anyone has figured out why it happens (it isn't a KDE/Kopete version issue, apparently). The best guess so far is that it's a Facebook server problem.
How's Obama any different than Bush?
The US is still oppressing their rules and wishes onto the rest of the world.
Nothing has changed.
Obama is using diplomacy to get other countries to do what we want, while Bush used more or less thinly veiled threats. Whether or not that's better is debatable, but at least in theory it will give other countries more of a choice in the matters.
Linux is always Genuine.
Not always, but at least you do have the option with Linux Genuine Advantage.
Anyway, towns can't just go around passing any law they feel like. They do have a partial responsibility to their state and national governments and populations.
Um, that's kind of the whole problem with this ruling. "Community standards" are used to define what is obscene. This ruling would effective say that something on the Internet can be compared with the standards of any community that has Internet access. So if I can create a community of 50 people that consider MySpace obscene and get us all Internet connections, I can sue News Corp for publishing obscene material in my community.
The ruling could be as reasonable as forcing US websites to be legal everywhere in the US.
That wouldn't be reasonable at all. At that point, I could easily get 50 people together to incorporate a new town and then pass a local law that says MySpace is illegal in our town, and then MySpace would be illegal in the entire US.
The simple reason is that Ubuntu and Gnome feel more finished than KDE did to me
That's not a problem with KDE, but a consequence of the fact that Ubuntu focuses far more on Gnome than on KDE. I still use Kubuntu at home, but from what I've read, other distributions that give more attention to KDE might work better.
You made the clbuttic mistake.
Absolutely correct. And believe me, I wish it wasn't a problem, but the sad reality is that a lot of people would rather silence someone they disagree with than conduct an open discussion or simply accept that others have different opinions. Unfortunately, I don't see that vanishing from humanity in the near future.
I was only using those as examples. The point I was trying to make is that the majority of the cost in producing a book isn't printing and distribution, it's the original writing, editing, and, more in the case of textbooks than normal fiction or nonfiction, layout and artwork. If the printing and distribution are only 5% of the cost of a book, eliminating printing and distribution won't reduce the price by more than 5%.
Well of course you won't see any marketing that says "We do most of what you need." And for the people that don't care about that 5% of obscure features that OpenOffice doesn't support, it isn't a barrier for switching to Linux. There may be other barriers though, such as the few annoying web sites that still don't work in anything other than Internet Explorer.
I don't understand how people can simultaneously claim that OpenOffice can read and write MS Office files and then turn around and say MS customers are "trapped".
The word you're missing is "mostly". OpenOffice's compatibility with MS Office files is probably in the 95-98% range. For most home users and probably a lot of businesses, that's good enough. There are some times, though, when a customer has done something that MS Office saves in a way that OpenOffice can't handle, so your only choices are to just use MS Office or lose business. Until formats that are truly and completely open become standard, this problem will continue.
I know there's a bunch of front end costs in there, but you've cut out almost all of the physical costs, why isn't the book cheaper?
My guess would be that the physical costs are a small part of the overall cost. If a music CD only costs $0.25 to manufacture, why do you pay $10 for one? If the silicon in that CPU is only worth $5, why do you pay $200 for one?
The right to free speech is not the right to anonymous speech. The proverbial soapbox was never anonymous. Why should political speech be anonymous? I can see how it might make some folks happy, but I don't see why it has to be right. Just let me vote secretly.
Lack of anonymous speech isn't really a problem by itself, it's the backlash that people often receive when they say something unpopular. If there were a way to guarantee safety, from both the government and other individuals, because of unpopular speech, anonymous speech probably wouldn't be necessary. Since that's highly unlikely any time soon, though, I can understand the requirement for anonymous political speech.
The population of the country, or the population of the United States Senate that wrote the paycheck of the DOE that made this loan?
In theory, the House of Representatives controls spending, which would mean that representation in budget decisions isn't biased towards smaller states. Whether or not reality follows this is open for debate.
The N900 is nice, but the price is a bit off putting for the masses.
The price only seems high because you can't get it subsidized by a carrier (at least as far as I know in the US). If you look at the regular retail prices of most Android phones and the iPhone, you'll find that they're in the same range as the N900. If you get service from T-Mobile, you can even save $10 per month if you don't get a subsidized phone, so if you put that $240 (or more, if you plan on keeping the phone more than two years), towards the price of the phone, it's the equivalent of a $300 subsidized phone.
I've been checking out T-Mobile's plans lately (I'm working on convincing myself that's it okay to spend the $550 on an N900), and as far as I can tell, it's only $10 less, but it is on every plan, both individual and family.
Have you considered Gubuntu? It's a flavor of Ubuntu that aims at the more Google oriented crowd by changing the default search engine to Google.
But I like KDE. Will there be a flavor for me? Gookubuntu?
You mean Anonymous is really the Upright Citizens Brigade?
I see your point and raise you a generalization; The US is getting to the point where one should just ask "do any of the amendments apply now?".
I haven't been forced to house soldiers yet, so we've still got one.
The other day, over a Mexican Coca Cola (real sugar), I said to my companion something along the lines of "drink up, this is the ONLY benefit of Free Trade for the common man".
I've seen advertisements for Pepsi "Throwback", which is apparently regular Pepsi, but with real sugar. I almost cried at the realization that we've now come full circle.