Note on preview: I just realized that you're in NZ. Fair enough. I thought you were talking about from the US. In case anybody else makes a similar mistake, here's my original post:
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You're kidding, right? Have you seen the exchange rate lately? One Aussie dollar is now buying almost 80 US cents. I live here and Apple's prices are insane. In fact, I bought my iBook in the US the last time I went home. Just doing a quick comparison from online Apple stores, the lowest end Powerbook costs $2999 AU over here. At the current exchange rate, that's over $2300 US. You can buy the same computer from the US store for $1599 US. That's right, we pay a $700 premium OVER the exchange rate here. (And GST is only 10%, so the tax refund isn't remotely going to cover it.) The difference gets even worse at the top end of the Powerbook line. A 17" with Superdrive sells for $5499 AU here... That's over $4300 US! In this case you'd be paying an extra $1200! iPods have a lower but similar overhead.
I mean, we do have pretty nice weather over here, but I'm not sure that would justify an expensive plane trip and holiday just so you can pay more for something than you would in the US.
On a Metafilter discussion earlier today someone discovered that it maxes out at about 75 pages. They got this message:
You've reached the page-view limit for this book or you've reached the monthly page-view limit for the Search Inside the Book feature. Feel free to return to the pages you've previously viewed. If you want to see more of this copyrighted material, you can purchase this book. You can also search inside other books. Click here for more information or continue shopping.
So evidently they are keeping track and your quota resets every month. Interesting.
I've got the N670, which also required Photoshop or Classic. Luckily I found some software called "Vuescan" on Apple's OSX downloads page that works with all the Canoscan models. I recommend it.
I agree. Even the Millennium Force at Cedar Point (currently the tallest, steepest, fastest coast in North America) doesn't hit more than 5Gs (according to their FAQ). I rode it last summer and - other than the bottom of the first hill - I didn't notice any serious pressure. Heck, my sister was even able to take some pictures during the actual ride.
I use OmniWeb and I didn't have any problem copying and pasting the URL's into iCal's "Subscribe" tool. It is a pain that they don't work with one click, but it's not like you can't get them at all.
We had about a dozen people (I'm estimating) show up at the Lord Nelson Brewery in the Rocks. At first it was difficult to find each other and we just sat at separate tables amongst all the business people trying to spot fellow geeks. Eventually one of the hosts made himself known and soon we had about eight people crammed around a large table. It was a lot of fun. Much beer was consumed, and conversation ranged from the extremely nerdy (how to hack into various Sydney university wireless networks) to the dangerous (everyone's encounters with deadly Australian wildlife). Later another enclave of people was discovered on the other side of the bar. Most of us decided to head off to The Rocks Cafe for some late-night grub. I really enjoyed meeting everybody, especially as a new arrival here that doesn't know many people (much less ones that can discuss the relative merits of different operating systems while getting drunk). And much to my surprise, I was not the only girl! There was one other that showed up. I *was* the only person with a digital camera, though, so I snapped a couple of pictures. You can see them at my site here. I'll definitely go along next month. It was a lot more fun than I expected!
Heh. Am I right in thinking "She's falling in a slow descending funk" is from the Dar Williams song "As Cool As I Am?" Very nice reference. I wonder how many Slashdotters will get it?
Some background: I've been running a site called Roald Dahl Fans for a few years now. Since the site appeals to both kids and adults, I've been struggling for ages to find a format that works for everybody. My biggest problem is that most kids would rather send me a question in an e-mail than spend two minutes looking for the answer at the site. I've gone to a lot of trouble to make the site structure as transparent as possible. I even grudgingly gave in and added a search function a year ago. (I know it sucks; I need to write my own. But considering that most of the queries I get now are idiotic beyond belief - i.e. "roald dahl" - I really can't be arsed.) So now I've got Jakob confirming my worst fears that thousands of kids are hitting the site and turning away in disgust at paragraphs - whole paragraphs! - of text. Just wonderful.
You know what? I like the way I do things. Do me a favor and compare my site to the official Dahl site. Is that the kind of site I should aspire to? It's got lots of sounds and animation and crap (of course, it won't work if you don't have Flash), and it's impossible to find a specific piece of information. And what text they do have, they don't allow you to copy and paste from! I couldn't believe it when they launched that thing. Of course it's popular, but are kids actually learning anything? (Not that every site has to be educational, but Dahl was all about literacy and that site has all the literary merit of a Pokemon episode.)
My question is - am I all wrong here to be imposing my idea of how my site should be used on visitors? Just because kids like flashy dancing widgets, does that mean I have an obligation to give it to them? (Actually, the real question here is "Why am I taking Jakob so seriously?")
We did pick up on it. In severalplaces. Don't listen to what the big media outlets say; they're just jumping on the bandwagon. The fact is, Nancy Stouffer's muggles have nothing to do with J.K. Rowling's. Read this if you don't believe me.
Well.... technically you're only giving money to Warner's if you go to the movie (or buy the merchandise). It's not like they publish the book. Yeah, it's a bit of a justification, but I figured a single mom's entitled to sell out when she gets the chance, so I'll just read J.K. Rowling's books and stay out of the whole Warner's mess.
Roald Dahl springs to mind? What particular book are you thinking of? "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator"? Well, it involves space, but it's probably the worst story he ever wrote. Nothing else he wrote even comes close to the definition of science fiction. (Well, he did write one futuristic novel about Gremlins in a post-apocalyptic world, but it sank without a trace in the 1940's and has never been republished.) I don't mean to rip on Dahl (full disclosure: I run a website devoted to him), but it annoys me when people lionize the man without realizing that opinions of his work are based more on movies than on the books themselves.
Or maybe I misread you. Are you saying that fantasy writers should get Hugos, but Rowling should not?
You can read about the woman's lawsuit on her official site. Personally, she sounds like a coattail grabbing nutcase to me. If you don't believe me, read this review of the book that she names in her lawsuit. It's nothing like the Harry Potter books. The only similarities are a few character names. Judging by all the emphasis on buying books and licensing on her site, the whole thing is just a scheme to boost the sales of her otherwise crappy books.
I'm not an expert on checksumming or firewalls, but I am a graduate of Notre Dame and I can't imagine that the Powers That Be will be too happy about this. ND prides itself on being a pre-eminent *Catholic* university, and somehow I don't think they'll like an association with "parasitic" anything. And the emphasis on religion does extend into the sciences as well. Hell, my freshman year Honors Biology class professor had to teach creation theory alongside evolution, even though it was clear the man resented every minute of it. All it will take is a few morally outraged letters to the Observer and the project will be shut down. Just watch.
I graduated in May 1999 and found out about a program called BUNAC (www.bunac.org). They give US college students (and grads up to a year after graduation) a six month visa to do whatever the hell you want. I got the visa, contacted a number of companies before I left, and had a number of interviews with companies and recruiters lined up as soon as I arrived. I told everybody that I was looking for longer term work, and all of them were receptive to helping me find a more permanent visa.
Once I was in with a company, we submitted my application for the normal 4-year visa. I was denied on the basis that I hadn't had "two years postgrad experience," but within a month the Government announced that they were relaxing the rules to let more tech workers come in. We re-submitted and I got a "Key Worker" visa for 3 years. It wasn't that difficult and I know of a couple other Americans in London who did the same thing.
It's definitely worth looking into if you meet the qualifications (they do Australia and New Zealand as well)... and if you get sick of interviewing at IT companies, you can always pull pints in a pub.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Note on preview: I just realized that you're in NZ. Fair enough. I thought you were talking about from the US. In case anybody else makes a similar mistake, here's my original post:
-----------------
You're kidding, right? Have you seen the exchange rate lately? One Aussie dollar is now buying almost 80 US cents. I live here and Apple's prices are insane. In fact, I bought my iBook in the US the last time I went home. Just doing a quick comparison from online Apple stores, the lowest end Powerbook costs $2999 AU over here. At the current exchange rate, that's over $2300 US. You can buy the same computer from the US store for $1599 US. That's right, we pay a $700 premium OVER the exchange rate here. (And GST is only 10%, so the tax refund isn't remotely going to cover it.) The difference gets even worse at the top end of the Powerbook line. A 17" with Superdrive sells for $5499 AU here... That's over $4300 US! In this case you'd be paying an extra $1200! iPods have a lower but similar overhead.
I mean, we do have pretty nice weather over here, but I'm not sure that would justify an expensive plane trip and holiday just so you can pay more for something than you would in the US.
Give him a Simpsons Valentine. It says "I Choo-Choo-Choose you", and there's a picture of a train!
On a Metafilter discussion earlier today someone discovered that it maxes out at about 75 pages. They got this message:
You've reached the page-view limit for this book or you've reached the monthly page-view limit for the Search Inside the Book feature. Feel free to return to the pages you've previously viewed. If you want to see more of this copyrighted material, you can purchase this book. You can also search inside other books. Click here for more information or continue shopping.
So evidently they are keeping track and your quota resets every month. Interesting.
I've got the N670, which also required Photoshop or Classic. Luckily I found some software called "Vuescan" on Apple's OSX downloads page that works with all the Canoscan models. I recommend it.
I agree. Even the Millennium Force at Cedar Point (currently the tallest, steepest, fastest coast in North America) doesn't hit more than 5Gs (according to their FAQ). I rode it last summer and - other than the bottom of the first hill - I didn't notice any serious pressure. Heck, my sister was even able to take some pictures during the actual ride.
Conclusion - the law is pointless.
I use OmniWeb and I didn't have any problem copying and pasting the URL's into iCal's "Subscribe" tool. It is a pain that they don't work with one click, but it's not like you can't get them at all.
We had about a dozen people (I'm estimating) show up at the Lord Nelson Brewery in the Rocks. At first it was difficult to find each other and we just sat at separate tables amongst all the business people trying to spot fellow geeks. Eventually one of the hosts made himself known and soon we had about eight people crammed around a large table. It was a lot of fun. Much beer was consumed, and conversation ranged from the extremely nerdy (how to hack into various Sydney university wireless networks) to the dangerous (everyone's encounters with deadly Australian wildlife). Later another enclave of people was discovered on the other side of the bar. Most of us decided to head off to The Rocks Cafe for some late-night grub. I really enjoyed meeting everybody, especially as a new arrival here that doesn't know many people (much less ones that can discuss the relative merits of different operating systems while getting drunk). And much to my surprise, I was not the only girl! There was one other that showed up. I *was* the only person with a digital camera, though, so I snapped a couple of pictures. You can see them at my site here. I'll definitely go along next month. It was a lot more fun than I expected!
Heh. Am I right in thinking "She's falling in a slow descending funk" is from the Dar Williams song "As Cool As I Am?" Very nice reference. I wonder how many Slashdotters will get it?
Some background: I've been running a site called Roald Dahl Fans for a few years now. Since the site appeals to both kids and adults, I've been struggling for ages to find a format that works for everybody. My biggest problem is that most kids would rather send me a question in an e-mail than spend two minutes looking for the answer at the site. I've gone to a lot of trouble to make the site structure as transparent as possible. I even grudgingly gave in and added a search function a year ago. (I know it sucks; I need to write my own. But considering that most of the queries I get now are idiotic beyond belief - i.e. "roald dahl" - I really can't be arsed.) So now I've got Jakob confirming my worst fears that thousands of kids are hitting the site and turning away in disgust at paragraphs - whole paragraphs! - of text. Just wonderful.
You know what? I like the way I do things. Do me a favor and compare my site to the official Dahl site. Is that the kind of site I should aspire to? It's got lots of sounds and animation and crap (of course, it won't work if you don't have Flash), and it's impossible to find a specific piece of information. And what text they do have, they don't allow you to copy and paste from! I couldn't believe it when they launched that thing. Of course it's popular, but are kids actually learning anything? (Not that every site has to be educational, but Dahl was all about literacy and that site has all the literary merit of a Pokemon episode.)
My question is - am I all wrong here to be imposing my idea of how my site should be used on visitors? Just because kids like flashy dancing widgets, does that mean I have an obligation to give it to them? (Actually, the real question here is "Why am I taking Jakob so seriously?")
We did pick up on it. In several places. Don't listen to what the big media outlets say; they're just jumping on the bandwagon. The fact is, Nancy Stouffer's muggles have nothing to do with J.K. Rowling's. Read this if you don't believe me.
Well.... technically you're only giving money to Warner's if you go to the movie (or buy the merchandise). It's not like they publish the book. Yeah, it's a bit of a justification, but I figured a single mom's entitled to sell out when she gets the chance, so I'll just read J.K. Rowling's books and stay out of the whole Warner's mess.
Roald Dahl springs to mind? What particular book are you thinking of? "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator"? Well, it involves space, but it's probably the worst story he ever wrote. Nothing else he wrote even comes close to the definition of science fiction. (Well, he did write one futuristic novel about Gremlins in a post-apocalyptic world, but it sank without a trace in the 1940's and has never been republished.) I don't mean to rip on Dahl (full disclosure: I run a website devoted to him), but it annoys me when people lionize the man without realizing that opinions of his work are based more on movies than on the books themselves.
Or maybe I misread you. Are you saying that fantasy writers should get Hugos, but Rowling should not?
You can read about the woman's lawsuit on her official site. Personally, she sounds like a coattail grabbing nutcase to me. If you don't believe me, read this review of the book that she names in her lawsuit. It's nothing like the Harry Potter books. The only similarities are a few character names. Judging by all the emphasis on buying books and licensing on her site, the whole thing is just a scheme to boost the sales of her otherwise crappy books.
I'm not an expert on checksumming or firewalls, but I am a graduate of Notre Dame and I can't imagine that the Powers That Be will be too happy about this. ND prides itself on being a pre-eminent *Catholic* university, and somehow I don't think they'll like an association with "parasitic" anything. And the emphasis on religion does extend into the sciences as well. Hell, my freshman year Honors Biology class professor had to teach creation theory alongside evolution, even though it was clear the man resented every minute of it. All it will take is a few morally outraged letters to the Observer and the project will be shut down. Just watch.
I graduated in May 1999 and found out about a program called BUNAC (www.bunac.org). They give US college students (and grads up to a year after graduation) a six month visa to do whatever the hell you want. I got the visa, contacted a number of companies before I left, and had a number of interviews with companies and recruiters lined up as soon as I arrived. I told everybody that I was looking for longer term work, and all of them were receptive to helping me find a more permanent visa.
Once I was in with a company, we submitted my application for the normal 4-year visa. I was denied on the basis that I hadn't had "two years postgrad experience," but within a month the Government announced that they were relaxing the rules to let more tech workers come in. We re-submitted and I got a "Key Worker" visa for 3 years. It wasn't that difficult and I know of a couple other Americans in London who did the same thing.
It's definitely worth looking into if you meet the qualifications (they do Australia and New Zealand as well)... and if you get sick of interviewing at IT companies, you can always pull pints in a pub. :)