Posts by Stuart Gray 67 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Apr 2007
I don't use Facebook, but I have plenty of friends. However, I use something called RealWorld 1.0 Try it sometimes. You know, face -to-face encounters (meet at the pub), real-time two way vocal communication (telephone), paper-quality pen-input communication device (a letter).
Also, look up what "Nirvana" actually means to Buddhists. Hint: it isn't heaven....
Stuart
The film mentioned was Polanski's "Macbeth", not R&J. More than just one brief bare breast scene (but then it was funded by Playboy).
Oh, BTW, why have these bloody "emoticons" appeared? Is it to pander to the part of the readership that wouldn't notice sarcasm (or as they call it "irony") if it bit them on the arse (sorry, "ass")?
Stuart
No, it doesn't make any difference to the chance of winning, since the winner was picked out of the total entry pool *up to that point*. It wasn't as though the phone system was set to accept only a fixed number of total entries (which gives a fixed odds on winning), then closed, and _then_ discarded 10% of these, so that the winner was picked from only 90% of the fixed total. No, the winner was picked from 100% of the total entry, but then the lines were kept open - so that 100% of those who called afterwards were losers.
Stuart
"anyone bent on taking driving privileges away from teens"
Two comments here: as you say, they are PRIVILEGES, not rights. Infringe, and lose your licence. For some time. Then take a decent test to get it back. And secondly, Teens have no business driving two tons of metal at high speed.
In my ideal world, everyone should start on a motorbike (which drives home just how vulnerable one is on two wheels) before moving to a car at no less than 21 years (exemptions given to people who marry and have children before then). A solid test (including skid pan driving), repeated every five years. And for God's sake America, let the teens start drinking beer/wine at 16 (like we do on the civilised European mainland - not the UK). Then by the time they are 21 and can drive, they know what drinking means, instead of the arse about face way you have it now, you know, where you let teenagers get sloppy about driving and THEN get ratfaced at the age of 21.
Your analogy breaks down because Servers are not open and commonly understood platforms to which certain areas are restricted - as in your apartment block. Instead consider the following analogy:
Each apartment block you consider to rent has plug sockets for power and telecommunications. Some of them adhere to open standards - the common three pin power socket, BT socket (if you live in the UK) or RJ-10 for telephone, and RJ-45 for data. These are well known and the standard is available everywhere, so you can plug in any appliance that needs these sockets. The wiring behind them is kept away from you (do YOU know the new Europe-wide colouring scheme for mains wiring? Or the standard connections for RJ-45? I thought not), but you know the common interface.
Now consider an apartment block where the owner decides (arbitrarily) the size and shape of each socket. So if you want to plug in a fridge or a computer, you have to ask the owner to fit the right plug (which will then be hiddne behind a blanking plate, so you can't discover the shape of the plug for future reference). And what if the same owner built a newer block, where the sockets changed again, so you couldn't even move your appliances to the new block without getting the owner to refit the plugs (at great expense). And what if he didn't like the brand of fridge you wanted to use, and so refused to fit the correct plugs on your behalf? That, as I see it, is a much closer analogy to the MS Server API issue. No-one is suggesting that the source code be made available, just the methods for interfacing with the server OS efficiently.
And to extend the metaphor, what if the rent included a hefty charge to use the television provided with the apartment - even if you replaced it with a model you prefer? Surely you would like the option to take the television or not?
No, I think the EU got it right, assuming they can stick to their guns.
Well, to throuw a fourth spanner in the Windows/Mac/Linuz works - I am and have been using OS/2 for many years, now in its eComStation guise. Why? Because it does everything I need, often using similar software (Firefox, OpenOffice) to the other players, but in very modest hardware requirements. Even though IBM has now stopped selling and offering public support to OS/2 (contract support contimues into the next decade), there are many talented developers working on device drivers etc. The most important to me however is the stability of the APIs. OS/2, Java, Win16, DOS (OK, the last two are less re;levant these days), Win32 through emulation. all of these are supported, and the OS/2 API os stable and mature - apps written ten or fifteen years ago work flawlessly alongside today's offerings. Coupled with a rock-solid security model (hey, if it's good enough for the World's banks, it's good enough for me), networking designed by the people who invented networking, I am very happy with it. And it is a fraction of the cost of either Windows or Mac.
Stuart
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