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Journal Journal: Tricked into creating a Steam account 3

I never steal media, and I don't like to download media either. I want to own my content, including the shiny disc that it came on. I don't want my software phoning home someday and due to some issue, like the company going belly-up, I suddenly can't play my game that I fully paid for.

Comment Re:Medium.com (Score 1, Interesting) 203

Nothing wrong with blogging platforms. Nothing even wrong with interesting blogs having advertisement attached so that they can make a little money off of their interesting blogs. However, when it is the advertisement that is the entire focus of the blog and the blog owner is merely scrambling for some sort of information that looks interesting in order to fool you into clicking on their ads, then there is plenty wrong with that.
But alas, it is unfortunately the 99% that give the other 1% a bad name.
I keep hearing this annoying DJ on the radio who spends probably 5 minutes per hour trying to entice listeners with a snippet of news and then directing them to his blog to read the full article. With as much advertising as he does for that blog, I sure hope they are charging him a couple thousand dollars a week. Of course his blog probably only brings in a few hundred a month.

Comment In 100 years (Score 1) 578

I predict that in 100 years, that the same amount of homogenization will occur as has occurred in the last 100 years. In other words, none. The top 3 languages will be Mandarin, Spanish, English. The next 3 in possibly changed order will be Hindi, Bengali and Arabic. Then Portugese, Russian, Japanese. Either Punjabi or German will be next, then Javanese or Wu. After that, a smattering of languages in no particular order: Malay/Indonesian, Telugug, Vietnamese, Korean, French, Marathi. Then Tamil, then Urdu or Persian, Turkish. And here is a big upset, I think Cantonese first, then Italian.
Well, that is a top 25. I figure that will do for now.
Will we have one language? No. A few hundred years ago, we had an estimated 7,000 languages. Now we have an estimated 5,000 to 6,500 languages. In 100 years, I would guess we would have perhaps 1,000 fewer languages than today.

Comment Re:Quebec Language Police (Score 1, Interesting) 578

The French are so stuck up about their language. Anywhere else that you saw the word "Language Police" it would be someone making a jab at another person for being an over-the-top pedant, and it would be derisive. But the French actually are unable to see the irony in actually creating such a department. The fact that they would go and harass a restaurant owner in the 90% English speaking part of town for having English signs...Well, it really just reminds me of the TSA and the Police State that the Americas in general are becoming.
Did you know that the official language for Air Traffic Control is English? In Germany, all communications are in English, even if the pilots are German. In Italy, all communications are in English, even if the pilots are Italian. In China all communications are in English, even if the pilots are Chinese. In North Korea, all communications are in English, even if the pilots are Korean. In France, all communications are in English, unless the pilots are French. Then the communications are in French.
Given that there are lots of planes on the same frequency, you might expect that it would be much more useful, and indeed far safer, for all communications to be in a unified language. And you would be correct. however, there is one country where pride of language is more important than the lives of tens of millions of people.

Comment Re:Don't mess with my jetset lifestyle (Score 2) 232

Southwest only has 737s.

Quite true. However, I should point out that the 737 has a large number of models and available engines. The 737-200 has passenger configurations of 110-120 people and a range of 2600 nautical miles, while the 737-900ER has seating for 180-205 people, and a range of 3200 nautical miles. Although the 737 is conceived as a medium range jet, some models are able to be used on mainland to Hawaii trips. Some are approved for ETOPS ( Extended range Twin Operations), joining the ranks of larger aircraft, such as the 757, 767, and 777. The largest capacity 737s actually exceed the passenger capacity of some of the 757-200 configurations.
Southwest used to use 737-200s, but now the fleet consists of 737-300s, 500s, 700s and 800s. Note that these are series numbers and the model numbers are even broken down further within these numbers. For example, some of the 737-300s consist of 737-3Q8s, -3K2s,-3H4(WL)s and about 10 other designations. WL stands for winglet. There are quote a few unique models that they fly. I could add them up, but it looks like 50+. plainspotters.net is a good source of information.

Comment Re:Bitcoin != Coins (Score 2) 108

$370 million is subjective. 650,000 inherently worthless pieces of information went missing.

One of the principals of economy is that everything is worth what somebody is willing to give you for it. The 650,000 bitcoins were worth $370 million because somebody would have been willing to give that much money for them. Of course they are inherently worthless, just like every other piece of matter or information or string of bits. Nothing has intrinsic worth. It only has the worth of what someone is willing to give you in trade for it.

Comment Re:And that's still too long (Score 1) 328

So every time somebody creates something, it is instantly in the public domain. No chance to make any money off of it. Basically, such a system would mean that there would be no such job description as writer, musician, painter, sculptor, actor, director, etc. Everybody would just have to do it as a second job in their spare time. Art would suck, because nobody would have time to devote to it. There would be no live music other than local acts. There certainly would be no movies other than those made just for fun and at their own expense by independent producers.

Comment FCC? (Score 0) 71

Are these towers allowed by the FCC? I would think hijacking signals would be extremely illegal. Also, how do they make sure these stingers only allow connections from the person that they are tracking? If they are not narrowing it down to a single person and non-targeted persons are able to connect with it and are not covered by a warrant, then that would be extremely illegal.

Comment Re:Cheaper (Score 1) 349

Obviously, somebody has their hand in the till. There was a time when in present dollars, tickets were cheaper, fuel was about the same, pilots were paid about 5 times as much, meals on airlines were free, luggage was free and seats were roomy. As technology improved and economies of scale improved, margins should have gone up, then competition should have entered to absorb those margins and drive down prices. But that didn't happen because somebody else has absorbed the margin. I suspect that is the unions, C level executives and multiple layers of unnecessary management.

Comment Hospital IT is an easy target (Score 1) 130

Hospital IT pay is laughable. All of the money goes into doctors, facilities and fancy but mostly unnecessary equipment. Since you mostly get what you pay for, most hospital IT infrastructure is crap.
Hospitals aren't really the best place to find lots of healthcare information. I mean if you are tracking a celebrity that went into a specific hospital, that is one thing, but if you are datamining for lots of information, there exist larger repositories.

Comment Re:Morons that cannot do math.... (Score 0) 363

Hummers aren't even being made anymore. And they were never sold in great quantity compared to other brands. With reliability being a serious factor and age now also a factor, I doubt that Hummers make up a significant fraction of vehicles. The demographic that I normally saw driving them was lower middle class, the same people also frequently driving Escalades.

Comment Re:Bogus and Sexist Programs (Score 2) 355

Same with other programs. We have Ebony awards which are only for Blacks, Latino awards which are only for Hispanics, and all of the awards in which a white person can participate is required to include all races.
Racism is still rampant and encouraged in America. You are required to treat people differently based on the color of their skin. There are certain things you can say to one race and not to another. You can defend yourself in your home or place of business from one race but not from another.

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