I changed over to a windows phone as it looks like its going to save me about $600 a year.

Win8 on a phone was a dream. Very tiny learning curve (hardest thing was opening a PDF*).

However, windows Surface has always seemed overpriced to me. As in 33% to 50% more.

The basic problem is that all my tablet needs can be met by a $150ish android tablet.

I prefer windows for my desktop. But there windows 8 is a bit more of a pain when using a mouse. I'll get used to it but i've been on the original windows paradigm and command lines since the early 1990s.

However- I made a complete shift to open source of my office functionality about 3 years ago. I will never buy an office suit again.

* Pdf readers have no "file open" functionality. You have to go to the red office tile and open the pdf there-- then it redirects you to the pdf reader of your choice. Once you've done this, you can reopen it in your PDF reader.

Well, all I know about them is what I hear on the news, including Fox (I hit Google News every morning). Of course, they could all be real Christians, just woefully misguided.

You'll have to wait a few years until they integrate radar and track the bullet's flight. The first one might miss, but the one behind that will hit exactly. By then they'll have dropped the pretense of a human pulling the trigger too.

It was pretty bad in 1880. Then society stepped hard on businesses and showed them it wasn't going to accept that behavior. And companies mostly behaved until 1980.

In 1980 the new mantra of "a business's only duty is to it's share holders. it has no obligation or responsibility to benefit the rest of society. Indeed, if it would harm the shareholders to benefit society then it's wrong. And if harming society would benefit the shareholders, then it's right."

Like most things- there's a reasonable point in there. But it's been taken to an extreme I think it's just a matter of time til the governments get pissed off and do something about it (as they have for centuries).

I recognize your username I think I've been able to answer one of your questions before. They're interesting, and you've got a great way of asking for clarification if you don't like the answer you get. Reminds me of the nineties on Slashdot. ;)

That definition turns ugly repeatedly so often that the government has to get involved to stop the excesses (company stores, interlocking trusts, monopoly pricing, collusion, vertical market lock).

The bad thing here is that the government was subverted by business and is no longer acting as a check and balance.

A "free market" works for small businesses but not for large multi-national corporations and not even really for simply "large" corporations. It's sort of like how libertarianism can work under a strong government but fails badly when you have a weak government and very powerful people who use that power to abuse weaker people.

There's also a "moral" component which makes capitalism work and be beneficial and that's eroded a lot since 1980.

http://www.infoplease.com/worl...

For example:

"The school day in France typically runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a half day on Saturday, although students do not attend school on Wednesday or Sunday. Lunch is a two-hour break for public school students. Students usually attend school from ages 6 to 18. The average number of students per class is 23. Uniforms are not required, but religious dress of any kind is banned. The school year for this country in the northern hemisphere stretches from August to June, and is divided into four seven-week terms, with one to two weeks of vacation in between."

Part of a consideration for any school year is the parent's work schedule and child care.

It's about indoctrinating them to be one people to prevent a lot of civil strife later on and to make them cohesive in the face of national threats.

Public education unified the united states.

And it's about education. Producing a citizen base which is capable.

It seems to be a lot less about civics than it used to be.

It's layered too- a lot of ugly information is held back until you go to college.

I'm saying that indoctrination is not all bad. Lack of indoctrination results in some fairly bloody civil wars over fairly meaningless differences.

Only if you define "conservativism" to be "Godless, quasi-aristocratic swine"

That describes Pat Robertson, Dick Cheney, Mitt Romney, John Boehner, Newt Gingrich, etc, none of whom seem any more spiritual to me than the religious leaders who had Jesus executed.

No, it doesn't say that at all. The conservatives were trying to "to catch him in his words" and get him to say something against Roman law, and asked him directly if one should pay taxes. "Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? Shall we give, or shall we not give?"

Roman tax collectors were corrupt, they were thieves, and people hated them. The Jewish religion demanded animal sacrifice.

"But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it. And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar's. And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." (Mark 12:14-17) There wasn't a word about the futility of life (That would be the Kansas song "Dust in the Wind")

I'm not going to deny that people have been herded for centuries in the name of Christianity; however, I would point out that a reading of the actual words of Jesus of Nazareth (a Jew's Jew) does not require such. In fact, the Gospel, as written, drives quite a different direction.

Indeed. I, for one, don't understand "conservative Christians" because Jesus was decidedly liberal, while the men who demanded his torture and execution were conservatives.

Examples of Jesus' politics...
Taxes: "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's"
Free health care: He supplied it himself.
Free education: He supplied that as well.
Free food? Ditto. All things that today's conservatives rail against.
"The Meek shall inherit the Earth" but I have yet to see a meek televangelist. Those guys are exactly like the Jewish church leaders who hated Jesus for exposing their hypocrisy.

The mysql module should have been shot before it was ever included. A database interface layer that doesn't support bound parameters is criminally irresponsible, and people who write such things should be held criminally responsible.

Pace of innovation? I can't understand you people who like to work 60 hour weeks just so the hamster wheel can spin faster. Get out more.

I've been thinking for a long time I could be in the wrong industry. I might be right. Y'all are nuts.