moheeb

I don't understand why Skype is so crappy. Most Microsoft software is at the very least average, with several products being industry standards. Why is Skype so different?

I think you nailed it.

"They can be seen as a form of religion, in some sense."

In my family it was Sunday School with mom and then football with Grandpa and Dad.

Football is kind of like drinking...even if you don't like it at some point it is easier to just pretend and fit in.

Hacking, to me, refers to modifying hardware or software.

Actually having to deal with people would most certainly not be considered hacking, under my definition.

This is the classic Civ IV problem; you add too many cities too fast and your economy can't keep up.

We're back to stereo and mono....just like the good old days.

Not to me, it isn't.

Can you explain the math as to how you know there is a 10% chance that we're seeing the US in the last 10% of its history? I don't understand that part.

How would you walk across the street then?

"Over the last 150 years, the proportion of Americans employed in agriculture has dropped from ~70% to ~2% [1]. They've literally been replaced by machines."

In most of the fields I've seen they've been replaced by Mexicans.

"Does anybody else think that unions are really labor side price fixing"

I don't think that, at least not in all cases. I've worked in some pretty crappy places that thankfully had unions in place to protect the workers' rights and safety.

Your Canadian experiences mirror all my US experiences.

I've always had to enter my PIN when using my card...so I don't see it as any LESS secure.

I doubt it will take much for you to get past it.

San Diego did almost exactly this. There is an old cemetery there where they removed all the headstones and buried them in a mass grave, but left the bodies. Then they put a city park over the bodies and children play there now. I'm serious.

Yes they must have been using an old version of Word as I can't even add text to files I have downloaded without hitting the 'enable editing' button.

I don't consider Southwest Airlines great at all. They are my least favorite airline to fly. I've experienced some pretty terrible customer service from them. I feel their boarding routine is the worst in the business.

What, in your opinion, makes them "great"?

"That's a horrible url"

I clicked on it and it worked....seems fine to me.

I know how to use a rotary dial phone too, but I'm not putting that on my resume. Some stuff just goes out of style....like Windows Server 2000.

This raises the philosophical question of where the life of the computer truly lies. Is it within the capacitor? Is it within the network of the individual parts?

If you replace the capacitor did you resurrect the dead or just fix a broken part? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

I am one of those people! Most bottled waters are fine but there are a few of lower quality. Really no different than anything else.

I think you haven't looked closely. I know for a fact that the MMR vaccine itself comes with a warning (from the manufacturer!) that it may cause a reaction in some patients.

I doubt the manufacturer would place such a warning unless they had data to back it up.

Back in the day it was often optional due to the additional processing that it required.

You mention paying union folks like it is a bad thing, in line with "legalized "corruption"".

Perhaps you should go work in a foundry, machine shop, or a mine for a while and then see how you feel about unions.

I know resolution has gone up. I didn't say otherwise. I can also read small text.

Neither of those points is an argument against what I claimed. I was stating that resolution has gone up, along with screen sizes, but that the default text rendering size has not gotten any smaller (i.e. they're not putting more stuff on the screen).

I think as more of the older crowd has gotten into smart phones the screen size has gotten larger to compensate for their poor eyesight.

I think this point is backed up by the fact that the rendered text size has not changed in any appreciable way.

The US does have this. I go online to my bank, put in a name and address, and they send the money. I've even scheduled it to send automatically every month.

I second this approach. Privoxy can be run on a machine or potentially the router. This way whatever device you use ads are blocked. No need to install something on each device.

This is what should be done, and I feel what will be done, in the future. The government will become your Certificate Authority.

Shouldn't the price be $119 in that case? I get bothered when someone thinks I'm dumb enough to not notice their little price increase in the form of a fee. I am not OK with that.

I would prefer to deal with honest folks that just give you the price straight away.

I only interface with assholey businesses that add fees when I have no other choice. I have no allegiance to those types of businesses. I'm thinking Delta, Southwest, every car rental place, Wells Fargo, most cell phone companies, etc.

Or what if they worked with the guys that wrote Spy Hunter to design a semi-truck that roamed the streets? You could pull right into the trailer and swap there!

I am not attempting to "maximize profit" when I purchase cans of food.