Smartphones

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Worthy of discussion.

Their storage entry is misleading. HTC phones have SDHC slots, which currently scale up to 32 GB. It can also be noted that iPhones don't have any memory expansion besides what's built in.

I don't see how that's misleading. That's exactly what they said. 16GB and scalable up to 32GB.

What the hell? How am I so blind these days?

[Aldaric]

Yeah, that's bullshit. I prefer... and the Linux ones which require you to download twelve different tree structure libraries for them to hang correctly.

Sure, there's a huge variety of tree structure libraries to choose from and many of them might require some hacking to get working correctly, but they're all free and the end result is the most efficient and technically elegant ornament on the block (which can also run your web server if you feel so inclined). The beauty is often on the inside with Linux, but Macfags never shut up about how shiny their happy-clicky-GUI is, shallow bastards that they are.

Linux runs on everything, and Christmas ornaments are no exception.

Customonisining? What? Hacking? Dont you do that with an axe? The common person doesn't need a smart phone, but they have it because it is fun and cool. The Apple takes care of these people by making it stupid easy to use their products, but this doesn't mean their products are bad, just not the best. It isn't important though to most people what is actually better, it is important that it is easy to use and Apple is a very friendly company. People don't want to have to customize their shit because it takes effort. (For some people who aren't tech. savvy)

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Yeah, that's bullshit. I prefer... and the Linux ones which require you to download twelve different tree structure libraries for them to hang correctly.

Sure, there's a huge variety of tree structure libraries to choose from and many of them might require some hacking to get working correctly, but they're all free and the end result is the most efficient and technically elegant ornament on the block (which can also run your web server if you feel so inclined). The beauty is often on the inside with Linux, but Macfags never shut up about how shiny their happy-clicky-GUI is, shallow bastards that they are.

Linux runs on everything, and Christmas ornaments are no exception.

Customonisining? What? Hacking? Dont you do that with an axe? The common person doesn't need a smart phone, but they have it because it is fun and cool. The Apple takes care of these people by making it stupid easy to use their products, but this doesn't mean their products are bad, just not the best. It isn't important though to most people what is actually better, it is important that it is easy to use and Apple is a very friendly company. People don't want to have to customize their shit because it takes effort. (For some people who aren't tech. savvy)

I'm really torn between "Linux needs to be more user-friendly" and "people need to get smarter." As far as I'm concerned, Ubuntu just has a whole mess of papercuts to fix (namely all of those non-deterministic issues that can't be solved without a terminal), but then again, I view the majority of the consumer market for electronics as sheep with severe congenital retardation... give them a new toy, and the first thing they do is try to eat it or put it in their ass or something. There's a balance that neither side has really met yet, and both need to work toward it. Linux needs to be friendlier overall (not specifically Ubuntu) and people need to start knowing what the hell they're doing.

Do you have any idea how much easier life would be if you had to pass an intelligence test to use a computer or other sophisticated electronics? But we're living in a world where the biggest money is inexplicably in the hands of the terrifyingly stupid, and damned near every intellectual resource in the private sector is devoted to figuring out ways to trick them into spending all of those glorious gobs of money. I'm not going to lie, I'm a very elitist person, and I think that's largely the reason I'm so attracted to jobs that put me in contact with other elitists who don't give a damn about the masses who can't keep up intellectually. Money and power is all, for the most part, in the wrong hands.
Y'know what, I'm sorry, I'm even going to launch into a bit of a rant about this. This came to mind more recently when I saw a particular classmate of mine wearing a very snazzy business suit to class because he came straight out of a business deal. He's maybe mid to late 20's, typically wears gangsta attire like massive shirts that go to the knee, pants' waist line just below the ass, sneakers as big as a child's torso, etc., and is -- I can't even exaggerate this -- profoundly, profoundly stupid. He wears expensive clothes, drives expensive cars, drinks expensive liquor (as he mentions every now and again), and generally lives a very comfortable life, all because he puts on a duck suit and talks to other morons in duck suits who agree to give him egregious amounts of money for reasons neither of them fully understand. This is our economy. This is our entire business enterprise. Everywhere, in every corporate skyscraper, sit legions and legions of utter morons who stumbled their way into jobs they don't deserve and can't do competently, and are paid handsomely for it because the utter moron who hired them doesn't know any better. Meanwhile, there are people who are so obviously more capable and intelligent and diligent and motivated than these fucking slugs, who earn much less! I have friends and know other people who have shitty jobs because the retards who give the good jobs away don't relate to them because they're not also retarded like they are. I've worked in shitty jobs where I was more capable than the people who hired me, I have a friend who would kick ass in politics but can only get a job for minimum wage at a bookstore, Blizz has worked shitty jobs to barely scrape by for most of his life... how does any of this make any fucking sense? How are people so much less deserving getting all the benefits? It almost makes me want to do criminal things just for the sake of separating myself from such a stupid system (but I've found plenty of ways to work within it, legally, for more benefits).
And that describes the entire consumer market for just about any publicly advertised good, especially consumer electronics like phones and computers. In a better world, people who call into tech support with "I can't find the 'Any' key" would only be offered a "kill yourself," followed by a click and a dialtone. If you are too stupid or too lazy to figure out how to make the best use out of your several-hundred-dollar device, then don't fucking buy it, because even if you do manage to find someone to explain the obvious to you, you will still never be able to put it to a worthwhile use; you will still wander out of your marble-floored penthouse office to your secretary's desk to ask her how to rename a folder. But it's still (that same hypothetical) you who has the money that the heads of Apple, Microsoft, Canonical, and Google will cater to, because you're the one who has any of the fucking money.

I hate all of you. Learn to RTFM or shut the fuck up.


EDIT: The next thing I did was check my newsfeeds, and this was relevant enough to bring back here. It does well to capture my tone in this post: http://i37.tinypic.com/16j4t5k.png

[Donfuy]

You win. I agree with every bit of what you said. I hate it when people are just lazy to find something themselves, and call others to do their simple yet bothering tasks.

I myself am lazy too. And I blame myself every. fucking. day of my life. I hate being /this/ shitload amount of lazy. You see, I actually like some of my laziness, but I would love to just fucking have an on/off button for it. /rant

But yeah, Linux is great for a thing so affordable. Why do some people pay for OSes? Well, many just buy new computers so they don't actually buy the OS alone. The vast majority of other people? From what I see, people do get new OSes, not by buying them, but just getting them illegally. For free. I won't lie - I do it myself! And we got three main OSes. All for free. Oh yeah, Linux is great. But I'll get 7. kthxbai

(this is solely an opinion, "driven" by what I see everyday - I still haven't met one guy who has bought an OS in real life, for all my damn life. Oh, and this applies to Microsoft Office too)


edit: Sorry, I drove this thing to an OS talking. Quite off-topic, but oh well.

[Luminaflare]

I'm really torn between "Linux needs to be more user-friendly" and "people need to get smarter." As far as I'm concerned, Ubuntu just has a whole mess of papercuts to fix (namely all of those non-deterministic issues that can't be solved without a terminal), but then again, I view the majority of the consumer market for electronics as sheep with severe congenital retardation... give them a new toy, and the first thing they do is try to eat it or put it in their ass or something. There's a balance that neither side has really met yet, and both need to work toward it. Linux needs to be friendlier overall (not specifically Ubuntu) and people need to start knowing what the hell they're doing.

Do you have any idea how much easier life would be if you had to pass an intelligence test to use a computer or other sophisticated electronics? But we're living in a world where the biggest money is inexplicably in the hands of the terrifyingly stupid, and damned near every intellectual resource in the private sector is devoted to figuring out ways to trick them into spending all of those glorious gobs of money. I'm not going to lie, I'm a very elitist person, and I think that's largely the reason I'm so attracted to jobs that put me in contact with other elitists who don't give a damn about the masses who can't keep up intellectually. Money and power is all, for the most part, in the wrong hands.
Y'know what, I'm sorry, I'm even going to launch into a bit of a rant about this. This came to mind more recently when I saw a particular classmate of mine wearing a very snazzy business suit to class because he came straight out of a business deal. He's maybe mid to late 20's, typically wears gangsta attire like massive shirts that go to the knee, pants' waist line just below the ass, sneakers as big as a child's torso, etc., and is -- I can't even exaggerate this -- profoundly, profoundly stupid. He wears expensive clothes, drives expensive cars, drinks expensive liquor (as he mentions every now and again), and generally lives a very comfortable life, all because he puts on a duck suit and talks to other morons in duck suits who agree to give him egregious amounts of money for reasons neither of them fully understand. This is our economy. This is our entire business enterprise. Everywhere, in every corporate skyscraper, sit legions and legions of utter morons who stumbled their way into jobs they don't deserve and can't do competently, and are paid handsomely for it because the utter moron who hired them doesn't know any better. Meanwhile, there are people who are so obviously more capable and intelligent and diligent and motivated than these fucking slugs, who earn much less! I have friends and know other people who have shitty jobs because the retards who give the good jobs away don't relate to them because they're not also retarded like they are. I've worked in shitty jobs where I was more capable than the people who hired me, I have a friend who would kick ass in politics but can only get a job for minimum wage at a bookstore, Blizz has worked shitty jobs to barely scrape by for most of his life... how does any of this make any fucking sense? How are people so much less deserving getting all the benefits? It almost makes me want to do criminal things just for the sake of separating myself from such a stupid system (but I've found plenty of ways to work within it, legally, for more benefits).
And that describes the entire consumer market for just about any publicly advertised good, especially consumer electronics like phones and computers. In a better world, people who call into tech support with "I can't find the 'Any' key" would only be offered a "kill yourself," followed by a click and a dialtone. If you are too stupid or too lazy to figure out how to make the best use out of your several-hundred-dollar device, then don't fucking buy it, because even if you do manage to find someone to explain the obvious to you, you will still never be able to put it to a worthwhile use; you will still wander out of your marble-floored penthouse office to your secretary's desk to ask her how to rename a folder. But it's still (that same hypothetical) you who has the money that the heads of Apple, Microsoft, Canonical, and Google will cater to, because you're the one who has any of the fucking money.

I hate all of you. Learn to RTFM or shut the fuck up.


EDIT: The next thing I did was check my newsfeeds, and this was relevant enough to bring back here. It does well to capture my tone in this post: http://i37.tinypic.com/16j4t5k.png

QFE

I also really get this working at a computer recyling/repair center, we usually get the people with that bit less money in, so either students who know pretty much what they're doing and don't have time to fix it (Which is nice, really speeds up finding the problem) or people who aren't smart enough to earn enough to go somewhere with a better reputation (Technically we are better at repairing than "tech guys" but they have the reputation and multiple chain stores sending all customer PC repairs to them) or people who just prefer where i work but don't know fuck all about computers. Now the latter two are easily the most common, I had to teach a woman how to plug a fucking keyboard in today.

Yeah I hate my job, I want to work out of the way by my self or with a small group where I don't have to deal with customer stupidity. Now to end my rambling I will explain a slight dilemma I had a few minutes ago, I didn't know what RTFM meant now I could just ask what it meant (stupid) or just googled it and found out what it meant. (Smart) I did smart :P

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

(Technically we are better at repairing than "tech guys" but they have the reputation and multiple chain stores sending all customer PC repairs to them) or people who just prefer where i work but don't know fuck all about computers.

I've worked both at Staples as an EasyTech and at my old university's tech support center.
At Staples, the job interview was a joke and I was given zero training relating to computer repair, but I could charge people $40+ to open their computer and tinker with the innards. Very few other people I worked with knew in the slightest what they were doing -- they relied on popping in a CD with a bunch of tools on it and doing all of them, regardless of what the problem was. Because people were stupid enough to bring in their computers for stupid problems, this usually solved whatever the heck was wrong, and the employee made up a technical-sounding reason in the explanation of what was wrong. If the computer didn't boot, they were screwed.
At my university, we had to go through mandatory training, and you were promptly let go if it turned out you didn't know what you were doing. The management was generally laid-back, sensible, and very knowledgeable. The service we provided was free.

My advice, from most recommended to least:
1) If it's not a huge problem, figure out how to solve the problem yourself.
2) Try your university's support center.
3) Try to solve the problem yourself.
4) Buy a new computer.
5) Become a hermit and avoid technology.
6) Kill yourself.
7) Pay Staples or BestBuy for their tech support services.

[scythe]

Yeah, that's bullshit. I prefer... and the Linux ones which require you to download twelve different tree structure libraries for them to hang correctly.

Sure, there's a huge variety of tree structure libraries to choose from and many of them might require some hacking to get working correctly, but they're all free and the end result is the most efficient and technically elegant ornament on the block (which can also run your web server if you feel so inclined). The beauty is often on the inside with Linux, but Macfags never shut up about how shiny their happy-clicky-GUI is, shallow bastards that they are.

Linux runs on everything, and Christmas ornaments are no exception.

Customonisining? What? Hacking? Dont you do that with an axe? The common person doesn't need a smart phone, but they have it because it is fun and cool. The Apple takes care of these people by making it stupid easy to use their products, but this doesn't mean their products are bad, just not the best. It isn't important though to most people what is actually better, it is important that it is easy to use and Apple is a very friendly company. People don't want to have to customize their shit because it takes effort. (For some people who aren't tech. savvy)

I never understood why having configuration options was perceived as confusing (cf. GNOME). I mean, the real deciding factor here is how usable the default configuration is -- if you never have to change the configuration, the fact that you can doesn't mean anything to Joe "how do I change desktop backgrounds" Schmoe. I've always kinda thought Windows, GNOME, and KDE did a horrible job of this.

All that really needs to be done is make the most common configuration options, like changing the desktop background, really really easy. Windows gets that one right.

[Luminaflare]

Ok I need some help here, been looking for the G1 (HTC dream) in phone stores in the town centre, phoned up t-mobile and found out they don't stock them on their site, phone upgrades or in store anymore. Now the G2 is nice enough but it lacks one of the main features for me: The sliding screen for physical keyboard access. So can anyone find me where I can get one? (Preferable on contract, I pay £15 a month right now and get roughly £30 credit, £25 a month is the most I'm willing to spend on contract (Including internet access) but I am willing to spend a bit on the phone (For example I can get G2 on a £25 contract and put £50 extra initially to get the phone)

I've seen in second hand for £120 at CeX (UK based second hand electronics)

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

I never understood why having configuration options was perceived as confusing (cf. GNOME). I mean, the real deciding factor here is how usable the default configuration is -- if you never have to change the configuration, the fact that you can doesn't mean anything to Joe "how do I change desktop backgrounds" Schmoe. I've always kinda thought Windows, GNOME, and KDE did a horrible job of this.

Really? You think GNOME has too many configuration options?
It's always been my impression that GNOME adopts the same attitude toward customization as Apple Inc takes toward their Aqua interface: "No, look, just stop worrying about it. Hush hush. We know what looks pretty, and we'll take care of all of it for you. Here, we'll even let you pick the background. See? You have a say! Yay!"
I remember having to download a handful of extra packages with funky names that did nothing besides extend the GNOME configuration options.

[scythe]

I never understood why having configuration options was perceived as confusing (cf. GNOME). I mean, the real deciding factor here is how usable the default configuration is -- if you never have to change the configuration, the fact that you can doesn't mean anything to Joe "how do I change desktop backgrounds" Schmoe. I've always kinda thought Windows, GNOME, and KDE did a horrible job of this.

Really? You think GNOME has too many configuration options?

No, I think GNOME has a horrible default configuration.

It's always been my impression that GNOME adopts the same attitude toward customization as Apple Inc takes toward their Aqua interface: "No, look, just stop worrying about it. Hush hush. We know what looks pretty, and we'll take care of all of it for you. Here, we'll even let you pick the background. See? You have a say! Yay!"
I remember having to download a handful of extra packages with funky names that did nothing besides extend the GNOME configuration options.

I'm pretty much with you here.

[Aldaric]

I'm really torn between "Linux needs to be more user-friendly" and "people need to get smarter." As far as I'm concerned, Ubuntu just has a whole mess of papercuts to fix (namely all of those non-deterministic issues that can't be solved without a terminal), but then again, I view the majority of the consumer market for electronics as sheep with severe congenital retardation... give them a new toy, and the first thing they do is try to eat it or put it in their ass or something. There's a balance that neither side has really met yet, and both need to work toward it. Linux needs to be friendlier overall (not specifically Ubuntu) and people need to start knowing what the hell they're doing.

Why does Apple or Linux have to change? They don't. Apple can keep selling good-looking electronics that are easy to use, and Linux can keep making more complex, better if you put in a little effort, stuffs for the people like you. As long as nobody forces people to do either, everyone should be happy. The smarter people get what they want, and the people who don't give a fuck get what they want. Apple does a perfect job of selling their products to the wider lazy people category. They can't change or they would loose their market. Apple wants to make money, so they keep making their products stupid easy to use. There is nothing wrong with this because they are not forcing you to use their shit.

Do you have any idea how much easier life would be if you had to pass an intelligence test to use a computer or other sophisticated electronics? But we're living in a world where the biggest money is inexplicably in the hands of the terrifyingly stupid, and damned near every intellectual resource in the private sector is devoted to figuring out ways to trick them into spending all of those glorious gobs of money. I'm not going to lie, I'm a very elitist person, and I think that's largely the reason I'm so attracted to jobs that put me in contact with other elitists who don't give a damn about the masses who can't keep up intellectually. Money and power is all, for the most part, in the wrong hands.
Y'know what, I'm sorry, I'm even going to launch into a bit of a rant about this. This came to mind more recently when I saw a particular classmate of mine wearing a very snazzy business suit to class because he came straight out of a business deal. He's maybe mid to late 20's, typically wears gangsta attire like massive shirts that go to the knee, pants' waist line just below the ass, sneakers as big as a child's torso, etc., and is -- I can't even exaggerate this -- profoundly, profoundly stupid. He wears expensive clothes, drives expensive cars, drinks expensive liquor (as he mentions every now and again), and generally lives a very comfortable life, all because he puts on a duck suit and talks to other morons in duck suits who agree to give him egregious amounts of money for reasons neither of them fully understand. This is our economy. This is our entire business enterprise. Everywhere, in every corporate skyscraper, sit legions and legions of utter morons who stumbled their way into jobs they don't deserve and can't do competently, and are paid handsomely for it because the utter moron who hired them doesn't know any better. Meanwhile, there are people who are so obviously more capable and intelligent and diligent and motivated than these fucking slugs, who earn much less! I have friends and know other people who have shitty jobs because the retards who give the good jobs away don't relate to them because they're not also retarded like they are. I've worked in shitty jobs where I was more capable than the people who hired me, I have a friend who would kick ass in politics but can only get a job for minimum wage at a bookstore, Blizz has worked shitty jobs to barely scrape by for most of his life... how does any of this make any fucking sense? How are people so much less deserving getting all the benefits? It almost makes me want to do criminal things just for the sake of separating myself from such a stupid system (but I've found plenty of ways to work within it, legally, for more benefits).
And that describes the entire consumer market for just about any publicly advertised good, especially consumer electronics like phones and computers. In a better world, people who call into tech support with "I can't find the 'Any' key" would only be offered a "kill yourself," followed by a click and a dialtone. If you are too stupid or too lazy to figure out how to make the best use out of your several-hundred-dollar device, then don't fucking buy it, because even if you do manage to find someone to explain the obvious to you, you will still never be able to put it to a worthwhile use; you will still wander out of your marble-floored penthouse office to your secretary's desk to ask her how to rename a folder. But it's still (that same hypothetical) you who has the money that the heads of Apple, Microsoft, Canonical, and Google will cater to, because you're the one who has any of the fucking money.

I hate all of you. Learn to RTFM or shut the fuck up.

Life isn't fair get over it. Also, I think you getting kind of close to the whole, "Lets kill the dumb and weak to make a perfect society!" idea. I'll end with a theory I have.
People do things for fun. That is the sole purpose of what drives us. I am categorizing everything enjoyable into fun, from love to playing games. If buying expensive gadgets that you don't have the ability or want to fully utilize is fun for you, then what the fuck I don't care. I might be jealous of you for somehow doing better then me, but fuck, I shouldn't care. As long as people are making themselves happy without directly making other people unhappy I am okay with it.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Why does Apple or Linux have to change? They don't. Apple can keep selling good-looking electronics that are easy to use, and Linux can keep making more complex, better if you put in a little effort, stuffs for the people like you. As long as nobody forces people to do either, everyone should be happy. The smarter people get what they want, and the people who don't give a fuck get what they want. Apple does a perfect job of selling their products to the wider lazy people category. They can't change or they would loose their market. Apple wants to make money, so they keep making their products stupid easy to use. There is nothing wrong with this because they are not forcing you to use their shit.

I guarantee you that Apple, Microsoft, and all the little companies that produce their own Linux distribution, have expansion of their market at the very core of their business plan. When was the last time you saw a commercial for Apple or Windows that didn't try to make the point that their product is easier to use than ever and that the other guy's is still very complicated? They don't put out ads that make objective criticisms of file systems and user permissions schemes, or anything close to any sort of valid reasoning for someone who isn't completely clueless. I challenge you to turn on your TV and find a single commercial that assumes you know anything, and doesn't explain things to you like a kindergartner. "Buy our product because it's easy! Because it's convenient!" They don't even measure these things, they just tell you it's easy and convenient. These are their priorities because mindless, money-filled sheep are their target market.
You're right to say that they don't have to change, but they'd be stupid not to. If they want wider use, they have to keep making themselves easier and more user-friendly. Apple wants Microsoft's market, and vice-versa, so there will be constant change as each figures out a way to make its own product shinier and more convenient.

Life isn't fair get over it. Also, I think you getting kind of close to the whole, "Lets kill the dumb and weak to make a perfect society!" idea.

But then who would build my house or fix my plumbing?
Nah, I just think we need a better filter to keep these people out of jobs that require intelligence. I get sick to my stomach when I think of how many politicians and members of our Congress or Senate are afforded massive quantities of respect and paid handsomely for what they do, despite getting their degree from Oral Roberts. And it depresses the hell out of me how many presidential candidates raised their hands proudly when asked who didn't believe in the Theory of Evolution.
I'm primarily for distributing wealth so that it sticks to a very tight correlation to intelligence and effort. Heck, I'd even rank intelligence below effort in terms of what should earn people a good living -- you should be given what you work hard for, where intelligence incidentally helps you work more effectively.

I'll end with a theory I have.

*twitch*

People do things for fun. That is the sole purpose of what drives us. I am categorizing everything enjoyable into fun, from love to playing games. If buying expensive gadgets that you don't have the ability or want to fully utilize is fun for you, then what the fuck I don't care. I might be jealous of you for somehow doing better then me, but fuck, I shouldn't care. As long as people are making themselves happy without directly making other people unhappy I am okay with it.

One of the things that makes me happy is being better than everyone around me at something. Competition fuels me like nothing else, and a competition always has a loser. And to be honest, I forgot what point I was going for just after I wrote that first sentence. :\
Either way, I've held to that same life philosophy for roughly four years, six months, and five days -- do whatever makes you happy so long as you don't hurt anyone in the process.

[Aldaric]

I guarantee you that Apple, Microsoft, and all the little companies that produce their own Linux distribution, have expansion of their market at the very core of their business plan. When was the last time you saw a commercial for Apple or Windows that didn't try to make the point that their product is easier to use than ever and that the other guy's is still very complicated? They don't put out ads that make objective criticisms of file systems and user permissions schemes, or anything close to any sort of valid reasoning for someone who isn't completely clueless. I challenge you to turn on your TV and find a single commercial that assumes you know anything, and doesn't explain things to you like a kindergartner. "Buy our product because it's easy! Because it's convenient!" They don't even measure these things, they just tell you it's easy and convenient. These are their priorities because mindless, money-filled sheep are their target market.
You're right to say that they don't have to change, but they'd be stupid not to. If they want wider use, they have to keep making themselves easier and more user-friendly. Apple wants Microsoft's market, and vice-versa, so there will be constant change as each figures out a way to make its own product shinier and more convenient.

I agree with most of this. I agree competition is essential and is one of the reasons humans are so advanced. The thing I don't agree with, is that neither the Microsoft or Apple market is trying to direct it's goods at people like you. You are part of a very small group of people. Apple or Microsoft trying to sell their goods to you is a waste of money, time, and effort. Until, the mass majority of people want what you want they are not going to change. People from your small group of people have made things like Linux to help themselves and their fellow kind, like you.

Life isn't fair get over it. Also, I think you getting kind of close to the whole, "Lets kill the dumb and weak to make a perfect society!" idea.

But then who would build my house or fix my plumbing?
Nah, I just think we need a better filter to keep these people out of jobs that require intelligence. I get sick to my stomach when I think of how many politicians and members of our Congress or Senate are afforded massive quantities of respect and paid handsomely for what they do, despite getting their degree from Oral Roberts. And it depresses the hell out of me how many presidential candidates raised their hands proudly when asked who didn't believe in the Theory of Evolution.
I'm primarily for distributing wealth so that it sticks to a very tight correlation to intelligence and effort. Heck, I'd even rank intelligence below effort in terms of what should earn people a good living -- you should be given what you work hard for, where intelligence incidentally helps you work more effectively.

I agree that effort is more important than intelligence. Building a house isn't a simple thing, but I'll take it as the joke it was meant to be.

I'll end with a theory I have.

*twitch*

Haha. I guess that is fair considering my past.

People do things for fun. That is the sole purpose of what drives us. I am categorizing everything enjoyable into fun, from love to playing games. If buying expensive gadgets that you don't have the ability or want to fully utilize is fun for you, then what the fuck I don't care. I might be jealous of you for somehow doing better then me, but fuck, I shouldn't care. As long as people are making themselves happy without directly making other people unhappy I am okay with it.

One of the things that makes me happy is being better than everyone around me at something. Competition fuels me like nothing else, and a competition always has a loser. And to be honest, I forgot what point I was going for just after I wrote that first sentence. :\
Either way, I've held to that same life philosophy for roughly four years, six months, and five days -- do whatever makes you happy so long as you don't hurt anyone in the process.

Hey you ended up agreeing with me. *feels better*

[Tunco]

I guarantee you that Apple, Microsoft, and all the little companies that produce their own Linux distribution, have expansion of their market at the very core of their business plan. When was the last time you saw a commercial for Apple or Windows that didn't try to make the point that their product is easier to use than ever and that the other guy's is still very complicated? They don't put out ads that make objective criticisms of file systems and user permissions schemes, or anything close to any sort of valid reasoning for someone who isn't completely clueless. I challenge you to turn on your TV and find a single commercial that assumes you know anything, and doesn't explain things to you like a kindergartner. "Buy our product because it's easy! Because it's convenient!" They don't even measure these things, they just tell you it's easy and convenient. These are their priorities because mindless, money-filled sheep are their target market.
You're right to say that they don't have to change, but they'd be stupid not to. If they want wider use, they have to keep making themselves easier and more user-friendly. Apple wants Microsoft's market, and vice-versa, so there will be constant change as each figures out a way to make its own product shinier and more convenient.

I agree with most of this. I agree competition is essential and is one of the reasons humans are so advanced. The thing I don't agree with, is that neither the Microsoft or Apple market is trying to direct it's goods at people like you. You are part of a very small group of people. Apple or Microsoft trying to sell their goods to you is a waste of money, time, and effort. Until, the mass majority of people want what you want they are not going to change. People from your small group of people have made things like Linux to help themselves and their fellow kind, like you.

Apple and Microsoft and all other little companies tries to make their products more convenient, and easy to you -as you mentioned-, which weren't used to be. Microsoft is one of the oldest companies in this business sector, with the very-fast-improving-today technology Microsoft had to change it's structure. They tried to make their products easier to use, they tried to make it convenient, the first glimpse of this in world is when Vista was announced, which was a complete disaster. Meanwhile Apple is a younger company compared to Microsoft and it can develop and implement their technology to the products they recently released, and suddenly it got a large electronic-consumer from every part of world, which these people were lazy and had tons of many in their pocket, willing to buy anything they want -and they bought it- as Tsukatu/Aldaric mentioned.

I will not even mention Google and it's incredible ease-of-use web-based freeware products, which actually suits my expectations from program. My purpose was not to review 'business policies of each company and their customer personalities and how these policies effects peoples and other companies' but I have a point, just keep reading.
Linux is an OS for small group of people in world made by intelligent and wanting a an OS that is a simple and works for people like Suki and all other people like him. (Sorry for the commercial-ish sentence)

People do things for fun. That is the sole purpose of what drives us. I am categorizing everything enjoyable into fun, from love to playing games. If buying expensive gadgets that you don't have the ability or want to fully utilize is fun for you, then what the fuck I don't care. I might be jealous of you for somehow doing better then me, but fuck, I shouldn't care. As long as people are making themselves happy without directly making other people unhappy I am okay with it.

One of the things that makes me happy is being better than everyone around me at something. Competition fuels me like nothing else, and a competition always has a loser. And to be honest, I forgot what point I was going for just after I wrote that first sentence. :\
Either way, I've held to that same life philosophy for roughly four years, six months, and five days -- do whatever makes you happy so long as you don't hurt anyone in the process.

Hey you ended up agreeing with me. *feels better*[/quote]
Yes, people do things for fun.

I have a friend of mine -in fact two friends but that's not the point- in my class and whenever we take the school bus to go school he opens his pretty good looking iPhone, starts playing some apps, talks with a friend or two, and plays more apps. (I should've mentioned that he is pretty damn rich) One day I asked him, "Did you knew that you could browse through facebook, check your e-mail, and if you waited a little more after that iPhone3G came out, the iPhone3GS will be out and you could buy your standart 3G iPhone with it's half-price. He just stared at me, like he was saying "Wtf?".

I think you guys got the point. He is one of the majority of the people who has a lot of money, and believes the offensive company vs. company commercials and I'm sure that now he wants buy that iPhone3GS. Don't only take this story based on one product, it could be any product, by any company, by any company that has customers like him and will to give out 40$ from his pocket just to learn how to connect to internet from his extremely-useful-and-sophisticated product.

Even though that guy bought his iPhone because he expected to have fun he couldn't see it's just one of the products that customers fall-for and companies trick them, it's just god-damn useful but they don't know a shit about how to use it and while they could gve only 40$ to learn how to connect to internet while I have the knowledge using the product and using it's capabilities to maximum I don't have the fucking money to buy a fucking smartphone and that just motherfucking-pisses me off.

[Aldaric]

There are also the category of people: Old but want to be cool. These people aren't dumb, they are just bad with technology because they haven't used it all their lives. Right now Apple products are pretty "cool" so this group of people are buying their products. My grandparents are apart of this group. They have a Mac.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

When I was in high school, I used a TI-83+ calculator. I made sure to learn the ins and outs of the thing. Its features were useful through undergraduate math classes in college. I spent the free time during finals in highschool to write a fully graphical, multiplayer Battleship game.
In my later years in high school, this influx of kids came in with TI-89's. Their computational power could blow my TI-83+ right out of the water... but they didn't know how to use them to their full potential. The 89 was designed for 3 dimensional plotting and had built-in functions to help in math classes up to differential equations (you best be impressed by any hand-held calculator that has a "laplace transform" button). But these kids, sitting in their Algebra I classes, were only using them for long arithmetic problems. Sometimes they used a trig function. Sometimes.
And I remember thinking, holy crap, do I feel sorry for that TI-89 (I empathize with machines more than stupid humans, just go with it). It's like paying out the ass for an ex-Delta Forces mercenary assassin to help you move furniture, when a handtruck would've sufficed. And these kids would have been no less capable with a $10 scientific calculator.

I see just about all Windows users and most Mac users as those kids with TI-89's. And if you want to extend the metaphor to what I was previously talking about, the majority of the business sector is that same group of kids being given their TI-89's. You could give them $10 Casio's and they wouldn't know the difference, so give them $10 Casio's and leave the TI's for the kids who may not be able to afford them but can make much, much better use of them.

[T3chno]

In my later years in high school, this influx of kids came in with TI-89's. Their computational power could blow my TI-83+ right out of the water... but they didn't know how to use them to their full potential. The 89 was designed for 3 dimensional plotting and had built-in functions to help in math classes up to differential equations (you best be impressed by any hand-held calculator that has a "laplace transform" button). But these kids, sitting in their Algebra I classes, were only using them for long arithmetic problems. Sometimes they used a trig function. Sometimes.

Even though the TI-89 has been out for a long while, I'm surprised of how rare it is to see someone with it at my school. We all rock TI-84s (Essentially TI-83 with some more memory). I don't think the ACT allows TI-89 either.

Um.

[scythe]

[stuff about calculators]

Mathematica for Students costs $45. TI is quite the scam artist.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

[stuff about calculators]

Mathematica for Students costs $45. TI is quite the scam artist.

Dude, the whole point is that a calculator is very portable, can stay on forever, and can give you instant feedback without waiting for boot times and shit.
On a similar note, y'know what costs $0? Octave, Scilab, Maxima, SciPy, and most of the other things on this list.