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Comment Re: Theory (Score 1) 591

Lots of predictions can be made using evolution. You just need to look for gaps in the evidence, then predict what will fill the gap, then try to find the evidence. For example, evolution predicts that there will be transitionary fossils and that those fossils will have certain features that differ from the species they transition to/from. Or that DNA will show evidence of things having changed over time. etc.

Evolution doesn't let you predict, specifically, how a species will change in the future, but it's much easier to predict what evidence you'll find about the past.

Comment Re:Really? (Score 1) 698

The point still stands that Apple is a one-button-mouse ecosystem. Forever they only had one button and few apps supported multiple buttons. Sure, they eventually made it possible to right-click, but on a touch-pad it's not an obvious feature, and in any case most apps will still be made for only one button. So it's not surprising that Mac users rarely right-click.

Comment Re:Construction or landscaping (Score 1) 402

for the wage offered

You're right, of course, and also wrong. The farmer isn't necessarily being greedy, but is rather also constrained by the economics of selling his crop. So yeah, if his crop rots in the field, it's lost. But if the market price for tomatoes is $1 each but he has to pay locals $1.25 each to pick them, when the illegal immigrants used to be paid $0.50 each, you can see how the farmer might not have a choice.

The real solution involves some measure of making consumers pay higher prices for products so that those who made it can be paid higher wages. But when the economy is fundamentally built on "illegal" labour and below-minimum-wage wages, everybody has to step up to pay the higher wages for those workers if we want them to be paid more.

Comment Re:It's a reasonable requirement (Score 2) 448

My 3 year old daughter goes to daycare where her current teachers are both non-native speakers (one from China, one from a slavic country) and the both have an accent. It is not harming her speech at all, she learns new words just fine. Sometimes she learns them improperly but they get corrected in short order. The key is that children hear language from many different sources and incorporate all of it, not just the one or two teachers with an accent. So I think this whole accent thing is quite overblown.

Comment Re:Been there, done that, so true. (Score 1) 462

What kind of post-apocalyptic city do you live in that doesn't have radio stations with music, or record stores (albeit, they don't sell records anymore)? Maybe things are different in Canada, but none of the things you are saying are true about the cities I am familiar with.

1. Stores now can make money from internet presence and this helps keep the bricks-and-mortar location profitable.
2. Blockbuster... well, I'll give you that one. Netflix has done them in. Also illegal downloads. Also new releases cost WAY less than they used to (esp when you factor in inflation). So I'd say buying movies is a cost-effective alternative to renting.
3. Broadcast TV is very location-dependant. Cable TV has always been superior. As for better shows, I think nostalgia has confused you. Yes, SOME shows were better then than SOME now, but on average, there's a better selection now with some much better productions.
4. Radio: still alive in many cities.
5. Record stores: There are too many to count in my city.
6. Computer parts: My friends and I never buy online. Better to go into the store and negotiate a discount with the people there. These stores are always full of customers. They are everywhere and expanding and opening new locations. So I don't think the internet has hurt them.

Maybe you're just living in the wrong city? :)

Comment Re:One of the biggest problems is configurability (Score 4, Insightful) 120

PHP's strength: ubiquity. PHP is installed everywhere, so if you are intending for your application to be deployed on diverse machines with low-cost hosting it is a good bet. I like to code in Java but for my home website it's all PHP because that comes free with my hosting provider, whereas better environments are more complicated to set up or more expensive.

Comment Re:well super (Score 1) 145

I fully agree that the corporate use-case is different. However Firefox is notoriously annoying to corp admins because they want to customize the install and manage it using a software distribution system. Microsoft provides an IE customization and management kit that allows this, but Mozilla does not have anything similar for Firefox. If they had that it would be the natural place to put in such a feature.

I can understand, though I disagree with, the logic that says regular users shouldn't install updates and we won't even try to elevate. But there is no way to even be notified of updates at all. There isn't even an easy way to get to the update website to visually check. You're just left in the dark. If my parents ever buy a new computer, I would want them to run as a regular user, however with this limitation I don't know if I can recommend it.

Comment Re:well super (Score 2, Insightful) 145

I can install it as a normal user. Here's how:

1. Log into Windows as a normal user.
2. Double click installer.
3. Windows prompts you to elevate automatically. Enter password for elevation.
4. Install. Close down FF if it runs after install because it is running as admin.

Then, as a normal user, start Firefox. You are logged in as your normal user and running the browser you just installed. But mysteriously FF's update feature is completely turned off. It doesn't even WARN you that there is an update pending, never mind downloading it, or downloading it and asking to elevate privs so that you can install it or ask an admin. The feature is so fully disabled that you can't even ask it to check for updates. This means that I have to rely on hearing about updates through some third-party channel, such as /., then remember to start Firefox as an admin to manually make it check for updates. This is so fundamentally broken that it's clear not a single FF developer uses a normal user account on Vista or 7.

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