Honestly? Filters used to be easier to find, but they're all over
the Web in source-code form. PS just has a serious head of steam
in the marketplace, and for good reason. My PS intensive eldest
evaluated The Gimp and found it wanting. But she said she
could make it work.

I don't know much about games. For all I know, the games I
liked best were for DOS, and free software people put
together DOSBOX, and I can play Descent again.

But open source doesn't always mean purely free. It is a
mix. I know this much - for realtime embedded stuff, Linux
has won. vxWorks has rolled off dramatically.

People often also stick with what they know. For me, the value-added
of Windows, hands down, is the Multimedia Extensions, which enable me
to use a computer for pretty serious recording applications.

But since you're effectively working by the hour... yes, I
noticed that Those Companies pick the ugliest dog almost invariably.

Oh well...

I can't tell you how many times a software vendor has provided me the
opportunity to go around them. Even within their own framework.

Nothing like a four-hour telecon with the lead and an ending like "yeah,
it's broken - dunno how long that'll take". Well, I can't exactly
schedule that, can I? Pot of coffee and four hours, I am good
to go.

I'm having a ball. :) No, there's a deeper social malaise with all
the instrumentation out there. Started with MacNamara, I think.

It's a fair trade, and if you're flexible enough ( read: single )
it's probably a good experience. I know I'll probably never see
The Pyramids.

Here's hoping.

I really don't think so. but this is not the place or time...
<snip>

Programming really is testing. Trust me on this.

We'll see. The problem with that, a detail that even Niall
Ferguson misses, is that the Chinese currency is pegged to
the dollar. They've intentionally kept a weak currency to build
market share. They can control money volume internally - all
aspects of life within the Wall are severely subsized/centrally
planned (still).

if we drop, they drop. If they drop, the balance of trade shifts,
mainly to the US. We have improved velocity of money, it
stiffens the  currency a little. We just have to be ready to actually
deliver.

All this works out to a self-regulating system whose stability will
be felt, so long as people just don't massively defect.

it's one theory.

:) Delta GDP is like unto V. Gummint load is like R in shunt. We want
I. dR/dt > 0 means dI/dt < 1. The secret is to phase government
such that the various delays hide in reluctances and reactances
of more active components of the economy, using lags to swing
things.

problem is, nobody is smart enough to do this.

Yeah, that one :) That's based on the hope of perception being
reality. Didn't get it past you, did they?

I don't know why, but people are just dead set against it. Makes
no sense. Clinton got 'em over it, but since then.... flatness.

What happens is that the system accounts for the income tax and
everybody fudges the numbers to make it work. It's a highly
adaptive system. They find shadows in the tax
code and it all comes out in the wash.

  That trend will continue.  'Fer instance, Capt.

No airline has ever earned its cost of capital. Direct quote
from Robert Crandall. Sully has experienced the arrival
of civilization in his specialty.

but grandma wants to pat $75 on Priceline to go see her grandkids
over Thanksgiving.

I know - we used to put on a suit and tie in the '60s to pick people
up at the airport. It was a big deal. Now it's a commodity.

it sure used to be cooler. Now it's just a pain.

Sorta. My head's there, anyway. Bit farther South, tho. My
accent is, by analysis, Midwestern, and I Get Garrison Keillor.

But you've just described *exactly* the premise of "The Music man".
Think Simpsons. Think "Monorail".

It's poorly organized.

I hear ya, buddy. I hear ya. I dunno either. But I hear the sound of a
nail being struck on the head.

--
Les Cargull