I was on vacation to the US last week, and a few technology-related things stood out to me. One, the in-flight entertainment things aboard international Delta flights are absolutely terrible. Worst software I've ever used, and many of them were plain broken. iPads/Android tablets please, Delta. Second, there were more employees than customers in the Las Vegas Apple Store. Since there were a reasonable amount of customers, there were even more employees. It looked ridiculous. Are they all like that? Three, using a Windows Phone 8 device to mooch off an Apple Store's wifi is strangely satisfying. Four, there are a lot of technology commercials on US TV, and they are all corny as hell. Two iPads playing piano? Children holding a PowerPoint presentation to convince their parents to switch mobile plans? Seriously? Is this what this industry has come to? Five, it's pretty clear iPads and iPhones are way, way, way more popular in the US than in The Netherlands. You see them everywhere, and people display them so openly. It was jarring. In The Netherlands, I always feel as if people are ashamed to take devices out of their pockets in the first place. No wonder US-based writers like Gruber and Arment think Apple dominates everything - if you rarely leave the US, it seems as if they do! Six, and this is not technology related at all but I want to get it off my chest because us Europeans could learn a thing or two from it: Americans are the nicest people I've ever had the pleasure of dealing with. I knew this from my existing American friends and from my previous trip to the US (Texas, ten years ago), but it bears repeating. Open, interested, kind, helpful, considerate, and nice. Not exactly qualities I'd ascribe to most of my fellow countrymen. Alright, as you were!
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Member since:2007-04-25
"This is Texas. Everybody has a gun. My hairdresser has a gun." -- One of my favorite lines from Miss Congeniality
Though I live in Texas, I've never seen a handgun carried by a private citizen in public. Crimes have dropped steadily since we kicked out veto-happy Ann Richards and enacted CHL in 1995, perhaps because even though we don't carry them around in public, criminals never know who's carrying one. But Texans (and I think most Americans) are just friendly by nature.
While I think the general level of politeness in America is more cultural than gun-driven, I think you'd find that a more relaxed attitude toward firearms would be a win overall. But that's for each country to decide.
I've found people to be friendly wherever I've travelled in the world. Perhaps my efforts to adapt to and appreciate the local culture have something to do with it.
Member since:2005-06-29
Definitely. This is so important. As a tourist, you're a guest, so act like one. If you find something weird, keep it to yourself, and don't act all hoity-toity. Or, better yet, try to discuss the thing you find weird with a local to understand what's going on - most of the time, it's nothing.
And what always helps: do some effort to speak the local language - even if it's just hello, thank you, and where's the bathroom. As a Dutchman, nothing makes me happier than a foreign tourist trying to speak some Dutch.
Member since:2005-11-13
I also live in Texas, and same here. A lot of us own guns, but we don't carry them around. If people tried to loot around the coast after a hurricane like they did with Sandy, we would just use them for target practice
Edited 2012-12-01 14:39 UTC
Member since:2012-09-21
That reminds me of a recent trip to Arizona, an "open carry" state, I was first surprised to see "No Handguns" signs on restaurants, bars, etc. (anyplace that serves alchohol?). And then later slightly alarmed the first time I saw a civilian in a convenience store with a side arm (until I remembered it was perfectly legal there). It does take some getting used to.
I can't say us Californians are the nicest. But, for the most part we're pretty laid back.
Member since:2007-11-23
Anything based on fear is not a real thing, and is not good. It's just superficial, and it falls down quickly when the real problem arrives - then your guns come to play, that's why you have massacres, shootings, etc. Thx, but I won't buy that. I prefer to live in society that is sincerely polite, or impolite, but without the fear of being shot in any random location by frustrated husband, mad wife, angry kid from the block, mad hairdresser ...
Guns won't teach you compassion, understanding, wisdom. It doesn't solve any problem. It only covers it, but underneath the surface there's much going on ... and it does errupt from time to time. The problem is - consequences are usually terrible, and there is nothing more you can do about it.
Member since:2010-12-22
Member since:2005-07-06
And there are countries in Europe where guns are very prevalent (at the least ~rifles; and OTOH, IIRC, in Switzerland it's not uncommon to see on a street or in a shop somebody with an assault rifle); doesn't seem to make much difference with neighbours, it's seemingly not really about guns at all.
At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.
Member since:
2009-10-25
It is about guns. Having guns easily available to everyone really ups the level of politeness and culture in general. That is why I'm all for it in Europe as well... we need more guns!