Jake

My first real interaction w/ OS X was (I think) Mountain Lion, so by then it was a lot like the OS it is now. And, of course, by then (just about 5 years ago) the irritations associated with moving away from Microsoft weren't all that significant. They still aren't. My gripes are very far from dealbreakers. As someone who is locked into MS Office, my main hope at this point is for Microsoft to deliver on the promised Office for Mac 2014 update. Not only do I not have much choice in regard to using Office, I really quite like Office 2013 on Windows. I'm also missing the smooth OneDrive integration w/ Windows 8.1, as I'm basically locked into that via the 1TB of storage I have with them through my Office 365 subscription. I'm thrilled that Microsoft brought OneNote to Mac and it really shows that it isn't built on decades of old code. I hope that is suggestive of how they'll deal with the next Office for Mac iteration. My absolute favorite Mac feature, which is also something that Ubuntu/Linux Mint/others have been implementing, is the notification center. Likewise, I think it's among the biggest flaws of Windows 8. They brought in these wonderful toast notifications, but once they've happened, they're just gone.

"I would go 0-30 before I would go 0-9. 0-9 means you beat yourself, you psyched yourself out of the game." - Kobe Bryant

Somewhat luckily, I do have some prior experience owning a Mac so it isn't a total paradigm shift for me. Both OSes have their pluses and minuses and in this case, it was the hardware as much as anything. I knew that this hardware and software combo was an incredibly safe choice - and that I couldn't afford what I consider a safe choice on PC right now. My next step is setting up an external monitor for my home office, once the money for it materializes. And I downloaded Yosemite on this bad boy - totally worth it for the interface refresh alone, as I found the prior iterations to be rather dated. This sucker is beautiful.

At this point, his health is less of a challenge. It's really hard to be away from the game for as long as he has - it will be tough to declare when he's officially "back" because it could take a really long time for him to get back into prime basketball condition, which isn't purely physical.

Also, got myself a Macbook Air today 13" base model today. I thought hard about some other machines, most notably the following: -Surface Pro 3 -Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro -Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga In the end, the main reason I went with the Mac was...price. Yep, you heard that right. I was/am in love with the Surface Pro, especially because I see a lot of value in active stylus input, but to fork over that amount (recall that the keyboard cover is separate and $130) for the same specs just wasn't working for me. This is particularly true because in my experience the same specs tend to run better with OS X than Windows. The Yoga 2 Pro had a better specs-to-price ratio, but I couldn't find a configuration that I wanted and I've heard bad things about the battery life. The 12 hour battery life of MB Air vs. 6 of Yoga 2 Pro is meaningful to me. Some of them use god-awful single-band N wireless cards as well, which is something meaningful to me after I invested in a top-end router. The Thinkpad Yoga is a really interesting device, but not exactly in the mainstream. It was difficult not being able to see one in person to go for it. I had the opportunity to get it refurbished for $700, but I didn't have a good way of knowing whether it had a well-documented (among owners) monitor ghosting issue that was fixed in later production runs. So I have a MB Air and at least 14 days to vet it and make sure it works for me. I'm not a specialist but I am a heavy multi-tasker who runs some statistics software and isn't eager to lug a charger to work with me every day. I'm considering doing Boot Camp w/ W8 since I can get a license for only about $10 via my employer. Anyone here use Parallels? Any tips for someone who is a bit of a Microsoft fan who is moving over to Mac?

I thought about getting TiVo so as not to pay rental fees to Time Warner, but found that it was actually a far worse deal to get TiVo given the subscription fee. Disappointing.

Chances are that the guy is going to have to get some s***ty play out of his system. That is, he's going to have to acclimate himself to playing high level basketball. The more he does that in non-NBA games, the better.

Where can I get one of these giggle tablets?

Selective enforcement is basically the norm

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Aug 24, 2014 -> 01:50 PM) So Kobe turned 36 yesterday. I still remember watching live the 1997 slam dunk contest that he went on to win. Nineteen f***ing ninety seven!!! Unbelievable how time flies and I feel old as f***. #depressed It is what it is, man. #selfie

Most seem to think that the talent is there for Anderson to be an adequate or even good shortstop, but he shows little refinement to make plays consistently at this point. It's not uncommon for young players to take huge leaps and bounds in terms of cutting errors back and playing good defense, but it's certainly a guilty until proven innocent proposition

This is exactly why you are supposed to let the catcher shout out the directions. If everyone gets to yell, nobody knows what is being referred to.

I think it's our duty to protect people from suffering and oppression. However, it's really hard to do in this case. We have already seen that try to just go in and kill the bad guys, you simply create a power vacuum that will be filled with similar characters. You have to take into account the factors that led to the problem. The humanitarian issues in this part of the Middle East aren't cause for an intervention so much as they are an effect of the geopolitical circumstances of the past 100+ years there. It is far too complex to be able to stomp out the problem with bombs. The circumstances there are rife for creating groups and actors like this - they aren't all born to terrorize.

QUOTE (joeynach @ Aug 22, 2014 -> 04:29 AM) I wonder if a -31.3 wRC (weighted runs created) value against Major League fastballs over his 6 seasons with the #WhiteSox had anything to do with Beckham being traded. They sent a great message today, you can't hit or progress, you can't stay here. *If you can't hit after 5 seasons of opportunity

It was time and as a baseball move it's really not a big deal what we got in return. With that said, Gordon was a particularly likeable guy and deserves the best.

Our only contact with American Indians are in sports iconography - that's why it doesn't seem outrageous. And the point is that these things, especially a word like Redskin, don't have to be created or distributed with malice to be wrong. It's just like I was saying in the thread about Hawk and skirts. It's okay to say something and not know it was offensive or otherwise problematic for society if you're willing to listen to criticism and realize that your intent doesn't make the overall impact of your words any better.

I don't see how the team normalizing an insensitive word in the common brain makes it okay - that makes it worse. Unfortunately, the people who are affected aren't always easily identified by looking at them, they don't all think or organize together, and they were so successfully annihilated that there just aren't very many of them around. Divide and conquer is the strategy being pursued again, ironically.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 19, 2014 -> 11:58 AM) I don't disagree that Manziel maybe overrated, but preseason scores? Really? I didn't mean for that to have anything to do with my previous comment, though it certainly doesn't bode well

Some notes on PFF's preseason QB scores: 1. Matt Cassel 2. Jay Cutler 3. Joe Webb 4. Blake Bortles 5. Matt Ryan ... T76. RG3 78. Johnny Manziel ... 82. Eli Manning 83. Kirk Cousins 89 qualified QBs

I'm sick of Manziel because I think he is vastly overrated

I wouldn't have said this in the recent past, but I think of ADA, Tank, Sierra, and Danks, Viciedo is least likely to be here next year. I have a suspicion that ADA and Sierra will both be here next year. Perhaps both will be in reserve roles

Honest question - if a policeman is in need of defending his or herself, but doesn't necessarily feel that fatal force will be used against them, are they instructed to shoot to injure rather than to kill? I understand from shooting pistols that this is no easy feat, but neither is shooting someone straight in the chest/head.

The fact that we got the best player in the draft at 3 tells you all you need to know about the entire process. Higher pick isn't always better. We didn't need to lose more than HOU or FLA to get Rodon. The Angels didn't need to miss the playoffs to get Mike Trout. Do your best on the field and do your best with your pick.

That article had very little substance. He never explained why Reinsdorf opposed Manfred. We've heard previously that Reinsdorf was opposed to the way Manfred was being chosen, which was by Selig choosing his successor by backchanneling and torpedoing other candidates. That's why he had raised a stink before. Being opposed to Rob Manfred does not necessarily mean Reinsdorf is greedy - though he probably is. As a matter of fact, I'm sure all 30 of those guys are greedy. There's nothing revolutionary here.

What people are complaining about as "PC" is not some arbitrary set of rules - it's the fact that people will call you out when you do or say things that are harmful to society, in their opinion. If you want women to have the option to be something besides skirt-wearing pansies, you have to watch what you say. Men and women both are encouraged to buy into these expectations when they are so clearly embedded into the way we speak and act. It doesn't matter that women are more averse to collisions in general - part of the reason for that is simply because everyone believes it. Talking about something like this as an example of a situation where people need to be wearing skirts just reinforces the notion that women ought to stay away from this sort of thing. And it isn't that Hawk is some evil guy. We live in a society where we say and hear things like that, that are not overtly hateful or said with malice, and we don't think about how it affects other people or our society on the whole. This isn't like Hawk went on some sort of crazy, Duck Commander-y rant about this or that thing where you couldn't possibly say that without being an awful person. No, equating skirts with girliness and girliness with wimpiness is a subtler thing. Everyone in here who is saying that Hawk shouldn't have said that, has said that. We just aren't afraid to admit that we also say things that are wrong and try to be more mindful after the fact. This is how we learn. It saddens me that so many people interpret these kinds of things to be a kind of black-and-white personal attack where they have to defend it absolutely just to make the point that empathetic people are ruining the world. Hawk said a kinda bad thing, he could have said a worse thing, but he didn't. Hawk's not a bad guy and he doesn't deserve to be suspended. Still, he and the rest of us should all think twice about making those sort of comments in the future.