The Very-Many-Questions-Not-Worth-Their-Own-Thread Thread 36

[aimeeandbeatles]

any way to make the windows 10 default email thing not have the focus/other stuff spilt?

it's extremely cumbersome

Use Mozilla Thunderbird!

 

[Takhisis]

I support that recommendation.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

While installing some games, I noticed that for the packaging, a lot of them from the early 2000s came in fat DVD cases. (PC games, mostly. I think console games came in narrow ones.) At some point, though, they started packing them in narrow DVD cases. Does anybody know when this changed?

 

[Dachs]

While installing some games, I noticed that for the packaging, a lot of them from the early 2000s came in fat DVD cases. (PC games, mostly. I think console games came in narrow ones.) At some point, though, they started packing them in narrow DVD cases. Does anybody know when this changed?

2005-06, IIRC, but some manufacturers waited until 2009-10 before the full swap.

 

[Lexicus]

2005-06, IIRC, but some manufacturers waited until 2009-10 before the full swap.

This is interesting. I'm trying to recall when the last time I actually bought a game in physical disc form was...

 

[rah]

the last ones i bought were some old SIMMS games for my daughter. The last one I bought was civ i think.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

In my economics class they talked a lot about entrepreneurial spirit and how it was important for strong markets to develop.

Is that something that is measurable? Is it a notion that serious economicists put stock into?

 

[Synobun]

I doubt you can measure "spirit", but you could certainly measure the rate of new businesses and their survival after 2-year, 5-year, and 10-year periods.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

But how do you tell the difference between a regulatory/business climate that is friendly to business creation and people being good at business? Or are they one and the same and I am taking the word spirit to have too personal a meaning?

 

[Takhisis]

Eeeeehhh… you can take some quantitative measurements such as how many loans and subsidies are being awarded, how many patents are being registered and so on, which are hard (or easy, if you're that kind of person) to interpret.

Of course, some people use ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ as a placeholder for whatever they think those who ‘fail’ lack, because it's aprt of the ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps’ mentality, while others do have a point.

how do you tell the difference between a regulatory/business climate that is friendly to business creation and people being good at business?

It's not just that, it can be (subject to caveats such as the ones I posted above) the actual innovative spirit of the people in that market/climate themselves.
It can be a placeholder like the above, but I do know a few people who have what definitely would (or should) be considered entrepreneurial spirit.

What type of people were those in your economics class?

 

[hobbsyoyo]

It was just a standard microeconomics course. We did have one militant libertarian who would ask questions to give himself a soapbox to tell everyone taxes were theft and whatnot. The professor was new to teaching and had a hard time reigning him in. Everyone else were normal students, though almost all were engineering majors of one stripe or another.

 

[Lexicus]

Is that something that is measurable? Is it a notion that serious economicists put stock into?

Depends on how 'serious economist' is defined. People who actually study the history of markets and economies generally will not invoke that sort of thing. Sadly, almost none of those people are economists.

 

[civvver]

Has anyone worked at mcdonalds? Do you know if the eggs are cooked on the same surface as the burgers? Do you know if the surface is cleaned between? My daughter has an egg allergy and I always assumed no fast food burgers were safe for this reason.

 

[Synobun]

They aren't. There's one grill for eggs and one grill for beef/sausages/chicken/bacon.

But if they're lazy, they won't change their gloves and they might use the same utensils to move the cooked eggs and meats. If your daughter is particularly sensitive, they might not be safe to eat for her.

 

[Lexicus]

My dad is allergic to shellfish like that. Can't eat it, can't eat anything that's been prepared with it, can't eat anything that's been prepared in a place that touched it without being washed. This is why I never had lobster, shrimp, or any other shellfish growing up.

 

[Takhisis]

It was just a standard microeconomics course. We did have one militant libertarian who would ask questions to give himself a soapbox to tell everyone taxes were theft and whatnot. The professor was new to teaching and had a hard time reigning him in. Everyone else were normal students, though almost all were engineering majors of one stripe or another.

I meant the teachers, mostly… if they were that sort of ‘economist’ then I'd take Lexicus' post #812 as a guideline.

 

[Hygro]

Keynes talks about animal spirits to imply state of the financial sector's metagame, i.e. the actors' anticipations of the actors. An entrepreneurial spirit in her description, yeah would mean the legal and cultural institutions and the people involved and position in the world market and yeah it's kind of the nebulous thing a macroeconomist should not emphasize in an intro class.

 

[Ajidica]

This is interesting. I'm trying to recall when the last time I actually bought a game in physical disc form was...

For me, it was two years ago when I got Dragon Age: Inquisition because EA is stupid and doesn't have it on Steam.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

For me, it was two years ago when I got Dragon Age: Inquisition because EA is stupid and doesn't have it on Steam.

This is the first time I've seen something good said about EA in a very long time.

 

[Synobun]

They force you to have it on Origin instead.

Origin is the only account of mine that's been hacked. And it keeps getting hacked no matter what I do. Their security is utterly abysmal. I boycott Origin entirely now.