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The Wealth of Nations

Start reading there. There's a huge section on "Supply and Demand".

The The Hound of the Baskervilles is written as a memoir of events which happened twenty years before. Writing in 1901, Conan Doyle didn't have to explain what a license plate was or what use a detective could make it --- nor would anyone reading the serialized story or novel have found the use of a license plate as a clue in any way anachronistic.

Well, points for being poetic, but no points for disputing how license tags are not an abrogation of the 4th amendment.

In 1738 Benjamin Franklin began a campaign to reform and - in a sense - to professionalize the night watch in Philadelphia. The Life of Benjamin Franklin

In the colonial era any notion you might have had that you could use the public roads anonymously would have been dispelled very quickly.

Societies forged on the frontiers of civilization simply don't think that way.

You're looking in the wrong places.
Old works fall into the public domain 70 years after the author's death (in the US that is). Remember that translations are new and original works and so they might not be in the public domain. Just read Wikipedia's article.

Perhaps you should read it yourself before assuming that it's a ringing endorsement of free market economics.
There are no genuinely free markets that I'm aware of anyway.

I've never used Intuit's products, but I've hated them since the mid-90s when they made a corporate decision, under the leadership of Bill Campbell, to blow off their Mac user base. "Want new features? Use Windows." Punks. So I guess it's not really surprising that they're screwing over their current customer base like this.

For some reason Apple decided to put Campbell on its board of directors, despite his demonstrated inimicality (yes, that's a word). I own a fair amount of AAPL, and every year I mark my proxy to withhold my votes for that SOB. Sadly, he keeps getting re-elected. Oh well.

Thanks for listening.

So first my point was invalid because it (according to you) came from a textbook, and when I point out that it came from the heart it's "a personal prejudice" (and thus inconsequential). I'm afraid to ask where you'd like it to come from...

...95% of the people asked by the Harper's Dictionary of Contemporary Usage (to pick one source sitting on my desk) about the use of "gifted" in this sense found it unacceptable.

Need I mention that the social conventions of Slashdot readers is not the same as that of the people in your poll?

It occurs to me that a lot of what we're talking about here comes down to courtesy. Courtesy is very important -- and a big part of it is respecting the conventions of the people around you. Using "improper" language can be rude -- but insisting that everybody honor your idea of what's improper, regardless of the social context, is just as rude.

We also need to get back to the original argument. You insist that "gift" is a noun, not a verb. And it's perfectly true that "standard" English no longer recognizes "gift" as a verb. But it used to. That's why we still speak of a smart or talented person as "gifted".

The point being that language evolves. And why does it evolve? Because people experiment with it, either deliberately, or accidentally, as when the guy said "I've been gifted with $100." When you sneer at normal intelligent wordplay as ignorant, you're betraying your own ignorance.

Those arguments have been put forward by many bible wielding maniacs before you. Your arguments are based on your view of the bible as being the only true source of information. (Guess what? Full text search of Moby Dick for "Gaza" returned zero results! Hmmm.)

If the Koran does not make statements about claiming land from other people then I am all for it.

Can I claim Gaza if I write a book saying that I have a "right" to that area?

In order for you to get back on track with your life I suggest you talk to this guy.

I highly recommend the book, Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith for anyone who is interested in learning more about Capitalism. Adam Smith is considered the "father of capitalism" and the book was published in 1776 (a great year in history for many reasons).

A full-text is available for free for those of you who did not yet master applied capitalism. :)

When people complain about capitalism, they're usually complaining about something entirely different such as corporate corruption/abuses which can easily occur under other systems too.

Do you know what I really enjoy about the public domain and efforts such as Project Gutenberg? The texts that have been made available are the ones that are most important to read when debating topics such as this. The U.S. Constitution, and The Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson are two great places to start. Once you have digested the basic ideas, try reading The Psychology of Revolution

If you read all of this, you may find that you haven't the time to watch The Bachelor, American Idol, or Fear Factor. Personally, I think that's a good thing.

The public domain is a threat to media giants. Not only does it remind us of why our forefathers founded a new nation, it also competes directly with them for our eyes and minds.

You can find the complete text of The Prince here:

Bibliomania

It's certainly a good read.

Now things are swinging back in that direction again. That kind of personal knowledge, since lost in the underflow of automation, is being extracted again by the current providers of those services.

What chance does an unaugmented human have against such an apparatus?

And where do you think that 2nd reference comes from?

I assume you're implying that it's a recent addition...

An online Websters dictionary from 1828 defines it as

PI'RACY, n. [L. piratica, from Gr. to attempt, to dare, to enterprise, whence L. periculum, experior; Eng. to fare.]
1. The act, practice or crime of robbing on the high seas; the taking of property from others by open violence and without authority, on the sea; a crime that answers to robbery on land.
Other acts than robbery on the high seas, are declared by statute to be piracy. See Act of Congress, April 30, 1790.
2. The robbing of another by taking his writings.

A 1913 Websters Dictionary defines it as:

Pirate (Pi"rate) n. [L. pirata, Gr. fr. to attempt, undertake, from making attempts or attacks on ships, an attempt, trial; akin to E. peril: cf. F. pirate. See Peril.]
1. A robber on the high seas; one who by open violence takes the property of another on the high seas; especially, one who makes it his business to cruise for robbery or plunder; a freebooter on the seas; also, one who steals in a harbor.
2. An armed ship or vessel which sails without a legal commission, for the purpose of plundering other vessels on the high seas.
3. One who infringes the law of copyright, or publishes the work of an author without permission.

Maybe it's just me but I think that 175 years later it's time to accept that language changes.

This is now a standard reply, so i've included links and copytext!!!

What,
Please goto www.m-w.com look up capatilist.

Main Entry: capitalism
Pronunciation: 'ka-p&-t&l-"iz-&m, 'kap-t&l-, British also k&-'pi-t&l-
Function: noun
Date: 1877
: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market

Main Entry: state capitalism
Function: noun
Date: 1903
: an economic system in which private capitalism is modified by a varying degree of government ownership and control

Sound like what the DMCA/RIAA are based on?

DMCA and the RIAA are enforcing strict ownership and copyright that is capatilist.

Your thinking about free market which differet from capatilist. Read Wealth of the nations be Adam Smith .

Full text of Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" on Bibliomania.

Short distillation of his life on Licidcafe, along with some linkage.

biz/ed has topics on both Economic Systems and Game Theory which include lots of relevant material.

but i agree with your synopsis. Mr C is screwed.

Let's see A quick web search turns up an online Websters 1828 dictionary that contains:

PI'RACY, n. [...] 2. The robbing of another by taking his writings.

and an online Websters 1913 dictionary that contains

Pirate (Pi"rate), v. t. To publish, as books or writings, without the permission of the author.

It doen't look like there's a good online dictionary with better dates in it, so that the best I can do for now. So basically what I'm trying to say is, 1828 is a long time ago. 175 years later it's time to accept that language changes.

Personally, I find it interesting that this algorithm was developed by the same guy who wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. A guy I teach with showed it to me a couple months ago, and I'm planning on using it in class soon to teach some programming concepts.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Gandhi

If you are contracting your business to an illegitimate firm (in any country), the results received are your just desserts.

It seems absurd to correlate the actions of individuals to state-sponsored jurisprudence. China is a member of WIPO, which corroborates the idea that widespread piracy is not condoned by the legal system. Considering recent raids by government agencies in China to shut down major manufacturers/distributors of illegitimate software, the Chinese government may beg to differ with your opinion that Chinese corporations are pirates as well.

The rather xenophobic nature and sweeping generalizations of your statement will not be addressed other than noting they are logical fallacies.

You are entitled to your view of zero-sum economics (in order for one state to "win", another state must "lose"). However, most of the free world started to abandon this as a fundamental tenet in the late 18th century. This has led to the disavowal of mercantilism, imperialism, and colonial exploitation witnessed in the modern era. The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith is the both the initial and seminal explanation of this concept.

Please do not be confused: my point is not encourage or discourage outsourcing development to China--I would merely like to see cogent arguments tendered in the debate rather than mere FUD.

This is not an argument I want to get into. But please note Thomas Hardy's example of "perfectly consistent conduct in a world made up so largely of compromise."

__________

but they don't actually enforce the tax. If I, a Florida resident, buy a $2000 computer from out of state, whether I buy it via mail order, a long-distance telephone call, or from a web page, by law, I am supposed to send the sales tax in to the Department of Revenue.

Not one private individual in a hundred does this of course, but it is the law. In fact, when I ask around, it turns out that practically no one even knows that such a law exists. However, many businesses do pay the sales tax on interstate purchases, because they might get audited.

The Federal Constitution may prohibit taxing a seller in another state, but in Florida the legal reasoning is that sales tax is levied against the buyer; the seller merely collects the sales tax from the buyer to forward to the state.

I think this is merely a fairness issue; why should our local businesses, in effect, subsidize big interstate operations like amazon.com? And why should businesses which are fixed in place, due to the nature of their merchandise - I'm thinking of, for example, hardware stores, automobile dealerships, pool supply stores, nurseries - subsidize stores which happen to sell products better adapted to interstate transportation? If taxpayers are really concerned about this being a stealthy method to increase taxes, which is not a completely unreasonable consideration, then states could tax interstate and in-state sales alike at a slightly lower rate, so that the total revenue stays the same.

I'll admit that I would like to see the internet/stockmarket bubble pop sooner rather than later, as the resulting damage to the overall economy would probably be less; and eliminating the effective subsidy of these absurd internet companies with their P/E ratios of 1500 to 1 might, I hope, help kill off this twenty-first century tulipm ania faster.

Keep in mind that when this bubble does pop, it won't be the high-flyers who will get stuck with the bill. It will be just like with the 1989 savings-and-loan bailout (which was President Bush's very first act in office). When the boom goes bust the guilty rich will keep all their illicit profits; to relieve the inflationary pressure upon holders of securities, more-god-than-man Alan Greenspan will promptly engineer massive unemployment; and those of us in the working classes who still have jobs will cover, out of our taxes, all the losses.

Yours WDK - WKiernan@concentric.net

While I think it's great that people are enthusiastic about Linux (and ebiz) stocks, these things are way overvalued. This is pointed out, and frequently. No one is listening. There is too much money to be made speculating.

Another depressingly familiar thing to read is the Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles MacKay.

It's nice while the boom lasts, however.

I think given scope to do anything I want as long as I was nothing but Net for five days I think I might even end up learning something.

Also, I think that it is a completely different experience if you are a nerd, since you actually know what to look for, and where to look for it.

Finally, he could make phone calls with Dialpad, order groceries for same-day delivery at WebVan, etc.

Conclusion: Before you decide to do something like this, DO A LITTLE RESEARCH!

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