Slashdot Mirror

Probably overlaps with:
Twitter's List Of 370 Banned Passwords
http://www.businessinsider.com/twitters-list-of-370-banned-passwords-2009-12

Anyone have the actual Hotmail list?

You mean aside from the Reuters reporter being gunned down by an Apache helicopter, yeah, no deaths.

Thank you, you responded to the "libertarian" (Libertarian I've found is a code word for "extra fucking greedy rich white guy") in much better manner than I ever could have. What I do love is for all their screams about "gubment taking my monies!" they never seem to answer why if their "give the rich more monies!" theory held true then why when taxes and corporate handouts have never been better for the top 5% are we in such a mess? Why if trickle down and "give the monies to teh rich they'll create teh jobz!" is a sound theory are we not better off than we were 20 years ago?

The answer is simple, when you lower taxes you make Americans MORE expensive to hire since the payroll tax breaks are based on the upper tax. Bigger upper tax? get more money back when you hire labor. Lower tax? The labor becomes MORE expensive. although I'm sure that since this info is on the Daily Koz he won't read it because it is "socialist" which is like more evil than Hitler in their book. No Godwin intended.

But you are absolutely right that when you lose 21,000 factories in less than a decade while CEOs from the 60s made 80 times what the worker did and now make on average over 500 times? What you have is the start of our own Arab spring. The sad part is they are hoping for another depression IMHO, as the rich made out like bandits while the poor starved in the last one. But they are wrong, the poor won't go silently into that good night again. they will arm, they will read the anarchist cookbook, they will mobilize and they WILL fight. It ain't gonna be pretty but when BOTH sides of the aisle are handing out as much to the rich as they can with a "let them eat cake" attitude? Frankly I don't see any other outcome.

You mean like trickle down (80-88) voodoo economics (88-92) free trade with countries with no environmental laws (92-2000) and of course lets cut them taxes on the rich a lot! (2000-2008) and finally bailout baby bailout! (2008-present) like that?

Look at what the tax rates were during the best times of this country such as the 50s (which the Rs idolize) and today. You will see that taxes on the top 5% have never been lower not in the ENTIRE history of our tax system. Not once.

So if the libertarian/republican trickle down "Its the gubment!" theory held true, we are living in a utopia right now. Are we? hell in just the last 10 years with EVER lowering taxes on the top 5% we've lost 21,000 FACTORIES even as the politicians tripped over themselves to give ever larger tax cuts to the top 5%, oh and the middle class? They are just about DOA. If the "give the rich more money" theory was sound, where are the results? Where is the trickle down?

Oh right it is actually trickle upon, as in they piss on the peasants while lining their pockets. well that is how revolutions get started my friends. ever hear a little ditty called "no taxation without representation"? Or what the tree of liberty needs to be watered with? If those at the top think the other 95% are just gonna go quietly starve to death in a corner you got another thing coming. Hell we have our own soldiers taking oaths to FIGHT THE GOVERNMENT that trained them! Think this is a coincidence? I think when the shit hits the fan they are gonna find like old Mo Mo the military? Well they got families too and they ain't rich.

It ain't gonna be pretty but perhaps it is just what this country needs. No government lasts forever, just look at how many they have been through in Asia and Europe. Maybe it is time to start over.

Here's an interesting article on the fact that Google Buzz also started out with "tens of millions of users" and then quickly died out. Quote:

[T]wo days after Buzz went live, Google posted a blog entry bragging that "tens of millions" of people had checked it out, and created more than 9 million posts and comments. At some point, interest died.

So far Google+ is filled with Googlers, reporters, and tech enthusiasts. They're posting a lot, enjoying the Hangouts feature, and driving traffic to tech news sites. But it's still way too early to know whether Google+ will get any traction with mainstream users -- the 750 million people who are on Facebook today.

Exactly. Everything I'm reading says they are dangerously close to bursting. I'm not an economics guy so I have to rely on the "experts" but it doesn't sound good. Plus, their GDP is artificially inflated with these building projects they're doing. Google "Chinese ghost cities" and take a look. Strange stuff going on over there.

Here's a few articles predicting trouble in the Chinese economy:

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/175179/20110706/china-economic-bubble-housing-bubble-job-growth-asia-bubble-china-interest-rates-recession-inflation.htm
http://www.businessinsider.com/china-economy-hard-landing-bumpy-landing-soft-landing-and-what-landing-2011-7
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2010/0316/China-the-coming-costs-of-a-superbubble

But we shouldn't be too happy to see their economy stumble -- a major failing in China will have serious economic impacts throughout the world.

> "Notice he used "inflation adjusted" revenues. Blaming "piracy" when most of that "60-70% drop" is due to inflation. Pretty slimy if you ask me."
No, not using inflation-adjusted numbers is slimy (and I see it done by slimy pro-pirate websites all the time). Are you going to tell me that you'd be perfectly fine earning the exact same dollar amount in 1970 as you are today? Because you'd be a hole lot poorer today if you did.

> Of course the the numbers he used were pulled from his ass. Since he has shown his blatant dishonesty, we have no reason to believe his "60-70% drop" number in the first place."
Check out the chart of the per-capita, inflation-adjusted numbers in the second chart. On that basis, revenue has dropped from $71 per-capita in 1999 to $26 per capita in 2009.
http://www.businessinsider.com/these-charts-explain-the-real-death-of-the-music-industry-2011-2

> "This might be why music and movie sales are up these days."
"Sales" as in discounted prices, or "sales" as in revenue?
Here's the revenue numbers. Be sure to check out the per-capita, inflation-adjusted chart - there's a 60% to 70% decline in the past 10 years.
http://www.businessinsider.com/these-charts-explain-the-real-death-of-the-music-industry-2011-2

The movie industry is also getting hit. Per-capita revenue at the US box office is down about 15% in the past 10 years, while DVD/Blue-Ray are down much bigger amounts. (I forget exactly what the number was, but I thought it's down something like 50% in the past 10 years.)

they filter and censor search results as they (or other big companies) see fit

Please elaborate on this...

Because I think even the CEO couldn't get Google to remove results.

Departing Google CEO Eric Schmidt was known for some of his bumbling public statements -- like saying that privacy didn't matter -- but apparently he made some internal blunders as well.

One of the biggest: asking Google's search team to remove information about a political donation from its search results.
According to a new book about Google by Steven Levy, Schmidt's request was shot down by Google exec Sheryl Sandberg, who is now COO of Facebook. The book was reviewed this morning by the New York Times, which got an advance copy.

The fact he would make such a request at all is pretty amazing -- especially since Google's lawyers have said that the company never promotes or eliminates particular sites from search results, even when trying to fight spam. Earlier this month, Google engineer Matt Cutts contradicted this stance, basically admitting that Google can use "whitelists" to exclude certain sites from changes to the algorithm.

But hey, it is their search engine and all.

Uhhh did you read the link? GE which was bailed out by American taxpayers instead of using that money to...oh I don't know...keep their American workers instead took that money and promptly offshored a large chunk of their workforce and the CEO had the balls to brag "These aren't the low paying jobs, these are the good jobs, We are sending them to India because that is where the consumers are"

Well no shit the consumers are there you traitorous dirtbag who frankly should be shot, the REASON the consumers are there is because you and your dirtbag friends offshored more than 20,000 FACTORIES in the last decade alone!

So this has NOTHING to do with abusing third world countries except that being able to poison the land and treat workers like dogs is considered a nice bonus to these bastards, no what we are talking about here is companies taking hand outs to then fuck us over with the money which is why we should demand payback at 75% interest RIGHT NOW and if they don't? They are banned. No GE products, no GE businesses, not even the CEO will be allowed to set foot on American soil and any assets they have here seized.

But of course that will never happen because our congress critters and dear leader are too busy cashing their bribery checks thanks to Citizens United to give a fuck. Hell the CEO that pulled this shit? Got to enjoy having GE PAY NO TAXES for most of this past decade!

And guarantee that nobody, anywhere, will ever bid on government contracts, at any price short of extortionary? These companies have to extract system requirements from the government workers - I'd say the fault lies equally with people inside the government who don't understand what they need, and people inside SAIC low-balling every estimate. There's lots of blame to go around at SAIC, and the NY government.

It also doesn't help that two people (Padma & Reddy Allen) who run TechnoDyne, one of SAIC's subs on this project, also are charged with skimming somewhere between 40 and 90 million dollars off the payments the city made, and at least 2 other people have also been indicted for kickbacks and other fraud. This isn't just a case of normal stupidity and scope creep causing project overruns - this is active criminal behavior, for which numerous people are being charged.

This demand that SAIC repay at least some of the money to the city is probably pretty reasonable in light of the fact that SAIC's controls & vetting of its subcontractors failed so spectacularly.

You can read some more about the sordid details here: http://www.businessinsider.com/reddy-padma-allen-citytime-2011-6

First: the link in the summary is wrong, it links to a marketing firm. The ACS is here.

While the original Business Insider post is straightforward enough (BTW the summary should have linked here, instead of to itworld spam... I find the itworld spam interesting.

Facebook is far from the most interesting company in that top 19 list - in fact the general trend seems to be companies with relative monopolies in their service areas; but does anyone really think it coincidence that ITWorld ran this article with this take on the situation the day after Google Plus was announced?

Hard to know. They have had spats in the past.

Yes, it's black and 99 bucks...and doesn't sell well.

SO it kinds of proves his point.

Well, it doesn't. I think it sells poorly because pretty much every console can do what it does, and more.

Oh? A device that "is consistently in the top 8-15 [best-selling electronics device at Amazon] whenever we check, dating back to last November, and sustained during the busy December shopping period" is your definition of "not selling well"? http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-tv-sales-2011-3 - currently at rank 15, next competitor Roku 2050X XD Streaming Player 1080p at rank 19.

What next, any Apple product that isn't a market leader is declare a failure?

The Palin Hacker did far less than this, yet he's facing hard time in the federal pen; this case shouldn't be in the civil courts - it ought to be playing out in the CRIMINAL court system:



How Mark Zuckerberg Hacked Into Rival ConnectU In 2004
Mar. 5, 2010
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-mark-zuckerberg-hacked-connectu-2010-3

...At one point, Mark appears to have exploited a flaw in ConnectU's account verification process to create a fake Cameron Winklevoss account with a fake Harvard.edu email address.

In this new, fake profile, he listed Cameron's height as 7'4", his hair color as "Ayran Blond," and his eye color as "Sky Blue." He listed Cameron's "language" as "WASP-y."

Next, Mark appears to have logged into the accounts of some ConnectU users and changed their privacy settings to invisible. The idea here was apparently to make it harder for people to find friends on ConnectU, thus reducing its utility. Eventually, Mark appears to have gone a step further, deactivating about 20 ConnectU accounts entirely...



Zuckerberg is a psychopath - the specter of him being one of the wealthiest [and most powerful] people on the planet ought to send a chill down your spine.

One article.
Another.
The story from the plant operator
The root cause of Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt - especially in this case is the lack of information. The reactor is apparently on level 4 alert (accident with local consequences - this alone should have made the news at least in Nebraska), has had a fire, has had a no-fly zone extended over it since June 6 - the reason given is "the flooding". The first I heard of this was on June 17th - stumbled across it by chance while looking up information on nuclear plants and was suspicious of it (Russian source so WTF would they know was my first thought). Found lots of youtube stuff, people screaming "why haven't we been told". It has only recently hit slashdot and mainstream news - this has been going on since June 6 (the fire was June 7).
Knowledge stops FUD and builds confidence, the authorities should have at least informed people instead of people calling in ("by the hundreds" as on shock jock put it) and complaining that something is wrong.
Instead of being "condescending", it would help the nuclear cause if facts were given to counter the shock jocks - before they get a foot hold.
It wasn't until June 17 that the plant operator actually deemed to give any information (the answers look a little shaky imo - the water level does not constitute an accident with local consequences). I hope they are truthful because this should have been a story of conservative precautions - see, FUD is working - I doubt them.

Microsoft makes a lot of money from selling its development tools, documentation, etc... to its developer base. [..] That's why they have to obsolete their technology platforms, time and time again. They need revenue.

Tinfoil hat ranting. Do you have references to back this up? Microsoft makes the bulk of their money by selling Windows and Office. Do you think they actually want to drive developers away? Note that "Tools" sales are bundled into "Server and Tools", which includes things like SQL Server, so only a tiny portion of Microsoft's profit comes from selling tools, if any.

'The cost of the proposed scheme is not indicated, but is likely to be substantial, including the running cost of two non-judicial independent bodies and the cost to ISPs of permanently blocking websites,' Consumer Focus said.

MAFIAA: austerity my ass, we don't give a fuck about UK deficit (to surpass the Greece one), you just take care I still receive my money

you're right about a lot of stuff, but confused about terminology.

The housing bubble, and indeed people thinking of something that isn't doing anything as an investment is a clear sign of a bubble, wasn't a planning issue. A competent government would have discovered and deflated it. One possible technique to prevent housing bubbles from ever happening is Foster's plan to require higher down payments where house prices are increasing rapidly (Foster is an engineer-cum-congressman).

The US suffers from a lack of planning: we have the most expensive but far from the best healthcare, fairly poor internet and cell phone service, a very poor rail network. China has been building high-speed rail everywhere for a few years now, and nuclear reactors everywhere. Those reactors hold the promise of reducing their dependence on fossil fuels like imported oil. Where's the political will in America to reduce our dependence on imported oil?

All during the '90s, when oil was cheap, but everyone knew that it was a finite resource and buying so much foreign oil wasn't a good idea, all we heard in the US was that we should let the market decide and not come up with a plan for when oil became expensive. How's that working out now with gas at 4$/gallon?

America doesn't have a plan, and has resolutely refused to plan ahead for quite some time now. As a result, we've had the housing bubble, we've given away billions of dollars to telecoms for services they didn't render, and we didn't plan for the increase in oil price. China has been planning ahead, and that's why they're emerging as a power.

The same question could be asked of music player technology, mobile software, and tablet software. MS has had less than stellar success with their internal projects; buying something external that works may have been easier. The ultimate motives of MS are only known to themselves. Remember this is the same MS that tried to buy Yahoo. What was the ultimate purpose of that acquisition?

Is there anything more obvious -- as the world's oil supplies rapidly diminish -- than the fact that our prime objective is to remove Gaddafi and install a regime that is a far more reliable servant to Western oil interests, and that protecting civilians was the justifying pretext for this war, not the purpose?

Conflict in Libya: U.S. oil companies sit on sidelines as Gaddafi maintains hold

In late February 2008, Mulva was “summoned to Sirte for a half-hour ‘browbeating’” from Gaddafi, according to a U.S. State Department cable made available by WikiLeaks. Gaddafi “threatened to dramatically reduce Libya’s oil production and/or expel ... U.S. oil and gas companies,” the cable said.

Wikileaks was the source for these articles. If all cables get leaked, it is difficult for US to pursue its interests.

And more: U.S. Fought To Lower Minimum Wage In Haiti So Hanes And Levis Would Stay Cheap

Not according to business insider. There are only two applications for the "iCloud" name. One belongs to an individual. The other belonged to Xcerion. Apple bought the domain iCloud.com and the trademark from Xcerion a while ago. iCloud Communications has never filed for any trademarks to "iCloud" or even "iCloud Communications".

According to business insider, there is no record of iCloud Communications having filed for the trademark for either "iCloud" or "iCloud Communications" trademarks. There are two applications of "iCloud". One belongs to an individual and the other Xcerion for "iCloud.com". Apple has purchased the domain and the trademark from Xcerion. So I would think that, yes, Apple's lawyers did a search.

What the OP means that iCloud Communications has not filed for a trademark for either "iCloud Communciations" nor the tradename "iCloud." At least none that can be found.

This was all made possible because Wachovia laundered a sum of money equal to 1/3 of Mexico's GDP for the drug cartels.

Of course as soon as this was discovered the Justice Department sprang into action and initiated a RICO takedown of the entire institution and all its executives (in an alternate universe). What they actually did was politely request that the company pay a fine equal to 2% of their profits which was then refunded to them by the Treasury Department via a $54 billion bailout.

It makes sense because laws don't apply to the aristocracy like they apply to us peasants - they're doing God's work after all.

If you are not convinced that USA is imperialist, then you don't know your history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company
http://www.businessinsider.com/wikileaks-haiti-minimum-wage-the-nation-2011-6

A: It gives Apple more control over your media than they do already. You give up more freedom and thank Apple for taking it from you because they make life easier once you agree to their control. In short, iCloud takes your freedom and makes you like it.

Closed, walled-gardens are the wave of the future. DRM is trendy and cool. Freedom and openess are for losers. You want to be cool don't you?

How can Slashdotters get this so damn wrong all the time? Apple DOES NOT GIVE A SHIT ABOUT MEDIA. Hell, I doubt they care about software profits. I'm sure they they would give it away for free to sell more hardware.

They are plugging obvious gaps in their vertically integrated user experience. They do this because 1) they like making stuff they like, and 2) because they make shitloads of money doing it. Yes, they like control of the user experience -- this is a result of motive number 1. Like most people that feel they have a creative stake in something. It's not any more mysterious or nefarious than that.

You may disagree with them, or think that their actions are harmful, but for the love of jesus christ on a pogo stick, try to understand what is actually going on.

Funny, many analysts - and Apple themselves - have said that the App Store runs at "slightly better than break-even." From your hyperbolic claims, you'd think that they were minting money with the app stores and barely breaking even on their hardware sales, which is in fact exactly opposite from reality.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20008540-37.html

The vast majority of Apple's revenue comes from hardware & device sales. Whether you assign App store sales to "Itunes" or "Software" in this chart, it's still a very small fraction of their revenue.

You don't know how right you are.
Check out these IM's from Zuckerberg himself:

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard

Zuck: Just ask.

Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?

Zuck: People just submitted it.

Zuck: I don't know why.

Zuck: They "trust me"

Zuck: Dumb fucks.

Evernote saves to the cloud, no backup worries.

You are foolish if you trust your data to the "cloud". Please understand: THE CLOUD IS NOT, BY ITSELF, A REPLACEMENT FOR BACKUPS.

Enjoy the 28 Most Expensive Private High Schools In America
http://www.businessinsider.com/most-expensive-private-schools-2011-4
The US just has to ensure testing is fully funded in every state and that its best and brightest get scholarships to the top endowment funded U.S. universities.
Testing 100% of every states students vs educating the bottom ~90% every year? Best to put limited state tax funding into the top few %.
The real question is how to keep the bottom 90% distracted every year?

Once upon a time, ...

"Once upon a time"? What a splendidly evasive way to say, under the Obama Administration.

WIKILEAKS: U.S. Fought To Lower Minimum Wage In Haiti So Hanes And Levis Would Stay Cheap

A Wikileaks post published on The Nation shows that the Obama Administration fought to keep Haitian wages at 31 cents an hour

Once again we see Wikileaks essentially in the role of, "If you don't know it, it's news to you". Geeks that wouldn't give a damn about anything in Haiti are finally reading about it in Wikileaks, take whatever information is there with no context, and assume the worst.

Haiti minimum wage protests escalate

The debate has fuelled unrest across the impoverished Caribbean nation. Some critics argue that an increase would hurt plans to fight widespread unemployment by creating jobs in factories that produce clothing for export to the United States. . . .

Many in the international community who view garment factories as the way to boost Haiti's economic development oppose the wage increase.

With new trade advantages that allow for duty-free exports of clothing to the US, such factories could provide "several hundred thousand jobs to Haitians ... over a period of just a few years," according to a report submitted to the UN in January.

But it said that plan requires that costs be kept down.

The report had been requested by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and prepared by Oxford University professor Paul Collier. It is now being promoted by former US President Bill Clinton, the new UN envoy for Haiti.

Without permission you can't use the word "Super Bowl". Therefore you often see promotions for Super Bowl events that use other language. For example, you can't have a give away for free Super Bowl tickets, but you can offer tickets to "The big game" as a prize.

Individuals and businesses are protected under the First Amendment in what's called "nominative fair use," in which a trademark is allowed to be used if it describes a phrase and lacks commercial intent, Basin says. For instance, an electronics store ad could suggest to customers that they "Come get your TV before the Super Bowl," because it is describing an event.

http://www.businessinsider.com/att-gocharge-kiosks-dodging-the-super-bowl-trademark-2011-2#ixzz1O7E1h52l

They could probably have gotten away with "Win a free tablet computer" as the prize.
 

Wrong. Facebook *is* profitable. Google just plain screwed up.

http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-details-leaked-company-is-much-more-profitable-than-everyone-thought-2011-1

Verizon isn't a phone manufacturer. Google's been quite clear that they don't want to compete with other location service providers, and will use access to the closed-source google mobile apps and services as a club to keep manufacturers in line.

You seem to mistake the business world as a happy-go-lucky place where anyone gives a fuck what nerds think makes a "solid product."

Given the choice, I'd rather just do business with someone else. Especially someone else with the superior platform Not to mention the fact that in the "business world", the market agrees with me that Microsoft just plain sucks.

Sorry that Windows is still eating the lunch of your preferred platform.

Not really.

How them grapes taste?

it is sad though, that HTC appears to be paying at least US$5 to Microsoft for their patents...one more reason for me to avoid HTC.

That doesn't make any sense. It's not as if HTC wants to pay Microsoft money. They are a relatively small company and don't have a choice. If anything, this is yet another reason to avoid Microsoft products and buy an Android based phone.

HTC must have felt the heat from Samsung since they (Samsung) indicted that their devices would be 'root enabled' by default.

it is sad though, that HTC appears to be paying at least US$5 to Microsoft for their patents...one more reason for me to avoid HTC.

Kudos to them though, for acting fast, which is an attribute most successful companies have. Compare that to what Microsoft would have done.

Ok, but if they unloaded all their securities at once, it would cause a massive price depression

Would it? We talk as if China held most of the US's debt, but of course they don't (about 10% if http://www.businessinsider.com/who-does-the-us-owe-its-debt-to-2011-4 is right), so the market for the securities is huge, and why wouldn't more buyers suddenly take interest if the price dropped a little?

Well, of course it's a bit of a ridiculous scenario to start off with anyway.

Investors don't give Microsoft's earnings - past or future - full credit because the company has proven itself a spendthrift. They're like an idiot cousin any of us might have who hits it big in the lottery and can be expected to fritter it all away shortly. Except of course that they hit the jackpot every single day. Several times each day. It takes more foolishness than should be humanly possible to be reliably rid of that much excess. Somehow though, the company is gettin' her done.

Numbers on this scale are hard to grasp. To give you an idea of the scale of this foolishness, at a modest 8% APR the $7B Microsoft has burned in their Online Services Division since it last turned a profit would return over half a billion dollars a year - forever. Five hundred and sixty million dollars a year interest is enough money to employ a small US town or a respectable city in India, China or Pakistan, full time for the rest of forever. Add the $8.5 billion they spent on Skype and the money from their other failed acquisitions and it's enough money to migrate the entire US carbon-based electricity system to clean renewable next-generation geothermal energy over a decade just from the interest and have the principal and some capital growth left afterward too. Add the $100B in stock buybacks from the last decade that didn't achieve the goal of lifting the stock price and it's enough money to do those things, wire gigabit fiber to every US home, and fund commercially viable space exploitation too - without ever touching the capital. One Hundred Billion Dollars is the inflation adjusted price of The New Deal. $100B is more money than the entire 2004 Gross Domestic Product of Pakistan when their population was 152 million souls and they commanded the natural resources of their 307,000 square miles of our planet.

All Microsoft has bought with that lost power is the right to throw more bales of money on that fire. It's sick. It's disgusting. It ought not be possible. It is possible though, and perfectly legal. That so many have done so little with so much is appalling. It's offensive. It's wrong. The stock market is not rewarding this behavior, which is right and good.

My comment wasn't a general BillG bashing.. he really did say that he gave the go-ahead to the board to takeover Skype. Where's the quote....

"I was a strong proponent at the board level for the deal being done I think it's a great, great deal for Skype ... I think its a great deal for Microsoft."

"The idea of video conferencing is going to get so much better than it is today. Skype actually does get a fair bit of revenue" said Mr Gates.

"It'll be fascinating to see how the brilliant ideas out of Microsoft research, coming together with Skype, what they can make of that"

so there you go - that's the best bit of business analysis I've ever heard, forget build v buy costs, or synergy acquisition savings, or even purchasing unique innovation. Instead we get some vague umm and ahh noises. Oh, revenue at Skype was effectively "sod all" to use the financial terminology. Certainly it just about broke even after the cost of running the show was taken into account.

Now, if you really want a laugh, try this: a list of Microsoft's best, or actually worst, acquisitions.. such as aQuantive.

"Intel’s statements during yesterday’s Intel Investor Meeting about Microsoft’s plans for the next version of Windows were factually inaccurate and unfortunately misleading. From the first demonstrations of Windows on SoC, we have been clear about our goals and have emphasized that we are at the technology demonstration stage. As such, we have no further details or information at this time."

I heard on the radio the other day that hotel and city surveillance cameras were going to be the key to prove his innocence or guilt since they are virtually EVERYWHERE in New York City.
The other interesting tidbit of information is that DSK said that he would be set-up in some sort of entrapment sex scandal a few weeks before he arrived in the USA.
Makes you wonder...

One day you'll wake up and it'll be too late to do anything about their world markets domination.

China's got a buttload of problems coming up fast, like:

• o Wage Inflation - average wages are expected to double in the next 5 years while food and housing inflation is already here that means a significant loss in global competitiveness
• o Massive Gender Imbalance - 55% male to 45% female birth ratio - that means crime, revolution or possibly war is coming, because when young men can't get laid, they take their frustration out in violence
• o Too Many Retirees - The one child policy is turning their social security system upside down - there just aren't going to be enough young workers to support all the old people in non-productive retirement
• o Massive Waste - a command economy is great when the people running the show guess right, but when they guess wrong you get massive waste like Ghost Cities and boondoggle trains.

In a slightly related way. Section 1706 was cited in Joe Stack's suicide letter. He was the guy who landed his plane in an IRS building.

Would you really want MPAA to get limitless power to track your every movement? What next, install tracking equipment and video cameras in your home so can MPAA can make sure you aren't making backups own your movies? After all, that would be really good for MPAA and barring such would "unnecessarily burden MPAA and movie studios business".

It's actually an interesting thing among slashthink. This is one thing Microsoft is doing right. You don't see Microsoft among the privacy invasive companies like MPAA, Time-Warner, Google, Facebook, ESA etc.. That's because they don't want to track your every movement. Microsoft sells you software. You buy it, they're happy, and you don't lose your privacy. Still most here think MS is evil and Google is some kind of white knight. Well, a few quotes.. Eric Schmidt: "We try very hard to look like we're out of control. But in fact the company is very measured. And that's part of our secret.". And Schmidt: "If I look at enough of your messaging and your location, and use artificial intelligence, we can predict where you are going to go ... show us 14 photos of yourself and we can identify who you are.", and again, "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."

Why would you want your currency to depend on the value of a commodity?

- gold is money, not just any commodity. But I would rather use anything as money than any fiat currency (and I do, I only use fiat currency to get back into real money and when I need to run a transaction that only accepts so called 'legal tender').

By the way, if you didn't notice, gold was always going up once the dollar became just a piece of paper, printed at the whim of a politician. Why would you want your money to deteriorate in value all the time? What, you don't like having savings? You don't like prices going down, you only want prices to go up as you are taxed upon your entire holdings that are denominated in fiat?

If a big gold mine is discovered, the contents of your bank account shrink.

- welcome to the age of the printer. Do you know that they can print until they run out of trees (and also out of cotton and plastic now?) They don't even have to discover a mine of something to print. Pretty illogical to complain about a possible mine discovery (and they do discover mines all the time) and the fact that money doesn't have to be even printed anymore, as Bernanke said, he just 'adds zeros to the account', but don't take my word for it, how about a humorous perspective?

If there's no more gold in the world, there's no way for nominal wealth to increase as productiveness increases, so you get deflation

- yes, deflation. Terrible terrible deflation. Prices falling. Awful thing. Things costing less in a year, than they cost a year before. Just impossible to live in that situation, especially if you are not that rich. Totally impossible. Well, impossible, unless you are USA 19 century that is. When deflation was actually the state of affairs while the economy was growing. Yes, the new businesses were appearing, new products coming into the market, new services, new wealth, but golly, what a shame, things didn't rise in price and instead they fell in price.

Awful.

Terrible.

Of-course thank government for saving you from this disaster. Government with its awesome powers to take a silver dime minted prior to year 1968 and make sure that the dime goes up in nominal price to about $4, while a gallon of gas also going up to about that price. What a shame that would be, to have that money to buy this gas. Terrible shame, it would be just the cheapest gas ever in US history in that money. Government to the rescue.

Of-course government also came to the rescue of a minimum wage worker, who was only getting USD1.50/hour before 1970s, and for that miserly amount he could buy what, about 6 gallons of gas then? Or he could maintain a family even without debt on that money. Well, government inflation took care of that nonsense. Now that same minimum wage workers get an astounding 7.50 or so? That's amazing, that's almost 2 gallons of oil, and of-course, since the minimum wage worker never paid any taxes (and even got some money back), his actual salary today would have to be over USD60/hour to compare to that of the minimum wage worker who worked prior to 1970s.

But yeah, we have to fear the deflation. Horrible horrible deflation, because one most important concern is that the government must be able to finance its scams with lots and lots of debt, and deflation would really put a squeeze on that.

Inflation, by the way, has been below 3% for almost all of the last 20 years; how much more stable do you need your prices?

- oh, you must be a real genius there. 3% ha? You are quoting the CPI, the core inflation numbers, with all the substitutions and hedonistic adjustments? Yeah, makes sense. Never mind the prices of actual things people buy, let's go by the government numbers.

This very fact is what is tying up thousands of foreclosures right now, all across the US. They can't find the signatures. Therefore the mortgages are not valid, and can't be foreclosed. It's as simple as that. One of the principles of a contract is that it has to be signed. Good luck enforcing one if it hasn't been. I owe you how much? OK, show me the note. Now if you're an idiot and go posting your signature online, or giving it to people like UPS or your car rental agency, well, too bad for you. You are allowed to have more than one signature.

You may as well see the data too. Estimate of WP7 sales through scraping Facebook App active user data.

Simply put, Windows Phone 7 failed to thrive. It didn't take off. All that estimated $1B in marketing money added up to a big bucket-o-fail. It peaked at less than two percent of share on launch and is trailing off now to less than one fourth of that. Wishing that will change is not going to make it change. For the past month it's not even making up for the people giving up on Windows 6.5.

I, for one, would prefer they didn't gain any market share whatsoever. I would prefer that Microsoft fail in mobile, and that they continue to fail spectacularly by burning huge bonfires of money to no avail. Mobile is the future, and if you look at their suit against Barnes and Noble you will see that their desire for market share is not about innovation, it's not even about money. It's about control. They want to prevent all progress they don't supply. It's not enough for them to win - everybody else must lose also, including the customers. They want to stop all this neat stuff we've been getting the last few years. We like this stuff.

No, we don't need Microsoft for a vibrant competitive environment. Quite the opposite. For a vibrant competitive environment we need them to shrivel away to nothing through wasting all their money on lost causes. From the look of things they're well on their way.

Android tablets will put up the good fight yet. The Nook may save Barnes and Noble, particularly if they get really angry. We just need some tablets to hit the right price points with credible features and decent tablet-base OS. After that choice will win out over The iPad.

Houses on the other hand you can simply stop building so many and the ones you have go up in value eventually.

Seems the Chinese also build about 64 million houses they didn't need... whole cities in fact.

Amazing Satellite Images Of The Ghost Cities Of China