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Clearly you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. First, 'margin' is (revenue-cost)/revenue. Clearly, this number can never reach 100% unless the cost is 0, and it can't exceed 100% unless the cost is negative. Obviously, these two situations never happen in real life.

Second, acual industry profit (net) for groceries is between 1 and 3%. That is a very low margin. Gross margin averages around 10.5%. Average markup (at the retail level) is around 12%.

Here is one of many references for this: https://www.entrepreneur.com/a...

History will remember Musk as one of our generation's greatest inventors. And yet we're doing everything we can to shoot him down: https://www.entrepreneur.com/a...

Nope! "he state’s economy grew by 4.1 percent in 2015, compared to just 2.4 percent for the rest of the country." And since then, it has been doing better than Texas (which has #2 spot) see california> and Texas.

I'm a BSD bigot, the Linux camp's little squabbles do not affect me — though I do find them amusing at times.

But this is not (only) about Linus Torvalds himself — the free software's supposed "bro culture" is targeted. (The dateless nerds turning to computers while the jocks were out there getting busy, are shamed for "rejecting" women. Ha-ha...)

Having cleaned up Bill Gates' own image — declaring him a legend the campaign(s) have switched onto offensive. Not only is Microsoft's founder the nicest man you can meet, you see, his competitors are sexist bigots (and anti-social assholes) too!

Amazon has less than 10% of retail. It's smaller than Walmart.

That's not a false number there everyone. However, that said, Amazon is 49.1% of all e-commerce sales. I'll point here for infographic of online versus offline sales. Now those numbers are a bit dated as they were 2016 to 2017, but it shows that online is $400B and offline is around $3.4T or $3,375B for those wanting to keep a consistent scale. More interestingly online sales show higher growth than offline sales +14% versus +5%. If everything were to stay exactly the same in terms of percentage of sales and rates of growth, Amazon does seem be a big concern should online sales begin to outstrip offline sales. Now do note, that's a big IF there, so use whatever amount of gains of salt you so wish on that.

I don't think IGW is wrong here. This is one of those things that this might be a problem one day and Governments should be proactive, not reactive. It's a question of, should a government act proactively when such actions may or may not be warranted? Or should the government sit on the sidelines and wait until there is a problem, which in turn may not ever come to pass? With how fast online sales are growing, I don't think it unwise for the EU to start having this on their radar. How far they should go though, I couldn't honestly say.

Agreed. However, that does not mean that there is not a considerable risk attached to this approach too. One serious failure and it could all come crashing down.

That's precisely what happened when the dotcom bubble burst. A very low percentage of startups are successful. Information regarding that:

https://www.entrepreneur.com/a...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/n...
https://www.quora.com/What-per...

I'm sure someone will jump on this as sexist, but women don't take as much risk as men. Why that is, is up for discussion, but until it's fixed, it makes sense for VCs to take less risk with them. There's plenty written on the topic, here's a sample.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/a...

His advice? In no uncertain terms, delete your account immediately.

This is far from a unique opinion.

"Online forums and message boards can be fertile grounds for finding new customers or gaining insights from those you already have" FROM -> http://www.entrepreneur.com/ar...

Some more "interesting tidbits" there are these (which can make you BET that a good chunk of posters here from a trade BUILT IN LIES + 1/2 TRUTHS are indeed, advertisers):

"Don't post marketing messages right away. You could be banned, and your product or service could be maligned on a site that ranks high on search engines".

(LMAO - "yes, yes - be a GOOD sneaky little fuck" in other words... unbelievable! Especially on sites that get a LOT of viewership!)

"Do contact the site admin. Send a private message to the siteâ(TM)s owner or head admin, explaining your product and ask about becoming a paid sponsor."

(LOL! I love that last one... bribery, or what?)

APK

P.S.=> Need more? Ask... apk

A quick google search says grocery stores tend to have a 12% markup.

So now that women have their own safe space we can expect some amazing innovation to follow. But if we don't, I wonder what the next excuse will be?

Because women have never achieved amazing innovation? http://www.entrepreneur.com/ar...
http://www.investopedia.com/ar...
http://womenshistory.about.com...

If you haven't been as accomplished as these women...I have to ask...what's your bloody excuse?

How a No-Tipping Policy Helped This Restaurant Triple Profits in 2 Months

"Earlier this year, the restaurant garnered national headlines when it announced it would completely eradicate tipping as of April 1. Instead, every employee now receives a base salary of at least $35,000 (plus bonuses based on profits,) health care from date of hire, 500 shares in the business and paid vacation."

The co-founder and CEO of SOLS, a startup that manufactures custom 3-D printed orthotic insoles using scans of customers' feet, Kegan Schouwenburg is frustrated that consumer 3-D printing's most popular application is turning Internet memes into printed models.
For years, items -- from bobble heads to phone cases -- have been 3-D printed primarily because the technology itself is headline grabbing. As Schouwenburg points out, this isn't the case with most manufacturing technologies. ''Nobody is going around saying, ''this is so cool because it was injection molded,'' she says. ''They're saying ''this is a great product because it's better and improves my life in some way.''''

What Is Consumer 3-D Printing Really Good For?

The view from a height from someone with access to commercial/industrial grade tech and design tools.

The first problem I have with a 3D printer in the home is that I am asthmatic.

I could show you the stones marking the graves of family members who worked with friable asbestos and volatile organics, but the geek is as resistant to talk like this as the Tea Bagger is of climate change.

Hopefully the hypochondriacs and safety fascistas don't get to interfere with this hobby like they interfere my woodworking, metalworking, plastic casting... or just about anything else fun come to think of it.

I know from experience that lots of very silly regulation arises out speculation like this. For example VOC regulations: one person coughed once after painting all day with the windows closed, so now we can't buy oil based paints.

Health and 3-D Printing

"When Google was a young company, she worked 130 hours per week and often slept at her desk." Ref: http://www.entrepreneur.com/ar...

With access to free showers, free laundry service, and free extra yummy food outside of regular working hours. I could also see myself never leaving my workplace and sleeping 130 hours a week.

"When Google was a young company, she worked 130 hours per week and often slept at her desk." Ref: http://www.entrepreneur.com/ar...
I don't think Yahoo is a place I'd like to work at. And come to think of it, she was promoted pretty high in the food chain at Google, which says something about working at Google too?

Apparently already covered, although pretty much everything about the article is wrong apart from this: McDonald's is the easiest target because it is American and it is everywhere. It has become the symbol of all that's wrong with the U.S., which is making the world fat and imposing our calorie counts and McRibs on a planet that is quite happy with its insect meals and pasty flour dishes.

Came across this site via googling, http://www.entrepreneur.com/ar... , "These Famous People Have Tickets for Richard Branson's Space Flights"

Somewhat related, I just discovered dropbox also updated their privacy policy effective since March 24.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/ar...

Billionaire says "figure out a way to" pay for it. Meanwhile, he will be figuring out ways to collude with other companies to keep your salary low and to bring in thousands of people from Asia to compete with you for jobs.

I'd rather not screw over local businesses with credit card fees - and some give discounts because Interac charges them less than a cent per transaction - and I don't want to deal with a pocketful of change.

Oh, and the price of processing a debit card is not "less than a cent per transaction". It is considerably higher than that. The cap is presently set at $0.21 per swipe plus 0.05% of the value of the transaction.

This is clearly one difference between the debit network in Canada (Interac) and what whatever passes for it in the US. Interact charges merchants a fraction of a a penny for processing a debit transaction. I'm not sure why the US charges merchants such a high fee per transaction. It's in the banks' interest to make it as affordable as possible to process electronic transactions because they're much cheaper than handling actual cash.

I'd rather not screw over local businesses with credit card fees - and some give discounts because Interac charges them less than a cent per transaction - and I don't want to deal with a pocketful of change.

I admire your altruism but I think it will not be reciprocated very often. All you are accomplishing is to subsidize others who aren't so generous by taking risk on yourself by using a debit card. The price of those interchange fees (2-4%) is built in to the price. So you are giving a 1-2% tip to a business that already is charging you what (probably) is a profitable amount while taking on significant risk in the process. I like doing business with local merchants too but I'm not about to risk someone emptying my bank account (even briefly) to support them.

Oh, and the price of processing a debit card is not "less than a cent per transaction". It is considerably higher than that. The cap is presently set at $0.21 per swipe plus 0.05% of the value of the transaction.

You are just fucking kidding, right? You get better care at our emergency rooms than in intensive care anywhere else.

The available facts do not support your argument. The US is paying way more money per capita than anyone else for worse outcomes than a large number of other countries. While there are areas where the US does lead the pack (particularly research and medical technology), the US does not have the best results for life expectancy, immunizations, or average cost of a hospital stay among other important categories. The data on outcomes simply does not support the assertion that the US has the best healthcare system because the US does not get the best results overall nor does it get the best results per dollar spent.

The whole "tech innovators are dropouts" trope is extremely harmful to our industry, IMHO.

I'm not saying you, directly are as bad as the worst, but you def have some of the characteristics...it's an attitude:

Back then, the vast bulk of "nerds" loved this stuff as a hobby.....Then people started going to school to 'learn teh computerz' as it seemed like an easy way to make cash. Those are the folks who were dumped during the dot-bomb.

that dialectic is a false narrative trope of our industry...

before I continue, plz read these statements:

1. I agree that, "Fact is many of the best IT folks I know who also have excellent technical skill were self-taught."
2. college today is difficult to get eductional value from
3. i used to be a teacher and professor

about the false dialectic you disseminate...gotta cut it out...we the industry, maybe you...but our industry is screwing itself with this bullshit fantasy

My evidence: Y Combinator

Nothing Y Combinator does could not be done in an academic environment....in fact, it would be a sensation and a program featuring a tech entrepreneurship capstone class that is, essentially, Y Combinator, would be the toast of the university!

Blame academia and dumbass biz investors.

Our industry gets the big Billions b/c of hype. I wont deny it. If I was, say, twitter, i'd hype my company as the greatest tech innovation ever in the lead up to an IPO...i don't begrudge success...

I do object when a dishonest narrative is presented as the source of the success.

Jobs, Gates, Zuckerberg, on and on and on....same 'dropout' BS narrative...and each were successful for different reasons

Jobs used force of will (and a bit of assholishness) to push his singular vision of a user centered design forward (and steal ideas)....and get the RIAA on iTunes...
Gates & his college buddies got an IBM/government contract fall in their lap after the first choice got dickish about a NDA and IBM got impatient
Zuckerberg & his college buddies had the coding chops and the patience to make a free online social network that was not (at the time) horribly obnoxious b/c their rich parents could support them in the interim between the dorm room and Series A funding

we need to be honest about these things...not from jealously, but for the survival of our industry

about college degrees...fact: none of us knew what we were doing in college!

some knew more than others, but compared to what us college grads know now, its night and day...you autodidacts know what I mean b/c you lived it

college is what **THE STUDENT** makes of it...

I tell autodidact types all the time, a university is full of resources, and if they get the right program, the whole academic system is set up to help them succeed

tl:dr You're throwing the baby out with the bathwater

The article you cited says Apple has three different prices for music. It does not say that Apple sets them. Please cite it anywhere where Apple sets determines the price for each track.

If you can't accept that limiting the choice of prices to 3 per-determined numbers is an exercise of control over the price, then I give up. You live in a different universe from the rest of us.

You accuse Apple of 50 markup but provide no proof.

I should have nailed that one down the first time. Markup is the difference between the buying and selling costs. This is not a mystery. On a 99 cent track, apple takes 30 cents. 30/69 = 44% ok? Not quite 50% but close enough. Grocery stores, to pick an example, have markups on on the order of 12%. And they have inventory, spoilage, shipping and retail floorspace costs. Apple is miking it. The bit players like amazon and google are also milking it simply because they can, because the market so non-competitive.

Massively dominant player in a non-competitive market = monopolist in common speech. And I'm done.

IRS has accepted scanned receipts since 1997. See http://www.entrepreneur.com/answer/222221 for the code citation. On paper means a document is authentic? Not for a long time.

Coffee is the second-most traded commodity in the world, second only to oil. (source) Billions of people around the world drink coffee every day (myself included) and many of them really enjoy the taste (again, myself included). Are you trying to say that this multi-billion-dollar industry and these billions of people are all engaged in some mass group hypnosis, hysteria, or hallucination? I find that unlikely. Are you trying to say that, universally, coffee really tastes horrible to everyone but they pretend to like it for social reasons or are addicted to caffeine?

Or maybe you just have some overly sensitive "bitter" taste buds and coffee does nothing for you. I, for one, love the taste of coffee more than I love the caffeine rush. I usually do a half-caffeine blend because caffeine makes me far too jittery. Some mornings I get a full decaf. But I drink coffee every day because when it's well made, it tastes incredible. End of story.

Kimchi, a traditional Korean food, is a well-known lactic acid-fermented vegetable product, and is a good source of industrially useful lactic acid bacteria (LAB). The microorganisms involved in the fermentation of kimchi include approximately 200 species of bacteria and several yeasts. The LAB involved in this fermentation continuously produce organic acids after an optimum ripening time, and cause changes in the composition of the product, referred to as the over-ripening or acid deterioration of kimchi.

The over-ripening of kimchi is the most serious concern when it is in storage. Since the over-ripening is mainly due to acid-forming LAB, the best way to overcome this issue is to control the growth of LAB without destroying the quality of the end product. The LAB play an important role in the taste of kimchi, and many LAB from kimchi have antimicrobial activity in addition to other useful properties.

Recently, scientists at Chosun University investigated LAB from kimchi as molecular sources for various end products, including antimicrobial compounds. Antimicrobial compounds are relatively abundant in traditionally fermented foods, in which they may play an important role as competitors with natural microflora during fermentation. Antimicrobial compound-producing LAB may be useful in preserving kimchi. This can be done by either directly applying the LAB to the culture or by adding LAB-produced antimicrobial compounds as natural bio-preservatives.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/193478661.html

Kimchi's probably the best example of the benefits of fermented food, but more familiar foods like yoghurt and sauerkraut are also good to eat.

I'd say these articles at least demonstrate a history that indicates this product is in true development and why the company might have shifted direction so dramatically.

Apple Peel 520 Ready for Retailers

Massive iPod Touch Sales Figures Prompted Apple Peel Deal (It was actually Chinese firm Yosion that developed the device)

Huge iPad Sales Figures Prompted New Deal with PREE Corp. (It's not just the Touch market they're looking to capitalize on)

GoSolarUSA Appoints New President and CEO (All the iPod/iPad stuff weeks after Rohde is on board. This might explain the dramatic shift in the company's direction)

And while Wikipedia is certainly an indicator that a company is known, its absence doens't necessarily mean a company isn't valid (or even successful).

You seem to be implying a lot of things without actually saying them. GoSolarUSA hasn't made a product yet? Well they're only two years old. No big surprise there. This is their first product--sounds like a good one too.

Biotricity hasn't done anything? "Biotricity has developed a new combustion technology for the burning of woody biomass to generate electricity to address America's growing demand for green power." Sounds like they've done something to me.

Brewer Capital Group doesn't have a website? Well they're a financial advisor for the Houston area. Perhaps they aren't focused on their company's web site. They're still a company.

Goldbridge Energy Partners? Probably an even smaller company (also local to the Houston area), even less likely to appear on the Internet.

Or is this, "I'm not saying. I'm just saying."

"thecarchik writes....A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found a 1.1 percent increase in self-reported obesity....The study estimates that 1 billion extra gallons of fuel were needed"

thecarchik lied to us, because the CDC study doesn't say a word about fuel.

Here's the CDC study, does anyone see anything about fuel? Neither do I.

What the article is really quoting is a 2006 story on Entrepreneur.com titled "economic impact of obesity on automobile fuel consumption" which does conclude that 1 billion extra gallons of fuel were needed, but unfortunately all the references in that article are dead tree so someone would have to go through a lot of effort to fact-check.

I'm not doubting us being fatter has cost more in fuel consumption just as it no doubt has cost more in health care costs, I'm just saying the that the article is misleading, that claiming this is a CDC study was an attempt to make the story sound far more credible than the real source, a 4 yr old story on entrepreneur.com. The linked article is honest and does say it's not the CDC study, but the Slashdot post directly states the CDC study is responsible.

In other words.... it's a trap!

There's one review of 6 studies here. http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/204205255_1.html

If you look at the last page, you get this:

Implications for Practice Hypothermia shows promise as a treatment of traumatic brain injury. However, there are several important points to consider when contemplating its use. Hypothermia as a treatment of traumatic brain injury should be utilized in hospitals with specialized neuroscience units that have continuous resident coverage. In addition, nurses are at the front line of initiating the treatment and must be properly taught to care for these patients. There are many potential complications of hypothermia that nurses must be aware of and trained to aggressively treat. The nursing care involved in caring for a patient with a severe brain injury is complex, and it is crucial that they have the support and appropriate nursing ratios to care for these patients.

Granted, its from a nursing journal, so its going to promote the use of nurses. But it remains that just cooling people's brains nilly willy with ice packed helmets may not be the best idea.

I'm also happy to cease this discussion because you ignore most of what I say with "this conversation keeps getting deflected all over the place".

You ignore alternate revenue models (like a pay-for product that offers more features) and then whine that I'm not hyper-focused on your dear little advertising-supported web site.

You trivialize my web site, without acknowledging my point that I was making about it -- that I serve content without needing to make an ad-buck from them. For that matter I could publish to only those who paid to subscribe. Or I could stop publishing. Many solutions are possible. Whining about people who don't follow your view of the world is childish.

and that you are cherry-picking single quotes to quibble with rather than addressing the whole argument

Actually that is my point. Look at my second to last comment. I made a 9 point comment and got one or two points of reply. In my last comment you responded to my first line and my last line only. Pottle - kettle, etc.

As to people bypassing shareware programs, yes they do this and it can be an arms race. But it seems like Microsoft figured it out with XP. I think /. is technical enough to figure it out. Especially if Slashdot (represented by you, an A/C, at the moment) takes a less adversarial approach. But instead we have Slashdot (represented by you, an A/C, at the moment) arguing with a customer, instead of remembering the customer is ALWAYS right.

And by the way, what I posted isn't an argument. Bill Hicks is a comedian. He naturally gets the biggest laugh taking things to extreme. But his fundamental point speaks directly to the topic of this thread -- people don't want ads. Hicks is expressing some of the anger that people justifiably feel when advertisers take advantage of them, lie to them like Oracle did recently, won't shut off the ads in the middle of Jeopardy, market shamelessly to children, and on and on and on for years and decades.

Hicks vented. He had a platform to voice frustrations. Most consumers do not have this.

Closer to home, many (most?) slashdotters do not like Slashdot 2.0. They voice it in comments, they voice it in their SIGs, they no doubt send emails to the head honchos at /. And what happens? Nothing. They don't have a big enough voice. Slashdot is abusing their one-sided conversation with their readers by (1) ignoring things they could do to improve the reader experience, and (2) howling at the moon as you are doing to me in this sub-thread.

I think you are after some sort of theoretical victory -- "If I can just get this guy to admit that he is the man too then I will have won". This is so far from the point that it makes me laugh and want to say, once again, lighten up. Or change YOUR thinking -- you're not a tree. Models change. The net started with no ads, moved to extreme ads and it is time to throttle it back again to value ads -- marketing your feature & benefits in ad-speak.

Lose the dogmatic "You must view our ads or pay us for what WE perceive is a benefit" mentality, man. It will get you nowhere, I can guarantee you that.

Here, look, I will formally end this thread. I surrender. You are right. You and I are both the man. You win this battle.

And Slashdot is losing the war. Because they can't stop thinking of it as a war, apparently.

Since you guys invaded no one buys oil from Iraq.

Iraq sold roughly $31 billion worth of oil in 2007, and double that in 2008. 2009 will be more still. That is damned peculiar, for "no one" buying it. It's a shame you haven't learned, yet, to use Google, and occasionally read about which companies and countries are regularly buying from Iraq. Because, you know, you'd look like less of an ass and whatnot.

Vast majority of ISPs (Time Warner included) will not offer business services to residential addresses.

Apparently they can't grasp the concept of a home based business?

Hold on there, partner... the court in the Diamond Rio case ruled that the components of a computer used in "space shifting" were not subject to the AHRA, nor was the MP3 player in question. So while the AHRA does grant the right to space shift music, it also places burdens upon the manufacturers of devices compliant with that law -- it mandates SCMS (Serial Copy Management System) to limit copying, and it mandates royalties paid by device manufacturers to the recording industry.

Since a computer's components and the MP3 players used to listen to these music files are not covered by the AHRA, that particular argument doesn't hold water. For more information on what was ruled, see here and here.

Also, see my other response in this thread -- the RIAA is claiming these MP3s are "unauthorized" and not "illegal." There is a difference, and it would really inform the discussion here better if folks would tune up a bit and read these things carefully. These MP3s are unauthorized in the sense that the defendant didn't explicitly ask for permission from the copyright holder to space shift his music. Whether authorization is required is a separate question, and one that the RIAA lawyers are hoping doesn't get answered in a way they don't like. It's in their best interests to sow confusion here, so they deliberately confuse the issue -- not unlike conflating "copyright infringement" with "theft."

Standard IANAL disclaimer applies. This is my opinion (backed by some research), not legal advice.

While the RIAA stipulated their assertion that the MP3 files are "unauthorized" copies of the music the defendant purchased on CDs, they never claim these copies are "illegal." It's a very precarious legal tightrope they're walking. If they claim those copies are illegal, that opens up a whole can of worms, and things might not go the way they'd like. So they claim those copies are "unauthorized" -- which is technically true, but doesn't address the issue of whether the defendant needed authorization.

Whether you need authorization or not depends on whether ripping those CDs into MP3 format is considered "fair use" or not. Although many geeks like to point to the Rio case against Diamond Multimedia as establishing that ripping CDs to space shift is a protected fair use, a careful reading of the decision will show that the judge in that case largely side-stepped the fair use question; rather, the judge focused on how the parts of a computer used to space-shift music were not covered by the Audio Home Recording Act, and therefore not subject to its restrictions. (The judge did say that the Rio was consistent with fair use provisions in copyright law, making an analogy to the Sony Betamax case, but that's as far as it went.) I found a pretty good article here, reprinted from Federal Communications Law Journal. (The relevant section discussing the Rio case starts at the bottom of the first page and continues into page 2 with the following quote: "Because the court had no occasion to look at the Rio case from a fair use perspective, this Note examines the case as one of fair use to reach the same conclusion as the Ninth Circuit.")

We need more case law to establish this once and for all -- or else we need a piece of legislation that explicitly balances corporate and consumer copyright interests and defines what is considered "fair use."

Standard disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. I'm merely stating personal observations and opinions.

While the RIAA stipulated their assertion that the MP3 files are "unauthorized" copies of the music the defendant purchased on CDs, they never claim these copies are "illegal." It's a very precarious legal tightrope they're walking. If they claim those copies are illegal, that opens up a whole can of worms, and things might not go the way they'd like. So they claim those copies are "unauthorized" -- which is technically true, but doesn't address the issue of whether the defendant needed authorization.

Whether you need authorization or not depends on whether ripping those CDs into MP3 format is considered "fair use" or not. Although many geeks like to point to the Rio case against Diamond Multimedia as establishing that ripping CDs to space shift is a protected fair use, a careful reading of the decision will show that the judge in that case largely side-stepped the fair use question; rather, the judge focused on how the parts of a computer used to space-shift music were not covered by the Audio Home Recording Act, and therefore not subject to its restrictions. (The judge did say that the Rio was consistent with fair use provisions in copyright law, making an analogy to the Sony Betamax case, but that's as far as it went.) I found a pretty good article here, reprinted from Federal Communications Law Journal. (The relevant section discussing the Rio case starts at the bottom of the first page and continues into page 2 with the following quote: "Because the court had no occasion to look at the Rio case from a fair use perspective, this Note examines the case as one of fair use to reach the same conclusion as the Ninth Circuit.")

We need more case law to establish this once and for all -- or else we need a piece of legislation that explicitly balances corporate and consumer copyright interests and defines what is considered "fair use."

Standard disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. I'm merely stating personal observations and opinions.

"I was under the impression that it was illegal in the US to use voice scramblers to mask your telephone calls."

Why would you think that?

Patent: Idea (officially an applied idea)

Patents protect the idea, not merely its expression.

This site disagrees with the definition just slightly:

Patent: A patent is granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office of the right to stop others from making, using or selling an invention in the United States for a limited period of time. An idea itself is not patentable; patents are only appropriate for useful things or methods of doing something.

Top 10 Patent Myths: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,296849, 00.html

Maybe the news is that companies are beginning to realize it? If so, they also need to understand that there is a big difference between knowing that the threat exists and treating all your employees like potential criminals.

Here you will find a very interesting read about the subject. (quote: "This new trend is viewing one's colleagues as literally the enemy. I feel a need to rail against it because I believe it to be not only immoral, but destructive to business")

Nothing on the Verisign site http://www.verisign.com/products-services/security -services/code-signing/digital-ids-code-signing/in dex.html indicates that ever single piece of software requires a new certificate. So nothing prevents a group of opensource developers from getting together, incorporating, obtaining a cert, and then signing the software of those they trust. For example, Sourceforge could get a cert, and then offer driver-signing services to trusted projects.

Want to go it alone? It's $75 - $500 to incorporate, depending upon the type (http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,287986 ,00.html).

Keep in mind that driver-signing doesn't 100% guarantee stability. My ATI card's signed drivers still periodically flake out...

The ban was partially lifted, opening a whole new market to gum manufacturers. I read an article around this time last year where an entrepreneur had started a chewing gum company just to sell gum in Singapore.
Sure, there are regulations, but I doubt the US government would get into any trouble over it.

... or by the fact there is a technology company in Idaho.

I know you were being funny, but I assume you've heard of these guys... http://www.micron.com/

...Maybe these guys... http://www.hp.com/

But don't take my word for it: http://www.entrepreneur.com/Magazines/Copy_of_MA_S egArticle/0,4453,308612,00.html

Cookies can provide useful information to the site developer. You like visiting well designed websites right? Getting information that will help you streamline the site is a good reason to track those statistics.

I'm going to keep posting this link, despite posting it in other places in this thread. I don't think I'm being paranoid in any way, shape, or form. Just realistic.

And yes, I think you have your head in the sand.

For the record, I develop and design websites (hopefully they're done well). If a login is required, I set session cookies. Otherwise, I don't use cookies. Ever. If you need to login to a site for security reasons, then you will have to login every time. Otherwise, security is being compromised.

Yes, I realize not everyone does this. I wish they did.

1. We live in a world where it is not an option not to buy things.

2. We live in a world where corporations exist only to make as much money as possible, regardless of how that happens (and no matter how much they try to tell you otherwise).

3. We live in a world where companies will use knowledge they have gained from tracking me to make me pay more money than I have to pay. Online and offline.

And so what if they do? If the said company already has your information, why does it matter if they know how often you come to their site, and where you go on the site, and which sites they get click throughs from?

Apparently, you've never heard of variable pricing.

Seriously, this is just like an OLD product from VOX Link.

Their website seems to have gone away http://www.vox2.com/, but here is an article that mentions them http://www.entrepreneur.com/mag/article/0,1539,288 176,00.html

A typical comment on reverse mergers: "It's a perfect setup for a 'pump and dump' stock scam. Take a stock that has been trading for pennies, merge it into a business that has at least the facade of respectability and a presence in a market that is perceived as hot, hype like hell, sell off as many of your shares as possible, and make a run for the border before the price drops like a rock. There have been enough of these to give the whole approach a dubious aura."

A reverse merger, unlike an initial public offering, doesn't raise any money for the company. It costs money, and at the end, you have a publicly traded stock nobody cares about. Which you then have to hype. So they are an inherently suspicious transaction.

Here's an example of a reverse merger involving a company claiming to be engaged in gold mining, biotech, and casino gambling. Reverse mergers tend to be at that level of flakeyness.

The dairy product council "Got Milk?" campaign ran into some problems with translation. The literal translation in Spanish "Teien Leche" is a colloquialism for "Are you breast feeding?" News Story

you know the insider threat is the most likely

Power Schmoozing: Tips and Book.