Slashdot Mirror

You quoted salon.com which is no better than quoting a propaganda piece.

*I* quoted the New York Times, which is also corroborated by the L.A. Times, Newsweek, and of course the U.S. Congress itself (the General Accounting Office).

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEFDE163CF931A25755C0A9649C8B63
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/jun/12/nation/na-clinton12
http://www.newsweek.com/id/167691

What consensus?

I'm going to go ahead and point to the topic of this thread: "Windows 7's Media Hype Having the Opposite Effect As Vista's." Now let's go to the quote machine for a backgrounder:

The fact that Windows 7 has been fast-tracked just proves that Vista is one of those mistakes that Redmond would rather forget, just like the woeful Windows ME.

Think about it -- there's clearly a (high) level of consumer demand for Windows 7, the likes of which never materialized for Vista.

[falling revenue] That's due, in part, to slowing growth for PCs powered by Microsoft Windows software and the mighty kerthunk left by the debut of Windows Vista.

If your goal is Vista advocacy, "What consensus?" isn't one of the questions you should ask on slashdot.

You tell 'em! Vista failed, because of ppl on Slashdot ranting about "Get A Mac"! That's right!

Not just slashdot. It pros with Vista experience everywhere. The difference I suppose is that the advocates say "works for me on my new computer" and the detractors get specific about bugs, platforms and features. If your perception is that this thing was enthusiastically adopted, I guess I have nothing to offer you - you're not going to believe me anyway.

South Korean authorities have arrested a blogger for saying the won will fall after he predicted that Lehman Brothers would implode. Apparently he is being charged with "spreading false information" -- which seems funny to me, if the guy is predicting the future, how does the government know it is false? Are they claiming to be able to see the future?

...we must be living on a giant potato chip!

Wrong

A commentator in the LA Times hits is square on the head. Apple needs to grow up and be straight with us.

We're all sorry to see Jobs go sooner rather than later. but considering the screw ups they went through last time, we all want to see the plan that have this time. And *any* good business/corporation/government would and should do the same

Similar law in Michigan was struck down in 2002.

http://articles.latimes.com/2002/apr/02/news/mn-35828

If any evidence that led to the war was trumped up, it was not done by anyone in the administration. It is a lie that Pres. Bush lied to us to start the war in Iraq.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-kirchick16-2008jun16,0,4808346.story

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007540

I'll admit that the authors of the op-ed pieces are biased (who isn't?), but they have their facts straight and have good sources, which is more than anyone who ever said that Pres. Bush lied to us to start the war in Iraq. I'm certainly no fan of war and I don't think we should have ever started the war in Iraq but I'm tired of people conveniently forgetting that all major intelligence agencies, including the UN believed that Hussein was a threat and that he had WMD and was planning on using them - either on his own country or on another country. It wasn't until the U.S. went in to Iraq that we discovered that there were no WMDs (but there was evidence Hussein was trying to make some).

The 'No Swearing' law got overturned by the State Supreme Court of Michigan back in 2002. http://articles.latimes.com/2002/apr/02/news/mn-35828

Patrick McGoohan

Patrick McGoohan

Patrick McGoohan

Truly a sad day as Patrick McGoohan, "The Prisoner," "Secret Agent" among others, has also died . Sad, sad, sad.

Lawyers for Lionel Tate attempted to use professional wrestling as a scapegoat, and the judge and jury immediately rejected that.

I see no difference here whatsoever.

I've seen very helpful Flash visualizations on news websites that helped understand the story better.

For example, this interactive map of drug war related deaths in Mexico is very well done. It doesn't just clarify the conflict, but encourages the reader to analyze and research the topic independently in addition to linearly reading the text of an article.

Just reading an article, listening to the radio or watching a news program often gives the illusion of learning and understanding new information, whereas in reality very little is retained.

Innovative and interactive ways of presenting information solve this problem.

That's what your cable bill is for -- to pay for the wiring and access to the programming.

Not true:

According to research firm SNL Kagan, Viacom's MTV receives about 32 cents per subscriber per month from cable operators, while Nickelodeon receives an average of 45 cents a month. Operators pay 86 cents a month per subscriber for the Disney Channel, which commands a higher fee because it runs commercial-free.

Power usage for different types of TVs is not closely related to the 'averages'. See
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6475_7-6400401-3.html
I even question the 'averages' of this article.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-010309-fi-tv-g,0,3697326.graphic
It seems to imply that CRT televisions are more efficient.
The numbers also disagree with the 'averages' of Cnet's quick guide. If I'm going to buy a flat screen I will look at the power consumption and the performance of each candidate, regardless of the type. Trying to generalize which is 'best' just isn't valid at this time. If you are really concerned about the energy consumption, go to the Energy Star site
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=find_a_product.showProductGroup&pgw_code=TV

Do you have a source on that $100 number?

The $100 number came from a report I saw a while back but you don't have to take my word for it. You can safely disagree with the number because it depends on how you do the accounting. (disclosure - I'm a certified accountant as well as an industrial engineer) Any profit number for a particular vehicle will be an estimate since the auto companies don't break this stuff out enough to really know for sure. The largest number I've seen for profits per Prius is $1100/vehicle which I regard as optimistic because the R&D costs have been huge. Toyota admitted that the Prius lost money for the first 3-5 years after it was introduced which makes sense. Estimates vary on the profitability of the Prius but due to the added expense of the new technology it is widely considered to be at best marginally profitable and might even be losing money though I doubt it.

I tend to think Toyota is at least making a modest profit on the Prius (or was until recently) depending on how you do the accounting. I think if they were to fully apply all the costs of R&D to the Prius it probably is a breakeven proposition at best but Toyota is probably not fully allocating the R&D costs for hybrid technology. That's not unusual BTW - there are good reasons not to fully allocate costs. The Prius is a technology test bed and a great marketing tool for Toyota so there are benefits even if the vehicle itself isn't terribly profitable.

But they offer nothing. No cash back. No Hawiian trips. No 0% financing. The market demand for them is strong enough that when every other segment for them is dropping, the Prius continues to sell. Seems like a pretty strong indication of consumer demand to me ;)

The Toyota Prius was the 10th best selling vehicle by volume in the US from Jan-April of 2008. Nice sales figures but hardly indicative of overwhelming demand for hybrids. You will note that the Prius is the only hybrid vehicle on the list.

maybe California can forgo the tax revenue...

That, my friend, is funny. Never happen, but funny.

The article and in particular this "infographic" is completely wrong or at least misleading. LCD TVs do not consume more power than the same sized CRT as claimed. In fact, an LCD set will consume 50% or less power than a comparably-sized CRT. Of course, if you decide to base each type of set's power consumption on "average set size" without fucking bothering to define what that average is or even bothering to keep the same average for each type of TV (!), then you can pretty much "prove" anything you want, can't you?

Hell, my neighborhood newsletter is way more popular* and produces much better advertising results** than the LA Times!

I don't know why the "California Energy Commission" would make such a preposterous claim, unless they're not comparing the same size LCD and CRT, which would be ridiculous of course. I also don't know how the LA Times could be so ignorant as to not notice this obvious error, and how they could be so irresponsible as to report such obvious nonsense without doing any research or checking with other sources, or at least questioning or pointing out the (unfair) comparison of small CRTs to large LCDs.

Educate thyself and read any of the dozens of results that show LCDs use less power than CRTs.

Then wonder why the tax/power requirements isn't based on size/overall power consumption instead of just being arbitrarily assessed on LCDs in general. (Hint: it's another money grab, and what better way than to focus it on the better selling, higher-value product?)

* "popular" is defined as the percentage of my relatives that read it daily.
** "results" is defined as how many free gifts I get from advertisers.
*** Hey! Look at that! I'm full of shit but at least I cite my bullshit definitions, which is more than you can say for the LA Times and the California Energy Commission!

The article and in particular this "infographic" is completely wrong or at least misleading. LCD TVs do not consume more power than the same sized CRT as claimed. In fact, an LCD set will consume 50% or less power than a comparably-sized CRT. Of course, if you decide to base each type of set's power consumption on "average set size" without fucking bothering to define what that average is or even bothering to keep the same average for each type of TV (!), then you can pretty much "prove" anything you want, can't you?

Hell, my neighborhood newsletter is way more popular* and produces much better advertising results** than the LA Times!

I don't know why the "California Energy Commission" would make such a preposterous claim, unless they're not comparing the same size LCD and CRT, which would be ridiculous of course. I also don't know how the LA Times could be so ignorant as to not notice this obvious error, and how they could be so irresponsible as to report such obvious nonsense without doing any research or checking with other sources, or at least questioning or pointing out the (unfair) comparison of small CRTs to large LCDs.

Educate thyself and read any of the dozens of results that show LCDs use less power than CRTs.

Then wonder why the tax/power requirements isn't based on size/overall power consumption instead of just being arbitrarily assessed on LCDs in general. (Hint: it's another money grab, and what better way than to focus it on the better selling, higher-value product?)

* "popular" is defined as the percentage of my relatives that read it daily.
** "results" is defined as how many free gifts I get from advertisers.
*** Hey! Look at that! I'm full of shit but at least I cite my bullshit definitions, which is more than you can say for the LA Times and the California Energy Commission!

Citation needed. (And no, "Just fucking google it didn't work).

You asked for it - prepare for the steamroller, in the form of my apt scorn. You clearly lack facility with the English language (which is okay, but don't blame it on me!) and/or familiarity with the idea that Google permits as many as ten keywords. You could handle it with just, well, a handful:

gates foundation vaccinations big pharma patent law

With the above search, I located sufficient supporting material on the front page. One good overview of Gates' involvement (linking to various stories) is Bill Gates : the Philanthropist ? An overview of the problem in general can be found in the article Making Practical Markets for Vaccines: Why I decided that the Center for Global Development Report, Making Markets for Vaccines, offers poor advice to government and foundation leaders by Donald W Light.

Let's not forget the article that really provided the foundation for criticism of the Gates Foundation, Dark Cloud Over Good Works of Gates Foundation - this story doesn't even touch upon the issue of IP law, but it really provided all the proof that I (and many others) needed to know that their mission was not philanthropic. The Gates Foundation's mission is one involving profit, pure and simple. Perhaps you missed or have forgotten the fallout from this event; the foundation made a press release stating that they would be reviewing their investments, and then just a day or two later issued another stating that they would not be doing so (the original disappeared from their site at this time, naturally) because it would be too difficult a task. Yes friends, saving the world is hard. Not that Bill Gates would know - he's not actually trying.

"PS3 just passing it"? where is your source? from a simple google new search, Xbox360 is widens the lead over PS3 by at least 5 million consoles. Here is my source, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/01/microsoft-xbox.html Do you just talk out of your arse or make shit up as you go along?

The supreme court is supposed to be able to make decisions like "equal protection implies that gay marriage is legal" and have it stick even if it's unpopular.

You're saying how you would like it to be, I'm saying how it is. At the end of the day, unless most people respect the rule of law, the laws become meaningless. At the end of the day, there is nothing to prevent gay people from considering themselves married, calling themselves married, and generally being married. They may not be 'officially recognized', but well, that never bothered the polygamists in Texas.

The silent majority may be more permissive about the sex-and-drugs-on-the-Internet issue than you think. I don't know either; it's hard to find a real dialogue on these "objectionable speech" issues in this society.

Very true, people who use their vote to get what they want tend to be more likely to get what they want.

5 Years on an other planet, think about it.
Imagine the amount of food, water, O2 and energy that would have been required if they had sent humans instead of machines.

Never mind the fact that they extended the original mission by more than 2000% and the fact that they never needed resupply missions.

When you read the mission reports for the ISS and see that they need a two man crew just to keep stuff from breaking too badly, it's hard to imagine the size of the crew that would be needed for a 5 year mission to Mars.

Yet one of the two (ISS vs Mars rovers), has a budget at least one order of magnitude larger than the other and has yet to produce any real science (unless teeing off a gold plated golf ball from the ISS is ones idea of science)

Murphy(c)

According to Nielsons, The average US household is watching 8 hours of TV a day.

Similarly, I believe Time Warner's trial caps are 40GB. The average American houseshold would hit that bandwidth cap in a week.

We all joke about his billions of dollars, but to see them put to use attempting to vaccinate an entire continent, I gotta tell ya that is a pretty damned impressive thing to do.

Please read the following article before believing for one fucking second that Bill Gates is anything other than a wannabe Dr. Evil:

Dark cloud over good works of Gates Foundation

By Charles Piller, Edmund Sanders and Robyn Dixon, Times Staff Writers

January 7, 2007

To be fair, BillyG might be nothing more than a hand puppet. There's no way to tell from here.

The Gates Foundation is just another evil fund.

The foundation invests the assets that it has not yet distributed, with the exclusive goal of maximizing the return on investment. As a result, its investments include companies that have been criticized for worsening poverty in the same developing countries where the Foundation is attempting to relieve poverty. These include companies that pollute heavily and pharmaceutical companies that do not sell into the developing world.

Read e.g. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gatesx07jan07,0,6827615.story?coll=la-home-headlines

or perhaps the economic situation isn't hitting everyone equally

Exactly. Gun sales are up. Walmart is doing well. There are industries and business that are thriving. We're just going through a natural cut-the-fat period.

To me, unemployment and inflation are the better indicators of the economic environment. Notice how gas skyrocketed, and that affected the prices of, well, everything. But now that gas is $1.50 a gallon again, the reporting has turned the the auto-industry bailouts because that's where the doom-and-gloom still is. Recessions are as much public perception as they are fact. Just look at the 2001/2002 downturn.

I guess you know more than the artist who drew the graphic novel, and has, you know, SEEN the movie

Yes. Ignore the fact the the graphic novel's writter and creator, Alan Moore, thinks so poorly of the project that he doesn't even want his name attached to it:

'I will be spitting venom all over it'

But I guess that you know more than him.

You might want to take the time to become a little informed before you start pounding on your anti-US drum. On the year the US dollar is up compared to the Euro and the Looney.

You might want to take the time to learn Economy 101. Currency exchange rate is not a good sole indicator of how well economies are doing, especially in a major recession. Dollar had only held its ground because the Federal Reserve had been steadily decreasing the interest rate. The problem is that they cannot decrease it any further - it's at 0%.

For Canada in particular, you might want to look for indicators such as, well, companies filing for bankrupcy in drovers, major lay-offs, or large financial institutions asking for bailout. You'll have to look very hard, though :)

EU is worse off, but still not as much as the US - here the recent rise in USD/EUR is actually an indicator (note: not the difference as such, but the rise - it means that people are buying Euro, because its prospectives are perceived as better).

I'm not arguing fiscal policy. I'm saying that free market has a definition and the various nation's economies are not free markets. Some may be freer than others, but they're not free.

Sure, and there is a good reason for that, too. The West has experimented with free markets abouy a century ago, and those experiments uniformly didn't wen't well, which is why they were abandoned by everyone sooner or later. Today, probably the only remaining free market - for the lack of government to regulate it - is Somalia. Not exactly an economic wonder, either.

This depends if you're on the Susskins or Hawking side of the conjecture. According to the article, all black holes accrete (ie suck) big time and will continue to do so for a long time. We should call this the Jonas brothers effect at it relates to matter the same way they related to teenage girls.

The moose (meeses?) have taken advantage of this power vacuum and having no natural predators outside of orcas, are wrecking havoc and destruction through out the great land of Quebec.

We, your friendly neighbors to the West (Alaska) will very happily lend (very favorable terms, 50 year lease for 1 US dollar) our famous Governor. She knows how to deal with Meese.

Really, she's not doing much at the moment.

Forrest Ackerman needed 24-hour home care and as late as 2003 was still engaged in a long, debilitating, and expensive lawsuit against a former business partner. Welcome to his planet [Jan 06,2003]

Were you born in Hawaii?

If so, could you please post a [sanitized] scan of your birth certificate?

In fact this has been tried by law enforcement here in the United States at least once and just recently. They were attempting to identify a suspect in a recent string of serial murders by analyzing partial dna matches to possible relatives. They were unsuccessful this time for technical reasons, but that does not dismiss the possibility that they can and will use this technique again in the future so the ethical questions remain. The article (Los Angeles Times) is here for those interested in the details.

Google finds it pretty quickly

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/20/local/me-dna20

Google it yourself next time.. or is that too difficult for you?

...secondly, if law enforcement can use metallurgic analysis to determine the exact batch of bullets a particular round came from...

They can't

Study participants liked best the cars scoring high in the so-called power traits â" the most mature, masculine, arrogant, and angry-looking ones

This explain why so many people likes SUVs despite them being more insecure, inefficient and illogical choices: they choose like animals driven by istinct instead of logic. (EG: idiots)

Today's story is a huge plot twist in our continuing patent-troll soap opera:

The tiling mobile browser is the illegitimate love child of EMG and JMBM. It just now got a copy of its birth certificate but its conception is sure to be disputed.

(A few years ago, JMBM ran off with Dr. Michelson, to really get back at Michelson's former lover, Medtronics - but Michelson reconciled with Medtronics over the billion+ kongbucks from his collusion with JMBM. JMBM, feeling jilted but richer, found true love in the arms of EMG. Sources: see TFA and http://articles.latimes.com/2005/apr/23/business/fi-doctor23)

EMG, with its tawdry mini-skirt at the top of its thighs and panties at half-mast, revealed itself as transexual - and needed someplace to stick it. (Here's the plot twist...) Jealous that no one takes a real estate firm seriously as a technology solutions developer, EMG raged and is attempting rape of a technology solutions developer whose name was derived from a piece of real estate.

Next episode - thank your lucky stars that the tech firm wasn't from Southern California and didn't call themselves.... ORANGE!

(Guest appearance by Bender as EMG, all other roles played by Calculon.)

That's my point, though - California seems to be pursuing the "holistic" mass-transit solutions right alongside stuff like the electric car grid.

And hey, it looks like even the rest of the US might be catching up a bit too, at least if the new Congress & Obama administration live up to their promises.

i see your point. i guess i just feel that we live in a society where corporate industries have much more political power than normal individuals, and yet there seems to be much less accountability in the corporate world than the world of ordinary individuals who, meanwhile, are being subjected to increasingly draconian laws. so if the NSA can spy on private citizens using wiretaps without obtaining warrants, then i feel no sympathy for corporations having to archive their e-mails.

Well, I think we'd agree that's a separate battle we have to fight - that is, ensuring personal liberty.

as long as the regulatory requirements are reasonable, it should be alright no matter what size a company is. as long as companies aren't being asked to keep e-mails indefinitely or record and transcribe every single phone call, it should not present too big a problem. also, the amount of regulation a corporation is subjected to should be directly proportional to their size and power. so by limiting the power of corporations through unobtrusive regulations there'd be less of a need for this sorta thing.

for example, things like telecommunications, internet access, water, electricity, etc. are vital public utilities. such utilities are natural monopolies where they either, must be operated as a monopoly or operate most efficiently as one. additionally, being vital components of public infrastructure like roads and the sewage system, these utilities also exhibit inelastic demand. these two things combine to give telecoms, ISPs, and other utility companies a lot of power, which also create tremendous potential for abuse. so either these industries have to be nationalized, or they have to be tightly regulated.

This seems reasonable. My only fear is that government oversight and regulation can corrupt just as easily as a private corporate. Take a look at the current banking mess. It seems to be a combination of bad judgment in public sector combined with outright fraud in the private sector. For the government's part, they're the ones actually pushing banks to make those sub-prime loans in the first place - banks who didn't participate in these programs were restricted in many ways (from acquiring other banks, for instance). Banking is one of the most heavily-regulated industries in the US, from what I understand. And that still didn't prevent the current financial meltdown. I'm still not quite sure why no one is facing criminal prosecution for cooking the books all these years at Fannie Mae.

In these situations, I guess that the first amendment - specifically, freedom of speech / a free press is our last line of defense. Even if all other safeguards fail, at least the public can be made aware of it, and ultimately force some sort of accountability.

A charitable non profit that purchases independent newspapers and requires grant recipients to "respect" IP and use the OS of its micromanaging founder, all with zero public accountability. It's not part of M$, I swear.

That the IRS is investigating Mozilla and not the Gates Foundation is almost as bad as the Google/Yahoo/M$ corruption. How much more corrupt can it get than that? Oh yeah, this much.

able to hear them coming.... Like, in California and Maryland:

Hybrids vs. pedestrians
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/uptospeed/2008/08/hybrids-vs-pede.html

Are Hybrid Cars A Danger To Pedestrians?
http://www.manufacturing.net/article.aspx?id=157148

These planes could be so quiet that foreign nations or even domestic animal rights groups might call for noise-makers to be added. Maybe those whistles for rural area dears might be affixed, but stronger so they don't fall off and kill people and animals and destroy property on the ground...

Eh, it's nothing new. But given that certain cultures are more about "honor" and "loyalty" than others are, then why do they let this happen? I find it hard to believe that Chinamen are the only men capable of performing certain engineering duties.

With America's legal framework it is difficult to exclude naturalized citizens from sensitive security positions. Also remember that for every naturalized citizen who is a traitor, there are hundreds more who aren't. Heck, most of the scientists who developed the atomic bomb were foreign nationals.

China may have just as many security breeches... the thing is China's government is better able to deal with such security issues. They just shoot the traitor and never tell anyone.

I doubt that anybody of American descent would be allowed to see top-secret Chinese data, 20-year citizen or not!

I doubt many people of American decent would consider actually moving to China... Also, what would China show them? The Chinese version of the stolen American data? Except for their espionage, it's not like they are doing actually anything better... they just have the Chinese copy. It's hard to innovate when you are busy reverse engineering every other nation's work.

Chinamen are the only men capable of performing certain

engineering duties. I doubt that anybody of American descent would be

"Chinamen?" I don't suppose you wax your mustache and lift oblong shaped weights while riding your unicycle to work?

Eh, it's nothing new. But given that certain cultures are more about "honor" and "loyalty" than others are, then why do they let this happen? I find it hard to believe that Chinamen are the only men capable of performing certain engineering duties. I doubt that anybody of American descent would be allowed to see top-secret Chinese data, 20-year citizen or not!

Unless the FBI is simply foaming at the mouth to create FUD and bungle this like they bungle everything else. It's more of a matter of industrial espionage rather than national security.

...for even the undead fear The Goon. Actually, this is an interesting film, of course I'm biased as a huge fan of The Goon.

100% CGI, directed by David Fincher (of Seven and Fight Club fame) with positive input from Eric Powell (the comic books creator, writer and artist) it looks interesting. Here's an article and here's a first look at the movie poster.

So-called piracy only helps M$ against FOSS. See this 2006 LA Times article:

"And as long as they're going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. Theyâ(TM)ll get sort of addicted, and then weâ(TM)ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade." -- Gates, circa 1998

It's now 2008; Gates has had his decade. Worked out well for him, didn't it?

... Maybe we should just encourage people in violence-based parts of the world (like India, Russia, and the minority communities of the USA) to use pirated Microsoft and other proprietary software.

So-called piracy only helps M$ against FOSS. See this 2006 LA Times article:

"And as long as they're going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. Theyâ(TM)ll get sort of addicted, and then weâ(TM)ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."
-- Gates, circa 1998

Advocating piracy in order to undercut competitors has carried M$ through the decades even now:

"It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not"
-- Gates, circa 2007

The only way for the market situation to get better is to avoid any and all use of M$Âproducts, including "pirated" ones.

http://articles.latimes.com/2006/mar/02/local/me-nigerian2

perhaps the political alignment of Australia made us favour Obama

The political alignment of the rest of the world (excluding Georgia) favoured Obama.