Gun Transaction Laws (Fast and Furious) IRS audit laws The Corrupt Practices Act Federal election guidelines (especially those to prevent foreign donations) Not to mention widespread hostility to the 2nd and 10th Amendments.
TSMC spent $9.4 billion on their latest 300mm fab, and it will be running pretty much 24/7/365 for many, many years. And if Apple broke ground tomorrow, it's still likely to be 3 years before the fab is fully built, equipped, staffed, qualified, and running at full speed. Unless Apple is sure it can get chip volume high enough to achieve real cost savings, it's probably not worth doing.
And by then the industry might have started transitioning to 450mm.
Apple is one of the few companies in the world who could drop that much out of actual cash-on-hand without blinking, but it's a very risky bet with potentially a lot more risk than reward.
One reason there aren't many jobs for older people there is that there aren't many new jobs in California, period. Companies are moving out of high tax, high cost states like California to low tax, low cost states like Texas.
Texas is still hiring people of all ages for high tech jobs. Austin has startups, giants, and government jobs (though you won't get the ridiculous, bankruptcy inducing pensions unionized California's state employees get), and Houston and Dallas have high tech and oil and gas (lots of hardware and software engineering jobs that pay very well). And the cost of living here is radically lower; someone who makes $50,000 a year here can easily afford a house.
If things suck where you are now, maybe you should move someplace things don't suck.
Why would I even read the link if the first line of is an obvious, lazy, over-generalized lie?
"Over the last decade, just three companies — Google, Apple, and Facebook — have generated most of the new ideas and most of the business momentum in the world of computing."
Only a moron who's view of computing comes from the pages of Time magazine would make such a pathetic, sweeping overgeneralization ignoring the vast innovations that have been happening in the wold of computing, driven by thousands of innovative startups. Linux, cloud computing and a dozen other area have thrown up a wide variety of innovations that have nothing to do do with those three very important (well, two very important, plus Facebook) but overhyped companies.
Why then have our political and business classes made the decision not to enforce immigration laws against an unchecked flow of illegal aliens from Mexico?
Except it didn't. "Ireland recorded a Government Budget deficit equal to 7.70 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product in 2012." And it was as high as 30.9% in 2010. Now, if you want to argue it was foolish to bail out Anglo-Irish Bank, that's a different argument.
Which part of "Real austerity is cutting spending until outlays match receipts" was unclear?
Real austerity is cutting spending until outlays match receipts. As the linked chart shows, the overwhelming majority have raised taxes or continued deficit spending. Some have slightly reduced the ratio of deficit spending to GDP and called it "austerity." They're still digging a hole, they're just doing it more slowly.
Politicians are addicted to spending to prop up an unsustainable welfare state. They've seen what the future looks like in Greece and they still refuse to stop spending. And the current government of the United States is right there digging with them.
Austerity hasn't been tried and failed. It's been declared difficult and left untried.
(*with the possible exception of Estonia and one or two other small countries)
That same auction featured a lot of interesting science fiction first editions, including a true first of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone that went for $43,750, and an inscribed first of H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds went for $35,000.
Take California for example. Not only did they keep increasing pensions promises while underfunding them, they used a variety of accounting tricks to cover it up. On top of that, they assumed unrealistic returns (7.5% or higher in many cases).
How could they get away with? California has essentially become a one-party state where public employee unions are the most powerful interest group. So the process is:
1. Public employee unions use mandatory union dues to contribute to Democratic candidates. 2. Once elected, Democrats vote for ever escalating pension benefits. 3. Democrats appoint pension board officials who ignore underfunded pensions. And the CEO of CalPERS, California's largest pension fund, was just indicted for fraud. "The indictment charges that the falsified documents allowed Villalobos to reap $14 million in fees for serving as a middleman between CalPERS and a prominent investment firm handling $3 billion in CalPERS' money."
Combine this with ever-higher taxes, and a faltering economy, and you have a recipe for the governing class looting the treasury at the expense of the middle class (and future generations that will have to deal with the consequences of bankruptcy and crushing debt loads). Several California cities have already declared bankruptcy, and newer, more transparent accounting rules will probably force more into bankruptcy.
Slashdot Mirror
Jack Vance
Fred Pohl
Iain Banks
Richard Matheson
I don't think we've seen this many giants in the field all pass away the same year before.
If no one else has mentioned it, read Pohl's story "Tunnel Under the World," which is still a great work.
With the way national governments keep piling up debt, it's unreasonable to assume any of those governments will be funding space exploration in 2030.
...will this "story" go away?
Mainly because it's labeled "skynet.exe".
Gun Transaction Laws (Fast and Furious)
IRS audit laws
The Corrupt Practices Act
Federal election guidelines (especially those to prevent foreign donations)
Not to mention widespread hostility to the 2nd and 10th Amendments.
Apple could do it, but it's a very expensive bet.
TSMC spent $9.4 billion on their latest 300mm fab, and it will be running pretty much 24/7/365 for many, many years. And if Apple broke ground tomorrow, it's still likely to be 3 years before the fab is fully built, equipped, staffed, qualified, and running at full speed. Unless Apple is sure it can get chip volume high enough to achieve real cost savings, it's probably not worth doing.
And by then the industry might have started transitioning to 450mm.
Apple is one of the few companies in the world who could drop that much out of actual cash-on-hand without blinking, but it's a very risky bet with potentially a lot more risk than reward.
One reason there aren't many jobs for older people there is that there aren't many new jobs in California, period. Companies are moving out of high tax, high cost states like California to low tax, low cost states like Texas.
Texas is still hiring people of all ages for high tech jobs. Austin has startups, giants, and government jobs (though you won't get the ridiculous, bankruptcy inducing pensions unionized California's state employees get), and Houston and Dallas have high tech and oil and gas (lots of hardware and software engineering jobs that pay very well). And the cost of living here is radically lower; someone who makes $50,000 a year here can easily afford a house.
If things suck where you are now, maybe you should move someplace things don't suck.
TSMC is a foundry; Apple contracts with TSMC to manufacturer their chips for them.
"both said they were committed to building the device and named the group 'the guild,' the indictment said."
Vork and Zaboo, no!
Why would I even read the link if the first line of is an obvious, lazy, over-generalized lie?
"Over the last decade, just three companies — Google, Apple, and Facebook — have generated most of the new ideas and most of the business momentum in the world of computing."
Only a moron who's view of computing comes from the pages of Time magazine would make such a pathetic, sweeping overgeneralization ignoring the vast innovations that have been happening in the wold of computing, driven by thousands of innovative startups. Linux, cloud computing and a dozen other area have thrown up a wide variety of innovations that have nothing to do do with those three very important (well, two very important, plus Facebook) but overhyped companies.
That's one of the codewords that gets Obama's IRS to audit you.
...just like I'm sure the Obama Administration would never obtain the phone and email records for every American!
What?
Easily one of the Top 10 SF Writers of all time, and a huge stylistic influence on the field.
My own tiny tribute, along with scans of some of his rarer first editions from my library.
You know, the color Kindle that's been on the market a year and a half?
Pssst, I heard some other top secret rumors you might be able to use: I hear that Apple is working on a phone!
...when Google shuts down the service 18-24 months from launch.
And where, pray tell, were all those liberal groups receiving spite audits and having their tax exempt status held up?
...when they require three booster packs and a prime card bought off eBay to be competitive!
Why then have our political and business classes made the decision not to enforce immigration laws against an unchecked flow of illegal aliens from Mexico?
...at least according to witnesses, and he's still alive.
I guess he was surrounded by stormtroopers.
And a few random titbits about the bombing.
Ireland which went through some severe austerity
Except it didn't. "Ireland recorded a Government Budget deficit equal to 7.70 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product in 2012." And it was as high as 30.9% in 2010. Now, if you want to argue it was foolish to bail out Anglo-Irish Bank, that's a different argument.
Which part of "Real austerity is cutting spending until outlays match receipts" was unclear?
Did you forget Portugal, which is now trying the severe brand of austerity that you seem to favor
Except it isn't.
"Portugal recorded a Government Budget deficit equal to 6.40 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product in 2012.
Which part of "Real austerity is cutting spending until outlays match receipts" was unclear?
The thing to remember when hearing about all this "austerity" in Europe is that no country in Europe has tried real austerity .*
Real austerity is cutting spending until outlays match receipts. As the linked chart shows, the overwhelming majority have raised taxes or continued deficit spending. Some have slightly reduced the ratio of deficit spending to GDP and called it "austerity." They're still digging a hole, they're just doing it more slowly.
Politicians are addicted to spending to prop up an unsustainable welfare state. They've seen what the future looks like in Greece and they still refuse to stop spending. And the current government of the United States is right there digging with them.
Austerity hasn't been tried and failed. It's been declared difficult and left untried.
(*with the possible exception of Estonia and one or two other small countries)
It buys other companies to graft onto itself to give its corpse the semblance of life...
That same auction featured a lot of interesting science fiction first editions, including a true first of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone that went for $43,750, and an inscribed first of H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds went for $35,000.
Why did public pensions invest in venture capital firms in the first place? Years of ever-escalating pension benefits plus years of severe underfunding those same pensions means that they needed unrealistic growth rates to even come close to meeting their targets.
Take California for example. Not only did they keep increasing pensions promises while underfunding them, they used a variety of accounting tricks to cover it up. On top of that, they assumed unrealistic returns (7.5% or higher in many cases).
How could they get away with? California has essentially become a one-party state where public employee unions are the most powerful interest group. So the process is:
1. Public employee unions use mandatory union dues to contribute to Democratic candidates.
2. Once elected, Democrats vote for ever escalating pension benefits.
3. Democrats appoint pension board officials who ignore underfunded pensions. And the CEO of CalPERS, California's largest pension fund, was just indicted for fraud. "The indictment charges that the falsified documents allowed Villalobos to reap $14 million in fees for serving as a middleman between CalPERS and a prominent investment firm handling $3 billion in CalPERS' money."
Combine this with ever-higher taxes, and a faltering economy, and you have a recipe for the governing class looting the treasury at the expense of the middle class (and future generations that will have to deal with the consequences of bankruptcy and crushing debt loads). Several California cities have already declared bankruptcy, and newer, more transparent accounting rules will probably force more into bankruptcy.
VC funds are probably the least of their worries.