That is a great example of how these huge business entities increase the burden on taxpayers.
Speaking of entitlements... How about including crap like this in the discussion. Corporations/teams/whatever should pay their own way. No more taxing the people so billionaires can become even more wealthy than they already are.
I've always speculated that when MSFT was nailed for monopoly behavior, the DOJ gave the MSFT BOD a choice; MSFT would be broken up or put Ballmer in charge.
Instead of breaking MSFT up, the DOJ figured having someone like Ballmer in charge would be punishment enough. And ultimately achieve something close to the intended results of a breakup.
By using this strategy, the gov't didn't appear as though it's trying to tell a big business how to operate, but MSFT's growth certainly was stunted thanks to Ballmer's decisions.
Exactly. It strikes me that market share equates to financial leverage. And the more they have, the more they'll want. They'll have a great deal more influence in the marketplace. And we'll still be a third-world country when it comes to internet service.
So that is what the Republicans mean by a "free market."
This proves the people who currently call themselves "Republicans" are anything but. The party has been hijacked by a bunch of self-serving individuals. Clearly these people could not care less about the free market or competition.
I thought this was all about "The Biggest Concert of the Year" where some remarkably mediocre musicians are promoted as though they actually have talent.
Oh, and BTW... there might be a football game between some over-rated commercials.
This event has become nothing but an enormous amount of hype.
Pls cite some examples, because I have not experienced any compatibility issues or bugs. Note that I've been using OpenOffice and, in recent years, LibreOffice to edit content and fix formatting in Excel, PowerPoint, and Word documents. The only time a compatibility issue arises is when someone sends me a docx file. It's inconvenient, but I can get around it.
So, once again, pls cite examples. I am genuinely curious what kind of compatibility issues or bugs you're experiencing. I don't doubt that there are some, but I don't think it's as extensive as your question subtly implies.
BTW, I use software like OpenOffice or LibreOffice not because it's a "matter of philosophy or principle." I use open source software because it's stable, the UI is consistent (not subject to the whims of some UI "expert"), and it's maintained in a more timely and conscientious manner. And the bonus is I'm not locked in by some EULA. I can enjoy the freedom to use the software wherever I want on any platform I want.
I have friends who continue to use MS Office. Whenever there is an upgrade I hear complaints about changes to the interface. The "ribbon" is the most recent example. They wonder why MS did that. It seems more and more MS and Apple introduce changes simply for the sake of change. That way they can advertise something "new" has been added.
Obviously you don't know what "proprietary" means. Just because other suites have allowed the export of docs in an MS format (even a commonly recognized format) does not change the fact that it's PROPRIETARY.
Kudos to that school's admin staff. This is a real educational experience. You can't beat hands-on. Plus the students are engaged in the operation of their school; IOW they have some ownership or at least a partnership.
I agree with the comments re compatibility. MS is the odd-man-out. They've been forcing their proprietary stuff on the world for too long. And innovation has been stunted as a result of their dominance. My peers and I witnessed time and again in the 80's when someone would come out with a great idea and then MS would buy them and the great idea would disappear so there would be no competition in the marketplace.
Re...
open office does not fully work with office files
To be more specific, that comment must be with re to macros because I've never had any problems and I still don't.
I did a lot of support work for a one of the divisions of a large, world-wide corporation. One of the things I did was edit/fix Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. I pulled the files into OpenOffice, fixed all the formatting, spelling, grammar, calculation, and punctuation mistakes and then exported the files back to the appropriate MS Office file format. Nobody knew and I always received compliments re how nice everything looked. As a matter of fact, I did most of that work on a Mac and later on Linux. And, of course, that corporation was Windows only.
It still brings a smile to my face. They were paying huge sums of money for their licenses and here I was using an open-source solution to fix all their problems.
Supposedly they've been losing sales to OpenOffice and LibreOffice and Windows 8 has not been well received. And suddenly they have a record earnings report.
Something doesn't add up especially since the two product lines (ie, Office and Windows OS) are supposedly their big money makers.
Maybe the accounting guys are trying to give Ballmer a positive send-off.
Absolutely! I experienced this first hand at one of my previous employers. Accenture was a running joke in all our project meetings from there on out.
When I saw the gov't was hooking up with Accenture, I responded exactly like the first post.
If any of the budget-minded politicos checked into Accenture's background, I'm fairly certain they would find loads of evidence re cost overruns (not that our gov't ever cared about stuff like that).
Oh look it's yet another Uncle Tom Obama the choom gang coward corporate appointee, who would have believed it.
I think they're all pretty much "corporate appointees" now, aren't they? Do you think Romney was just some regular guy without any real corporate backing?
The two-party system as it exists today is mostly, if not all, theater. Especially since "Citizens United."
The Government did allow you to keep your plan. It's Aetna that decided to screw you over and try to get you to blame someone else. It seems to have worked, because instead of directing your ire at the insurance industry's thieving, scheming, middle-men, you're angry at the administration trying to reform a horribly broken system in a political climate where it's virtually impossible to get anything done even when you're willing to adopt ideas from the other side as a compromise.
And that's exactly what the individual mandate was--a huge compromise of liberal values to adopt a Republican idea. The fact that no Republican voted for it even then shows how spiteful and divisive they are.
Spot freakin' on!!!
I wish we could continue to pile on mod points for comments as accurate as yours. I'd give you an "eleven" insightful.
Slashdot Mirror
My apologies. It needed to be said.
"This is the voice of World Control. I bring you peace."
AGREED!!!
If I had any mod points, you'd get 'em all.
That is a great example of how these huge business entities increase the burden on taxpayers.
Speaking of entitlements... How about including crap like this in the discussion. Corporations/teams/whatever should pay their own way. No more taxing the people so billionaires can become even more wealthy than they already are.
...NOT!
Not in my house.
This sounds like "freezing the market." It's a marketing strategy.
I'm going to "cop out" and suggest (if you're interested) you should search on this: marketing strategy "freeze the market"
There are much better explanations/examples out there than I could ever provide.
I've been accusing MS of using this strategy for years and their name appears in several of the results re releases of Xbox and more.
Now we can include Mercedes in this auspicious group of hucksters.
Where's the outcry from those who claim to be capitalists re the 'free market" and "let the market decide?"
It seems like it's okay to "let the market decide" as long as only their business is allowed to be in the market.
But if there is a possible market failure here then it needs to be addressed.
I've always speculated that when MSFT was nailed for monopoly behavior, the DOJ gave the MSFT BOD a choice; MSFT would be broken up or put Ballmer in charge.
Instead of breaking MSFT up, the DOJ figured having someone like Ballmer in charge would be punishment enough. And ultimately achieve something close to the intended results of a breakup.
By using this strategy, the gov't didn't appear as though it's trying to tell a big business how to operate, but MSFT's growth certainly was stunted thanks to Ballmer's decisions.
Exactly. It strikes me that market share equates to financial leverage. And the more they have, the more they'll want. They'll have a great deal more influence in the marketplace. And we'll still be a third-world country when it comes to internet service.
So that is what the Republicans mean by a "free market."
This proves the people who currently call themselves "Republicans" are anything but. The party has been hijacked by a bunch of self-serving individuals. Clearly these people could not care less about the free market or competition.
Like "frack you," "go frack yourself," "you frackin' idiot" to show your displeasure with someone.
IOW, use "frack" in place of the all-purpose noun, verb and expletive that begins with the letter "f."
It certainly isn't much, but as a form of protest it makes a point.
Example: That frackin' beta sucks frack water.
I have to agree that Audi and Volkswagen had the best commercials so +1.
I already posted so I can't give mod points.
Everything else was... disappointing.
I thought this was all about "The Biggest Concert of the Year" where some remarkably mediocre musicians are promoted as though they actually have talent.
Oh, and BTW... there might be a football game between some over-rated commercials.
This event has become nothing but an enormous amount of hype.
Pls cite some examples, because I have not experienced any compatibility issues or bugs. Note that I've been using OpenOffice and, in recent years, LibreOffice to edit content and fix formatting in Excel, PowerPoint, and Word documents. The only time a compatibility issue arises is when someone sends me a docx file. It's inconvenient, but I can get around it.
So, once again, pls cite examples. I am genuinely curious what kind of compatibility issues or bugs you're experiencing. I don't doubt that there are some, but I don't think it's as extensive as your question subtly implies.
BTW, I use software like OpenOffice or LibreOffice not because it's a "matter of philosophy or principle." I use open source software because it's stable, the UI is consistent (not subject to the whims of some UI "expert"), and it's maintained in a more timely and conscientious manner. And the bonus is I'm not locked in by some EULA. I can enjoy the freedom to use the software wherever I want on any platform I want.
I have friends who continue to use MS Office. Whenever there is an upgrade I hear complaints about changes to the interface. The "ribbon" is the most recent example. They wonder why MS did that. It seems more and more MS and Apple introduce changes simply for the sake of change. That way they can advertise something "new" has been added.
That's a fair and very interesting question. It raises a valid point. MS does have a variety of word processing file formats, don't they?
In the case I described it was doc, xls, and ppt.
Obviously you don't know what "proprietary" means. Just because other suites have allowed the export of docs in an MS format (even a commonly recognized format) does not change the fact that it's PROPRIETARY.
If I had mod points, I'd give them all to you for a very informative response.
So how about +5 informative, instead.
Kudos to that school's admin staff. This is a real educational experience. You can't beat hands-on. Plus the students are engaged in the operation of their school; IOW they have some ownership or at least a partnership.
I agree with the comments re compatibility. MS is the odd-man-out. They've been forcing their proprietary stuff on the world for too long. And innovation has been stunted as a result of their dominance. My peers and I witnessed time and again in the 80's when someone would come out with a great idea and then MS would buy them and the great idea would disappear so there would be no competition in the marketplace.
Re...
open office does not fully work with office files
To be more specific, that comment must be with re to macros because I've never had any problems and I still don't.
I did a lot of support work for a one of the divisions of a large, world-wide corporation. One of the things I did was edit/fix Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. I pulled the files into OpenOffice, fixed all the formatting, spelling, grammar, calculation, and punctuation mistakes and then exported the files back to the appropriate MS Office file format. Nobody knew and I always received compliments re how nice everything looked. As a matter of fact, I did most of that work on a Mac and later on Linux. And, of course, that corporation was Windows only.
It still brings a smile to my face. They were paying huge sums of money for their licenses and here I was using an open-source solution to fix all their problems.
Supposedly they've been losing sales to OpenOffice and LibreOffice and Windows 8 has not been well received. And suddenly they have a record earnings report.
Something doesn't add up especially since the two product lines (ie, Office and Windows OS) are supposedly their big money makers.
Maybe the accounting guys are trying to give Ballmer a positive send-off.
Yeah, for sure. +1
Absolutely! I experienced this first hand at one of my previous employers. Accenture was a running joke in all our project meetings from there on out.
When I saw the gov't was hooking up with Accenture, I responded exactly like the first post.
If any of the budget-minded politicos checked into Accenture's background, I'm fairly certain they would find loads of evidence re cost overruns (not that our gov't ever cared about stuff like that).
Oh look it's yet another Uncle Tom Obama the choom gang coward corporate appointee, who would have believed it.
I think they're all pretty much "corporate appointees" now, aren't they? Do you think Romney was just some regular guy without any real corporate backing?
The two-party system as it exists today is mostly, if not all, theater. Especially since "Citizens United."
Japanese SuperSub
Good documentary.
My subject line says it all.
The Government did allow you to keep your plan. It's Aetna that decided to screw you over and try to get you to blame someone else. It seems to have worked, because instead of directing your ire at the insurance industry's thieving, scheming, middle-men, you're angry at the administration trying to reform a horribly broken system in a political climate where it's virtually impossible to get anything done even when you're willing to adopt ideas from the other side as a compromise.
And that's exactly what the individual mandate was--a huge compromise of liberal values to adopt a Republican idea. The fact that no Republican voted for it even then shows how spiteful and divisive they are.
Spot freakin' on!!!
I wish we could continue to pile on mod points for comments as accurate as yours. I'd give you an "eleven" insightful.
This must more of that "free market" behavior we keep hearing about.
Notice how lobbyists always seem to have a "better idea" about how the "free market" should work.
This is just more corporate greed. They see what appears to be lots of free activity and just can't stand it. They have to find a way to monetize it.
This irritates me as much as the phrase "In order to serve you better..."