The greatest, single most important invention in all the history of
mankind was the invention of railroads, some 150 years ago.
150 years ago, for the first time in history, it was possible to transport
quickly large quantities of merchandise, food, and people over long distances
on earth.
The average speed of land transportation jumped more than 15fold, as
trains were able to crisscross countries at speeds 15 to 20 times of the
usual stagecoaches, trucks or canal boats which were then the norm.
Food could be readily transported from one place to the other to avert
famines; the famines that occured thereafter were political in nature,
not because food could not have been brought.
For the first time in history, people did not face the prospect of automatic
starvation if their crops failed; they could resort on the supplies from
elsewhere.
Railroads could supply the needs of ever-growing cities, such as New-York,
London, Berlin, Paris or Chicago. Hitero, the size of cities was limited
by the same factor any living organism was limited in size: by it's food
supply.
It's not for nothing that, around that time, people embarked into railroad
building with a quasi-religious fervor.
No, the greatest inventions occured between 1850 and 1950. After that,
you only had refinements of existing stuff. Nothing really significant
was invented after 1950, except perhaps, DNA genetic engineering.
The same goes for Word Perfect. We were once able to get a competitor's bid, kindly sent by the client, as a Word Perfect document in which they kindly deleted all the quoted prices, which we restored by doing "undo"...
We got the contract, it was government and we underbid them by $200...
Once Gutenburg's printing press was perfected, it was the
Church that was the biggest patron. For over 500 years, the most printed
book on the planet has been the Bible. This allowed for spreading the word
faster and cheaper.
This is total oxdung. The scatholic church wouldn't have
the mass and the bible in any other language than latin until some
40 years ago, just to make sure that the common people couldn't read
it except by going through a priest, so that the priests would control
the people more.
One of the protestant Reform cornerstone was that the bible be read
by EVERYONE, so it was translated in their languages (german, english,
french, dutch). And when everyone read the bible for themselves, it allowed
them to see how much they were screwed by the scatholic church, and they
started to take their lives into their own hands, this is why protestant
countries are more economically developped than scatholic countries (read:
"the protestants screw the scatholics").
On the other hand, I've never been fond of Christian mission
work. "We'll move in, provide needed services like medical aid and helping
provide agricultural assistance, and in the process, we'll wash them of
their evil non-Christian beliefs by assmiliating them through our indoctrination".
What's the difference between that and american corporations buying up
companies all over the world, and sending teams of PHBs to "staighten-out"
things? It's the same thing.
Interestingly enough, the church doesn't have a problem
allowing kids to play bloody shootem-ups in their Church-run internet cafes.
I guess it's okay to blow someone's head off but not to reasearch breast
cancer or track down a killer photo of Angelina Jolie partially nude.
It's perfecly normal. The scatholic church has been responsible for
more deaths during the last millenium than all other causes, save the
automobile. Scatholics routinely persecute non-scatholics in order to force
them into their bondage-submissive and highly destructive religion. They
are directly responsible for the crusades and countless other religious
conflicts throughout history, some of them are still on (Northern
Eire, anyone?). It's not for nothing that churches are being bombed
in Indonesia, they know first-hand how the scatholics are imperialistic.
For centuries, Britain rightfully discriminated against scatholics for
very good reasons, as the scatholic church was undermining profoundly the
basis of the british state, that is, every rich man should keep his wealth
to himself alone, whereas scatholics countries are on a lower level of
economic development because the scatholic church leeches up so many ressources.
Some years ago, in Canada, a convent of scatholic nuns (I'm talking
nuns, here, not a bunch of greedy stock market sharks) was swindled
of $85 million by a commercial developper. Now, when something as innocuous-looking
as nuns have that much money to spend on a real-estate scam, it makes you
wonder what else there is.
I'm concerned that healthcare (and others) costs aren't scaleable.
I don't honestly believe that "per capita" is a reasonable measure of expenditure
for universal healthcare.
Perhaps not, but it statistically makes more sense.
Not to say that it couldn't work... just that saying it costs
X in Canada to serve Q-Million people doesn't mean it's going to cost Y
times X to serve Y times Q-Million people anywhere else.
Sure some of the costs are quantized by the number of facilities
and staff and equipment needed, but a lot of the cost is based on usage
style and volume.
In fact, it would be even cheaper in the US, because of the higher population
density(more choice with personnel/hospitals) and the obvious economies
of scale.
And having public/universal healthcare doesn't address the
privacy issues. Seems like governmental medicine would fall under freedom
of information acts. That would suck.
A FUD misconception. Healthcare is given by professionnals (doctors, nurses,
med techs), and the hospitals are separate entities from the State (they
are non-profit corporations). They keep the medical files confidential
(very strict laws about privacy). It is just that instead of having 10,000
different private medical insurance companies, you have ONE (well... ten,
one for each province) State Health Insurance board which pays for your
healthcare, and that gets it's funding from the provincial & federal
governments.
And you still get to choose which doctor to see, and how many if you
want more than 1 opinion.
Hey! If the american people is stupid enough to repeatedly vote for governments
(and executive) that are in the pockets of Big Bad Business, they should not complain when Big Bad Business sets the agenda...
Stupid things like that don't happen when the State pays for health-care, and since State health-care doesn't have to turn a profit and is universal, it is much cheaper because there are no checks to see if one is insured for a given procedure, and no profit to shareholders.
Typically, Canada's universal health care costs 60% of what it costs to americans per capita, and EVERYBODY is covered.
IBM has been around for an EXTREMELY long time (in computer
years, I mean). They've survived longer than many computer companies (Packard
Bell, for instance), and outlasted many.com's.
Packard Bell??? Can't you spell UNIVAC??? Control-Data???
IBM wants to squash Microsoft like a grape. There's still
a lot of bad blood between them over that whole OS/2 thing. As if that's
not enough, IBM's been very bloodthirsty about competition lately and have
been celebrating taking business away from Sun, Microsoft and other competitors
in a very gloating manner.
That, alone is a damn good reason to go along with IBM
It seems to me that IBM "Gets" the open source movement
and how to make money with it better than any other company in the industry,
possibly even Redhat and the other Linux companies. And in many ways their
goals align quite nicely with ours.
Aside from Microsoft, IBM is well known for really top of the line technology
(I didn't say "hardware"). The thousands eyes of Open Source coupled with
that k00l technology could do wonders.
They just need to understand that they oughta keepa their handsa
offa da source, and they'll get wonders of cooperation, especially
if it is aims squarely against Redmond.
Besides, nothing could prevent them from being generous towards Open
Source developpers (k00l hardware, seminars, whatnot) as a genuine, legitimate
R&D expense.
Ever wondered why Minnesota Mining
and Manufacturing offers so many ingenious products? Well,
it's their R&D policy that does the trick. Every researcher is forced
to set aside some 20% of his research budget to investigate side effects,
and they are forbidden to use it on their main research activities.
How do you tag files as being copiable/non-copiable without patching
the OS?
Like if *ALL* OS manufacturers will patch their OSes for that. Like
if *ALL* OS manufacturers will patch their OSes for that in countries that
are rabid supporter of "fair use" (i look in the general direction of Deutshland).
This means that you have to seed the data with a particular bit pattern
that would be recognized as a go/nogo signal by the drive, as the data
is broken up in OS-sized sectors.
And what if you have a "driver" that intercepts those particular bit
patterns and turns it in a go signal all the time?
This must be a troll or a hoax of a higher order, I just can't believe
how this could be implemented worldwide. Maybe in the US, but certainly
not worldwide.
Couldn't an organization whose website that has been censored (either justifiably or unjustifiably) by censorware invoke the US constitution clauses against censorship? It would apply well especially that government money is bound to the regulations, the constitution especially applies to it.
I saw a very interesting Nova documentary about the Hindenburg
which claimed that the hydrogen was not the cause of the explosion. Basically,
the outer skin was painted with powdered aluminium (I think), which is
what we use for rocket fuel today. Hydrogen burns blue, not orange like
all the eyewitnesses say the zeplin did. Also, it remained aloft quite
long into the fire, which wouldn't make sense if the hydrogen was burning.
In airship mishaps, such that of the LZ128 Hindenburg
in Lakehurst, NJ, most of the damage is (well, was) done by the airship
fuel (in the case of the LZ128, diesel fuel), rather than by the hydrogen
itself. The hydrogen always leaks out, then burns outside the ship (but
scorching it in the process).
The cause of the LZ128 wasn't firmly established, mostly for political
reasons. Originally, it was designed to use helium, but the USA (then the
lone producer) wouldn't sell helium to Germany for strategic reasons (WW-1
Zeppellin raids were still a fresh memory, then). Thus, proving that the
LZ128 burned because it didn't have helium would have been damaging to
the USA, while proving that it was sabotaged (as told in the excellent
movie "The Hindenburg" - which did wonder to reconstitute the LZ128's
plush amenities. By comparison, the Indiana Jones movie is garbage) would
have been damaging to nazi Germany.
Interestingly, since hydrogen offers more lifting power per volume than
helium does, the LZ128 had some extra staterooms installed between seasons
as it became clear they would never have the helium. But using hydrogen
wasn't really much of a bother for the DELAG (Deutsche
Luftshiffe Geselshaft - sp?), since over the years, the german had
refinded their operational procedures and had achieved a tremenduous safety
record over the years, to the point that it was really competitive with
oceangoing ships.
A bigger airship, the LZ129 Graf Zeppelin II was built,
but it wasn't used commercially after the LZ128 demise, which was a pity,
because it really was a luxurious airship.
(I'm partial towards airships, because I flew for the first time in
a Goodyear blimp, back when I was 5, thanks to my father who knew someone
who knew someone. Amazingly, it worked. It really was funny because inside,
it looked like a bus: bus seats, bus windows you could open, stick your
head out and look down... I was very disappointed with my first airplane
ride 5 years later...)
The real irony is that the forced benefits laws are enacted
in the sincere belief that they will better the state of the worker, but
this is naive and flies in the face of any economic reality.
Economic "reality" flies in the face of the well-being of
the majority of the population. Why else the stock markets rise so much
whenever some big outfit announces huge layoffs????
Lets say I'm the owner of one of these two auto shops; ... Well if one of my mechanics suddenly decides to go join a commune,
as a owner I've suddenly lost 50% of my workforce and am gonna be really
screwed trying to either entice someone from another town to move here,
or alternatively be short qualified help for a year while I pay to have
some local kid trained to be a mechanic.
Hey! You can't have your cake AND eat it at the same timeé.
Or do you think that, as an owner, you should be able to? If YOU
are free to setup shop (it's called "free enterprise") why
shouldn't your employees ALSO BE FREE to decide to do what they
want?
The employer has the ability to be just as easily screwed
as the employee.
Isn't that unfair? Only employers have the RIGHT to screw others...
Or is there some obscure clause somewhere that says that company owners
age guaranteed a profit, no matter what?
Abuse of owners is just as common throughout history as
the abuse of laborers. Owners often lose their lives work and savings when
countries outlaw or nationalize industries. Owners are also 'abused' (by
your loose definition) when consumers no longer want or need their product.
Ooooh, the free market isn't nice to you... Poor sweet little dear. Why
don't you go see yout friends in the government and ask them to FORCE
people to buy your crappy product???
If you are for a 'minimum working standards' which employers
must meet for employees, are you also for a 'minimum sales' in which consumers
must purchase a given amount of product? They both derive from the same
concept of entitlement!
Hey, you're the one who's risking (not necessarly) your capital! Not your
stupid workers. So, YES, you're ENTITLED to force people
to buy your crap!
So the government legislates that we work 40 hour weeks.
Thats all great and dandy if thats what I want to work; but suppose I want
to work (and be paid for) 60 hour weeks for 9 months then take three months
off every year? Oops, thanks to the laws I can't do that. California has
a law which roughly mandates a work week of 5 days, 8 hours each. But sysadmining
sometimes requires 12 hour days when things are crashing, and 4 hour days
when there's nothing going on. Thanks to california lawmakers I'm technically
in violation of the law.
Hey, though shit! Maybe if the employers didn't abused your workers in
the past instead of treating them fairly, there wouln't have been that
law between you and oodles of money...
It's the perpetual story of the shortsighted who abuse the system, then
everyone gets slapped.
But it's not likely entrepreneurs will learn, so for the foreseeable
future, you can see pressure to have laws to FORCE employers to
be nice to their workers.
I'm just sitting around waiting for this to hit critical
mass, when mostly every mailserver and mailbox is jammed packed with crap.
Maybe we'll start seeing some attention hungry politicians on TV giving
a speech on how "our information age wil come to a crash unless we pass
this measure immediately.
Don't bother with that. Just tell them to "do it for the children"...
Slashdot Mirror
The greatest, single most important invention in all the history of mankind was the invention of railroads, some 150 years ago.
150 years ago, for the first time in history, it was possible to transport quickly large quantities of merchandise, food, and people over long distances on earth.
The average speed of land transportation jumped more than 15fold, as trains were able to crisscross countries at speeds 15 to 20 times of the usual stagecoaches, trucks or canal boats which were then the norm.
Food could be readily transported from one place to the other to avert famines; the famines that occured thereafter were political in nature, not because food could not have been brought.
For the first time in history, people did not face the prospect of automatic starvation if their crops failed; they could resort on the supplies from elsewhere.
Railroads could supply the needs of ever-growing cities, such as New-York, London, Berlin, Paris or Chicago. Hitero, the size of cities was limited by the same factor any living organism was limited in size: by it's food supply.
It's not for nothing that, around that time, people embarked into railroad building with a quasi-religious fervor.
No, the greatest inventions occured between 1850 and 1950. After that, you only had refinements of existing stuff. Nothing really significant was invented after 1950, except perhaps, DNA genetic engineering.
--
--
--
Game over, 2000!
One of the protestant Reform cornerstone was that the bible be read by EVERYONE, so it was translated in their languages (german, english, french, dutch). And when everyone read the bible for themselves, it allowed them to see how much they were screwed by the scatholic church, and they started to take their lives into their own hands, this is why protestant countries are more economically developped than scatholic countries (read: "the protestants screw the scatholics").
--
Game over, 2000!
--
Game over, 2000!
--
Game over, 2000!
Some years ago, in Canada, a convent of scatholic nuns (I'm talking nuns, here, not a bunch of greedy stock market sharks) was swindled of $85 million by a commercial developper. Now, when something as innocuous-looking as nuns have that much money to spend on a real-estate scam, it makes you wonder what else there is.
--
Game over, 2000!
Ikaw taña...
--
Game over, 2000!
And you still get to choose which doctor to see, and how many if you want more than 1 opinion.
--
Game over, 2000!
Stupid things like that don't happen when the State pays for health-care, and since State health-care doesn't have to turn a profit and is universal, it is much cheaper because there are no checks to see if one is insured for a given procedure, and no profit to shareholders.
Typically, Canada's universal health care costs 60% of what it costs to americans per capita, and EVERYBODY is covered.
--
Game over, 2000!
--
Game over, 2000!
They just need to understand that they oughta keepa their handsa offa da source , and they'll get wonders of cooperation, especially if it is aims squarely against Redmond.
Besides, nothing could prevent them from being generous towards Open Source developpers (k00l hardware, seminars, whatnot) as a genuine, legitimate R&D expense.
Ever wondered why Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing offers so many ingenious products? Well, it's their R&D policy that does the trick. Every researcher is forced to set aside some 20% of his research budget to investigate side effects, and they are forbidden to use it on their main research activities.
They could very well do the same for Linux.
--
Game over, 2000!
How do you tag files as being copiable/non-copiable without patching the OS?
Like if *ALL* OS manufacturers will patch their OSes for that. Like if *ALL* OS manufacturers will patch their OSes for that in countries that are rabid supporter of "fair use" (i look in the general direction of Deutshland).
This means that you have to seed the data with a particular bit pattern that would be recognized as a go/nogo signal by the drive, as the data is broken up in OS-sized sectors.
And what if you have a "driver" that intercepts those particular bit patterns and turns it in a go signal all the time?
This must be a troll or a hoax of a higher order, I just can't believe how this could be implemented worldwide. Maybe in the US, but certainly not worldwide.
--
Game over, 2000!
It would apply well especially that government money is bound to the regulations, the constitution especially applies to it.
--
Game over, 2000!
(That was back in the time Matrox was on Bates Road - oldtimers will remember)
--
Game over, 2000!
In airship mishaps, such that of the LZ128 Hindenburg in Lakehurst, NJ, most of the damage is (well, was) done by the airship fuel (in the case of the LZ128, diesel fuel), rather than by the hydrogen itself. The hydrogen always leaks out, then burns outside the ship (but scorching it in the process).
The cause of the LZ128 wasn't firmly established, mostly for political reasons. Originally, it was designed to use helium, but the USA (then the lone producer) wouldn't sell helium to Germany for strategic reasons (WW-1 Zeppellin raids were still a fresh memory, then). Thus, proving that the LZ128 burned because it didn't have helium would have been damaging to the USA, while proving that it was sabotaged (as told in the excellent movie "The Hindenburg" - which did wonder to reconstitute the LZ128's plush amenities. By comparison, the Indiana Jones movie is garbage) would have been damaging to nazi Germany.
Interestingly, since hydrogen offers more lifting power per volume than helium does, the LZ128 had some extra staterooms installed between seasons as it became clear they would never have the helium. But using hydrogen wasn't really much of a bother for the DELAG (Deutsche Luftshiffe Geselshaft - sp?), since over the years, the german had refinded their operational procedures and had achieved a tremenduous safety record over the years, to the point that it was really competitive with oceangoing ships.
A bigger airship, the LZ129 Graf Zeppelin II was built, but it wasn't used commercially after the LZ128 demise, which was a pity, because it really was a luxurious airship.
(I'm partial towards airships, because I flew for the first time in a Goodyear blimp, back when I was 5, thanks to my father who knew someone who knew someone. Amazingly, it worked. It really was funny because inside, it looked like a bus: bus seats, bus windows you could open, stick your head out and look down... I was very disappointed with my first airplane ride 5 years later...)
--
Game over, 2000!
- Listen
- Understand
- Learn
- Masturbate.
That's all he'll ever need in life.--
Game over, 2000!
--
Game over, 2000!
--
Game over, 2000!
--
Game over, 2000!
--
Game over, 2000!
--
Game over, 2000!
It's the perpetual story of the shortsighted who abuse the system, then everyone gets slapped.
But it's not likely entrepreneurs will learn, so for the foreseeable future, you can see pressure to have laws to FORCE employers to be nice to their workers.
--
Game over, 2000!
--
Game over, 2000!
--
Game over, 2000!