If a company misses a hole, the competitor that finds it instead gets the upper hand. If the hole is big enough, it could even outcompete the first one into oblivion by using the power of the state (and our taxes).
As a neurologist, I agree 100%. Just ask for the amount of people that want an MRI after a common headache. And many of them don't do it the polite way.
And, FYI, that's exactly the kind of people that make the big money while us nerds look startled at their sheer ignorance and evident feeble reasoning.
My workplace hasn't upgraded to IE7 and many pages (including Google's) don't work properly or don't work at all. I use Portable Firefox from my USB key or even from my user profile at the server. I had to use some tricks to get the proxy configuration, though, but it was 100% worth it and it even upgraded automatically to Firefox 3 without getting blocked by the proxy (which blocks.exe and.zip/.rar)
What people don't seem to notice is that many times "a minuscle portion of my tax dollars" ends up in working up to (or over) 6 mo/yr just to pay taxes. This means half of a citizen's income goes to keep universal services that aren't free as in freedom nor as in beer. Just think of tolls, entry fees at museums, public transportation fees, the cost of snail mail... also come to mind those "universal services" that work like cr*p. And, no, rich people DON'T pay a bigger percentage of taxes. They pay accountants (or politicians, if they're big enough) to cut their taxes in half or even get subsides (out of the middle man's taxes, of course). It's funny that people don't trust the politicians a little bit, but are willing to give them full control of their lives, privacy, money, etc. Corruption happens when it takes a writing from single person or a small group of people to turn a lot of people's life (and money) around. That's why the most power a government has, the most prone to corruption it is. Most people I've known that prefer government management in everything because "you can vote them away" are the same people that's 100% sure Bush won because of a fraud in Florida. And, yes, most people firmly believe in democracy as long as "those traitor pinkos don't vote" or "those ignorant bible-thumpers don't vote".
If a huge service such as free internet for all comes up, it may come out of the "tax surplus" for a time so that people don't get upset. Once the numbers don't add up they will raise taxes as a whole or even set up an internet tax while keeping an straight face. (Just see the plan in Oregon to impose a mileage tax because gas doesn't yield what it used to). And, yes, they'll be able to set up any censorship they want once the system is widespread. Pr0n, "fascism", "communism", "terrorism", "how to make thermite"... you name it and it may be censored.
I agree. I've seen many standalone Media Players with huge hard drives that go straight to the tv and have just a remote control. They look cute and are cheap, but the main flaws is the lack of upgradeability (most are made by chinese one-product-per-brand-and-disappear companies) with no way of accepting new codecs such as FLAC, APE, Matroska, etc. Also most of them can't accept discs. The other strange flaw is that most have only a stereo output and digital sound. We can buy decent 5.1 speakers from logitech or creative for less than $90, but they have no decoder. I can connect the 5 inputs to almost any AC97 mainboard or a cheap 7.1-capable sound card. But I need a decoder (which costs much more) to connect them to the standalone Media Center. 5.1 speakers with built-in decoders cost in the range of the $300, so the saving goes away. Myself, I have turned a laptop bricked by its battery into a Media center using MediaPortal. For some reason, XBMC won't get past the start screen in it. I have installed every codec I need and connect the speakers through the Audigy 2ZS Notebook I already had. I wanted to use Myth, but I was unable to set up the built-in ATI to manage the S-Video as a secondary screen. Linux support for NVidia is much better.
FYI: I'm not from the US. I'm a doctor in Spain, and I know exactly what I'm talking about. I know exactly what kind of things we're told to HIDE AWAY from the public. I know what policies are to be enforced silently. Right now the spanish government is backing a doctor that euthanasized hundreds at a public hospital without asking them or their families. Do you really think states are that transparent? Do you really think the voter's can't be driven around like cattle? Here a single terrorist attack turned an election around.
The distortion imposed by a free-for-all medical attention is huge. The only thing that drives people away from the free and state-run health system is plain desperation and unsatisfaction over the waiting times (desperation and unsatisfaction we, the workers, must deal with alone). And if the state has money problems (I've seen the SS go bankrupt in my homecountry, which is not Spain) it's a catastrophe because the affected people are still charged for SS but get no service and have less money left for the private one. Here in Spain, many aids and subsides have been put on hold because of the crisis. How long till it happens to healthcare?
Yes. That happens when mandatory car/house/health insurance is imposed upon the citizens by the government. The insurance industry has a monopoly enforced by the government. Nothing new or free here. Have a cold? Forget Excedrin, go to a doctor because it goes on the insurer (and back to you). Also in the US health prices skyrocket because doctors ask for lots of things in order to cover their backs against (most times absurd) litigation. And, yes, 30% or more of their (huge) earnings go to litigation insurance.
Did ADHD keep you from reading what happens next, once the "free" system gets a critical mass and everyone that currently has internet goes the "free" way?
As a matter of fact, I'm a doctor in Spain. And the system is just like what I've described in the GP. Most of the population, as well as foreigners, use the system because it's "free for all". The word free means nothing when I come to think of the kind of insurance plans I could pay with the money they eat from my payroll each month. It's true you won't be left for dead if you cannot pay, but for those that aren't in risk of death the waiting lists become longer and longer as everyone wants to enjoy his share of healthcare and the system collapses. For many illnesses people cannot afford private practice (because it's scarce enough and has good paying customers) but cannot wait forever either. I see that drama every day. And what does the state do? Easy: throw it on our backs. And to top it off, the now leftist government is pushing a really agressive agenda on euthanasia-no-questions-asked that most people fear will not be aimed at the wishes of the patients but the budget of the system. The draconian tobacco laws in Europe (I don't smoke, BTW) were put in place only to spare on social healthcare costs. Not to talk about countries like Cuba (been there, also) where every citizen can be a guinea pig.
Free nationwide internet access would be just like what happens with free nationwide health service. At first it works fine and takes only a tiny bit of our taxes, then it grows in size (and squares in budget) as more and more people leave their paid service for the free one: after all, they're paying for it as well. Then comes the time when almost the whole service is in the hands of the state. It takes up a huge budget and a proportionate bite of our taxes. It works so that nobody is left unconnected, but not much more. The state mandates what can it be used for and what not. It sets up any filter it likes (of course, filters will only grow). Privacy is nixed. But, hey, almost everybody is hooked up to STATENET because nobody can compete with it. Only those that can afford paying double get a quality (and expensive) internet service.
In a communist state, there's no industry that's not run by the state. And they replace "the nation" and religion with "the regime" or "the party". So, in communism people are either workers or leaders. There's no in-between, but when in the USSR a scapegoat was needed, the leaders used to blame the bureaucrats. The most important thing in communism is that THERE'S NO PRIVATE PROPERTY (of course the leaders and their friends enjoy the best of the "public stuff").
Fascism is an in-between state that's got a lot to do with socialism. Very tight control of peoples' lives, very high taxes and industry allowed only to allies of the regime. In fascism THERE'S PRIVATE PROPERTY but there's almost nothing that prevents the state to take it away. A hardcore socialist regime allows itself to do the same "for social purporses". Fascism is very nationalist in exclusive terms, as in race, ethnicity, culture, language or religion that sets the fascist country apart (and above, according to them) from the rest of the world.
Communism and socialism both use inclusive terms in that everybody's welcome (or forced in) as long as they praise their system and their party.
Both fascism and communism have no regard for human rights, as they consider everyone as a replaceable part of a collective.
Also, both systems tend to sort the people in military terms. Most communist states have refered to the whole country as the "revolutionary army".
Ubuntu 8.04 installed fine, with all the eye candy on my ATI 3870. Ubuntu's 8.10 live CD, which chose to use the "open" ATI drivers instead of the former ones, gives me a black screen right after booting, which according to the monitor has to do with a resolution or frequency out of range. I've found lots of people in forums with the same problem, not after booting up the harmless live CD but after agreeing to upgrade from their 8.04 installation. I'm sure many "victims" will abandon their Ubuntu boot and get back to windows after some hours of booting in-and-out of Ubuntu trying to fix that while reading forums under Windows.
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If a company misses a hole, the competitor that finds it instead gets the upper hand. If the hole is big enough, it could even outcompete the first one into oblivion by using the power of the state (and our taxes).
Just like my medical internship (last year of med school) in peruvian hospitals, where we had to beg, borrow and steal medication for our patients.
Was I talking about rain?
Same in Spain, but nobody seems to care when you're late.
As a neurologist, I agree 100%. Just ask for the amount of people that want an MRI after a common headache. And many of them don't do it the polite way.
Back up to USB memory and carry it along. Some of them take less wallet space than a coin.
And you do that while following the 10th advice on how to make your WiFi/scanner/modem/TVcard/whatever work under linux.
Ever been to a FEMALE doctor?
He is indeed LOOSING mass:
loose: to shoot or let fly an arrow, bullet, etc. (often fol. by off): to loose off at a flock of ducks.
And, FYI, that's exactly the kind of people that make the big money while us nerds look startled at their sheer ignorance and evident feeble reasoning.
My bank's page works in IE7, FF and Opera; but I cannot log in if using Chrome.
My workplace hasn't upgraded to IE7 and many pages (including Google's) don't work properly or don't work at all. .exe and .zip/.rar)
I use Portable Firefox from my USB key or even from my user profile at the server. I had to use some tricks to get the proxy configuration, though, but it was 100% worth it and it even upgraded automatically to Firefox 3 without getting blocked by the proxy (which blocks
What people don't seem to notice is that many times "a minuscle portion of my tax dollars" ends up in working up to (or over) 6 mo/yr just to pay taxes. ... also come to mind those "universal services" that work like cr*p.
This means half of a citizen's income goes to keep universal services that aren't free as in freedom nor as in beer. Just think of tolls, entry fees at museums, public transportation fees, the cost of snail mail
And, no, rich people DON'T pay a bigger percentage of taxes. They pay accountants (or politicians, if they're big enough) to cut their taxes in half or even get subsides (out of the middle man's taxes, of course).
It's funny that people don't trust the politicians a little bit, but are willing to give them full control of their lives, privacy, money, etc.
Corruption happens when it takes a writing from single person or a small group of people to turn a lot of people's life (and money) around. That's why the most power a government has, the most prone to corruption it is.
Most people I've known that prefer government management in everything because "you can vote them away" are the same people that's 100% sure Bush won because of a fraud in Florida. And, yes, most people firmly believe in democracy as long as "those traitor pinkos don't vote" or "those ignorant bible-thumpers don't vote".
If a huge service such as free internet for all comes up, it may come out of the "tax surplus" for a time so that people don't get upset. Once the numbers don't add up they will raise taxes as a whole or even set up an internet tax while keeping an straight face. (Just see the plan in Oregon to impose a mileage tax because gas doesn't yield what it used to). And, yes, they'll be able to set up any censorship they want once the system is widespread. Pr0n, "fascism", "communism", "terrorism", "how to make thermite" ... you name it and it may be censored.
I agree. I've seen many standalone Media Players with huge hard drives that go straight to the tv and have just a remote control. They look cute and are cheap, but the main flaws is the lack of upgradeability (most are made by chinese one-product-per-brand-and-disappear companies) with no way of accepting new codecs such as FLAC, APE, Matroska, etc.
Also most of them can't accept discs.
The other strange flaw is that most have only a stereo output and digital sound. We can buy decent 5.1 speakers from logitech or creative for less than $90, but they have no decoder. I can connect the 5 inputs to almost any AC97 mainboard or a cheap 7.1-capable sound card. But I need a decoder (which costs much more) to connect them to the standalone Media Center. 5.1 speakers with built-in decoders cost in the range of the $300, so the saving goes away.
Myself, I have turned a laptop bricked by its battery into a Media center using MediaPortal. For some reason, XBMC won't get past the start screen in it. I have installed every codec I need and connect the speakers through the Audigy 2ZS Notebook I already had. I wanted to use Myth, but I was unable to set up the built-in ATI to manage the S-Video as a secondary screen. Linux support for NVidia is much better.
Errata: It's voters, not voter's.
FYI: I'm not from the US. I'm a doctor in Spain, and I know exactly what I'm talking about.
I know exactly what kind of things we're told to HIDE AWAY from the public. I know what policies are to be enforced silently.
Right now the spanish government is backing a doctor that euthanasized hundreds at a public hospital without asking them or their families.
Do you really think states are that transparent? Do you really think the voter's can't be driven around like cattle? Here a single terrorist attack turned an election around.
The distortion imposed by a free-for-all medical attention is huge. The only thing that drives people away from the free and state-run health system is plain desperation and unsatisfaction over the waiting times (desperation and unsatisfaction we, the workers, must deal with alone). And if the state has money problems (I've seen the SS go bankrupt in my homecountry, which is not Spain) it's a catastrophe because the affected people are still charged for SS but get no service and have less money left for the private one. Here in Spain, many aids and subsides have been put on hold because of the crisis. How long till it happens to healthcare?
As I stated above: I'm a doctor in the spanish health system. Thanks.
Yes. That happens when mandatory car/house/health insurance is imposed upon the citizens by the government. The insurance industry has a monopoly enforced by the government. Nothing new or free here.
Have a cold? Forget Excedrin, go to a doctor because it goes on the insurer (and back to you).
Also in the US health prices skyrocket because doctors ask for lots of things in order to cover their backs against (most times absurd) litigation. And, yes, 30% or more of their (huge) earnings go to litigation insurance.
Did ADHD keep you from reading what happens next, once the "free" system gets a critical mass and everyone that currently has internet goes the "free" way?
As a matter of fact, I'm a doctor in Spain. And the system is just like what I've described in the GP.
Most of the population, as well as foreigners, use the system because it's "free for all". The word free means nothing when I come to think of the kind of insurance plans I could pay with the money they eat from my payroll each month.
It's true you won't be left for dead if you cannot pay, but for those that aren't in risk of death the waiting lists become longer and longer as everyone wants to enjoy his share of healthcare and the system collapses.
For many illnesses people cannot afford private practice (because it's scarce enough and has good paying customers) but cannot wait forever either. I see that drama every day. And what does the state do? Easy: throw it on our backs.
And to top it off, the now leftist government is pushing a really agressive agenda on euthanasia-no-questions-asked that most people fear will not be aimed at the wishes of the patients but the budget of the system. The draconian tobacco laws in Europe (I don't smoke, BTW) were put in place only to spare on social healthcare costs. Not to talk about countries like Cuba (been there, also) where every citizen can be a guinea pig.
Free nationwide internet access would be just like what happens with free nationwide health service.
At first it works fine and takes only a tiny bit of our taxes, then it grows in size (and squares in budget) as more and more people leave their paid service for the free one: after all, they're paying for it as well.
Then comes the time when almost the whole service is in the hands of the state. It takes up a huge budget and a proportionate bite of our taxes. It works so that nobody is left unconnected, but not much more. The state mandates what can it be used for and what not. It sets up any filter it likes (of course, filters will only grow). Privacy is nixed.
But, hey, almost everybody is hooked up to STATENET because nobody can compete with it. Only those that can afford paying double get a quality (and expensive) internet service.
in business, there is NOTHING more important than keeping your customers.
Yes, there is: making new ones.
In a communist state, there's no industry that's not run by the state. And they replace "the nation" and religion with "the regime" or "the party".
So, in communism people are either workers or leaders. There's no in-between, but when in the USSR a scapegoat was needed, the leaders used to blame the bureaucrats.
The most important thing in communism is that THERE'S NO PRIVATE PROPERTY (of course the leaders and their friends enjoy the best of the "public stuff").
Fascism is an in-between state that's got a lot to do with socialism. Very tight control of peoples' lives, very high taxes and industry allowed only to allies of the regime. In fascism THERE'S PRIVATE PROPERTY but there's almost nothing that prevents the state to take it away. A hardcore socialist regime allows itself to do the same "for social purporses".
Fascism is very nationalist in exclusive terms, as in race, ethnicity, culture, language or religion that sets the fascist country apart (and above, according to them) from the rest of the world.
Communism and socialism both use inclusive terms in that everybody's welcome (or forced in) as long as they praise their system and their party.
Both fascism and communism have no regard for human rights, as they consider everyone as a replaceable part of a collective.
Also, both systems tend to sort the people in military terms. Most communist states have refered to the whole country as the "revolutionary army".
Where's the profit?
Ubuntu 8.04 installed fine, with all the eye candy on my ATI 3870.
Ubuntu's 8.10 live CD, which chose to use the "open" ATI drivers instead of the former ones, gives me a black screen right after booting, which according to the monitor has to do with a resolution or frequency out of range.
I've found lots of people in forums with the same problem, not after booting up the harmless live CD but after agreeing to upgrade from their 8.04 installation. I'm sure many "victims" will abandon their Ubuntu boot and get back to windows after some hours of booting in-and-out of Ubuntu trying to fix that while reading forums under Windows.