The only "fair" tax is a poll tax. Any other tax is patently UNfair, because it means that some people must pay more or less than other people.
Also, the idea that one can calculate the marginal utility of income is laughable - since marginal utility is a purely subjective quality, there is no way it could be accurately used for tax calculation purposes. But if you don't understand that, hey, I'm probably wasting MY time talking to YOU.
Uh, WTF? Since when are cable companies representative of an "unregulated free market"? They are one of the MOST unfree markets, along with telecom, in existence!
The economy is not renewed by over-consumption. It does not get better by throwing things away and buying more. It is renewed by efficient production - that is, production that fulfills the most urgent wants and needs of the populace. The demand is totally natural - once our most urgent needs are met, our secondary needs and wants can be met. After that our tertiary needs and wants, our quaternary needs and wants, etc. My demand for a specific flavor of toothpaste only follows after I have already successfully fulfilled my other needs - food, shelter, and a toothbrush. It is not artificial...it is just what I can afford to focus on in a society of such wealth.
The unions in Hollywood suck. As someone who knows people on both sides of the situation - union members and film producers - I have heard little good about them. They are just a way to lock some people out of the industry, particularly the people who would help the industry the most - new talent. On both sides of the equation; try producing an indie film in Hollywood, you pretty much have to get non-union actors and a non-union crew, which enormously complicates things.
Unions inevitably lead to inefficiency everywhere they rise up, particularly in the creative industries. Hollywood still does well because people still want entertainment - it works DESPITE the unions, not because of them. I don't like exclusivity schemes of any kind, just for the sake of making a buck. That is the way the lives and dreams of many are crushed. If anyone in the software industry here wants to unionize, they can count me out - and you can be damn sure I'll be moving to a Right To Work state.
I wonder how the software industry climate in New Hampshire is this time of year...
Great, now we have to listen to computers do karaoke too?
I guess cheating at Karaoke Revolution is a cynch now, though. Just hold the mic up to your speaker. And a plus - I don't have to hear people wailing in the next room! Well, not as much, anyway.
Just because it's out of stock NOW doesn't mean it won't be in stock soon. They just came out. I believe that's what the "(ETA1/27/2004)" under the "In Stock: NO" means. That they're estimated to be in stock by tomorrow or so.
The ones they pick in the end seem rather expensive relative to what I am used to, and none of them are toolless (boo!), but they do look pretty. *shrug* Tom's is usually a good resource for reviews in my experience.
Brushed Metal == ugh
on
Jaguar is Over
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Am I the only one who doesn't like the iTunes/Safari/etc. "Brushed Metal" look? And now they're doing it to the beautiful Finder? I can't imagine that I'm the only one who thinks it looks significantly less pretty than the simpler white look. The dark gray is just too intrusive and distracting, and it just doesn't LOOK as nice. I mean, here..
I was actually *in* a line of posters (and magazine ads) for MSC.Linux which were handed out at LinuxWorld a bit over a year ago. You could actually order them online, but unfortunately you can not any longer (to my knowledge). If they have any extra they may send them to you if you ask, though; who knows.
Anyway, they were pictures of me sitting at a computer with various things going on in the background (a house burning down, a karate match, and a...ahem...beauty pagaent). I remained blissfully unaware of anything going on behind me, but just kept hacking. The caption said "Linux...when you're into it, you're into it."
Anyway. I also have a couple of really cool Linux posters I got at the Comdex before last at the Penguin Computing booth - one is Tux holding a Quak3 rocket launcher with the caption "Born To Frag", and the other is a Tux-shaped eclipse with the caption, "A Linux Eclipse of the Sun". They're both framed and very cool - but no place to hang them currently.
Alright. At the risk of sounding like a troll or a flamer, I'm going to ask what I do think many other people just asked when seeing this article:
Why?
Okay, okay. This has probably been covered in other Slashdot articles covering C#,.NET, etc. But for one thing, I do not see these things gaining a lot of acceptance in the open source community. There's the Mono project, but in my personal interaction with other OSS programmers, they agree this is a Bad Idea.
Alright, I'll spare you the rants and reasons on the subject - you've heard them all before - but my point is here is not necessarily my own beliefs and opinions on the C#/.NET situation. My point is that this is something that _most_ of us (in my experience) are rejecting outright. I think Miguel de Icaza is crazy for spouting pro-.NET rhetoric in the GNOME project when there's such a clear lack of support of most of his community, and this Qt thing just doubles that across both desktop environments.
Am I totally out of line here? Will anyone _actually_ use this? Is there really a population of hackers out there who will be writing X apps with C#? Personally, I'm highly dubious about the whole thing. If you agree with me, reply. If you don't, reply. But flames can be filed in/dev/null.
I'm actually going to try to GAIN a little weight this holiday season. I'm the other side of the IT geek spectrum - the '90 pound weakling' syndrome, where I'm perpetually underweight. At least for now. I'm 6'2" tall and 140 lbs, which is about 30-40 pounds underweight for my height and build. And I'm not sure if that's ever going to change.
Now, for this, just eating mass amounts of food is probably not the right solution. I haven't seen a dietician about the situation, but I'm likely to get the exact same prescription as for the geeks of a more heavyset variety - eat healthy and exercise. *shrug* Honestly, what more can you actually do. Use the stupid "Massive Weight Gain" powders from the health food store?
Not all of Heinlein's books are about "Super Heroes". One of my favorites of his books was called Orphans of the Sky. Every character in this book had flaws, and almost every character grew in some way (unless they were too stubborn to do so).
Actually, it was not really a "book"; originally, it was a combination of two short stories published as a series in a pulp sci-fi magazine in the 40's. But it was excellent.
Orphans of the Sky is rather short (128 pages in my paperback here), but an excellent read which I highly recommend. My copy was published in 1965, and I can not find an ISBN on it, but after a short search I found hardcovers with ISBN 0399106138 at Half.com and barnesandnoble.com. Check out
www.addall.com for good book price comparisons.
This is a very sad event. I have read a few articles written by Mike Muuss, and, like many people on Slashdot, I use ping practically every single day. He will be sorely missed by the community.
If you hadn't noticed, Mike received the lifetime achievement award from USENIX in 1993.
Are you kidding? Of course they're tracking us! Major League Baseball has satellites in the sky watching our every move, I tell you...collecting their insidious marketing information.
Dogbert already invented No-Click Shopping in one Dilbert comic strip. As I recall, he said: "You'd better click on something or I'll send you some books." Okay, so it wasn't "Zero"-click shopping, but it's close enough. Though I agree that is a good patent. I urge you to file it with the patent bureau and see if it gets passed.
After all of these absolutely rediculous patents that have been filed, I say that it's high time that geeks across the country march on the U.S. patent office in D.C. and demand change. This is one picket that I would drive a few thousand miles across the country to attend. Well, Slashdotters? Anybody agree with me on this one?
At the very least, all of you need to send mail to (e-mail, snail mail, etc) or phone your representatives Washington about this. There obviously need to be serious changes to our patent office if these kinds of patents are being issued.
Slashdot Mirror
The only "fair" tax is a poll tax. Any other tax is patently UNfair, because it means that some people must pay more or less than other people.
Also, the idea that one can calculate the marginal utility of income is laughable - since marginal utility is a purely subjective quality, there is no way it could be accurately used for tax calculation purposes. But if you don't understand that, hey, I'm probably wasting MY time talking to YOU.
Uh, WTF? Since when are cable companies representative of an "unregulated free market"? They are one of the MOST unfree markets, along with telecom, in existence!
Wow. You just demonstrated perfectly the fallacy of the broken window. Congratulations.
The economy is not renewed by over-consumption. It does not get better by throwing things away and buying more. It is renewed by efficient production - that is, production that fulfills the most urgent wants and needs of the populace. The demand is totally natural - once our most urgent needs are met, our secondary needs and wants can be met. After that our tertiary needs and wants, our quaternary needs and wants, etc. My demand for a specific flavor of toothpaste only follows after I have already successfully fulfilled my other needs - food, shelter, and a toothbrush. It is not artificial...it is just what I can afford to focus on in a society of such wealth.
The unions in Hollywood suck. As someone who knows people on both sides of the situation - union members and film producers - I have heard little good about them. They are just a way to lock some people out of the industry, particularly the people who would help the industry the most - new talent. On both sides of the equation; try producing an indie film in Hollywood, you pretty much have to get non-union actors and a non-union crew, which enormously complicates things.
Unions inevitably lead to inefficiency everywhere they rise up, particularly in the creative industries. Hollywood still does well because people still want entertainment - it works DESPITE the unions, not because of them. I don't like exclusivity schemes of any kind, just for the sake of making a buck. That is the way the lives and dreams of many are crushed. If anyone in the software industry here wants to unionize, they can count me out - and you can be damn sure I'll be moving to a Right To Work state.
I wonder how the software industry climate in New Hampshire is this time of year...
Great, now we have to listen to computers do karaoke too?
I guess cheating at Karaoke Revolution is a cynch now, though. Just hold the mic up to your speaker. And a plus - I don't have to hear people wailing in the next room! Well, not as much, anyway.
Just because it's out of stock NOW doesn't mean it won't be in stock soon. They just came out. I believe that's what the "(ETA1/27/2004)" under the "In Stock: NO" means. That they're estimated to be in stock by tomorrow or so.
Does anyone have personal experience with these? They seem pretty cheap from Newegg, and I'd get a pair if I can get a positive review...
There's a decent review of 24 cases from Tom's Hardware:
x .h tml
http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20030428/inde
The ones they pick in the end seem rather expensive relative to what I am used to, and none of them are toolless (boo!), but they do look pretty. *shrug* Tom's is usually a good resource for reviews in my experience.
Am I the only one who doesn't like the iTunes/Safari/etc. "Brushed Metal" look? And now they're doing it to the beautiful Finder? I can't imagine that I'm the only one who thinks it looks significantly less pretty than the simpler white look. The dark gray is just too intrusive and distracting, and it just doesn't LOOK as nice. I mean, here..
r -1 1-med.jpg
http://www.studio2f.com/misc/images/1946sPanthe
Why is that better than this?:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/jaguar/finder.html
I ask you. Am I alone here?
I was actually *in* a line of posters (and magazine ads) for MSC.Linux which were handed out at LinuxWorld a bit over a year ago. You could actually order them online, but unfortunately you can not any longer (to my knowledge). If they have any extra they may send them to you if you ask, though; who knows.
Anyway, they were pictures of me sitting at a computer with various things going on in the background (a house burning down, a karate match, and a...ahem...beauty pagaent). I remained blissfully unaware of anything going on behind me, but just kept hacking. The caption said "Linux...when you're into it, you're into it."
Anyway. I also have a couple of really cool Linux posters I got at the Comdex before last at the Penguin Computing booth - one is Tux holding a Quak3 rocket launcher with the caption "Born To Frag", and the other is a Tux-shaped eclipse with the caption, "A Linux Eclipse of the Sun". They're both framed and very cool - but no place to hang them currently.
--Garthnak
Alright. At the risk of sounding like a troll or a flamer, I'm going to ask what I do think many other people just asked when seeing this article:
.NET, etc. But for one thing, I do not see these things gaining a lot of acceptance in the open source community. There's the Mono project, but in my personal interaction with other OSS programmers, they agree this is a Bad Idea.
/dev/null.
Why?
Okay, okay. This has probably been covered in other Slashdot articles covering C#,
Alright, I'll spare you the rants and reasons on the subject - you've heard them all before - but my point is here is not necessarily my own beliefs and opinions on the C#/.NET situation. My point is that this is something that _most_ of us (in my experience) are rejecting outright. I think Miguel de Icaza is crazy for spouting pro-.NET rhetoric in the GNOME project when there's such a clear lack of support of most of his community, and this Qt thing just doubles that across both desktop environments.
Am I totally out of line here? Will anyone _actually_ use this? Is there really a population of hackers out there who will be writing X apps with C#? Personally, I'm highly dubious about the whole thing. If you agree with me, reply. If you don't, reply. But flames can be filed in
--Garthnak
I'm actually going to try to GAIN a little weight this holiday season. I'm the other side of the IT geek spectrum - the '90 pound weakling' syndrome, where I'm perpetually underweight. At least for now. I'm 6'2" tall and 140 lbs, which is about 30-40 pounds underweight for my height and build. And I'm not sure if that's ever going to change.
Now, for this, just eating mass amounts of food is probably not the right solution. I haven't seen a dietician about the situation, but I'm likely to get the exact same prescription as for the geeks of a more heavyset variety - eat healthy and exercise. *shrug* Honestly, what more can you actually do. Use the stupid "Massive Weight Gain" powders from the health food store?
--Garthnak
Actually, it was not really a "book"; originally, it was a combination of two short stories published as a series in a pulp sci-fi magazine in the 40's. But it was excellent.
Orphans of the Sky is rather short (128 pages in my paperback here), but an excellent read which I highly recommend. My copy was published in 1965, and I can not find an ISBN on it, but after a short search I found hardcovers with ISBN 0399106138 at Half.com and barnesandnoble.com. Check out www.addall.com for good book price comparisons.
--Garthnak
If you hadn't noticed, Mike received the lifetime achievement award from USENIX in 1993.
http://ftp.arl.army.mil/~mike/
--Garthnak
--Garthnak
Dogbert already invented No-Click Shopping in one Dilbert comic strip. As I recall, he said: "You'd better click on something or I'll send you some books." Okay, so it wasn't "Zero"-click shopping, but it's close enough. Though I agree that is a good patent. I urge you to file it with the patent bureau and see if it gets passed.
--Garthnak
At the very least, all of you need to send mail to (e-mail, snail mail, etc) or phone your representatives Washington about this. There obviously need to be serious changes to our patent office if these kinds of patents are being issued.
Very interesting article. Privacy is one of the most important issues on the internet today.