Person of Interest is a great show. The first couple of seasons, builds the characters, but most of the episodes are standalone, and don't add to the story. Somewhere around the middle of season 2, it started getting into story mode, and by the third season, it really started coming into its own, and only got better from that point on. Great show, great acting, and one of the best portrayals of all the pros and cons of the AI and Big Brother world we are heading into
Oh AT&T, you could've had me as a life long customer. I only use a reasonable amount of data, but the allure of my unlimited plan would have kept me bound to you for life. Instead you are pricing out your most loyal customers. Once the limited data plans becomes more price competitive than than the grandfathered unlimited plan for the amount of data I typically use, I will certainly be evaluating all options open to me.. And I may choose Verizon for better service or TMobile for better international roaming and more/unlimited data.
Imagine a series of cameras on the outer tubes. As the capsule passes the tube the image on the LCD shows a frame from the camera directly outside the capsule. At the capsules cruising speed, you could space the camera's appropriately to produce a very smooth video of the outside.
It's more complicated than that. There is lot of inertia for existing users and applications to move to a new standard. Sometimes there are very good practical reasons why this is the case. If there is a critical mass of users/applications that are on the old standard, it will remain a standard and continue to develop, even if the new one is better/more complete. This very often explains how you got to 14 competing standards to begin with..
This.. People often miss the ground realities when proposing "simple" solutions.
So, a little bit of reality here...
In India, what we take for granted as a "background check" is actually not possible. While here in the US we have a massive database called NCIC (which is really the name of the organization that runs it, but everyone calls it NCIC anyways) there's not really such a clearinghouse in India. The individual municipalities keep their own records...often on paper...about past crimes, but there's no centralized source where you can go and check. As a result, "background checks" basically don't exist, because they are exercises in futility unless you're looking to check on a specific event related to a person.
Now, to be 100% accurate, I will say that India did just recently create a centralized database, a year ago I believe. But the database is barely getting any input at all at this point. And on top of that, fake documentation is really easy to obtain in India, there's a lot of corruption...there's a larger systemic issue with just being able to take someone's unique identifying information and do a "background check" to make sure they haven't been convicted of raping a whole school or something in the past.
I've run into this before, with regard to situations where certain kinds of business processes and information handling couldn't be outsourced because of regulatory requirements for background checks, but I also found an interesting analysis that is in the context of this situation with Uber: http://qz.com/308888/the-secre...
Not disputing the exploitation in individual cases, or even as an aggregate. But that isn't what the OP is claiming. Since he mentioned "bill cheaper to your customers" he implied that it is common place for companies to price out their services based on immigration status of the workers, rather than skill or experience level. ie. By his logic invoices would be provided as follows.. "We can provide xx services for a) $20 - US citizen, b) $15 Green card holders c) $10 H1B from India or d) $0 Slave labor
It's obvious to pretty much everyone that a fleet of off-shore or H1B programmers bill cheaper to your customer than supplying them with actual citizens who can do the same job.
That's common sense.
Why? Unless discrimination is in some way common sense, I don't get it. The actual country of citizenship shouldn't effect how much someone gets paid/billed? How does this "common sense" logic apply to legal residents (green card holders) who are neither US citizens, nor H1B's?
Since you expect to have wage discrimination purely based on country of citizenship, I wonder what you think is the right price is for a labor force from a certain continent below Europe? hmm.. I wonder if you think it should be zero - That would surely explain the rest of your "common sense" logic.
WABC7 loses negotiating power with existing cable companies. The big barrier to entry in the cable industry is distribution. You either need cables - usually most neighborhoods are wired for a single cable, or you needs satellites/dishes. This lowers the barrier to entry to just about anyone - not just Aerero.
Currently if WABC7 disagrees with Comcast over some negotiation, and it withholds distribution to ABC, or ESPN, Comcast will end up with a lot of very angry customers - which gives WABC7 tremendous power during negotiations.
Conversely - competition will drive down prices across the board, reducing Comcast's ability to pay WABC7's rates.
Ultimately there will be room for both, since the cable companies own the pipes, and there are advantages to having TV be independent of internet, but this will level the playing field significantly - Think of what the low cost airline industry did to aviation.
The Comcast - NBC - TWC merger is a strategic play to get ahead of precisely this scenario.
Manhattan real estate is crazy. While a doorman does have a premium, in general the neighborhood and address matters much more to the price/wealth of the residents than amenities like a doorman. A an apartment in a crappy 5th floor walk-up building in the west village will be worth far more than a doorman building on the far upper east side. On the flip side, since doormen buildings in the West Village are scarce, they do have a huge premium over non doorman buildings in the same neighborhood.
Also being a doorman building is usually the result of decisions usually made 30-50-100 years ago, and these are not easily reversible regardless how rich/poor the current residents are.
It is Pen + Paper, but everything written down is also digitized, searchable, synced to evernote etc. The pen is also a time synced voice recorder. When you go back to your notes (if you recorded the audio), you can tap on any word, and the audio corresponding to that point in time will start playing. You can now even start taking additional notes as the audio is playing. This can simplify your note taking to mostly just marking bookmarks, and noting your own thoughts, instead of transcribing what is being said.
While the paper is proprietary, the cost is quite reasonable, and it is possible (fully supported by Livescribe) to print your own. They are not operating on a Razor/Cartridge business model.
If you do not need wifi sync, you can get the Echo pen for really cheap, Look for the refurbished 4GB or 8GB Echo pens on the Livescribe site.
If a gesture to produce a result can be patented "Pinch to Zoom", maybe I should then patent the following.
* Swallow pill to cure: Every orally delivered medicine, past and future now owes me big time
* Push button to Switch on: Every device in existence will now have to invent a new gesture to switch itself on.
* Click button to Submit: Most websites and applications..
* Pull handle to open: All doors.
This isn't about prior art, it is about what is patentable: The implementation (invention) or the gesture to interact with the implementation.
Easiest way to get started is to build web apps in Javascript built on Google spreadsheets (Google Script). All you need is a web browser, and access to Google Drive.
Go to Google Drive, create a spreadsheet. In your spreadsheet, go to Tools/Script Editor. This will open a web based editor in your browser, and you can start programming. Click on Publish/Deploy as a web app, and now you're set. Build anything from simple functions used within your spreadsheet to full fledged web apps with a user interface. Easy as pie.
The pretty good book on Google Script will get you started in no time.
Maybe the person was really lynching the guy wearing flip flops, who just happened to be black! Would his crime be any less if he had lynched a white guy wearing flip flops?
Should a completely secular serial killer be let off easy, simply because "hey, at least he/she didn't target a specific group"?
Do the police not protect black people? Do the courts refuse to take on cases against black people?
If black people do feel more insecure, maybe we should be fixing these issues first, instead of making examples out of others.
Understanding the law, and whether an action violates it, should not require a history lesson. Assaulting someone, (or any other action) should either be an offence or not. Whether the victims (or perpetrators) ancestors suffered some injustice shouldn't affect the criminality of the action or it's punishment.
Hate crimes are essentially "thought crimes" + some "action".
Thought crimes on their own are specifically protected and considered an essential part of liberty and freedom, and this country has enshrined that in our freedom of speech laws. It follows that the criminality (and punishment) of the "action", should not be affected by the thought behind it.
In some countries (India) committing suicide is a crime in itself. (I guess you can only be prosecuted if the attempt fails). But it does reinforce the idea that suicide is the problem not a solution.
It also means variable salary, which is also a useful tool to LOWER someones effective salary, when either they (or the firm) does not do well. You see, if your salary cannot be lowered, then you will only work so hard as to not get fired. Working any harder is a complete waste of effort.
Peter Gibbons: The thing is, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care.
Bob Porter: Don't... don't care?
Peter Gibbons: It's a problem of motivation, all right? Now if I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime, so where's the motivation? And here's something else, Bob: I have eight different bosses right now.
Bob Slydell: I beg your pardon?
Peter Gibbons: Eight bosses.
Bob Slydell: Eight?
Peter Gibbons: Eight, Bob. So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.
Wish I had mod points.. but very true..
Language tricks and knowledge can be learnt. Solving brain teasers can be hit or miss. Being able to objectively evaluate multiple options and see the trade off's of each and apply them to find the optimal approach for the given situation is an invaluable skill and something that is not easily acquired. I have seen too many cases where people get through the interviews based on their knowledge of the platform or programming language, but are absolutely horrible in reality, since their code always has "issues" even if it solves the task at hand, because they never put it in context of the larger picture/system.
Another critical skill is being able to write clean, structured code. I've seen too many "bad hires" because the code they do write once hired is a complete unmaintainable mess.
This is not "before price change" vs "after price change"..
This is "earlier projections for after price change" vs "new reality based projections for after price change"
An important distinction because we do not know the break down of numbers before the price change announcement.
Also for everyone running the math assuming everyone was on the $11 option, there were a very large number of early subscribers who were on netflixes $20 3 DVD (or 2 DVD with Blu Ray) plans who decided DVD's were just not worth it, and decided to downgrade to the $8 plan.
It would be interesting to compare the average revenue per customer is before and after the announcement.
Slashdot Mirror
Person of Interest is a great show. The first couple of seasons, builds the characters, but most of the episodes are standalone, and don't add to the story. Somewhere around the middle of season 2, it started getting into story mode, and by the third season, it really started coming into its own, and only got better from that point on. Great show, great acting, and one of the best portrayals of all the pros and cons of the AI and Big Brother world we are heading into
Awesome show.. Up there with Arrested Development
Oh AT&T, you could've had me as a life long customer. I only use a reasonable amount of data, but the allure of my unlimited plan would have kept me bound to you for life. Instead you are pricing out your most loyal customers. Once the limited data plans becomes more price competitive than than the grandfathered unlimited plan for the amount of data I typically use, I will certainly be evaluating all options open to me.. And I may choose Verizon for better service or TMobile for better international roaming and more/unlimited data.
Imagine a series of cameras on the outer tubes. As the capsule passes the tube the image on the LCD shows a frame from the camera directly outside the capsule. At the capsules cruising speed, you could space the camera's appropriately to produce a very smooth video of the outside.
It's more complicated than that. There is lot of inertia for existing users and applications to move to a new standard. Sometimes there are very good practical reasons why this is the case. If there is a critical mass of users/applications that are on the old standard, it will remain a standard and continue to develop, even if the new one is better/more complete. This very often explains how you got to 14 competing standards to begin with..
So, a little bit of reality here...
In India, what we take for granted as a "background check" is actually not possible. While here in the US we have a massive database called NCIC (which is really the name of the organization that runs it, but everyone calls it NCIC anyways) there's not really such a clearinghouse in India. The individual municipalities keep their own records...often on paper...about past crimes, but there's no centralized source where you can go and check. As a result, "background checks" basically don't exist, because they are exercises in futility unless you're looking to check on a specific event related to a person.
Now, to be 100% accurate, I will say that India did just recently create a centralized database, a year ago I believe. But the database is barely getting any input at all at this point. And on top of that, fake documentation is really easy to obtain in India, there's a lot of corruption...there's a larger systemic issue with just being able to take someone's unique identifying information and do a "background check" to make sure they haven't been convicted of raping a whole school or something in the past.
I've run into this before, with regard to situations where certain kinds of business processes and information handling couldn't be outsourced because of regulatory requirements for background checks, but I also found an interesting analysis that is in the context of this situation with Uber: http://qz.com/308888/the-secre...
Lol
Not disputing the exploitation in individual cases, or even as an aggregate. But that isn't what the OP is claiming. Since he mentioned "bill cheaper to your customers" he implied that it is common place for companies to price out their services based on immigration status of the workers, rather than skill or experience level. ie. By his logic invoices would be provided as follows.. "We can provide xx services for a) $20 - US citizen, b) $15 Green card holders c) $10 H1B from India or d) $0 Slave labor
It's obvious to pretty much everyone that a fleet of off-shore or H1B programmers bill cheaper to your customer than supplying them with actual citizens who can do the same job.
That's common sense.
Why? Unless discrimination is in some way common sense, I don't get it. The actual country of citizenship shouldn't effect how much someone gets paid/billed? How does this "common sense" logic apply to legal residents (green card holders) who are neither US citizens, nor H1B's?
Since you expect to have wage discrimination purely based on country of citizenship, I wonder what you think is the right price is for a labor force from a certain continent below Europe? hmm.. I wonder if you think it should be zero - That would surely explain the rest of your "common sense" logic.
WABC7 loses negotiating power with existing cable companies. The big barrier to entry in the cable industry is distribution. You either need cables - usually most neighborhoods are wired for a single cable, or you needs satellites/dishes. This lowers the barrier to entry to just about anyone - not just Aerero. Currently if WABC7 disagrees with Comcast over some negotiation, and it withholds distribution to ABC, or ESPN, Comcast will end up with a lot of very angry customers - which gives WABC7 tremendous power during negotiations.
Conversely - competition will drive down prices across the board, reducing Comcast's ability to pay WABC7's rates.
Ultimately there will be room for both, since the cable companies own the pipes, and there are advantages to having TV be independent of internet, but this will level the playing field significantly - Think of what the low cost airline industry did to aviation.
The Comcast - NBC - TWC merger is a strategic play to get ahead of precisely this scenario.
Manhattan real estate is crazy. While a doorman does have a premium, in general the neighborhood and address matters much more to the price/wealth of the residents than amenities like a doorman. A an apartment in a crappy 5th floor walk-up building in the west village will be worth far more than a doorman building on the far upper east side. On the flip side, since doormen buildings in the West Village are scarce, they do have a huge premium over non doorman buildings in the same neighborhood.
Also being a doorman building is usually the result of decisions usually made 30-50-100 years ago, and these are not easily reversible regardless how rich/poor the current residents are.
Lernstift looks interesting. No mention of audio though. I wonder if the motion sensor would be as precise as Livescribe's.
Livescribe. It's amazing. (http://www.livescribe.com/en-us/)
It is Pen + Paper, but everything written down is also digitized, searchable, synced to evernote etc. The pen is also a time synced voice recorder. When you go back to your notes (if you recorded the audio), you can tap on any word, and the audio corresponding to that point in time will start playing. You can now even start taking additional notes as the audio is playing. This can simplify your note taking to mostly just marking bookmarks, and noting your own thoughts, instead of transcribing what is being said.
While the paper is proprietary, the cost is quite reasonable, and it is possible (fully supported by Livescribe) to print your own. They are not operating on a Razor/Cartridge business model.
If you do not need wifi sync, you can get the Echo pen for really cheap, Look for the refurbished 4GB or 8GB Echo pens on the Livescribe site.
Would mod you up if I had points..
If a gesture to produce a result can be patented "Pinch to Zoom", maybe I should then patent the following.
* Swallow pill to cure: Every orally delivered medicine, past and future now owes me big time
* Push button to Switch on: Every device in existence will now have to invent a new gesture to switch itself on.
* Click button to Submit: Most websites and applications..
* Pull handle to open: All doors.
This isn't about prior art, it is about what is patentable: The implementation (invention) or the gesture to interact with the implementation.
Sony Rootkit anyone?
Easiest way to get started is to build web apps in Javascript built on Google spreadsheets (Google Script). All you need is a web browser, and access to Google Drive.
Go to Google Drive, create a spreadsheet. In your spreadsheet, go to Tools/Script Editor. This will open a web based editor in your browser, and you can start programming. Click on Publish/Deploy as a web app, and now you're set. Build anything from simple functions used within your spreadsheet to full fledged web apps with a user interface. Easy as pie.
The pretty good book on Google Script will get you started in no time.
Maybe the person was really lynching the guy wearing flip flops, who just happened to be black! Would his crime be any less if he had lynched a white guy wearing flip flops?
Should a completely secular serial killer be let off easy, simply because "hey, at least he/she didn't target a specific group"?
Do the police not protect black people? Do the courts refuse to take on cases against black people?
If black people do feel more insecure, maybe we should be fixing these issues first, instead of making examples out of others.
Understanding the law, and whether an action violates it, should not require a history lesson. Assaulting someone, (or any other action) should either be an offence or not. Whether the victims (or perpetrators) ancestors suffered some injustice shouldn't affect the criminality of the action or it's punishment.
Hate crimes are essentially "thought crimes" + some "action".
Thought crimes on their own are specifically protected and considered an essential part of liberty and freedom, and this country has enshrined that in our freedom of speech laws. It follows that the criminality (and punishment) of the "action", should not be affected by the thought behind it.
In some countries (India) committing suicide is a crime in itself. (I guess you can only be prosecuted if the attempt fails). But it does reinforce the idea that suicide is the problem not a solution.
He did?
Microsoft Office
It also means variable salary, which is also a useful tool to LOWER someones effective salary, when either they (or the firm) does not do well. You see, if your salary cannot be lowered, then you will only work so hard as to not get fired. Working any harder is a complete waste of effort.
Peter Gibbons: The thing is, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care.
Bob Porter: Don't... don't care?
Peter Gibbons: It's a problem of motivation, all right? Now if I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime, so where's the motivation? And here's something else, Bob: I have eight different bosses right now.
Bob Slydell: I beg your pardon?
Peter Gibbons: Eight bosses.
Bob Slydell: Eight?
Peter Gibbons: Eight, Bob. So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.
Wish I had mod points.. but very true.. Language tricks and knowledge can be learnt. Solving brain teasers can be hit or miss. Being able to objectively evaluate multiple options and see the trade off's of each and apply them to find the optimal approach for the given situation is an invaluable skill and something that is not easily acquired. I have seen too many cases where people get through the interviews based on their knowledge of the platform or programming language, but are absolutely horrible in reality, since their code always has "issues" even if it solves the task at hand, because they never put it in context of the larger picture/system. Another critical skill is being able to write clean, structured code. I've seen too many "bad hires" because the code they do write once hired is a complete unmaintainable mess.
This is not "before price change" vs "after price change".. This is "earlier projections for after price change" vs "new reality based projections for after price change" An important distinction because we do not know the break down of numbers before the price change announcement. Also for everyone running the math assuming everyone was on the $11 option, there were a very large number of early subscribers who were on netflixes $20 3 DVD (or 2 DVD with Blu Ray) plans who decided DVD's were just not worth it, and decided to downgrade to the $8 plan. It would be interesting to compare the average revenue per customer is before and after the announcement.