They don't ever testify about the horrors of war, refuse to commit atrocities when ordered to do so, or have to deal with PTSD afterward.
Except these aren't robots - they're remote controlled. The controllers do see the horrors of war and can get PTSD even though their lives were not at risk. And ordering these remote controlled UAVs to commit atrocities seems like a way to make sure the court martial finds you guilty - their sensor input can probably be recorded for evidence.
If the company has an IM solution, such as IBM Lotus SameTime, you can measure gaps. Look for holes in user availability.
If I am available on work IM 8-5, then my workstation was up during that time. If I am on work IM 8-9:12 and 9:18-5, I probably had a six minute downtime.
Some records were started further back. If I buy something today, it's likely to be with a credit card and have a record. Fifty years ago, it would have been in cash, no record.
When my grandfather enlisted in the British Army to fight in WWII, there was a record of that. But was there a written record for every peasant who fought in Agincourt, for example?
I suspect that's a mirage, caused by only seeing the durable pieces of older cultures. We can see the Roman Colosseum. We cannot see, in most cases, the papyrus business contracts.
Some of our things, such as records, are very ephemeral. Others, such as satellites and nuclear waste, are very durable.
Most of our records would be worthless in a hundred years. Actually, most of them are nearly worthless in a year. Would it really matter to somebody in the future that I spend $15.19 on June 1st at Lulu.com, for example? Because record keeping is so cheap compared to historical examples, we keep a bunch of records nobody would have bothered with in the past.
Do many westerners know about those events as well?
Those events aren't as close to us - they're trivia questions whereas for Chinese it would be their history. How many people in the US know that the US liberated Kuwait from an Iraqi occupation in 1991, invaded Afghanistan after 9/11, and invaded Iraq in 2003? That is the equivalent question.
You're right. My point was that "freedom without restraint is no freedom at all" is incorrect. Restraint is necessary to preserve freedom in the long run.
The restraint level necessary to preserve Sony in the long run under this kind of management, though, would give us Stalin style freedom.
Internet users have become used to getting things when they want it and how they want it
Natural effect of Capitalism. If Sony's CEO would rather live in a Communist economy, I heard Cuba is still accepting immigrants. He might have to take a cut in salary and status, though.
No. Freedom without restraint means there's nothing stopping you from murdering me. By the same token, it means there is nothing to stop me from murdering you. Since you consider being murdered a bad outcome, the steps you'll take to reduce the likelihood of it would restrict your freedom - a lot more than having cops who'll arrest you if you murder me.
It's illegal to break into Sony's Web site. It's illegal to copy their material. But I don't recall any law giving potential theft victims a pre-emptive right to search vehicles for stolen goods. If Sony's CEO wants that, he's allowed to wish for it.
Remember, a corporation is a "legal person" so you can't punish an employee for obeying the will of the company.
No. The corporation's status as a legal person protects share holders. It does not protect employees of the corporation. If I charter the "Mafia Collection Agency" corporation and hire assassins, they can still be punished for murder.
In this particular case, an employee that receives the request from law enforcement has three possible actions:
1. Help, turn the phone on. 2. Ignore or delay the request. 3. Escalate to a supervisor.
#1 may or may not be possible to a customer support representative. #3 is an acceptable action.
The highest level that got a documented request and ignored it should be criminally liable. After a few mid level managers go to jail, nobody would be willing to ignore this type of request. Managers would make sure the CYA and send this up the chain until it got to somebody with common sense.
This is quite clearly not a Troll, but an informative reply. If the government offers its help by doing your health insurance, it makes sense it will then turn around and demand that you act in such a way the health insurance won't be too expensive.
Since Jim Baen isn't around any more, maybe Eric Flint could moderate.
Don't you think it would be better to have a moderator that is not committed to one specific position? Not to mention that Eric Flint would rather be in the debate than moderate it?
If I was a new author, I'd skip all the middlemen and just publish directly to the net. $1 per book downloaded.
How would I know it's worth reading? When Baen spends one of their six monthly distribution slots on a book, I have good reasons to think they think it's good.
Business travel is sometimes "fire fighting". There is a big problem, so the company flies in an expert to fix it (or at least diagnose and convince the customer a fix is forthcoming).
In this situation, being able to work on the problem remotely while in the air is a good thing.
Slashdot Mirror
They don't ever testify about the horrors of war, refuse to commit atrocities when ordered to do so, or have to deal with PTSD afterward.
Except these aren't robots - they're remote controlled. The controllers do see the horrors of war and can get PTSD even though their lives were not at risk. And ordering these remote controlled UAVs to commit atrocities seems like a way to make sure the court martial finds you guilty - their sensor input can probably be recorded for evidence.
Depends - how many armed Iranians are likely to switch allegiance?
Offer to arm the Iranian insurgency. The bad guys are already armed.
If the company has an IM solution, such as IBM Lotus SameTime, you can measure gaps. Look for holes in user availability.
If I am available on work IM 8-5, then my workstation was up during that time. If I am on work IM 8-9:12 and 9:18-5, I probably had a six minute downtime.
even if it is possible to evade the laws legally.
The responsibility is to comply with the law. Evading it legally is compling.
It is valuable in the aggregate, with representative examples. It is not valuable to keep all the details.
Some records were started further back. If I buy something today, it's likely to be with a credit card and have a record. Fifty years ago, it would have been in cash, no record.
When my grandfather enlisted in the British Army to fight in WWII, there was a record of that. But was there a written record for every peasant who fought in Agincourt, for example?
I suspect that's a mirage, caused by only seeing the durable pieces of older cultures. We can see the Roman Colosseum. We cannot see, in most cases, the papyrus business contracts.
Some of our things, such as records, are very ephemeral. Others, such as satellites and nuclear waste, are very durable.
Most of our records would be worthless in a hundred years. Actually, most of them are nearly worthless in a year. Would it really matter to somebody in the future that I spend $15.19 on June 1st at Lulu.com, for example? Because record keeping is so cheap compared to historical examples, we keep a bunch of records nobody would have bothered with in the past.
Do many westerners know about those events as well?
Those events aren't as close to us - they're trivia questions whereas for Chinese it would be their history. How many people in the US know that the US liberated Kuwait from an Iraqi occupation in 1991, invaded Afghanistan after 9/11, and invaded Iraq in 2003? That is the equivalent question.
The natural effect of Capitalism is that people expect to get what they want, when and how they want it.
Baen provides e-books on terms that Internet Users(tm) seem to like. They've been very successful at selling them for $6 a book without DRM.
* Internet Users is a trademark of Microlith ;-)
Irresponsible people exist. We need a mechanism to restrain them.
You're right. My point was that "freedom without restraint is no freedom at all" is incorrect. Restraint is necessary to preserve freedom in the long run.
The restraint level necessary to preserve Sony in the long run under this kind of management, though, would give us Stalin style freedom.
Status, might be hard... how much lower can he go?
He has a full staff of "yes men" who tell him he's right all the time. People don't get to be this stupid without help.
How do you define "restraint"?
Internet users have become used to getting things when they want it and how they want it
Natural effect of Capitalism. If Sony's CEO would rather live in a Communist economy, I heard Cuba is still accepting immigrants. He might have to take a cut in salary and status, though.
No. Freedom without restraint means there's nothing stopping you from murdering me. By the same token, it means there is nothing to stop me from murdering you. Since you consider being murdered a bad outcome, the steps you'll take to reduce the likelihood of it would restrict your freedom - a lot more than having cops who'll arrest you if you murder me.
It's illegal to break into Sony's Web site. It's illegal to copy their material. But I don't recall any law giving potential theft victims a pre-emptive right to search vehicles for stolen goods. If Sony's CEO wants that, he's allowed to wish for it.
Remember, a corporation is a "legal person" so you can't punish an employee for obeying the will of the company.
No. The corporation's status as a legal person protects share holders. It does not protect employees of the corporation. If I charter the "Mafia Collection Agency" corporation and hire assassins, they can still be punished for murder.
In this particular case, an employee that receives the request from law enforcement has three possible actions:
1. Help, turn the phone on.
2. Ignore or delay the request.
3. Escalate to a supervisor.
#1 may or may not be possible to a customer support representative. #3 is an acceptable action.
The highest level that got a documented request and ignored it should be criminally liable. After a few mid level managers go to jail, nobody would be willing to ignore this type of request. Managers would make sure the CYA and send this up the chain until it got to somebody with common sense.
This is quite clearly not a Troll, but an informative reply. If the government offers its help by doing your health insurance, it makes sense it will then turn around and demand that you act in such a way the health insurance won't be too expensive.
It isn't about making people skinny, it's about paying for the additional medical costs incurred by obesity.
How is giving the state government money relevant? Does New York have socialized medicine?
Since Jim Baen isn't around any more, maybe Eric Flint could moderate.
Don't you think it would be better to have a moderator that is not committed to one specific position? Not to mention that Eric Flint would rather be in the debate than moderate it?
If I was a new author, I'd skip all the middlemen and just publish directly to the net. $1 per book downloaded.
How would I know it's worth reading? When Baen spends one of their six monthly distribution slots on a book, I have good reasons to think they think it's good.
Depends on the reason you're flying.
Business travel is sometimes "fire fighting". There is a big problem, so the company flies in an expert to fix it (or at least diagnose and convince the customer a fix is forthcoming).
In this situation, being able to work on the problem remotely while in the air is a good thing.
Senseless violence is against the basic principal of civilization.
True. Militaries are all about sensible violence. That's part of the reason they emphasize discipline so much.
If they truly taught senseless violence as a value, you'd see a much higher rate of veterans become criminals.
Yes "I'm sorry we didn't prevent the Islamic revolution in 1979".