I did most of my CS MS degree at Luleå University and there were usually four or five English-only CS students from the states. Some courses were taught in English and most not, but apparently enough so that they could piece together a semester. For the most part they said they were pleased about the experience, but then they may just all have been polite save for a few who didn't like it one bit.
Here in southern Kansas, I haven't exactly seen acorns (though it's not like I see many anyhow usually) but the past two years, this year in particular, we've been swimming in squirrels. There are three or four in my tiny back yard (like 1/6 of an acre) at any given time helping themselves to some pears (which is a-ok with me, I have to many damn pears anyhow any they don't bother anything) and driving around you're virtually guaranteed to see several live and roadkill squirrels around the place. Not sure how much it has to do with the acorn problems, but while they go through this boom/bust cycle all the time this is one of the biggest "boom" years I've seen.
Give people their medical records. Digitally signed by the docs that made them so they're authentic if the medical system must. If people would like to store them at Google or host them anywhere else, great. Make a standard for appending and signing that makes some kind of sense, but that is general and will work with any storage system. How is sheets of paper being faxed/mailed between docs the best possible standard? The whole system is jive, adding storing it with Google might make it slightly less jive, actually fixing it would, well, fix it. The whole system is so antiquated it make POTS look like a good standard for sending audio, but so ingrained and unquestioned that it's just there.
One thing very conspicuously absent is "How much does a normal track get illegally spread per legal sale?". They say this one is ~50%. I don't know the biz. Is that good or bad? What is the expected (albeit unwanted I'm sure) figure for a top 100 album? To me, and perhaps it's only callousness, half of listeners doing it legally seems like a smash success. Are there really popular albums (and I'm not saying I listen to many of them) that actually can claim only half of the listeners are doing so illegally? I at least imagine that's a pretty good figure, but either way there should be data to compare to here - compare to what usually happens rather then to nothing.
If the US is or isn't allowed to sign trade agreements is an issue of much internal debate I'm sure. However, they indeed did and should honor it. It's not exactly "giving up sovereignty" but rather trading bits of sovereignty with others - codifying what restrictions the parties involved are allowed to put on import/export (including services). I'm not cut and dry on if that's a good deal to make, but for the most part the US sure didn't get the short end of this particular stick in most cases. Many other nations argue within about how it's killing them that their leaders have decided not to impose restrictions above certain degrees on the US, giving up a degree of control and protection of their local markets in exchange for reciprocation and I feel there is no particular difference, that's the deal that was cut. Sorry, but "it didn't turn out as well as we thought" is no excuse for backing out on what is, in essence, a contract. If the US intends to hold the high ground, even the very select parts that didn't turn out so well needs to be honored, not just the cash cows. Or, alternatively, an attempt needs to be made to renegotiate, perhaps sacrifice some of the more beneficial parts in exchange for forfeit on the not-so-perfect parts.
The gambling ban itself annoys me on a personal level, though it's not exactly effecting me as I don't gamble much (none at all recently) and if/when I do I have accounts outside the US that I'm certainly within my rights to use.
Ok, they jammed a USB frontend on the drive system. Good thinking, but not exactly revolutionary thinking - every cheapo device in the toy section seem to have a USB drive interface anymore (I'm only waiting for the first Happy Meal toy with a USB plug - "Experience vast adventures on your computer with the latest bid from Disney/Nick"). Should have always been that way, but good that it's getting that way now at least.
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I doubt all those "pause, up, down, left, x, down, right" cheats were exactly programming bugs.. All they're dropping is the pretense.
I did most of my CS MS degree at Luleå University and there were usually four or five English-only CS students from the states. Some courses were taught in English and most not, but apparently enough so that they could piece together a semester. For the most part they said they were pleased about the experience, but then they may just all have been polite save for a few who didn't like it one bit.
Here in southern Kansas, I haven't exactly seen acorns (though it's not like I see many anyhow usually) but the past two years, this year in particular, we've been swimming in squirrels. There are three or four in my tiny back yard (like 1/6 of an acre) at any given time helping themselves to some pears (which is a-ok with me, I have to many damn pears anyhow any they don't bother anything) and driving around you're virtually guaranteed to see several live and roadkill squirrels around the place. Not sure how much it has to do with the acorn problems, but while they go through this boom/bust cycle all the time this is one of the biggest "boom" years I've seen.
Give people their medical records. Digitally signed by the docs that made them so they're authentic if the medical system must. If people would like to store them at Google or host them anywhere else, great. Make a standard for appending and signing that makes some kind of sense, but that is general and will work with any storage system. How is sheets of paper being faxed/mailed between docs the best possible standard? The whole system is jive, adding storing it with Google might make it slightly less jive, actually fixing it would, well, fix it. The whole system is so antiquated it make POTS look like a good standard for sending audio, but so ingrained and unquestioned that it's just there.
One thing very conspicuously absent is "How much does a normal track get illegally spread per legal sale?". They say this one is ~50%. I don't know the biz. Is that good or bad? What is the expected (albeit unwanted I'm sure) figure for a top 100 album? To me, and perhaps it's only callousness, half of listeners doing it legally seems like a smash success. Are there really popular albums (and I'm not saying I listen to many of them) that actually can claim only half of the listeners are doing so illegally? I at least imagine that's a pretty good figure, but either way there should be data to compare to here - compare to what usually happens rather then to nothing.
If the US is or isn't allowed to sign trade agreements is an issue of much internal debate I'm sure. However, they indeed did and should honor it. It's not exactly "giving up sovereignty" but rather trading bits of sovereignty with others - codifying what restrictions the parties involved are allowed to put on import/export (including services). I'm not cut and dry on if that's a good deal to make, but for the most part the US sure didn't get the short end of this particular stick in most cases. Many other nations argue within about how it's killing them that their leaders have decided not to impose restrictions above certain degrees on the US, giving up a degree of control and protection of their local markets in exchange for reciprocation and I feel there is no particular difference, that's the deal that was cut. Sorry, but "it didn't turn out as well as we thought" is no excuse for backing out on what is, in essence, a contract. If the US intends to hold the high ground, even the very select parts that didn't turn out so well needs to be honored, not just the cash cows. Or, alternatively, an attempt needs to be made to renegotiate, perhaps sacrifice some of the more beneficial parts in exchange for forfeit on the not-so-perfect parts. The gambling ban itself annoys me on a personal level, though it's not exactly effecting me as I don't gamble much (none at all recently) and if/when I do I have accounts outside the US that I'm certainly within my rights to use.
Ok, they jammed a USB frontend on the drive system. Good thinking, but not exactly revolutionary thinking - every cheapo device in the toy section seem to have a USB drive interface anymore (I'm only waiting for the first Happy Meal toy with a USB plug - "Experience vast adventures on your computer with the latest bid from Disney/Nick"). Should have always been that way, but good that it's getting that way now at least.