The greatest threat to world peace is and has been the USA. Sure, the US isn't going around blowing up its own people, instead it prefers to play drone target-practice with civilians in Pakistan, create mass chaos if people grow plants (drug wars) and invade other countries just for the hell of it (Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.). While undoubtedly Islamic dictators are bad people, I wouldn't say that they're the biggest threat to world peace since most of their brutality starts and ends within their own country while the US has managed to screw up peace in several regions by trying to act like the world's policeman.
Except that Apple has historically never been one to sacrifice profit/(perceptions of) quality for marketshare.
Aside from the iPod and the iPhone, Apple has never really been the most used. Certainly they have historically been in some niche applications (graphic design and publishing come to mind) but they've never been the "mainstream" computer brand. They've managed to always keep a solid enough marketshare to make sure that they get supported, but aside from the iPhone and iPod, they've historically never been number one, nor seemed to have any interest in total marketshare domination.
Apple's iPod lineup keeps getting stranger year after year.
First the strange design changes for the nano (went from being basically a better mini to a tiny squashed one, back to being tall, then adding a camera, then taking away the camera, and video playback adding a touchscreen and making it squashed, now making it look like a smaller iPod touch) and now the removal of one of the cameras on the touch for the same price-point as one -with- the cameras (smaller storage on the previous generation, but with flash becoming cheaper and cheaper every year that should be expected)
Planet Asia, where 85% of the world's insane laws come from.
Also where they have a tight control of the nation's internet, China style and so if they don't like what you're posting, a few edits in a text file later, and *poof* you're site is as good as gone to anyone browsing the web in Singapore.
Except when you're Singapore and will just simply block the websites they don't want.
Singapore is still a very important trade area even though it seems to suffer from the curse of ridiculous laws that seem to be prevalent in Asia (seriously, why can't there be a country with the freedom of business of Singapore/Hong Kong but with unrestricted personal freedoms?).
If Singapore doesn't like your site, they will either try to extort money from you (like what they did to the Wall Street Journal) or simply block your site from being accessed in Singapore. Since Singapore has one of the highest GDP per-capita in the world, many news outlets will play nice (and pay their extortion fees) rather than miss out on on a large economy.
Yeah, because the fact that I'm typing this on Opera on Windows 7 shows that I'm a F/OSS zealot...
You can't have some big conspiracy when it comes to open standards and open source programs. Claiming that there MUST be some sort of malicious thing lurking in the program is completely unfounded because Bitcoin is open. Its counter-productive to claim a conspiracy when one does not exist and if you think one exists, you can look in the source yourself and see if it does exist.
...Which is what Liberty Reserve was trying to do, let you turn USD to a digital currency.
The US's "money laundering" regulations either make you have to refuse US customers (which is what most foreign banks do) or invade the privacy of your customers. There is no way to respect the privacy of your customers and take US customers. Its not about money laundering, its about control.
Preventing money laundering does not mean you have to go to the extremes that the US government requires. The only reason you'd need all the information that the US government requires is if you were trying to prevent people from exiting the USD. Its about control, not crime.
Any time you see money laundering and digital currencies you should think that the entire thing should be bogus.
The US government thinks that it needs to be able to spy on anyone's account, for any reason, at any time and if you don't agree to violate your customer's privacy you're aiding *insert scare-word of the day*.
I'm imagining that the US government is scared at its increasing financial irrelevance in the digital world. The US Dollar, currently the backbone of most financial transactions is in jeopardy. Digital, open currencies such as Bitcoin provide a transparent look at monetary policy and potentially can have more stability when compared to the US dollar which has the monetary policy of "whatever the hell Bernake thinks is best" and hard money like gold and silver make very good stores of wealth that cannot be devalued by printing.
Now, the total collapse of the US dollar is likely to be delayed because out of the major currencies (USD, Yen, Euro, Sterling) the USD looks to be the one in least jeopardy, but fiat currencies have a 100% rate of failure and its likely that the multitude of better currencies will hasten the end of the USD.
...Except everything with Bitcoin is open. Think there's something shady going on? Look at the source yourself! This isn't some ultra-secret proprietary blob where no one has a clue what's happening, its a well-documented, open ecosystem where anyone can understand how it works.
It seems like the US is trying to do everything in its power to stop people from exiting the USD.
The question is, what isn't the government telling the public? According to their official numbers, inflation is minimal, the currency is stable and the Fed's policies are helping the economy. On the other hand, their actions and the results are completely different.
If you don't mind paying taxes, then why not simply abolish taxation and then you can voluntarily donate your money to the government?
If you derive a direct benefit from them, why don't you continue to pay your taxes (voluntarily) and let those of us who receive little to no benefit from them not pay them, instead of condoning violence to force people to pay for things that you want?
Good! Just renounce your citizenship in the US/Canada/UK/etc. and get a passport and citizenship in a place that actually -wants- you like Paraguay, The Dominican Republic, St. Kitts or Dominica, generally just takes some $$$$$ and/or time depending on what you want. Get a citizenship in one place, live in another and incorporate your business in a good jurisdiction with minimal regulations and next to no taxes and you can have a better life and never pay income tax again!
Of course a large corporation like Google is going to continue investing in the UK and the rest of western Europe no matter how silly their tax policies are. Corporations have a responsibility to turn a profit for their shareholders and walking away from a jurisdiction that might be slightly less profitable, but still profitable is certainly not in the best interests of Google's shareholders.
Parts of Yahoo can certainly survive and thrive, but the problem is, Yahoo has no cohesion when compared to Google/MS. Parts of Yahoo are actually quite good like Flickr, but then there's parts of Yahoo that are absolute crap when compared to Google and Microsoft's offerings such as their e-mail service.
Would I be willing to take a lower-paying job that I really loved when compared to a higher-paying job that I dreaded going to? Yes.
Having a flexible work environment is something that would keep me working for less of a paycheck and still be happy. On the other hand, a very restrictive work environment I'm really not going to like so I better have good pay.
"Free perks" do not mean that developers thrive, but a relaxed work environment (that costs next to nothing!) helps developers thrive. Flexible hours and a relaxed dress code (T-shirt, shorts and flip flops should be ok) cost nothing to implement but yet can really help tech-minded people thrive. The thing is, managers who understand how the "techie mind" work generally tend to go a bit overboard and include a bunch of other stuff too, which does help, but not to the same degree.
Bottom line, if you expect your IT people and developers to come in wearing suits from 9-5 and be "productive" for all those hours sitting quietly in a cubicle, you're going to have to pay your tech people a lot. On the other hand, if you can make going to work feel more like a hobby, more relaxed and more interesting, you can find people who will work for you for less.
Assuming the technology was there and that it worked flawless, it still has a key flaw, namely that a bad guy isn't always going to be the other person to pick up the weapon. What if your home gets broken into when you're not at home? Wouldn't you want your spouse or your child to be able to defend themselves? What if you were in some sort of hostage situation where the hostage-takers killed a security guard, wouldn't you want to be able to use that guard's gun?
Furthermore, it would encourage people to break the law to get fully functioning firearms. The same things that happen with electronic "piracy" would happen to guns, whenever the "system" is working to a degree that it doesn't make the product defective, a good chunk of the people will follow "the system", when an illegitimate product becomes superior is when more and more people start to break the system.
Yep, one of the great things is that even though the US and Western Europe have decided they don't want you being productive in their country, there are still countries out there that are much more free.
When compared to most of the other vendors, Google is easily the most open and easy to use no matter what your platform of choice is. So I really wouldn't call it an island, Apple is more of an island, if you use iCloud you can't use it on an Android phone, on the other hand, you can access Google Drive on nearly any platform imaginable.
Except having these great ideas don't matter unless they can be implemented, something that CIOs don't do.
The CIO saying we need to reduce downtime (or whatever the current buzzword is) doesn't really -do- much to affect quality. Gee, I thought having the servers go down for an hour every month was a good thing! Instead, the engineer who implements a way of preventing that monthly downtime has actually done something to boost quality.
There needs to be a bridge between the business side of things and the tech side of things, but in most companies that role is not filled by the CIO.
China has really only gone from poverty when they abandoned communism. Look at China during the pro-communism era (Cultural Revolution) where historical sites were desecrated, many were killed and starved, and political and religious freedoms were suppressed.
Compare that to Hong Kong which has been (mostly) capitalist under British rule and it was much more prosperous (and still is!) than the rest of China.
Yeah, because its going to be so easy to use something like that in a shooting rampage...
In a situation where there are other armed people, you want something that can just keep shooting, you'd just "spray and pray" something that this gun can't do. In something where you've got no chance of return fire (like in designated "gun free zones" like in Sandy Hook) it doesn't much matter because you can just walk up to someone and shoot them point blank if you want because they have no way to (effectively) defend themselves.
When it comes to kids, its important that kids learn at an early age to shoot responsibly. The problem is, too many kids get their first experience about firearms from Hollywood, from GTA and from rap music, rather than responsibly target shooting/hunting. The key is to teach them responsibility and facts, not that shooting a gun is a toy, nor that guns should be feared.
The only way that elections can change anything for the better is if the majority wants a better future. In the US (and most other countries if not all others!) this is not the case. Look at the statistics of people on welfare, disability, medicare, medicaid, food stamps, social security, etc. These people will naturally never vote against such measures and will instead vote for increases in such benefits (I mean, who wouldn't want more money if they didn't have to pay for it!). Now, look at the number of people who get their salary from stealing it from the rest of us (everyone in the military, public schools, state government, federal government, city government, county government, etc.) for these people, an increase in taxes is necessary for them to get a higher salary, thus they will vote to get a higher salary (as anyone else would).
Mix that in with people who simply don't vote, aren't informed, can't vote (due to them being under 18, or having their basic rights stripped away by government) and you've got a recipe for disaster.
You cannot vote your way out of tyranny when you have more people taking from the system than paying in.
Yeah, but I don't see anything good coming out of that (aside from the fact that its dramatically cut down on my target shooting because I can't seem to find any.22 bullets anywhere for a reasonable price, let alone reasonably priced.223 bullets for my AR, at least prices haven't gone up for my.416 Rigby...).
We've already passed the point of being a totalitarian state I'm afraid. The battle has already been lost. I mean,the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world, the supposedly "independent" IRS just got caught targeting opposition groups for extra auditing, and they seized the records of the AP.
So just to recap, we've got:
A sky high incarceration rate
A tax regime which targets the opposition
Numerous foreign wars that don't make us safer
A lack of a free press
Etc.
The war is lost. The drones are just the icing on the tyranny cake. The US has really reached the point of no return, instead of trying to change it, I think its time to get your ass and assets out of the control of the US.
If we are to have a government, its primary job should be for providing for the safety of its citizens, not creating "crimes" to milk for revenue. And an (unarmed!) drone can be used for both. A drone would be great for search and rescue operations, unfortunately, with the track record of government, it will most likely be used to help kidnap people for growing plants and for breaking arbitrary speed limits.
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The greatest threat to world peace is and has been the USA. Sure, the US isn't going around blowing up its own people, instead it prefers to play drone target-practice with civilians in Pakistan, create mass chaos if people grow plants (drug wars) and invade other countries just for the hell of it (Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.). While undoubtedly Islamic dictators are bad people, I wouldn't say that they're the biggest threat to world peace since most of their brutality starts and ends within their own country while the US has managed to screw up peace in several regions by trying to act like the world's policeman.
Except that Apple has historically never been one to sacrifice profit/(perceptions of) quality for marketshare.
Aside from the iPod and the iPhone, Apple has never really been the most used. Certainly they have historically been in some niche applications (graphic design and publishing come to mind) but they've never been the "mainstream" computer brand. They've managed to always keep a solid enough marketshare to make sure that they get supported, but aside from the iPhone and iPod, they've historically never been number one, nor seemed to have any interest in total marketshare domination.
Apple's iPod lineup keeps getting stranger year after year.
First the strange design changes for the nano (went from being basically a better mini to a tiny squashed one, back to being tall, then adding a camera, then taking away the camera, and video playback adding a touchscreen and making it squashed, now making it look like a smaller iPod touch) and now the removal of one of the cameras on the touch for the same price-point as one -with- the cameras (smaller storage on the previous generation, but with flash becoming cheaper and cheaper every year that should be expected)
Planet Asia, where 85% of the world's insane laws come from.
Also where they have a tight control of the nation's internet, China style and so if they don't like what you're posting, a few edits in a text file later, and *poof* you're site is as good as gone to anyone browsing the web in Singapore.
Except when you're Singapore and will just simply block the websites they don't want.
Singapore is still a very important trade area even though it seems to suffer from the curse of ridiculous laws that seem to be prevalent in Asia (seriously, why can't there be a country with the freedom of business of Singapore/Hong Kong but with unrestricted personal freedoms?).
If Singapore doesn't like your site, they will either try to extort money from you (like what they did to the Wall Street Journal) or simply block your site from being accessed in Singapore. Since Singapore has one of the highest GDP per-capita in the world, many news outlets will play nice (and pay their extortion fees) rather than miss out on on a large economy.
Yeah, because the fact that I'm typing this on Opera on Windows 7 shows that I'm a F/OSS zealot...
You can't have some big conspiracy when it comes to open standards and open source programs. Claiming that there MUST be some sort of malicious thing lurking in the program is completely unfounded because Bitcoin is open. Its counter-productive to claim a conspiracy when one does not exist and if you think one exists, you can look in the source yourself and see if it does exist.
...Which is what Liberty Reserve was trying to do, let you turn USD to a digital currency.
The US's "money laundering" regulations either make you have to refuse US customers (which is what most foreign banks do) or invade the privacy of your customers. There is no way to respect the privacy of your customers and take US customers. Its not about money laundering, its about control.
Preventing money laundering does not mean you have to go to the extremes that the US government requires. The only reason you'd need all the information that the US government requires is if you were trying to prevent people from exiting the USD. Its about control, not crime.
Any time you see money laundering and digital currencies you should think that the entire thing should be bogus.
The US government thinks that it needs to be able to spy on anyone's account, for any reason, at any time and if you don't agree to violate your customer's privacy you're aiding *insert scare-word of the day*.
I'm imagining that the US government is scared at its increasing financial irrelevance in the digital world. The US Dollar, currently the backbone of most financial transactions is in jeopardy. Digital, open currencies such as Bitcoin provide a transparent look at monetary policy and potentially can have more stability when compared to the US dollar which has the monetary policy of "whatever the hell Bernake thinks is best" and hard money like gold and silver make very good stores of wealth that cannot be devalued by printing.
Now, the total collapse of the US dollar is likely to be delayed because out of the major currencies (USD, Yen, Euro, Sterling) the USD looks to be the one in least jeopardy, but fiat currencies have a 100% rate of failure and its likely that the multitude of better currencies will hasten the end of the USD.
...Except everything with Bitcoin is open. Think there's something shady going on? Look at the source yourself! This isn't some ultra-secret proprietary blob where no one has a clue what's happening, its a well-documented, open ecosystem where anyone can understand how it works.
It seems like the US is trying to do everything in its power to stop people from exiting the USD.
The question is, what isn't the government telling the public? According to their official numbers, inflation is minimal, the currency is stable and the Fed's policies are helping the economy. On the other hand, their actions and the results are completely different.
If you don't mind paying taxes, then why not simply abolish taxation and then you can voluntarily donate your money to the government?
If you derive a direct benefit from them, why don't you continue to pay your taxes (voluntarily) and let those of us who receive little to no benefit from them not pay them, instead of condoning violence to force people to pay for things that you want?
Good! Just renounce your citizenship in the US/Canada/UK/etc. and get a passport and citizenship in a place that actually -wants- you like Paraguay, The Dominican Republic, St. Kitts or Dominica, generally just takes some $$$$$ and/or time depending on what you want. Get a citizenship in one place, live in another and incorporate your business in a good jurisdiction with minimal regulations and next to no taxes and you can have a better life and never pay income tax again!
Of course a large corporation like Google is going to continue investing in the UK and the rest of western Europe no matter how silly their tax policies are. Corporations have a responsibility to turn a profit for their shareholders and walking away from a jurisdiction that might be slightly less profitable, but still profitable is certainly not in the best interests of Google's shareholders.
Parts of Yahoo can certainly survive and thrive, but the problem is, Yahoo has no cohesion when compared to Google/MS. Parts of Yahoo are actually quite good like Flickr, but then there's parts of Yahoo that are absolute crap when compared to Google and Microsoft's offerings such as their e-mail service.
In the end, its all about quality of life.
Would I be willing to take a lower-paying job that I really loved when compared to a higher-paying job that I dreaded going to? Yes.
Having a flexible work environment is something that would keep me working for less of a paycheck and still be happy. On the other hand, a very restrictive work environment I'm really not going to like so I better have good pay.
"Free perks" do not mean that developers thrive, but a relaxed work environment (that costs next to nothing!) helps developers thrive. Flexible hours and a relaxed dress code (T-shirt, shorts and flip flops should be ok) cost nothing to implement but yet can really help tech-minded people thrive. The thing is, managers who understand how the "techie mind" work generally tend to go a bit overboard and include a bunch of other stuff too, which does help, but not to the same degree.
Bottom line, if you expect your IT people and developers to come in wearing suits from 9-5 and be "productive" for all those hours sitting quietly in a cubicle, you're going to have to pay your tech people a lot. On the other hand, if you can make going to work feel more like a hobby, more relaxed and more interesting, you can find people who will work for you for less.
Assuming the technology was there and that it worked flawless, it still has a key flaw, namely that a bad guy isn't always going to be the other person to pick up the weapon. What if your home gets broken into when you're not at home? Wouldn't you want your spouse or your child to be able to defend themselves? What if you were in some sort of hostage situation where the hostage-takers killed a security guard, wouldn't you want to be able to use that guard's gun?
Furthermore, it would encourage people to break the law to get fully functioning firearms. The same things that happen with electronic "piracy" would happen to guns, whenever the "system" is working to a degree that it doesn't make the product defective, a good chunk of the people will follow "the system", when an illegitimate product becomes superior is when more and more people start to break the system.
Yep, one of the great things is that even though the US and Western Europe have decided they don't want you being productive in their country, there are still countries out there that are much more free.
When compared to most of the other vendors, Google is easily the most open and easy to use no matter what your platform of choice is. So I really wouldn't call it an island, Apple is more of an island, if you use iCloud you can't use it on an Android phone, on the other hand, you can access Google Drive on nearly any platform imaginable.
Except having these great ideas don't matter unless they can be implemented, something that CIOs don't do.
The CIO saying we need to reduce downtime (or whatever the current buzzword is) doesn't really -do- much to affect quality. Gee, I thought having the servers go down for an hour every month was a good thing! Instead, the engineer who implements a way of preventing that monthly downtime has actually done something to boost quality.
There needs to be a bridge between the business side of things and the tech side of things, but in most companies that role is not filled by the CIO.
China has really only gone from poverty when they abandoned communism. Look at China during the pro-communism era (Cultural Revolution) where historical sites were desecrated, many were killed and starved, and political and religious freedoms were suppressed.
Compare that to Hong Kong which has been (mostly) capitalist under British rule and it was much more prosperous (and still is!) than the rest of China.
Today, we can't even accurately tell the growth of China due to manipulated statistics, but China is undoubtedly in a bubble with manipulated statistics and fake construction ( http://www.news.com.au/business/china-building-mega-cities-but-they-remain-empty-sparking-fears-of-housing-bubble-burst/story-e6frfm1i-1226611169281 ) producing decent numbers but no wealth.
Yeah, because its going to be so easy to use something like that in a shooting rampage...
In a situation where there are other armed people, you want something that can just keep shooting, you'd just "spray and pray" something that this gun can't do. In something where you've got no chance of return fire (like in designated "gun free zones" like in Sandy Hook) it doesn't much matter because you can just walk up to someone and shoot them point blank if you want because they have no way to (effectively) defend themselves.
When it comes to kids, its important that kids learn at an early age to shoot responsibly. The problem is, too many kids get their first experience about firearms from Hollywood, from GTA and from rap music, rather than responsibly target shooting/hunting. The key is to teach them responsibility and facts, not that shooting a gun is a toy, nor that guns should be feared.
The only way that elections can change anything for the better is if the majority wants a better future. In the US (and most other countries if not all others!) this is not the case. Look at the statistics of people on welfare, disability, medicare, medicaid, food stamps, social security, etc. These people will naturally never vote against such measures and will instead vote for increases in such benefits (I mean, who wouldn't want more money if they didn't have to pay for it!). Now, look at the number of people who get their salary from stealing it from the rest of us (everyone in the military, public schools, state government, federal government, city government, county government, etc.) for these people, an increase in taxes is necessary for them to get a higher salary, thus they will vote to get a higher salary (as anyone else would).
Mix that in with people who simply don't vote, aren't informed, can't vote (due to them being under 18, or having their basic rights stripped away by government) and you've got a recipe for disaster.
You cannot vote your way out of tyranny when you have more people taking from the system than paying in.
Yeah, but I don't see anything good coming out of that (aside from the fact that its dramatically cut down on my target shooting because I can't seem to find any .22 bullets anywhere for a reasonable price, let alone reasonably priced .223 bullets for my AR, at least prices haven't gone up for my .416 Rigby...).
Despite all the rhetoric from the neocons, when they come for their guns, they will turn them over. http://dollarvigilante.com/blog/2012/7/30/when-they-come-for-your-guns-you-will-turn-them-over.html
We've already passed the point of being a totalitarian state I'm afraid. The battle has already been lost. I mean,the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world, the supposedly "independent" IRS just got caught targeting opposition groups for extra auditing, and they seized the records of the AP.
So just to recap, we've got:
A sky high incarceration rate
A tax regime which targets the opposition
Numerous foreign wars that don't make us safer
A lack of a free press
Etc.
The war is lost. The drones are just the icing on the tyranny cake. The US has really reached the point of no return, instead of trying to change it, I think its time to get your ass and assets out of the control of the US.
If we are to have a government, its primary job should be for providing for the safety of its citizens, not creating "crimes" to milk for revenue. And an (unarmed!) drone can be used for both. A drone would be great for search and rescue operations, unfortunately, with the track record of government, it will most likely be used to help kidnap people for growing plants and for breaking arbitrary speed limits.