When I started with Maemo, a while back, I could download a free VMware image from Nokia, with the SDK installed and ready to go. This all before making any hardware or software investment.
If it was that easy with Windows Phone 8, Microsoft might get more developer folks to just download it, and give it a try. If they are worried about "giving away" Windows 8 Pro, they could handicap the SDK VMware image.
Now, how would Microsoft feel about doing that . . . is another matter . . . but it would get folks like me to try to develop for it. And, *gasp*, maybe folks might even like it . . . ?
Francois Hollande's government has been pulling new creative taxes out of their asses for a little while now.
+5, Informative, thank you. This story sounded like a sneaky populist tax all along.
Another one is a new tax on beer.
Wow, that one ought to rile Slashdot folks . . .
Now, having just returned from a vacation in France, and meeting some really nice folks there, I understand de Gaulle's 246 kinds of cheese comment. But why does the stinkiest cheese always seem to end up as President?
The newspapers WANT to be republished . . . AND they want to be paid for it. It's like wanting to be a member of a club, and insisting that the club pay you to be a member.
The whole thing is just about money. Google has it. The French newspapers don't. So the French government is looking for a way to channel money from Google to their newspapers.
I have an idea that would increase the readership of French newspapers . . . they could publish in English.
Slashdot should send France a bill for all users from France accessing Slashdot. Google could paywall France as well. Google and Slashdot could use the money to pay the French newspapers' bills.
The folks in France could use their powers of democracy to prevent this from escalating, but I doubt that they will. This is just a classic Mafia-style shakedown. Google has money, and French newspapers want a "taste" or a "piece of the action."
Google will not let France get away with this, though. Otherwise, Google will end up paying tribute to every postage stamp country in the world.
It's just as good as the artisan who uses it. You can use a hammer to drive in a nail . . . or to smash a vase. It depends on how you use it.
An IDE won't make a good programmer write bad code. And it won't make a bad programmer write good code. Unfortunately, a lot of manager types assume that if they buy some expensive tools, their programmers will automatically program gold from straw.
In 1963, a landslide into the reservoir behind the Vajont Dam caused a massive wave to jump the dam, causing massive damage and casualties: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajont_Dam.
So worrying about stuff falling into lakes in Switzerland, is probably a good idea.
It is part of Allaah’s complete blessing upon us and the perfection of this great religion, that Islam organizes all aspects of our lives. There is nothing good but it has shown it to us, and there is nothing bad but it has warned us against it. As well as beliefs, acts of worship, interactions with others and morals and manners, that also includes our private affairs in which Islam shows us the way that is befitting to man’s noble status and the way in which Allaah has honoured him. That includes the way the Muslim eats and drinks, and so on.
And Muslim (2020) narrated from Ibn ‘Umar (may Allaah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “No one among you should eat with his left hand or drink with it, for the shaytaan eats with his left hand and drinks with it.”
Allaah has warned us against disobeying the commands of the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), as He says (interpretation of the meaning):
“And let those who oppose the Messenger’s (Muhammad’s) commandment (i.e. his Sunnah __ legal ways, orders, acts of worship, statements) (among the sects) beware, lest some Fitnah (disbelief, trials, afflictions, earthquakes, killing, overpowered by a tyrant) should befall them or a painful torment be inflicted on them”
Sure, I guess way back when, folks wiped their assess with their bare left hands. However, left-handedness has been proven by science to be a genetic trait, not a matter of faith. But since it has been written in the Koran, that Allah doesn't like people to be left-handed, you've got a bit of a problem there.
So any Muslims can, and do, claim that using your left hand is insulting to Islam . . . as I experienced when signing in to a hotel in Egypt.
So how does Islam handle other cases, where sound science contradicts the Will of Allah . . . ?
Although the Greek government is close to running a primary budget surplus (ie, before interest payments) it still needs further official loans to honour obligations due this year, notably redemptions of bonds held by the European Central Bank (ECB), which were excluded from the restructuring in March that slashed the face value of €200 billion of debt held by private bondholders by over half. If the lifeline from the EFSF were cut off by its creditor nations, Greece would be unable to pay those debts. And if the ECB makes it a matter of principle not to lend (or permit the Bank of Greece to lend) to banks against collateral consisting of bonds and guarantees from a government in default, then it in turn would cut Greece off. Greek banks currently rely upon some €130 billion of central-bank funding. Without the ECB money the entire banking system would collapse. If the flow of money was reduced, and the conditions it is lent on tightened, the Greek government might start to issue IOUs to its workers to make up the shortfall. If the flow stopped, leaving the banks no euros to pay out, a new currency would be the only alternative.
The government would redenominate domestic bank assets and liabilities into drachma and insist that domestic contracts, such as pay and prices, be also set in drachma. Capital controls would be necessary because the drachma would immediately fall against the euro, possibly losing 50% or more of its value in a trice.
In the short term Greece's economic agony—its economy shrank by 13% from 2007 to 2011 and is expected to contract by almost 5% this year—would intensify. A precipitous exit without preparation would leave the country without notes and coin. The surrounding chaos would paralyse economic activity, causing consumers and businesses to stop spending. Economists at UBS, a Swiss bank, have estimated that the cost of a catastrophic exit might amount to 40-50% of GDP in the first year.
That figure assumes that Greece would have to leave the EU as well as the euro, and thus lose access to the single market. On strict legal grounds that may be the case, in part because exit requires capital controls, and those controls are illegal under EU treaties. In practice European policymakers are making it clear they would do their utmost to keep Greece in the EU. Assuming such helpfulness, Mark Cliffe, an economist at ING, a Dutch bank, reckons that the effect would be less. He puts the first-year extra loss of output at 7.5%.
ON OCTOBER 9th Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, a grouping of Islamist militants also known as the Pakistani Taliban, shot a 14-year-old girl, Malala Yousafzai, in the head. Claiming responsibility for the attack, the Pakistani Taliban said that it had targeted her because she promoted a Westernised and secular vision.
As it happened, the shooting came on the heels of a two-day “peace march” against American drone aircraft targeting suspected Islamist militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas close to the border with Afghanistan. At the head of a cavalcade that moved slowly from the capital, Islamabad, to the edge of the tribal areas was Imran Khan, star cricketer turned politician. Mr Khan demanded the end of missile strikes by American drones and an end to Pakistan’s own military operations against its home-grown Taliban. Instead, Mr Khan advocates unconditional peace talks with the militants.
Mr Khan is firmly against violent extremism, and the attack on Malala sickened him as much as anyone. He called her “a courageous daughter of Pakistan”. But, asked on television to condemn the Pakistani Taliban, he answered: “Who will save my party workers if I sit here and give big statements against the Taliban?”
Mr Khan’s position is that Taliban violence is a reaction to American drones and to the American presence in Afghanistan. That hardly explains why the Pakistani Taliban targeted a schoolgirl, and warned that they would go after her again if she survived. Nor does anything suggest that the Pakistani Taliban are interested in dialogue with Imran Khan or the current government. Indeed, their clearly stated agenda is to take over Pakistan and impose a medievalist Islam on the country, sharing an ideology with al-Qaeda that sees most fellow Muslims as apostates, justifying their killing.
Mr Khan has made drones and peace talks a central plank of his politics. He insists that drones largely kill innocent civilians. Given that the drone strikes take place in tribal badlands that are a no-go area for outsiders, it is impossible to know the true level of civilian casualties. According to a tally by the New America Foundation, a Washington think-tank, based on press reports from Pakistan, the drones have killed nearly 3,200 people since 2004, with a non-militant casualty rate of some 15%. American military men claim the rate is much lower. Militants killed by drones include the former Pakistani Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, and the “butcher of Swat”, Ibn Amin. Nearly all of al-Qaeda’s top commanders have also been killed. By comparison with innocent casualties from drones, the Pakistani Taliban and their allies have killed 14,427 civilians and 4,670 soldiers and police in Pakistan since 2003, according to figures kept by the South Asia Terrorism Portal.
Since late last year Mr Khan has enjoyed a surge in his popularity as a politician, propelling him to the lead position in a poll six months ago by the International Republican Institute, an American pollster. Mr Khan’s promise of change and of a new politics, much needed, that is free from corruption went down well. But now the same institute puts his party, Tehreek-e-Insaf, in second place, with 24% support, four points behind Mr Sharif’s outfit.
This year the surge in support for Mr Khan led well-known politicians from mainstream parties to join him. Now people are starting to question whether change can come through these establishment recruits. With an election due at some point in the next few months, Mr Khan’s predictions of a landslide victory are starting to look less convincing.
The year is 1982, and the film opens with the launch of the JX-1 Hayabusa spaceship into outer space. The ship, originally sent to collect data on Saturn, has its course diverted to investigate the mysterious star Gorath, reported as being 6000 times the size of the Earth. It is feared that the star's path could come dangerously close to Earth. The JX-1 reaches locates Gorath and it's much smaller than earth but with 6000 times the gravity.
The United Nations band together to discover a solution to the problem, and decide that their only solutions are to either destroy Gorath or move the planet out of the way. Back on Earth, the UN decides on the plan to move the Earth out of the way of Gorath, the South Pole Operation. The plan is to have atomic energy channeled through huge atomic furnaces 500 meters below the surface, then fed though enormous pipes called thrusters which will all fire in unison. But for this to work they will need an area 600 kilometers producing an atomic force equal to that of 6,600,000,000 megatons to move the Earth 400,000 kilometers way from Gorath.
That sounds like a great plan doesn't it? But there's always a catch . ..
The atomic engines are completed and fired up, moving the earth out of the way of Gorath. But the heat from the engines awakens and frees a giant monster walrus, called Maguma, that attacks the South Pole base.
So, your idea was good enough for a movie. If you have any other ideas, please send them to Japan or Hollywood. The world needs to be saved with better science fiction than they have to offer.
It would be better to give this to the Mythbusters crew. They seem to be particularly adept at blowing things up. The myth would be, "Humanity can be saved from an impending asteroid collision". It would suck if it gets busted.
Or now that we can make Higgs' Bosons in CERN, can't we shoot Higgs' Bosons at the asteroid, or something? Or if we untangle Superstring Theory, can't we just shove the asteroid into another unseen dimension?
Please be creative with your answers, Hollywood is monitoring this thread . . .
On big projects like these, the contractors try to find out how much the customer has budgeted or is willing to pay. Like, by inviting customers to strip joints, etc.
Once they have an idea of how much money the customer has, they adjust their bid to fit it.
Although German engineers excel at terrestrial technology, like BMW and Porsche, their space technology has not been nurtured. After the war, the Russians took their German scientists, to build their Russian space program, and the US took their German scientists, to build their US space program. Anyone who was left over in Germany was like the nerdy kid to get picked last for a team in school sports.
In fact, the last German weather satellite was a total failure. It was called Satelliten Chefkoch Hauptleitungsabzweigklemme Überwachungstechnik Leitungsschutzschalter Teleauskunft Zeitverschiebung, or SCHULTZ for short. When queried about the weather, it simply replied:
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/dutch-nix-weed-pass-plan-leave-it-up-to-cities-to-bar-foreigners-from-buying-marijuana/2012/10/30/5b9ba0d2-22bc-11e2-92f8-7f9c4daf276a_story.html
When I started with Maemo, a while back, I could download a free VMware image from Nokia, with the SDK installed and ready to go. This all before making any hardware or software investment.
If it was that easy with Windows Phone 8, Microsoft might get more developer folks to just download it, and give it a try. If they are worried about "giving away" Windows 8 Pro, they could handicap the SDK VMware image.
Now, how would Microsoft feel about doing that . . . is another matter . . . but it would get folks like me to try to develop for it. And, *gasp*, maybe folks might even like it . . . ?
Francois Hollande's government has been pulling new creative taxes out of their asses for a little while now.
+5, Informative, thank you. This story sounded like a sneaky populist tax all along.
Another one is a new tax on beer.
Wow, that one ought to rile Slashdot folks . . .
Now, having just returned from a vacation in France, and meeting some really nice folks there, I understand de Gaulle's 246 kinds of cheese comment. But why does the stinkiest cheese always seem to end up as President?
The newspapers WANT to be republished . . . AND they want to be paid for it. It's like wanting to be a member of a club, and insisting that the club pay you to be a member.
The whole thing is just about money. Google has it. The French newspapers don't. So the French government is looking for a way to channel money from Google to their newspapers.
I have an idea that would increase the readership of French newspapers . . . they could publish in English.
Slashdot should send France a bill for all users from France accessing Slashdot. Google could paywall France as well. Google and Slashdot could use the money to pay the French newspapers' bills.
The folks in France could use their powers of democracy to prevent this from escalating, but I doubt that they will. This is just a classic Mafia-style shakedown. Google has money, and French newspapers want a "taste" or a "piece of the action."
Google will not let France get away with this, though. Otherwise, Google will end up paying tribute to every postage stamp country in the world.
This was suspiciously in the news yesterday: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/10/29/joss-whedon-warns-that-mitt-romney-could-spur-zombie-apocalypse/
Maybe the hurricane Sandy really started it . . . ?
It's just as good as the artisan who uses it. You can use a hammer to drive in a nail . . . or to smash a vase. It depends on how you use it.
An IDE won't make a good programmer write bad code. And it won't make a bad programmer write good code. Unfortunately, a lot of manager types assume that if they buy some expensive tools, their programmers will automatically program gold from straw.
Sorry, "Storm" already owns the IP for that. See if your superpowers can protect you from a billion dollar IP lawsuit!
Hmmm . . . maybe comics need an IP Lawsuit Super Villain . . . ?
In 1963, a landslide into the reservoir behind the Vajont Dam caused a massive wave to jump the dam, causing massive damage and casualties: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajont_Dam.
So worrying about stuff falling into lakes in Switzerland, is probably a good idea.
Somebody seems to be wanting those iPads
No, Apple marketing is just so good, that people buy expensive stuff that they don't want.
And Mr. Ballmer is raving bat-shit crazy jealous bite-the-head-off-a-chipmunk pluck-his-Pussy-Riot mad, that Microsoft cannot do the same . . .
Thank you, Mr. Ballmer, maybe I will get a free iPad out of this . . .
And even better, this is the ITU that wanted the Internet to run OSI, instead of TCP/IP.
Just, grand.
Muslim folks' views on left-handedness demonstrates this very clearly: http://islamqa.info/en/ref/82120
It is part of Allaah’s complete blessing upon us and the perfection of this great religion, that Islam organizes all aspects of our lives. There is nothing good but it has shown it to us, and there is nothing bad but it has warned us against it. As well as beliefs, acts of worship, interactions with others and morals and manners, that also includes our private affairs in which Islam shows us the way that is befitting to man’s noble status and the way in which Allaah has honoured him. That includes the way the Muslim eats and drinks, and so on.
And Muslim (2020) narrated from Ibn ‘Umar (may Allaah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “No one among you should eat with his left hand or drink with it, for the shaytaan eats with his left hand and drinks with it.”
Allaah has warned us against disobeying the commands of the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), as He says (interpretation of the meaning):
“And let those who oppose the Messenger’s (Muhammad’s) commandment (i.e. his Sunnah __ legal ways, orders, acts of worship, statements) (among the sects) beware, lest some Fitnah (disbelief, trials, afflictions, earthquakes, killing, overpowered by a tyrant) should befall them or a painful torment be inflicted on them”
Sure, I guess way back when, folks wiped their assess with their bare left hands. However, left-handedness has been proven by science to be a genetic trait, not a matter of faith. But since it has been written in the Koran, that Allah doesn't like people to be left-handed, you've got a bit of a problem there.
So any Muslims can, and do, claim that using your left hand is insulting to Islam . . . as I experienced when signing in to a hotel in Egypt.
So how does Islam handle other cases, where sound science contradicts the Will of Allah . . . ?
Then it would be 80k €, no? Would be weird to use $.....
Not all of Europe uses the Euro. Like: Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, the UK (England, Scotland, Wales) . . .
where are you that teachers make $80K?
Europe . . . ?
The folks at The Economist can explain that in more detail: http://www.economist.com/node/21555923
Although the Greek government is close to running a primary budget surplus (ie, before interest payments) it still needs further official loans to honour obligations due this year, notably redemptions of bonds held by the European Central Bank (ECB), which were excluded from the restructuring in March that slashed the face value of €200 billion of debt held by private bondholders by over half. If the lifeline from the EFSF were cut off by its creditor nations, Greece would be unable to pay those debts. And if the ECB makes it a matter of principle not to lend (or permit the Bank of Greece to lend) to banks against collateral consisting of bonds and guarantees from a government in default, then it in turn would cut Greece off. Greek banks currently rely upon some €130 billion of central-bank funding. Without the ECB money the entire banking system would collapse. If the flow of money was reduced, and the conditions it is lent on tightened, the Greek government might start to issue IOUs to its workers to make up the shortfall. If the flow stopped, leaving the banks no euros to pay out, a new currency would be the only alternative.
The government would redenominate domestic bank assets and liabilities into drachma and insist that domestic contracts, such as pay and prices, be also set in drachma. Capital controls would be necessary because the drachma would immediately fall against the euro, possibly losing 50% or more of its value in a trice.
In the short term Greece's economic agony—its economy shrank by 13% from 2007 to 2011 and is expected to contract by almost 5% this year—would intensify. A precipitous exit without preparation would leave the country without notes and coin. The surrounding chaos would paralyse economic activity, causing consumers and businesses to stop spending. Economists at UBS, a Swiss bank, have estimated that the cost of a catastrophic exit might amount to 40-50% of GDP in the first year.
That figure assumes that Greece would have to leave the EU as well as the euro, and thus lose access to the single market. On strict legal grounds that may be the case, in part because exit requires capital controls, and those controls are illegal under EU treaties. In practice European policymakers are making it clear they would do their utmost to keep Greece in the EU. Assuming such helpfulness, Mark Cliffe, an economist at ING, a Dutch bank, reckons that the effect would be less. He puts the first-year extra loss of output at 7.5%.
In Switzerland, banks accounts hold the money of immoral criminals.
In the US, immoral criminals run the banks.
My first thought was, "Who needs a list? Just pick up a copy of the Athens Telephone Book."
http://www.economist.com/node/21564596
ON OCTOBER 9th Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, a grouping of Islamist militants also known as the Pakistani Taliban, shot a 14-year-old girl, Malala Yousafzai, in the head. Claiming responsibility for the attack, the Pakistani Taliban said that it had targeted her because she promoted a Westernised and secular vision.
As it happened, the shooting came on the heels of a two-day “peace march” against American drone aircraft targeting suspected Islamist militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas close to the border with Afghanistan. At the head of a cavalcade that moved slowly from the capital, Islamabad, to the edge of the tribal areas was Imran Khan, star cricketer turned politician. Mr Khan demanded the end of missile strikes by American drones and an end to Pakistan’s own military operations against its home-grown Taliban. Instead, Mr Khan advocates unconditional peace talks with the militants.
Mr Khan is firmly against violent extremism, and the attack on Malala sickened him as much as anyone. He called her “a courageous daughter of Pakistan”. But, asked on television to condemn the Pakistani Taliban, he answered: “Who will save my party workers if I sit here and give big statements against the Taliban?”
Mr Khan’s position is that Taliban violence is a reaction to American drones and to the American presence in Afghanistan. That hardly explains why the Pakistani Taliban targeted a schoolgirl, and warned that they would go after her again if she survived. Nor does anything suggest that the Pakistani Taliban are interested in dialogue with Imran Khan or the current government. Indeed, their clearly stated agenda is to take over Pakistan and impose a medievalist Islam on the country, sharing an ideology with al-Qaeda that sees most fellow Muslims as apostates, justifying their killing.
Mr Khan has made drones and peace talks a central plank of his politics. He insists that drones largely kill innocent civilians. Given that the drone strikes take place in tribal badlands that are a no-go area for outsiders, it is impossible to know the true level of civilian casualties. According to a tally by the New America Foundation, a Washington think-tank, based on press reports from Pakistan, the drones have killed nearly 3,200 people since 2004, with a non-militant casualty rate of some 15%. American military men claim the rate is much lower. Militants killed by drones include the former Pakistani Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, and the “butcher of Swat”, Ibn Amin. Nearly all of al-Qaeda’s top commanders have also been killed. By comparison with innocent casualties from drones, the Pakistani Taliban and their allies have killed 14,427 civilians and 4,670 soldiers and police in Pakistan since 2003, according to figures kept by the South Asia Terrorism Portal.
Since late last year Mr Khan has enjoyed a surge in his popularity as a politician, propelling him to the lead position in a poll six months ago by the International Republican Institute, an American pollster. Mr Khan’s promise of change and of a new politics, much needed, that is free from corruption went down well. But now the same institute puts his party, Tehreek-e-Insaf, in second place, with 24% support, four points behind Mr Sharif’s outfit.
This year the surge in support for Mr Khan led well-known politicians from mainstream parties to join him. Now people are starting to question whether change can come through these establishment recruits. With an election due at some point in the next few months, Mr Khan’s predictions of a landslide victory are starting to look less convincing.
That one's actually been done already: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorath
The year is 1982, and the film opens with the launch of the JX-1 Hayabusa spaceship into outer space. The ship, originally sent to collect data on Saturn, has its course diverted to investigate the mysterious star Gorath, reported as being 6000 times the size of the Earth. It is feared that the star's path could come dangerously close to Earth. The JX-1 reaches locates Gorath and it's much smaller than earth but with 6000 times the gravity.
The United Nations band together to discover a solution to the problem, and decide that their only solutions are to either destroy Gorath or move the planet out of the way. Back on Earth, the UN decides on the plan to move the Earth out of the way of Gorath, the South Pole Operation. The plan is to have atomic energy channeled through huge atomic furnaces 500 meters below the surface, then fed though enormous pipes called thrusters which will all fire in unison. But for this to work they will need an area 600 kilometers producing an atomic force equal to that of 6,600,000,000 megatons to move the Earth 400,000 kilometers way from Gorath.
That sounds like a great plan doesn't it? But there's always a catch . . .
The atomic engines are completed and fired up, moving the earth out of the way of Gorath. But the heat from the engines awakens and frees a giant monster walrus, called Maguma, that attacks the South Pole base.
So, your idea was good enough for a movie. If you have any other ideas, please send them to Japan or Hollywood. The world needs to be saved with better science fiction than they have to offer.
It would be better to give this to the Mythbusters crew. They seem to be particularly adept at blowing things up. The myth would be, "Humanity can be saved from an impending asteroid collision". It would suck if it gets busted.
Or now that we can make Higgs' Bosons in CERN, can't we shoot Higgs' Bosons at the asteroid, or something? Or if we untangle Superstring Theory, can't we just shove the asteroid into another unseen dimension?
Please be creative with your answers, Hollywood is monitoring this thread . . .
On big projects like these, the contractors try to find out how much the customer has budgeted or is willing to pay. Like, by inviting customers to strip joints, etc.
Once they have an idea of how much money the customer has, they adjust their bid to fit it.
Although German engineers excel at terrestrial technology, like BMW and Porsche, their space technology has not been nurtured. After the war, the Russians took their German scientists, to build their Russian space program, and the US took their German scientists, to build their US space program. Anyone who was left over in Germany was like the nerdy kid to get picked last for a team in school sports.
In fact, the last German weather satellite was a total failure. It was called Satelliten Chefkoch Hauptleitungsabzweigklemme Überwachungstechnik Leitungsschutzschalter Teleauskunft Zeitverschiebung, or SCHULTZ for short. When queried about the weather, it simply replied:
"I see NOTHING . . . NOTHING!"
Back about 20 years ago, Steve Ballmer went to an IBM booth at an computer show, and tried to crash OS/2 there. So, I guess you reap what you sow.
Eventually. Kinda sorta.
Or here . . . http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/09/09/2346233/is-there-a-hearing-aid-price-bubble . . .
This question seems to have been discussed on Slashdot even before its existence . . .