A funny anecdote is that at work they've made 20oz sodas $1.25. Partly for ease in making change but I can't help but think its because they've got a captive audience. Same thing with most airports; despite being very thirsty I couldn't stomach paying $1.75 at BWI for a 20oz. DCA however seems to be committed to competitive pricing.
I've seen it go both ways, I guess. I know my wife's primary care physician sent out a letter explaining why the cost of their service was going up. Our response was to drop 'em like a ton of bricks;their underlying costs rolled up into their service price, and the market (us) wouldn't bear it.
We're on Slashdot, go figure out the similarity of this situation on the OS front.
Its reasoning like this that I find on boingboing.net, and that I don't agree with.
TANSTAAFL. Linux Distros cost bandwidth, which can be amortized and taken care of in a cheap way (bit torrent..., etc.). Linux costs development time which many developers are willing to give up for free.
But Companies pay for HARD GOODS. Boxes cost. That cost is rolled up into the price of service. If the cost of raw materials goes up, the cost of the service goes up. If you don't use the service, then you aren't hit with the higher fees. But don't think that this compares at ALL with the cost of an OS license for a copy of code! And to be ignorant of wider scope and say "well, it doesn't cost ME anything" is absolutely true, and completely immature and intellectually bankrupt. To be cogent of the wider scope and to say "it doesn't cost me anything and I don't care about anyone else" is much more acceptable.
You decide whats right and wrong; but be aware of the larger picture.
/When I moved, I took used printer paper boxes from work. One person's trash...
1) Your fatal flaw is trusting the moderation; remember, there are drooling idiots who also have mod points. Again, you must be new here.
2) Browse at +5. And still don't expect much.
3) create a friends list of users who have intelligent things to say. Have your preferences automatically moderate up those posts +5 for you (perhaps this is only available to subscribers... I forget). While this is far more labor intensive, it yields the best fruits.
Personally, if every modded Xbox out there exploded and put the people using it in the hospital for 6 weeks, I would do a happy dance at all the cheaters and losers who would get to suffer.
Such a sad state of affairs when you put your profitability above the lives and health of others...
It reminds me of a debate I go into in college regarding the use of cats for sleep apnea research. The crux of it came down to the person I was arguing with didn't really like humans at all, and much preferred cats. I had no retort.
Lets look up the word Virtual: taking the third def:of, relating to, or being a hypothetical particle whose existence is inferred from indirect evidence
And if we look up the word inferred we get:to derive as a conclusion from facts or premises
So if we derive a Derivative from the "conclusion" of the underlier; one could say a derivative is indeed virtual (however that "One" probably doesn't work in the financial services industry. Jargon has a specific time and a place)
So by your own admission, The grand parent post is INDEED correct; Derivatives are a virtual financial instrument.
And as for day trading; JUST SAY NO! Well, unless you are tired of gambling in Las Vegas... there are a myriad of ways to lose your money for fun. I prefer to light cigars with burning Benajmins...
[sigh], while I don't care much for being 'nice' (you sould see my freaks!) the "THEY AREN'T ANYTHING" was a sentence to reduce what is implied by the word physicalistic. Yes; they are a financial instrument, they are a contract. Yes there is some underlier but that underlier doesn't have to be a physical THING. As in, a piece of MATTER. So when I say "There is no under lying commodity" I mean what the wiki says "a derivative has no physicalistic purpose." This is what happens when you deviate from specific jargon.
See, this whole thread stems from the idea of VIRTUAL commodities. Now go back up and read the grandparent posts to understand the context.
And just for you, I refrained from any cheap, ad hominem attacks.;) (If I can't be nice, sometimes I can be civil)
Okay, I understand your point is about choice of words; however I still don't agree with it. I think the wiki writer is going out of their way to use specific jargon that holds a particular meaning; and in this case, its well suited.
Derivatives are more like saying "Hey, I bet you that company over there fails and can't pay off their loan" rather than "I'll take a delivery of pork bellies in April for $20." With the commodities future; you end up with a thing. (well, hopefully you don't end up with an actual thing. What on earth would you DO with all those pork bellies?! Better sell it to Hormel) A derivative is really just a bet (thus its name); as such, it is very much so virtual (my original point).
As for Moran, he wears a bandana. ya can't miss him.
From the link: The fundamental nature of a derivative is that unlike a bond, as in a Treasury bond, or a stock, or even physical stock or commodity (ie: some raw material, product), a derivative has no physicalistic purpose or reason for existence.
In essence, you can make bets on commodities and futures; i.e. virtual commodities trading.
Excellent post, however jbplou's response is quite telling; an undergraduate degreee is the "high school diploma" of our parents generation; its used by corporations to judge your pay. In that sense, having a BA in basketweaving is a profound step above not having a degree at all in terms of salary.
Considering my BS was in EE can you guess what got me my first job out of college? Thats right; some perl coding I did in a part time job while in school! My knowledge of semiconductors has completely atrophied. However, I've gone on to get my MS in CS and the A's came with only a bit of hard work because I was motivated.
That being said, I did learn something of great import while in undergrad. After getting mediocre grades throughout I somehow matured a little bit and taught myself how to learn. This was the most important thing I got out of undergrad. I understand that this anecdotal, but if that is the only lesson some one learns after 4 years of higher education than its worth all the debt they took on.
Tweaking an existing program with 20+ years of bugfixes and real world modifications is infinitely cheaper and easier than replacing the functionality it performs.
Sorry, I can't agree. I've seen fabulous disasters related to attempting to upgrade mainframes that take down major infrastructure and make the paper (re: NATS making upgrades to their NAS mainframe and UK airspace going down for 2 hours on a friday). The problem? They don't have the experience.
I've also personally written a drop-in replacement for a kernel queueing method that no longer exists in modern kernels (Device Queues); after 100% line coverage unit testing and 3-way boolean decision coverage, no one has had a problem in two years.
I realize these are anecdotal. However there is a realistic time and place for simply scrapping what was there and starting a new.
Some olde ex-mainframe guys at work have some Rexx manuals and one guy wrote a small utilitiy in Rexx. (these were the same people that had extensions to vi (.exrc's) to make it work like their mainframe editors...uhm, get out of the past?)
So thats great and all, but why are you programming in a professional capacity in a language that no one can maintain? Thats worse than hacking code in perl and not "using strict"!
I had this happen to me. My debit card is also a some-time credit card. I used it for a web purchase in 2000. I found out that charges (for "male enhancement pills", no less!) had been made to my card.
My bank was USELESS. The same 10 weeks, no protection, we don't really care, and are actually rather annoyed that we have to find these forms for you to fill out.
The online company got wind of it (I presume through the bank), CALLED me, said "hey, where you ever in Khazakstan? No? Okay, this is obviously fraud. We'll credit you back right now."
Weeks later I received a letter from my bank saying "we are dismissing your claim because the money has been returned." Yeah, thanks for nothing!
Contrast that with my credit card*: A week after I rented a Budget rental truck (in MD) I notice a $5 charge from Budget in Colorado. Total red flag. I call the credit card company and they said "we'll take care of it." They did.
*-note, this could have been dumpster diving or internal Budget fraud; not necessarily online fraud. However I did book the truck online which is why I assume its internet fraud.
Although I would probably say that mapquest's interface is probably more intuitive for the average user.
Anecdotal as it may be, my dad (average user/Solitaire player that he is) proves your anecdotal opinion wrong.
He was EXCITED about how cool google maps was! I couldn't believe it. (this is the same guy with the blinking 12:00 on his VCR) The drag and drop nature of the maps allows for quickly establishing where you are when zoomed very close in. So you can look at the details of the street "maze" of a planned community and quickly scroll over to see where you are in relation to a major interstate. He discovered that the Bed and Breakfast we were sending him to was very close to a civil war battle field (which we completey forgot:to my commuter mind, Manassas is where you live when you can't live closer to DC).
Slashdot Mirror
Which is similar to how man invented Phlogiston because he was a moron.
Good counter point.
A funny anecdote is that at work they've made 20oz sodas $1.25. Partly for ease in making change but I can't help but think its because they've got a captive audience. Same thing with most airports; despite being very thirsty I couldn't stomach paying $1.75 at BWI for a 20oz. DCA however seems to be committed to competitive pricing.
I've seen it go both ways, I guess. I know my wife's primary care physician sent out a letter explaining why the cost of their service was going up. Our response was to drop 'em like a ton of bricks;their underlying costs rolled up into their service price, and the market (us) wouldn't bear it.
We're on Slashdot, go figure out the similarity of this situation on the OS front.
Its reasoning like this that I find on boingboing.net, and that I don't agree with.
TANSTAAFL. Linux Distros cost bandwidth, which can be amortized and taken care of in a cheap way (bit torrent..., etc.). Linux costs development time which many developers are willing to give up for free.
But Companies pay for HARD GOODS. Boxes cost. That cost is rolled up into the price of service. If the cost of raw materials goes up, the cost of the service goes up. If you don't use the service, then you aren't hit with the higher fees. But don't think that this compares at ALL with the cost of an OS license for a copy of code! And to be ignorant of wider scope and say "well, it doesn't cost ME anything" is absolutely true, and completely immature and intellectually bankrupt.
To be cogent of the wider scope and to say "it doesn't cost me anything and I don't care about anyone else" is much more acceptable.
You decide whats right and wrong; but be aware of the larger picture.
/When I moved, I took used printer paper boxes from work. One person's trash...
Or maybe they just don't think I'm funny...
/ Bah! Everybody's a critic!
Mods wouldn't know funny if it jumped up and bit 'em on the bum. SIGH.
make Linux illegal.
Whats the problem? I expect a bill to be passed in the next year.
1) Your fatal flaw is trusting the moderation; remember, there are drooling idiots who also have mod points. Again, you must be new here.
2) Browse at +5. And still don't expect much.
3) create a friends list of users who have intelligent things to say. Have your preferences automatically moderate up those posts +5 for you (perhaps this is only available to subscribers... I forget). While this is far more labor intensive, it yields the best fruits.
either way wading through this much incoherent text makes my brain feel like mush.
You must be new here! Welcome!
Inheriting fully-formed Ant scripts for a big build and then having to add in your new units is not only daunting, but confusing as well.
But its just like makefiles... stop being scared, figure it out, and then welcome to the world of easy-builds.
(or you could just add your object files to the jars by hand...)
And I agree, slide 6 is waaaaay better than slide 5.
... fiction and I'd recommend s/he reads "Storming the Reality Studio" to get a handle on it. Its dark. It always has been, always will be.
Personally, if every modded Xbox out there exploded and put the people using it in the hospital for 6 weeks, I would do a happy dance at all the cheaters and losers who would get to suffer.
Such a sad state of affairs when you put your profitability above the lives and health of others...
It reminds me of a debate I go into in college regarding the use of cats for sleep apnea research. The crux of it came down to the person I was arguing with didn't really like humans at all, and much preferred cats. I had no retort.
Lets look up the word Virtual:
:to derive as a conclusion from facts or premises
taking the third def:of, relating to, or being a hypothetical particle whose existence is inferred from indirect evidence
And if we look up the word inferred we get
So if we derive a Derivative from the "conclusion" of the underlier; one could say a derivative is indeed virtual (however that "One" probably doesn't work in the financial services industry. Jargon has a specific time and a place)
So by your own admission, The grand parent post is INDEED correct; Derivatives are a virtual financial instrument.
And as for day trading; JUST SAY NO! Well, unless you are tired of gambling in Las Vegas... there are a myriad of ways to lose your money for fun. I prefer to light cigars with burning Benajmins...
[sigh], while I don't care much for being 'nice' (you sould see my freaks!) the "THEY AREN'T ANYTHING" was a sentence to reduce what is implied by the word physicalistic. Yes; they are a financial instrument, they are a contract. Yes there is some underlier but that underlier doesn't have to be a physical THING. As in, a piece of MATTER. So when I say "There is no under lying commodity" I mean what the wiki says "a derivative has no physicalistic purpose." This is what happens when you deviate from specific jargon.
;) (If I can't be nice, sometimes I can be civil)
See, this whole thread stems from the idea of VIRTUAL commodities. Now go back up and read the grandparent posts to understand the context.
And just for you, I refrained from any cheap, ad hominem attacks.
Okay, I understand your point is about choice of words; however I still don't agree with it. I think the wiki writer is going out of their way to use specific jargon that holds a particular meaning; and in this case, its well suited.
Derivatives are more like saying "Hey, I bet you that company over there fails and can't pay off their loan" rather than "I'll take a delivery of pork bellies in April for $20." With the commodities future; you end up with a thing. (well, hopefully you don't end up with an actual thing. What on earth would you DO with all those pork bellies?! Better sell it to Hormel) A derivative is really just a bet (thus its name); as such, it is very much so virtual (my original point).
As for Moran, he wears a bandana. ya can't miss him.
Hey, MORAN, if you are going to criticize, make sure you're right first. DUMBASS.
And YES, they are obviously used to hedge, BUT THEY AREN'T ANYTHING. There is no underlying commodity.
Whatever; everyone on slashdot is a moron. Excuse me, Moran. 'Cept for me, that is.
Ahem, Derivatives.
From the link:
The fundamental nature of a derivative is that unlike a bond, as in a Treasury bond, or a stock, or even physical stock or commodity (ie: some raw material, product), a derivative has no physicalistic purpose or reason for existence.
In essence, you can make bets on commodities and futures; i.e. virtual commodities trading.
What's next? Virtual commodities trading?
I believe those are called 'Derivatives.'
Excellent post, however jbplou's response is quite telling; an undergraduate degreee is the "high school diploma" of our parents generation; its used by corporations to judge your pay. In that sense, having a BA in basketweaving is a profound step above not having a degree at all in terms of salary.
Considering my BS was in EE can you guess what got me my first job out of college? Thats right; some perl coding I did in a part time job while in school! My knowledge of semiconductors has completely atrophied. However, I've gone on to get my MS in CS and the A's came with only a bit of hard work because I was motivated.
That being said, I did learn something of great import while in undergrad. After getting mediocre grades throughout I somehow matured a little bit and taught myself how to learn. This was the most important thing I got out of undergrad. I understand that this anecdotal, but if that is the only lesson some one learns after 4 years of higher education than its worth all the debt they took on.
Yes- I mentioned perl. I hate perl. I mean, its great for hacking something together; but its a read-only language.
There may be books available on the language now, but what happens when it goes the way of PL1?
Tweaking an existing program with 20+ years of bugfixes and real world modifications is infinitely cheaper and easier than replacing the functionality it performs.
Sorry, I can't agree. I've seen fabulous disasters related to attempting to upgrade mainframes that take down major infrastructure and make the paper (re: NATS making upgrades to their NAS mainframe and UK airspace going down for 2 hours on a friday). The problem? They don't have the experience.
I've also personally written a drop-in replacement for a kernel queueing method that no longer exists in modern kernels (Device Queues); after 100% line coverage unit testing and 3-way boolean decision coverage, no one has had a problem in two years.
I realize these are anecdotal. However there is a realistic time and place for simply scrapping what was there and starting a new.
Some olde ex-mainframe guys at work have some Rexx manuals and one guy wrote a small utilitiy in Rexx. (these were the same people that had extensions to vi (.exrc's) to make it work like their mainframe editors...uhm, get out of the past?)
So thats great and all, but why are you programming in a professional capacity in a language that no one can maintain? Thats worse than hacking code in perl and not "using strict"!
I had this happen to me. My debit card is also a some-time credit card. I used it for a web purchase in 2000. I found out that charges (for "male enhancement pills", no less!) had been made to my card.
My bank was USELESS. The same 10 weeks, no protection, we don't really care, and are actually rather annoyed that we have to find these forms for you to fill out.
The online company got wind of it (I presume through the bank), CALLED me, said "hey, where you ever in Khazakstan? No? Okay, this is obviously fraud. We'll credit you back right now."
Weeks later I received a letter from my bank saying "we are dismissing your claim because the money has been returned." Yeah, thanks for nothing!
Contrast that with my credit card*:
A week after I rented a Budget rental truck (in MD) I notice a $5 charge from Budget in Colorado. Total red flag. I call the credit card company and they said "we'll take care of it." They did.
*-note, this could have been dumpster diving or internal Budget fraud; not necessarily online fraud. However I did book the truck online which is why I assume its internet fraud.
I hear what you mean. We had a short lived web development company called "Fly By Night Productions." We didn't last very long.
Whats so cool about google maps?
They're easier to manipulate.
Although I would probably say that mapquest's interface is probably more intuitive for the average user.
Anecdotal as it may be, my dad (average user/Solitaire player that he is) proves your anecdotal opinion wrong.
He was EXCITED about how cool google maps was! I couldn't believe it. (this is the same guy with the blinking 12:00 on his VCR) The drag and drop nature of the maps allows for quickly establishing where you are when zoomed very close in. So you can look at the details of the street "maze" of a planned community and quickly scroll over to see where you are in relation to a major interstate. He discovered that the Bed and Breakfast we were sending him to was very close to a civil war battle field (which we completey forgot:to my commuter mind, Manassas is where you live when you can't live closer to DC).