I call BS! I am a Swiss and we have direct democracy and it works well, THANK-YOU!
The idea that issues become too complex is another pile of BS! Issues are not complex, issues are simple. What is complex is when you tie somebody's "emotion". A representative democracy IMO is the BS because what it does is give certain people power above everybody else. Do things move faster in a direct democracy? No, it takes time, but that is good because I hate the knee jerk gotta do this now or the world will end type reactions given by politicians.
The way Swiss direct democracy works is that the government are careholders and they carry out the day to day functions. It is the people who make the choices of what goes forward. This means that even though we have to ability to decide the sanitary regulations we usually don't. Our democracy does not run amoke because unlike a representative democracy, each person in parliament will not play party politics. For they know if they act like partisan eff heads then the vote will go to the people. And once it goes to the people it is out of their control!
Case in point the 2 billion CHF fighter jets. The SVP wants it badly, and they want the extra monies. The other parties have said, "try it, and we will put it to the vote of the people." Then the SVP said, ok no extra money, but the departments will have to cut their expenses. Again the other parties said, "try it, we will put it to the vote of the people." The SVP completely backed down, and now is cutting their own expenses and saving the monies so that in 20 years they can buy the jets. In other countries like the US, what is Romney saying? Oh yeah cut everything, but don't touch the military! ssheeshhh...
What I really dislike about representative democracies is that they are run by minorities. They are run by people who demonstrate enough, who protest enough, or who scream enough. Notice how in Switzerland there are so few protests? Answer, because the people know that if they don't like something and want it changed they just need to put it to the vote of the people. As a result many of the things that people in representative democracies scream about are not voted on because they would never reach majority...
BUT the biggest and best thing I like about our democracy is that we like to keep our money. If something costs more money we don't vote it in because we know we have to pay for it with more taxes. We don't vote rich people tax breaks, but we also don't rip them apart either.
So if you counter argument is California on how not to do direct democracies, I say, wait be careful. While California has its issues, it is also a place where people want to be. So in that vein California is not that bad. The difference between California and Switzerland is that California people like to spend, we don't...
Wow then you really have not been reading the news have you now... Germany does pass policies, and things do get done. What definitely does not happen in the same extreme is the demonizing that goes on in America. Taxes? No no more taxes! Never, never... An American said to me that he wishes a monarchy would come to America. The reason being is that people vote on emotional issues, not on actual problems. He himself is a conservative and very religious and hates the "if Jesus were here" type of rhetoric...
Then PLEASE support Stephen Dion as he wants to change the Canadian voting system where it is part "first through the gate", and part proportional representation. I think New Zealand has the same system... But yeah I agree with you the Canadian system SUCKS!!!
eehhh NO... From a jurisdiction point of view, no. Let's say that I own corporation A, and corporation A has a controlling stake in corporation B. Then A is entitled to all of its profits, but not its liabilities since corporation B is its own legal entity. Let's twist this even further shall we...
Let's say corporation A, owns controlling stakes in both B and C. Along comes a company and sues C, but buys from B. Since each of these corporations are independent, and B or C have zero legal ties to each other then suing C and buying from B is in fact two separate corporations...
Here are March 2012 statistics that show how the stores are doing, and notice how 1.3% of apps downloaded and installed on Android devices are paid for!
I would argue that slashdot mod's in this situation are the trolls not the person making the comment! Mod me down I don't care, but let's keep things at facts shall we...
The problem here is that Google is doing a garbage job of making sure that the experience of Android remains good. As a result, IMO Android will become a phone for the cheap and those that do very little. Thus there is little ad revenue to be gained as well. Android IMO is opening the door to getting trumped by Microsoft and Nokia. Once people start making the decision between iPhone or Windows Phone, Android is completely clustered effed...
Right now I would not be betting for Android to keep winning! BTW look at the stats for Windows Phone in Europe, not amazing, but not disheartening either...
I beg to differ here... Did it really shrink that much? I am talking absolute terms, not relative terms. In relative terms absolutely it shrank on a massive scale, but I wonder on an absolute scale????
And a company has the ability to say, "hey we don't want to hire you." As the article states you could sue for discrimination. But in this economy that has as about as much chance as snowball in hell. IMO the reality is that with social networks whether or not it is "private" you are putting information out that could get in the wrong person's hands.
Since the beginning of the web (I started developing websites around the beginning of 95) I have been ever careful of what I put out... The key is to make it look "real", but not enough to make you look bad.
I have an Android tablet as well. I also would rather use a Chromebook. As a result of my Android tablet I bought another iPad... Android tablets are horrible toilet machines... BTW my Chromebook is called a Macbook Air...
I am sorry, but businesses have other issues and rarely apply the "how do we best solve this problem." Businesses typically ask, "What about security, scalability, maintainability, etc, etc... " Somewhere in that train of thought is, "oh yeah what is the best solution."
The problem with tablets is that they usurp topics such as security and thus become a no go, even though they might be the best solution. The iPad has this problem. The reason why companies are looking at the iPad is because the managers, and employees have been usurping the admins and those in charge thus FORCING the company to figure out how to use the tablet.
I am guessing you travel quite a bit because you are a business traveler. Drum roll... Businesses don't use tablets because they have no targetted plan... They are only now trying to wrap their head around a tablet.
Next tablets are toilet devices. I mean that you are going to use a tablet when others don't see them. Sitting on the toilet, in a corner away from everybody, etc. My wife, my father in law, and myself are die hard tablet users. Yet we use them for consumption when we have a quiet moment, like on a toilet, in a bed, on a sofa, etc. These are the places that you don't use a netbook, or at least not effectively.
BTW I do see quite a few tablets, when you look hard for them... I mean if you look beyond the usual culprits...
To the poster on Ubuntu and Unity. Initially I was very much against it as well. But I have become very used to it. Though Unity != Metro... Unity is a search based mechanism to find your app, which can be pinned to the toolbar. Once you grasp that idea it actually is pretty clever. I really like it now...
Now with respect to the tiles. I find them an absolute waste of time. My problem is that tiles are there to show you live information of the app. So far so good. But here is the problem... The space and information to be shown is a waste of time. It works well on a phone because the information is targeted. But on the desktop I want more general information. Their example is a stock price. Sounds good, but as I trade the market I don't just have one stock, but 250. How on earth will that be displayed? It will be a mess.
I think it is a failing on behalf of Microsoft. But that is to be expected. After all it is Sinosky who is in charge and well he wants Windows everywhere. Remember this goes back to Windows on the smart phone. The irony is that the Windows smartphone predated the iPhone in terms of functionality. What the iPhone did and excelled at is that you could use a finger instead of stylus. Now Microsoft is taking the opposite approach, but still the same, everything is touch! Wankers! They have no grasped the basic that you talk of, a tablet != smartphone != desktop computer != notebook.
Seriously with Ubuntu Linux finally showing some decent polish and usability (yes yes I am referring to Unity which I have gotten used to) and OSX also available who really shives a git about Microsoft?
Let them drown in their cesspool! The problem of Microsoft is simple, they have tons of 20 year veterans in the middle tier running the show. These people believe that if we copy or provide similar features all will be ok on the USS Microsoft. What they don't realized is that they are fucked! With Windows 8 people will realize how dead this ship is. Sure Microsoft will still sell lots and lots of licenses to existing customers (can't underestimate their ability to squezze profits), but it is the next generation that will not pull along.
As somebody who used my last Windows operating system with Windows 7 I can say Microsoft is truly fucked! And I have been using Windows since 3.0 back in 1990!
So I am following this thread and can't stop but think, "this is why I think C++ is a POS!"
I used to be a C++ programmer. However, with Java, C#, Python, Ruby, or Javascript I don't get into long winded debates on how to allocated a fucken string! It is a fucken string for god's sake! Not the Taj Mahal.
And talking about performance? With very well tuned C# I have gotten to about 90% of C++ as coded with std, etc. Granted C++ without all of the extras like std smokes C#, but then again you are back to the bad old problems of memory dumps.
In essence energy can either be a wave or a particle. The entire theory of the movie is based on the idea that this alien travels from place to place using this theory. However the pyschologist does not believe him.
No actually you are wrong and missing the intent of science fiction. Take Star Trek for example, which went from good ol SciFi, to hand waving fantasy land. Yes I blame the writers.
Let's say I am writing a story and in the story I hit what I would call a dead end. In the case of Lord of the Rings it is when Gandor is taken down the bridge and "dies". At this point the question becomes how does the story adjust when it hits a dead end? In the case of fantasy a wand is waved and Gandor comes back as a new Gandor the white, who has progressed to the next level. In fantasy we accept that, but from a story line its hand waving and taking a short cut to get out of a story.
In contrast when a story hits a dead in with science fiction you can't hand wave. You HAVE TO figure it out as a puzzle with limits and boundaries. This is what makes SciFi so hard because it has limits on what is believable and what is not believable. Getting back to Star Trek in later episodes there was a quite a bit of hand waving. When the plot became difficult and hitting a dead end some magical technology appeared and all is ok in the Federation. That is violating the rules of Science Fiction.
Oh for effen crying out loud! When it is THEM then well we have a PROBLEM! But if they are not affected and we complain to the wahzoo we are complainers! No I want the TSA to keep going because I want THEM to start understanding how WE are dealt with by a government!
In Germany they did a documentary on the Uberman and they mocked it. They thought crazy idea. So the "victim" gave his fullest and something strange happened.
1) Getting used to the schedule was hard. 2) Once used to the schedule it actually worked very well. The doctors who inspected him thought the experiment would fail, were also surprised. They did reaction tests, brain scans, and a battery of other tests such as blood pressure. He passed with amazing colours.
After the test was done the volunteer said he would go back to the original sleeping habits. Not because he did not like it, but because it is out of tune with the rest of society. For the the uberman to work he had to take naps and at the wrong time it was a bit wierd. And then with all of the free time he had he did not know what to do. He ran out of things to do.
So end conclusion yeah it works, but it is a major lifestyle change.
Ok I have been for the past 7 years in this situation... I was pushed into this situation after the dot.com bubble burst. Up to the dot com bubble burst I was doing Internet Server Consulting. What this meant is that I helped corporations push out Internet based Application Servers using.NET or Java technologies. It was a great gig until the bubble burst. Then I switched into Open Source, but realized very very quickly the monies are not the same. I am not slagging Open Source since I essentially use it now exclusively.
But for the past 7 years I have been investing in the market and yes I have been making money (even through the two crisis). And in about 2 years my wife and I are going to retire to open a restaurant as we need to do something (we are are in our early forties).
1) Make sure you have money socked away... Don't do this with no monies as you will fail and be miserable at the same time.
2) Do something you love. For me it is cooking and counting money. By counting money I mean financial engineering. Both are natural and easy for me even though my degree says mechnical engineering.
3) Create a niche for yourself. Since you are not in the field from young on nobody will care about you. Thus create a niche for yourself. So say you want to be a trucker. Well drive those stretches that nobody else wants to, for whatever reason it is. It is important to stress you need to love this new field because you are going to get the shit jobs and thus you better be smiling while doing those jobs.
4) Be happy! Seriously if you are going to step into this new field you better be happy about it. If you are going to complain and think about all of the money, or gizmos that you could have bought before you are doing yourself a disservice. You need to enjoy every effen moment because otherwise you will fail. I am not talking about, "oh this will get better" type of chatter. I am talking, "you know I really like eating this shit every day because it is something I have always wanted to do." Again I stress the you better love the field because you will get shit fed to you for at least two to three years...
No kidding. I mean that 225 million savings is going to go oh so far!!! As somebody who tends to be in the center of politics I have to say that I am completely disappointed in Obama. He has turned out to be a poor example of a president. Yes yes blame the congress and house as well. I think what bothers me the most with him is his lack of leadership. Yes you can argue that the Republicans are trying to call him out. BUT a great leader like Regan, or Clinton just stared down other politicians. Obama makes bold statments and then backs off in a major way. There is compromise, but there is also taking a stand and setting a clear path.
What they do is pigeonhole. Statistics works because it works over a crowd. However statistics has a flawed insight in that it is hindsight and self-fulfilling.
Imagine the following. Let's say that walking 1 KM per day reduces your chance to die by 80%. Thus insurance decides to say, oh wait I can offer better rates for life insurance if I look at all those people who walk 1 KM per day. So off the insurance goes and people start walking and we are happy little bunnies. No, we are not because what happens if everybody starts walking 1 KM per day? Answer probably pedestrian accidents go up, and thus the rate of death that the actuaries came up with is wrong, and they end up paying higher than they calculated. Thus the insurance runs out of money.
This is the problem, and this is why insurances in their quest to nail down their clientel is actually doing a disservice to themselves.
So now comes the golden question, "ok if you are so smart point out where this has happened?"
Answer; real estate. Remember those loans with no questions? Well it was the result of some actuarials thinking this through and saying, "in the past only X have defaulted thus these loans are a gold mine." So off the investment banks go and write oodles and oodles of these loans. What they forget is that if you write too many of these loans the probability of default actually goes way up since the conditions are not the same. And what ends up happening? Oh yeah the US government has to bail out the industry.
So sorry beep wrong answer... There is less value in doing this. The insurance companies would be better off just looking at the overall records and leaving it at that.
Yes lawyers provide advice, and yes lawyers defend your rights. HOWEVER, lawyers also use loopholes that go beyond common sense. As an engineer I had to take law (that's how it is in Canada). So the lawyer who talked to us talked to us about the following case.
His client drove through a stop sign and rammed another person and causing quite a bit of damage. The thing is that his client was guilty of running a stop sign. Though his client asked if he could "get out of jail." The lawyer (he) looked in detail at the situation and found an odd thing. Namely that the stop sign was lower than the usual sign. It was lower because there was an old tree that would have needed to be cut down, hence they made the sign shorter. The lawyer checked the books and found out that the stop sign was not regulation height. It missed by 10 cm (4"") of being below the lower boundary. The lawyer submitted this and won the case for their client. As I heard this I realized the person who was rammed had to claim this as an accident that would be a market on their insurance. Instead it should have been the other person's fault.
This is why lawyers are bunch of wankers! The presented case is a fringe loophole case that missed the intent of the law. You might argue that the sign was lower, but for crying out loud there is a common sense intent that just went out the window! In Europe thankfully this common sense still exists. Whereas in Canada and the US it does not.
So then excuse me if I think lawyers are a bunch of parasites! They don't protect and defend anymore. They are loophole finders based on a system devised by them to create loopholes! Remember how many politicians are lawyers...
Slashdot Mirror
I call BS! I am a Swiss and we have direct democracy and it works well, THANK-YOU!
The idea that issues become too complex is another pile of BS! Issues are not complex, issues are simple. What is complex is when you tie somebody's "emotion". A representative democracy IMO is the BS because what it does is give certain people power above everybody else. Do things move faster in a direct democracy? No, it takes time, but that is good because I hate the knee jerk gotta do this now or the world will end type reactions given by politicians.
The way Swiss direct democracy works is that the government are careholders and they carry out the day to day functions. It is the people who make the choices of what goes forward. This means that even though we have to ability to decide the sanitary regulations we usually don't. Our democracy does not run amoke because unlike a representative democracy, each person in parliament will not play party politics. For they know if they act like partisan eff heads then the vote will go to the people. And once it goes to the people it is out of their control!
Case in point the 2 billion CHF fighter jets. The SVP wants it badly, and they want the extra monies. The other parties have said, "try it, and we will put it to the vote of the people." Then the SVP said, ok no extra money, but the departments will have to cut their expenses. Again the other parties said, "try it, we will put it to the vote of the people." The SVP completely backed down, and now is cutting their own expenses and saving the monies so that in 20 years they can buy the jets. In other countries like the US, what is Romney saying? Oh yeah cut everything, but don't touch the military! ssheeshhh...
What I really dislike about representative democracies is that they are run by minorities. They are run by people who demonstrate enough, who protest enough, or who scream enough. Notice how in Switzerland there are so few protests? Answer, because the people know that if they don't like something and want it changed they just need to put it to the vote of the people. As a result many of the things that people in representative democracies scream about are not voted on because they would never reach majority...
BUT the biggest and best thing I like about our democracy is that we like to keep our money. If something costs more money we don't vote it in because we know we have to pay for it with more taxes. We don't vote rich people tax breaks, but we also don't rip them apart either.
So if you counter argument is California on how not to do direct democracies, I say, wait be careful. While California has its issues, it is also a place where people want to be. So in that vein California is not that bad. The difference between California and Switzerland is that California people like to spend, we don't...
Wow then you really have not been reading the news have you now... Germany does pass policies, and things do get done. What definitely does not happen in the same extreme is the demonizing that goes on in America. Taxes? No no more taxes! Never, never... An American said to me that he wishes a monarchy would come to America. The reason being is that people vote on emotional issues, not on actual problems. He himself is a conservative and very religious and hates the "if Jesus were here" type of rhetoric...
Then PLEASE support Stephen Dion as he wants to change the Canadian voting system where it is part "first through the gate", and part proportional representation. I think New Zealand has the same system... But yeah I agree with you the Canadian system SUCKS!!!
Ok let's rephrase this. How about these screens at affordable prices?
eehhh NO... From a jurisdiction point of view, no. Let's say that I own corporation A, and corporation A has a controlling stake in corporation B. Then A is entitled to all of its profits, but not its liabilities since corporation B is its own legal entity. Let's twist this even further shall we...
Let's say corporation A, owns controlling stakes in both B and C. Along comes a company and sues C, but buys from B. Since each of these corporations are independent, and B or C have zero legal ties to each other then suing C and buying from B is in fact two separate corporations...
Welcome to the world of conglomerates!
THUS... they are not the same company.
Why are people modding this person as a troll? Are Slashdot users that ignorant???
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/03/29/google_earns_80_of_its_mobile_revenue_from_ios_just_20_from_android.html
Here are March 2012 statistics that show how the stores are doing, and notice how 1.3% of apps downloaded and installed on Android devices are paid for!
I would argue that slashdot mod's in this situation are the trolls not the person making the comment! Mod me down I don't care, but let's keep things at facts shall we...
Wrong...
The problem here is that Google is doing a garbage job of making sure that the experience of Android remains good. As a result, IMO Android will become a phone for the cheap and those that do very little. Thus there is little ad revenue to be gained as well. Android IMO is opening the door to getting trumped by Microsoft and Nokia. Once people start making the decision between iPhone or Windows Phone, Android is completely clustered effed...
Right now I would not be betting for Android to keep winning! BTW look at the stats for Windows Phone in Europe, not amazing, but not disheartening either...
I beg to differ here... Did it really shrink that much? I am talking absolute terms, not relative terms. In relative terms absolutely it shrank on a massive scale, but I wonder on an absolute scale????
The guy is trolling... I think Pagny is someone who people could, yeah he has talent...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNNGHMcN2mA&feature=channel
I like Alezai, but some might her a bit popish...
And a company has the ability to say, "hey we don't want to hire you." As the article states you could sue for discrimination. But in this economy that has as about as much chance as snowball in hell. IMO the reality is that with social networks whether or not it is "private" you are putting information out that could get in the wrong person's hands.
Since the beginning of the web (I started developing websites around the beginning of 95) I have been ever careful of what I put out... The key is to make it look "real", but not enough to make you look bad.
I have an Android tablet as well. I also would rather use a Chromebook. As a result of my Android tablet I bought another iPad... Android tablets are horrible toilet machines... BTW my Chromebook is called a Macbook Air...
I am sorry, but businesses have other issues and rarely apply the "how do we best solve this problem." Businesses typically ask, "What about security, scalability, maintainability, etc, etc... " Somewhere in that train of thought is, "oh yeah what is the best solution."
The problem with tablets is that they usurp topics such as security and thus become a no go, even though they might be the best solution. The iPad has this problem. The reason why companies are looking at the iPad is because the managers, and employees have been usurping the admins and those in charge thus FORCING the company to figure out how to use the tablet.
ROTFL... That's good!!!
Great you see that, I see this...
I am guessing you travel quite a bit because you are a business traveler. Drum roll... Businesses don't use tablets because they have no targetted plan... They are only now trying to wrap their head around a tablet.
Next tablets are toilet devices. I mean that you are going to use a tablet when others don't see them. Sitting on the toilet, in a corner away from everybody, etc. My wife, my father in law, and myself are die hard tablet users. Yet we use them for consumption when we have a quiet moment, like on a toilet, in a bed, on a sofa, etc. These are the places that you don't use a netbook, or at least not effectively.
BTW I do see quite a few tablets, when you look hard for them... I mean if you look beyond the usual culprits...
To the poster on Ubuntu and Unity. Initially I was very much against it as well. But I have become very used to it. Though Unity != Metro... Unity is a search based mechanism to find your app, which can be pinned to the toolbar. Once you grasp that idea it actually is pretty clever. I really like it now...
Now with respect to the tiles. I find them an absolute waste of time. My problem is that tiles are there to show you live information of the app. So far so good. But here is the problem... The space and information to be shown is a waste of time. It works well on a phone because the information is targeted. But on the desktop I want more general information. Their example is a stock price. Sounds good, but as I trade the market I don't just have one stock, but 250. How on earth will that be displayed? It will be a mess.
I think it is a failing on behalf of Microsoft. But that is to be expected. After all it is Sinosky who is in charge and well he wants Windows everywhere. Remember this goes back to Windows on the smart phone. The irony is that the Windows smartphone predated the iPhone in terms of functionality. What the iPhone did and excelled at is that you could use a finger instead of stylus. Now Microsoft is taking the opposite approach, but still the same, everything is touch! Wankers! They have no grasped the basic that you talk of, a tablet != smartphone != desktop computer != notebook.
Seriously with Ubuntu Linux finally showing some decent polish and usability (yes yes I am referring to Unity which I have gotten used to) and OSX also available who really shives a git about Microsoft?
Let them drown in their cesspool! The problem of Microsoft is simple, they have tons of 20 year veterans in the middle tier running the show. These people believe that if we copy or provide similar features all will be ok on the USS Microsoft. What they don't realized is that they are fucked! With Windows 8 people will realize how dead this ship is. Sure Microsoft will still sell lots and lots of licenses to existing customers (can't underestimate their ability to squezze profits), but it is the next generation that will not pull along.
As somebody who used my last Windows operating system with Windows 7 I can say Microsoft is truly fucked! And I have been using Windows since 3.0 back in 1990!
So I am following this thread and can't stop but think, "this is why I think C++ is a POS!"
I used to be a C++ programmer. However, with Java, C#, Python, Ruby, or Javascript I don't get into long winded debates on how to allocated a fucken string! It is a fucken string for god's sake! Not the Taj Mahal.
And talking about performance? With very well tuned C# I have gotten to about 90% of C++ as coded with std, etc. Granted C++ without all of the extras like std smokes C#, but then again you are back to the bad old problems of memory dumps.
Everything, did you not watch the movie???
The premise is that advanced humans travel via light. I think the movie was getting at the wave particle duality theory; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave%E2%80%93particle_duality
In essence energy can either be a wave or a particle. The entire theory of the movie is based on the idea that this alien travels from place to place using this theory. However the pyschologist does not believe him.
No actually you are wrong and missing the intent of science fiction. Take Star Trek for example, which went from good ol SciFi, to hand waving fantasy land. Yes I blame the writers.
Let's say I am writing a story and in the story I hit what I would call a dead end. In the case of Lord of the Rings it is when Gandor is taken down the bridge and "dies". At this point the question becomes how does the story adjust when it hits a dead end? In the case of fantasy a wand is waved and Gandor comes back as a new Gandor the white, who has progressed to the next level. In fantasy we accept that, but from a story line its hand waving and taking a short cut to get out of a story.
In contrast when a story hits a dead in with science fiction you can't hand wave. You HAVE TO figure it out as a puzzle with limits and boundaries. This is what makes SciFi so hard because it has limits on what is believable and what is not believable. Getting back to Star Trek in later episodes there was a quite a bit of hand waving. When the plot became difficult and hitting a dead end some magical technology appeared and all is ok in the Federation. That is violating the rules of Science Fiction.
Oh for effen crying out loud! When it is THEM then well we have a PROBLEM! But if they are not affected and we complain to the wahzoo we are complainers! No I want the TSA to keep going because I want THEM to start understanding how WE are dealt with by a government!
In Germany they did a documentary on the Uberman and they mocked it. They thought crazy idea. So the "victim" gave his fullest and something strange happened.
1) Getting used to the schedule was hard.
2) Once used to the schedule it actually worked very well. The doctors who inspected him thought the experiment would fail, were also surprised. They did reaction tests, brain scans, and a battery of other tests such as blood pressure. He passed with amazing colours.
After the test was done the volunteer said he would go back to the original sleeping habits. Not because he did not like it, but because it is out of tune with the rest of society. For the the uberman to work he had to take naps and at the wrong time it was a bit wierd. And then with all of the free time he had he did not know what to do. He ran out of things to do.
So end conclusion yeah it works, but it is a major lifestyle change.
Ok I have been for the past 7 years in this situation... I was pushed into this situation after the dot.com bubble burst. Up to the dot com bubble burst I was doing Internet Server Consulting. What this meant is that I helped corporations push out Internet based Application Servers using .NET or Java technologies. It was a great gig until the bubble burst. Then I switched into Open Source, but realized very very quickly the monies are not the same. I am not slagging Open Source since I essentially use it now exclusively.
But for the past 7 years I have been investing in the market and yes I have been making money (even through the two crisis). And in about 2 years my wife and I are going to retire to open a restaurant as we need to do something (we are are in our early forties).
1) Make sure you have money socked away... Don't do this with no monies as you will fail and be miserable at the same time.
2) Do something you love. For me it is cooking and counting money. By counting money I mean financial engineering. Both are natural and easy for me even though my degree says mechnical engineering.
3) Create a niche for yourself. Since you are not in the field from young on nobody will care about you. Thus create a niche for yourself. So say you want to be a trucker. Well drive those stretches that nobody else wants to, for whatever reason it is. It is important to stress you need to love this new field because you are going to get the shit jobs and thus you better be smiling while doing those jobs.
4) Be happy! Seriously if you are going to step into this new field you better be happy about it. If you are going to complain and think about all of the money, or gizmos that you could have bought before you are doing yourself a disservice. You need to enjoy every effen moment because otherwise you will fail. I am not talking about, "oh this will get better" type of chatter. I am talking, "you know I really like eating this shit every day because it is something I have always wanted to do." Again I stress the you better love the field because you will get shit fed to you for at least two to three years...
No kidding. I mean that 225 million savings is going to go oh so far!!! As somebody who tends to be in the center of politics I have to say that I am completely disappointed in Obama. He has turned out to be a poor example of a president. Yes yes blame the congress and house as well. I think what bothers me the most with him is his lack of leadership. Yes you can argue that the Republicans are trying to call him out. BUT a great leader like Regan, or Clinton just stared down other politicians. Obama makes bold statments and then backs off in a major way. There is compromise, but there is also taking a stand and setting a clear path.
Ehhhh NO....
What they do is pigeonhole. Statistics works because it works over a crowd. However statistics has a flawed insight in that it is hindsight and self-fulfilling.
Imagine the following. Let's say that walking 1 KM per day reduces your chance to die by 80%. Thus insurance decides to say, oh wait I can offer better rates for life insurance if I look at all those people who walk 1 KM per day. So off the insurance goes and people start walking and we are happy little bunnies. No, we are not because what happens if everybody starts walking 1 KM per day? Answer probably pedestrian accidents go up, and thus the rate of death that the actuaries came up with is wrong, and they end up paying higher than they calculated. Thus the insurance runs out of money.
This is the problem, and this is why insurances in their quest to nail down their clientel is actually doing a disservice to themselves.
So now comes the golden question, "ok if you are so smart point out where this has happened?"
Answer; real estate. Remember those loans with no questions? Well it was the result of some actuarials thinking this through and saying, "in the past only X have defaulted thus these loans are a gold mine." So off the investment banks go and write oodles and oodles of these loans. What they forget is that if you write too many of these loans the probability of default actually goes way up since the conditions are not the same. And what ends up happening? Oh yeah the US government has to bail out the industry.
So sorry beep wrong answer... There is less value in doing this. The insurance companies would be better off just looking at the overall records and leaving it at that.
Ehhhh NO....
Yes lawyers provide advice, and yes lawyers defend your rights. HOWEVER, lawyers also use loopholes that go beyond common sense. As an engineer I had to take law (that's how it is in Canada). So the lawyer who talked to us talked to us about the following case.
His client drove through a stop sign and rammed another person and causing quite a bit of damage. The thing is that his client was guilty of running a stop sign. Though his client asked if he could "get out of jail." The lawyer (he) looked in detail at the situation and found an odd thing. Namely that the stop sign was lower than the usual sign. It was lower because there was an old tree that would have needed to be cut down, hence they made the sign shorter. The lawyer checked the books and found out that the stop sign was not regulation height. It missed by 10 cm (4"") of being below the lower boundary. The lawyer submitted this and won the case for their client. As I heard this I realized the person who was rammed had to claim this as an accident that would be a market on their insurance. Instead it should have been the other person's fault.
This is why lawyers are bunch of wankers! The presented case is a fringe loophole case that missed the intent of the law. You might argue that the sign was lower, but for crying out loud there is a common sense intent that just went out the window! In Europe thankfully this common sense still exists. Whereas in Canada and the US it does not.
So then excuse me if I think lawyers are a bunch of parasites! They don't protect and defend anymore. They are loophole finders based on a system devised by them to create loopholes! Remember how many politicians are lawyers...