No they don't, you're just pretending they do. Ethics is a value judgement. Stop pretending your ethical judgments should apply to others without question.
Me:
I'm not telling people to stop pirating, but at least think a bit about it before you do. My decision is not the absolute right one, but it is mine to make.
All the arguments you see on/. repeatedly duck the ethical issues, because people want to log onto a torrent site and not think about the implications of what they're doing.
I stopped pirating* years ago, because of the ethical and economic problems**.
I'm not telling people to stop pirating, but at least think a bit about it before you do. My decision is not the absolute right one, but it is mine to make.
*This usage of piracy dates back to 1703. Slashdotters seem to think it's recent propaganda. It is not. **By reducing the potential revenues of a product you risk making it non-viable for development, meaning it is never made. Everyone loses from this scenario.
I've recently installed the 9.04 beta fresh with ext4 and I haven't noticed an improvement in the bootime over 8.10, despite an upgrade from a Pentium D to Q6600.
Short-term greed often overcomes critical thinking skills. Look at all the banks who invested in *cough* AAA assets which nevertheless returned above 10% of the investment.
Not many of them asked key questions, like "what is this magic risk free business that creates a lot of profit?"
I don't know when, but at some point in the last few years wanting to have a balanced budget became the sure sign of a right-wing extremist.
The tax deduction only works for Master Charge, because it can take defaulted loans as losses, which then count against its income.
GP makes no sense. The US could simply refuse to pay off its debts, but to claim that this would have no consequence, or even be beneficial, is surreal. All of a sudden US treasuries, up till now the benchmark of safe investment, would be worthless. Investors would switch to safer euro-denominated bonds, probably from Germany. The markets would be awash with worthless dollars everyone wants to convert to euro. The dollar would collapse. China might start cutting its losses, accelerating the process. The euro would become the global reserve currency, assuming that European economies weren't too hammered for it to switch elsewhere.
The status quo, allowing America to effectively raise cash on its own terms, would be destroyed, and the American public would have to learn to deal with difficult terms of debt like the rest of us.
I don't know what planet you anti-government/free market extremist types live on
I live on the planet UK. Here on planet UK our central bank has been measuring inflation based on CPI, and using this to set interest rates. This index excludes housing costs, unlike the previous RPI, in an era where house prices were the major inflationary pressure. In addition, though RPI has historically been about 1% higher than CPI, Gordon Brown reduced the target by 0.5%, giving more room for inflation.
Your claim that corporate loan rates are at fault doesn't stack up; low interest rate loans from the Bank of England kept the cost of corporate lending low, and market forces kept price for corporate lending low. Effectively the BoE applied a price ceiling to the wholesale money markets.
I remember years of being told we had only 2% inflation when the inflation we experienced was closer to 5%. Now we have a situation where the BoE has been forced to print money because the banks have so much of their capital tied up in inflated assets that nobody now wants to touch with a barge-pole. The LIBOR has decoupled from the BoE base rate because the BoE is simply not able to provide enough capital to service existing bank debts, let alone allow them to start loaning on more favourable terms.*
All the while we're being told that it's ok to print money because RPI is currently zero, even though CPI is still above target.
Finally, a warning for UK/.ers. Deflation is a myth! CPI will stay high, partly caused by the fall in the pound. If it does, Mr. King will have to raise interest rates, which will cause RPI to shoot through the roof, as the previously negative housing component turns positive. If you don't believe me, look at what the central bankers themselves think when they're forced to put their own money at risk.
Actually, one more thing. This diatribe could be taken to be a criticism of the Bank of England. I think that the Bank and its staff have behaved with decency and competence. The criticisms I make are general criticisms of a central bank model, which may still be a least-bad one, and a criticism of the brief they were given.
*The LIBOR also contains banks' mutual assessment of their reliability i.e. a risk premium. This is enlightening to see.
You know, I earn less than $250,000 a year and Gordon Broon has just announced a raise in my taxes. I think President Obama should be ashamed of this tax raise out of his jurisdiction!
Oh, and before I get flamed, or modded to karma hell, I AM A EUROPEAN. There are many great things to say about Europe over America, but anyone who thinks Europe is crime-free needs to take a stroll in some of the less salubrious districts of any of our fair capitals.
an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
Wikipedia says:
Capitalism is an economic system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth, are privately owned and controlled rather than commonly, publicly, or state-owned and controlled.
Google's definition (from Answers.com) goes:
An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.
I seem to have missed the bit where state-protected oligopolies are mentioned.
Great! Now when I've finished sitting on the tube on the way home, I can sit on a virtual tube!
Anyway, they've got some details wrong; not enough people. I don't think it would increase rendering time a lot, just add some textures of faces squashed against the windows, or maybe a medieval woodcut of Dante's Inferno.
Can I just interject for the non-nuclear crowd here:
A positive void coefficient means that the reactor becomes more reactive (i.e. the number of nuclear reactions increases) as the coolant leaves/evaporates (i.e. forms voids).
In contrast, Western reactors use water as the moderator, which enables nuclear reactions to take place. As voids form in the reactor, neutrons are no longer slowed and this reduces the reactivity, giving a negative void fraction.
This is much safer as it means that less heat is formed when it is harder to carry heat away. The RBMK reactors, in contrast, form more heat as the heat transfer decreases.
Slashdot Mirror
I'll be lenient, because of your sig and I've been caught out by odd word usage before.
Piracy is on the high seas, it is also copyright infringement, a usage that dates back to Daniel Defoe in 1703.
You:
No they don't, you're just pretending they do. Ethics is a value judgement. Stop pretending your ethical judgments should apply to others without question.
Me:
I'm not telling people to stop pirating, but at least think a bit about it before you do. My decision is not the absolute right one, but it is mine to make.
Piracy is a deadweight loss, not a broken window.
Somalians are just exercising their freedom too.
All the arguments you see on /. repeatedly duck the ethical issues, because people want to log onto a torrent site and not think about the implications of what they're doing.
I stopped pirating* years ago, because of the ethical and economic problems**.
I'm not telling people to stop pirating, but at least think a bit about it before you do. My decision is not the absolute right one, but it is mine to make.
*This usage of piracy dates back to 1703. Slashdotters seem to think it's recent propaganda. It is not.
**By reducing the potential revenues of a product you risk making it non-viable for development, meaning it is never made. Everyone loses from this scenario.
I've recently installed the 9.04 beta fresh with ext4 and I haven't noticed an improvement in the bootime over 8.10, despite an upgrade from a Pentium D to Q6600.
Which is power.
In the UK, they do not. I know this from experience.
He sounds like he's in the good old British system, in which case a PhD could take as little as three years to do.
Short-term greed often overcomes critical thinking skills. Look at all the banks who invested in *cough* AAA assets which nevertheless returned above 10% of the investment.
Not many of them asked key questions, like "what is this magic risk free business that creates a lot of profit?"
Not quite true. People create money when they create value. Otherwise, hear hear!
I don't know when, but at some point in the last few years wanting to have a balanced budget became the sure sign of a right-wing extremist.
The tax deduction only works for Master Charge, because it can take defaulted loans as losses, which then count against its income.
GP makes no sense. The US could simply refuse to pay off its debts, but to claim that this would have no consequence, or even be beneficial, is surreal. All of a sudden US treasuries, up till now the benchmark of safe investment, would be worthless. Investors would switch to safer euro-denominated bonds, probably from Germany. The markets would be awash with worthless dollars everyone wants to convert to euro. The dollar would collapse. China might start cutting its losses, accelerating the process. The euro would become the global reserve currency, assuming that European economies weren't too hammered for it to switch elsewhere.
The status quo, allowing America to effectively raise cash on its own terms, would be destroyed, and the American public would have to learn to deal with difficult terms of debt like the rest of us.
So yeah, good luck with that.
I don't know what planet you anti-government/free market extremist types live on
I live on the planet UK. Here on planet UK our central bank has been measuring inflation based on CPI, and using this to set interest rates. This index excludes housing costs, unlike the previous RPI, in an era where house prices were the major inflationary pressure. In addition, though RPI has historically been about 1% higher than CPI, Gordon Brown reduced the target by 0.5%, giving more room for inflation.
Your claim that corporate loan rates are at fault doesn't stack up; low interest rate loans from the Bank of England kept the cost of corporate lending low, and market forces kept price for corporate lending low. Effectively the BoE applied a price ceiling to the wholesale money markets.
I remember years of being told we had only 2% inflation when the inflation we experienced was closer to 5%. Now we have a situation where the BoE has been forced to print money because the banks have so much of their capital tied up in inflated assets that nobody now wants to touch with a barge-pole. The LIBOR has decoupled from the BoE base rate because the BoE is simply not able to provide enough capital to service existing bank debts, let alone allow them to start loaning on more favourable terms.*
All the while we're being told that it's ok to print money because RPI is currently zero, even though CPI is still above target.
Finally, a warning for UK /.ers. Deflation is a myth! CPI will stay high, partly caused by the fall in the pound. If it does, Mr. King will have to raise interest rates, which will cause RPI to shoot through the roof, as the previously negative housing component turns positive. If you don't believe me, look at what the central bankers themselves think when they're forced to put their own money at risk.
Actually, one more thing. This diatribe could be taken to be a criticism of the Bank of England. I think that the Bank and its staff have behaved with decency and competence. The criticisms I make are general criticisms of a central bank model, which may still be a least-bad one, and a criticism of the brief they were given.
*The LIBOR also contains banks' mutual assessment of their reliability i.e. a risk premium. This is enlightening to see.
You know, I earn less than $250,000 a year and Gordon Broon has just announced a raise in my taxes. I think President Obama should be ashamed of this tax raise out of his jurisdiction!
Sweden doesn't use the Euro, much like the UK and Denmark.
How does you like b apparently make you feel?
GP was referring specifically to /. Apple fans. Because if you dare praise an Apple product here you're automatically labeled a fanboi or a shill.
In walked a jelly fish!
Oh, and before I get flamed, or modded to karma hell, I AM A EUROPEAN. There are many great things to say about Europe over America, but anyone who thinks Europe is crime-free needs to take a stroll in some of the less salubrious districts of any of our fair capitals.
Unlike the crime infested US, there are no drug gangs or mafia in Europe.
+1 funny. You know where the word mafia comes from, right?
The dimensions of your tool will grow to a duel.
What, you fight people with it? Or ceremonial battles turn you on?
Quoth the dictionary on my Mac:
an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
Wikipedia says:
Capitalism is an economic system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth, are privately owned and controlled rather than commonly, publicly, or state-owned and controlled.
Google's definition (from Answers.com) goes:
An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.
I seem to have missed the bit where state-protected oligopolies are mentioned.
You know, a state-protected oligopoly is hardly "hyper-capitalism".
Great! Now when I've finished sitting on the tube on the way home, I can sit on a virtual tube!
Anyway, they've got some details wrong; not enough people. I don't think it would increase rendering time a lot, just add some textures of faces squashed against the windows, or maybe a medieval woodcut of Dante's Inferno.
You know what they say, all toasters toast toast!
Can I just interject for the non-nuclear crowd here:
A positive void coefficient means that the reactor becomes more reactive (i.e. the number of nuclear reactions increases) as the coolant leaves/evaporates (i.e. forms voids).
In contrast, Western reactors use water as the moderator, which enables nuclear reactions to take place. As voids form in the reactor, neutrons are no longer slowed and this reduces the reactivity, giving a negative void fraction.
This is much safer as it means that less heat is formed when it is harder to carry heat away. The RBMK reactors, in contrast, form more heat as the heat transfer decreases.