Good on Japan for having a high-profile prize like this.
Here in Australia we award sportsmen, celebrities, wealthy businesspeople and public service fatcats. Scientists are spurned. (this article says 'scientists', but doesn't mention any. Googled around the other news websites and couldn't find any mention of them either.)
Tolkien wove a wonderful world, and that was where it's value lay. This prose could be quite beautiful, but in other parts (the Battle of Helm's Deep) it reads like Cliffs notes.
> If you want to see how fast your brain will turn to mush, try reading The Silmarillion. I keep a copy handy for when I can't get to sleep.
After reading the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and falling in love with Middle Earth, I couldn't wait to get my hands on the Silmarillion. Getting it for Xmas I eagerly started reading it. Even as a young, naive child I read the first page and thought "What a load of crap!"
But you can't blame Tolkien for that, because the Silmarillion were just notes Tolkien never intended for publication. Blame his son and his son's bank manager.
Germs are everywhere. If you disinfect it with UV light, all you'll end up doing is growing strains of UV-resistant bacteria. And for what point? Only a very small number of germs are pathogenic. The vast majority of bacteria and viruses aren't interested in you at all.
Like those disinfectant wipes you find in the supermarket that say "Kills 99.9% of Germs," this is something for idiots.
Palmisano was not well liked within IBM. He was after all the guy who told IBM's US employees they could take a job in the third-world at third-world wages or stay in the US and get sacked. For this Palmisano will be forever despised.
But the truth was really quite ugly. You won't read this in Forbes, but you will read it in - of all places - the reader feedback at Amazon:
It is strangely ironic that, after doing his best to suppress all negative communication within IBM, it should be the reader feedback on amazon.com that alerts Gerstner to what the world at large really thinks of him.
In the last five years, Gerstner has reaped a profit of [$$$] million in the sale of awarded stock options. These stock options were awarded while he held the joint positions of IBM CEO and chairman. During that period, IBM spent [$$$] billion buying back its own stock to drive the price up so that executives could cash out at handsome profits. This is money that could have been spent on developing new products, attracting new talent and honoring promises made to employees and retirees.
Where did all that money come from?
Not from profit growth, which remained flat at about 2 percent per year when you strip out the retirees' pension fund surplus "vapor profits."
It came from selling off large chunks of the company and its assets, laying off tens of thousands of employees and slashing pension and health care benefits for employees and retirees. In 2002 alone, IBM has quietly cut 15,000 jobs. Health benefits, which were promised "free for life," now cost retirees a
substantial amount of their pensions. Only one minuscule cost-of-living increase has been awarded pension recipients in the past 11 years.
The greed doesn't stop there. Now, Lou had not only been retained as chairman of the board, he has been awarded a 10-year consulting contract, with fully paid expenses at his previous salary of $2 million a year. These expenses have been conservatively estimated to be $100,000 annually.
Save IBM? More like turning it into just another money grubbing corporation while lining his pockets. I would love to see a rebuttal book. God help us all if Lou's management methods become benchmarks for future corporate leaders.
Like I said, the $2M was to punish McDonalds. That was on top of her medical costs + pant and suffering.
You don't dispute that McDonalds deserved to be punished? Punitive damages are the only way that you can punish someone in a civil case. There is a lot of unethical behaviour which isn't criminal.
Now in a way, you're right. *She* didn't deserve the punitive damages. The 700 odd other people who reported it to McDonalds (and those that didn't) deserved it as well. And that is one fault with punitive damages. It goes to the person who brings the suit. You might argue the punitive damages should go to them, or the State - but why reward the State for sitting on its butt? It's the person who brings the suit (or their lawyer) who takes the risk. Give them the reward for doing the hard yards. In the old days criminal charges could be bought civilly, but increasingly the State took that over. Now a civil suit is the only chance you have of punishing a wrongdoer.
> As far as privacy goes - google software has NEVER asked me if i really want to check for updates
I hear you. We were on a small Internet account with just a few Gb. It was all we needed, but big chunks of bandwidth would disappear when Chrome decided to update itself. Unless you were working from a Windows domain server (I have no idea why) there was no way to turn it off. Like you I tried disabling the download daemons but they kept reappearing. Blew Chome away.
> Hey it sucks, the coffee did not have to be that hot but 2 million dollars is OUTRAGEOUS.
Hard to debate it when you post anon but: You look at her burns and *you* tell me what you think those are worth? The jury (11 people like you) came up with the $2M figure. When the plaintiff shows wanton disregard an award can contain a punitive component to punish the plaintiff. That is on top of her economic damages which was the hospital bills and pain and suffering. You understand? The figure was deliberately set high to punish McDonalds. That is the whole point when a criminal remedy isn't available. (As it was it 2 days worth of coffee sales - and the figure settled was less anyway.)
Yes, they may have violated wiretapping law but I bet no one goes to jail and if there is a fine, it doesn't dent their profits. But these guys not only are above the law. They write it. There is a HBO Documentary called Hot Coffee I recommend. You remember the McDonald's coffee case? An old lady who bought a cup of coffee, recklessly drove off with it between her legs suing for $2M?
Turns out there is a whole other side to these stories. In her case the coffee really was too hot (scalding temperature), and the photos of her burns are really bad! Not superficial; I mean bad! She was in the parking lot *parked* when it happened, and she was a passenger. She had asked for was to cover medical costs of treating the burns, but McDonalds brushed her off. It was a jury that awarded the figure because there had been 700 other burn cases and McDonalds had done nothing. An arrogant McDonalds manager said "700? pfffft... surprised it isn't more." She settled for less than the awarded amount. They made her sign a gag order.
And after that they badmouthed her with other big companies to lobby successfully for 'tort reform' using this case. Sounds like a great idea until it happens to you. This really limits the ability of the public to hold corporations to account. So, they are above criminal law (corporations may be people, but you can't jail them) and above civil law thanks to tort reform.
When someone says to you "I've got nothing to hide", ask them if they would be happy with the government putting a webcam in every room in their house. After all they have nothing to hide. Even the bedroom? Yes, the bedroom. Otherwise terrorists would just plot in their bedrooms.
If they baulk, remind them of 911.
Of course if they are on Facebook they might say "Kewl! Can I stream it from my Homepage? [share]"
The CEOs of Singapore and Cathay, better airlines, earn much less than Joyce. Joyce and his executive mates just awarded themselves big fat payrises, but are crying poor to the employees. QANTAS is much owned my institutional investors. It is the executives that have all the power and the big fat paychecks.
You might want to check this out:
http://www.smh.com.au/business/tough-times-in-the-executive-suites-20110907-1jxpo.html
'The former chief executive of Singapore Airlines, C S Chew, for example, managed to get only between $S1.25 million ($982,000) and $S1.5 million ($1.18 million) in his last nine months at the airline.
Cathay Pacific's former chief executive (now International Air Transport Association director general) Tony Tyler was paid $HK11.48 ($1.4 million) in his final full year at the airline.
Joyce's $5 million pay packet dwarfed that of the head of Asia's largest airline in terms of fleet size and passenger movements, China Southern. The president of the Guangzhou-based airline, Tan Wangeng , was paid a relatively paltry 1.03 million yuan ($153,000) last year. The entire board of China Southern's supervisors, executive directors and non-executive directors (including Tan) was paid about $855,000 during the same period.'
You used to be able to get a Geiger counter on eBay for well under $100 (which is itself a rip-off because in Eastern Europe they are really cheap). After Fukushima people went crazy in countries as far away as America thanks to our media's 24-hour *F*E*A*R* cycle. Prices jumped up to $1000 and were sold out for many months in advance. They've fallen back to $400. Still a rip-off, but wait and they will keep falling.
LOL Congress. Stand near their dinner bowl and your Congressman will spring into action. Yet Submarine Patents and Patent Trolling are still legal. The USPTO continues to approve the stupid, trivial and obvious patents and those written in such ridiculous language that no one knows what they mean. The USPTO leaves it to the courts to sort out the mess for them, with $500 an hour lawyers who will argue adamantly for whoever is paying them. (They should have a rule in Patent Law suits that half-way the lawyers change sides)
But seriously: A startup hit by a Patent Troll will spend $1M to $5M to fight it off. How does bogging down startups like this help America invent? It doesn't. Congress have known about this for years but won't do lift a finger. But a tax dodging patent? Suddenly their outraged cannot be contained!
> he must tell police about any phones he buys that can provide internet access.
Duffy called the local constabulary: "Sure it looks like an iPhone, but on the inside the Galaxy S is a web-browsing, media-playing beast of a smartphone, and one of the best Android phones available!"
The constable listened with interest, thanked Duffy, hung up then hopped on to Google to order one. He mused "I didn't really understand the point of that court order, but it's certainly useful!"
In other news CuteSteveJobs was arrested for posting a mocking parody of Sean Duffy who was jailed for... etc...
And so do researchers. It shows how much gray matter is being devoted to social networking that could be spent on better things. That's because the social networking problems are easy. Curing cancer is, you know, hard work.
The problem is the lighting stopped the train in front which did slow down and halt, but the train barreling along behind it which wasn't hit by lighting didn't know the first had stopped.
Thanks poity. It's been very hard to get info on these events, inside and outside China. Outside of China the news agencies barely touched it, preferring to concentrates on whatever took the place of congressional penises.
China uses many companies. Does anyone know who made the equipment that broke?
This article talks about their CTCS which is the Chinese Train Control Software based on the European Train Control Software and something called the LKJ automatic control system: Wiki only says Lieche Yunxing Jiankong Jilu Zhuangzhi – device used for train control and monitor in China Railways.
> About 10 people fall off the commuter trains and die every day in Bombay. They tend to ride outside the train cars standing on the window sills (toes going inward) and fingers clinging to the rain gutters
Shhhhh! Don't give those cheap bastards at Ryanair any ideas.
China has many different railway suppliers and systems. Does anyone know if it was CTCS the Chinese Train Control System used on this line? These systems are expensive so China developed their own version of the European train control system. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Train_Control_System
For high-speed trains they pass the signals too fast for the drivers to see so they rely on computer control. Trains are supposed to communicate so if one in front stops or slows the other behind it knows where it is and so can slow down and stop. If the lightning fried the first train it could explain why the second didn't stop, but these systems are supposed to be design so if the first time suddenly goes quiet the second train assumes the worst and slows down to a stop until it is clear to proceed. Maybe they didn't think of that?
Yes, slashdot summary isn't good. Derailing is the end result. A collision between two bullet trains is what caused it. Maybe OP was in a rush to submit the story.
It's traditional to make a patent as long and droning as possible to make it sound unique and so get the USPTO to approve it because they don't really give a toss and figure patent trolls and victims can fight it out in the courts anyway amirite? Here. Let me show you:
A carbon-based form that is based on a chain based chemistry that is based on a carbon system with a conjunctive union with oxygen and nitrogen and through which forms a unit which has a spiral based form which in a system of steroidal based... (2000 words later)... and goes 'meow'.
In Australia a State Government used a ridiculously expensive "off the shelf" SAP payroll solution that turned into a complete disaster. A year later and staff still aren't being paid properly. Lots of finger pointing between IBM, SAP and Corptech who is the State Government's IT corporation. They paid $40M for software that didn't work, and still doesn't work.
Slashdot Mirror
Good on Japan for having a high-profile prize like this.
Here in Australia we award sportsmen, celebrities, wealthy businesspeople and public service fatcats. Scientists are spurned. (this article says 'scientists', but doesn't mention any. Googled around the other news websites and couldn't find any mention of them either.)
Foodie icon Maggie Beer received an AM for her service to the tourism and hospitality industries and the promotion of Australian produce and cuisine. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-26/australia-day-honours-2011/3792896?section=sport
Oh joy!
Tolkien wove a wonderful world, and that was where it's value lay. This prose could be quite beautiful, but in other parts (the Battle of Helm's Deep) it reads like Cliffs notes.
> If you want to see how fast your brain will turn to mush, try reading The Silmarillion. I keep a copy handy for when I can't get to sleep.
After reading the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and falling in love with Middle Earth, I couldn't wait to get my hands on the Silmarillion. Getting it for Xmas I eagerly started reading it. Even as a young, naive child I read the first page and thought "What a load of crap!"
But you can't blame Tolkien for that, because the Silmarillion were just notes Tolkien never intended for publication. Blame his son and his son's bank manager.
Germs are everywhere. If you disinfect it with UV light, all you'll end up doing is growing strains of UV-resistant bacteria. And for what point? Only a very small number of germs are pathogenic. The vast majority of bacteria and viruses aren't interested in you at all.
Like those disinfectant wipes you find in the supermarket that say "Kills 99.9% of Germs," this is something for idiots.
Palmisano was not well liked within IBM. He was after all the guy who told IBM's US employees they could take a job in the third-world at third-world wages or stay in the US and get sacked. For this Palmisano will be forever despised.
http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/ibms-palmisano-techs-slumdog-millionaire-257
Sure, the business press has wet dreams about Palmisano and Gerstner who picked him as his successor:
http://www.forbes.com/2011/01/03/forbes-india-person-of-the-year-sam-palisan-ibm.html
But the truth was really quite ugly. You won't read this in Forbes, but you will read it in - of all places - the reader feedback at Amazon:
It is strangely ironic that, after doing his best to suppress all negative communication within IBM, it should be the reader feedback on amazon.com that alerts Gerstner to what the world at large really thinks of him.
In the last five years, Gerstner has reaped a profit of [$$$] million in the sale of awarded stock options. These stock options were awarded while he held the joint positions of IBM CEO and chairman. During that period, IBM spent [$$$] billion buying back its own stock to drive the price up so that executives could cash out at handsome profits. This is money that could have been spent on developing new products, attracting new talent and honoring promises made to employees and retirees.
Where did all that money come from?
Not from profit growth, which remained flat at about 2 percent per year when you strip out the retirees' pension fund surplus "vapor profits."
It came from selling off large chunks of the company and its assets, laying off tens of thousands of employees and slashing pension and health care benefits for employees and retirees. In 2002 alone, IBM has quietly cut 15,000 jobs. Health benefits, which were promised "free for life," now cost retirees a substantial amount of their pensions. Only one minuscule cost-of-living increase has been awarded pension recipients in the past 11 years.
The greed doesn't stop there. Now, Lou had not only been retained as chairman of the board, he has been awarded a 10-year consulting contract, with fully paid expenses at his previous salary of $2 million a year. These expenses have been conservatively estimated to be $100,000 annually.
Save IBM? More like turning it into just another money grubbing corporation while lining his pockets. I would love to see a rebuttal book. God help us all if Lou's management methods become benchmarks for future corporate leaders.
http://www.amazon.com/Elephants-Dance-Inside-Historic-Turnaround/product-reviews/0060523794/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt/185-5256096-7601530?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
Like I said, the $2M was to punish McDonalds. That was on top of her medical costs + pant and suffering.
;-)
You don't dispute that McDonalds deserved to be punished? Punitive damages are the only way that you can punish someone in a civil case. There is a lot of unethical behaviour which isn't criminal.
Now in a way, you're right. *She* didn't deserve the punitive damages. The 700 odd other people who reported it to McDonalds (and those that didn't) deserved it as well. And that is one fault with punitive damages. It goes to the person who brings the suit. You might argue the punitive damages should go to them, or the State - but why reward the State for sitting on its butt? It's the person who brings the suit (or their lawyer) who takes the risk. Give them the reward for doing the hard yards. In the old days criminal charges could be bought civilly, but increasingly the State took that over. Now a civil suit is the only chance you have of punishing a wrongdoer.
PS. And for God's sake get a login!
> As far as privacy goes - google software has NEVER asked me if i really want to check for updates
I hear you. We were on a small Internet account with just a few Gb. It was all we needed, but big chunks of bandwidth would disappear when Chrome decided to update itself. Unless you were working from a Windows domain server (I have no idea why) there was no way to turn it off. Like you I tried disabling the download daemons but they kept reappearing. Blew Chome away.
Hard to debate it when you post anon but: You look at her burns and *you* tell me what you think those are worth? The jury (11 people like you) came up with the $2M figure. When the plaintiff shows wanton disregard an award can contain a punitive component to punish the plaintiff. That is on top of her economic damages which was the hospital bills and pain and suffering. You understand? The figure was deliberately set high to punish McDonalds. That is the whole point when a criminal remedy isn't available. (As it was it 2 days worth of coffee sales - and the figure settled was less anyway.)
Yes, they may have violated wiretapping law but I bet no one goes to jail and if there is a fine, it doesn't dent their profits. But these guys not only are above the law. They write it. There is a HBO Documentary called Hot Coffee I recommend. You remember the McDonald's coffee case? An old lady who bought a cup of coffee, recklessly drove off with it between her legs suing for $2M?
Turns out there is a whole other side to these stories. In her case the coffee really was too hot (scalding temperature), and the photos of her burns are really bad! Not superficial; I mean bad! She was in the parking lot *parked* when it happened, and she was a passenger. She had asked for was to cover medical costs of treating the burns, but McDonalds brushed her off. It was a jury that awarded the figure because there had been 700 other burn cases and McDonalds had done nothing. An arrogant McDonalds manager said "700? pfffft... surprised it isn't more." She settled for less than the awarded amount. They made her sign a gag order.
And after that they badmouthed her with other big companies to lobby successfully for 'tort reform' using this case. Sounds like a great idea until it happens to you. This really limits the ability of the public to hold corporations to account. So, they are above criminal law (corporations may be people, but you can't jail them) and above civil law thanks to tort reform.
Thanks for that summary, Billy. Well said!
This verdict is proof the system works, then same way it works when it dismisses any Patent lawsuit. I mean it.
When someone says to you "I've got nothing to hide", ask them if they would be happy with the government putting a webcam in every room in their house. After all they have nothing to hide. Even the bedroom? Yes, the bedroom. Otherwise terrorists would just plot in their bedrooms. If they baulk, remind them of 911.
Of course if they are on Facebook they might say "Kewl! Can I stream it from my Homepage? [share]"
The CEOs of Singapore and Cathay, better airlines, earn much less than Joyce. Joyce and his executive mates just awarded themselves big fat payrises, but are crying poor to the employees. QANTAS is much owned my institutional investors. It is the executives that have all the power and the big fat paychecks. You might want to check this out: http://www.smh.com.au/business/tough-times-in-the-executive-suites-20110907-1jxpo.html 'The former chief executive of Singapore Airlines, C S Chew, for example, managed to get only between $S1.25 million ($982,000) and $S1.5 million ($1.18 million) in his last nine months at the airline. Cathay Pacific's former chief executive (now International Air Transport Association director general) Tony Tyler was paid $HK11.48 ($1.4 million) in his final full year at the airline. Joyce's $5 million pay packet dwarfed that of the head of Asia's largest airline in terms of fleet size and passenger movements, China Southern. The president of the Guangzhou-based airline, Tan Wangeng , was paid a relatively paltry 1.03 million yuan ($153,000) last year. The entire board of China Southern's supervisors, executive directors and non-executive directors (including Tan) was paid about $855,000 during the same period.'
You used to be able to get a Geiger counter on eBay for well under $100 (which is itself a rip-off because in Eastern Europe they are really cheap). After Fukushima people went crazy in countries as far away as America thanks to our media's 24-hour *F*E*A*R* cycle. Prices jumped up to $1000 and were sold out for many months in advance. They've fallen back to $400. Still a rip-off, but wait and they will keep falling.
> Tax Loopholes No Longer Patentable
LOL Congress. Stand near their dinner bowl and your Congressman will spring into action. Yet Submarine Patents and Patent Trolling are still legal. The USPTO continues to approve the stupid, trivial and obvious patents and those written in such ridiculous language that no one knows what they mean. The USPTO leaves it to the courts to sort out the mess for them, with $500 an hour lawyers who will argue adamantly for whoever is paying them. (They should have a rule in Patent Law suits that half-way the lawyers change sides)
But seriously: A startup hit by a Patent Troll will spend $1M to $5M to fight it off. How does bogging down startups like this help America invent? It doesn't. Congress have known about this for years but won't do lift a finger. But a tax dodging patent? Suddenly their outraged cannot be contained!
> he must tell police about any phones he buys that can provide internet access.
... etc ...
Duffy called the local constabulary: "Sure it looks like an iPhone, but on the inside the Galaxy S is a web-browsing, media-playing beast of a smartphone, and one of the best Android phones available!"
The constable listened with interest, thanked Duffy, hung up then hopped on to Google to order one. He mused "I didn't really understand the point of that court order, but it's certainly useful!"
In other news CuteSteveJobs was arrested for posting a mocking parody of Sean Duffy who was jailed for
And so do researchers. It shows how much gray matter is being devoted to social networking that could be spent on better things. That's because the social networking problems are easy. Curing cancer is, you know, hard work.
The problem is the lighting stopped the train in front which did slow down and halt, but the train barreling along behind it which wasn't hit by lighting didn't know the first had stopped.
Thanks poity. It's been very hard to get info on these events, inside and outside China. Outside of China the news agencies barely touched it, preferring to concentrates on whatever took the place of congressional penises.
China uses many companies. Does anyone know who made the equipment that broke?
This article talks about their CTCS which is the Chinese Train Control Software based on the European Train Control Software and something called the LKJ automatic control system: Wiki only says Lieche Yunxing Jiankong Jilu Zhuangzhi – device used for train control and monitor in China Railways.
http://www.eeo.com.cn/ens/2011/0727/207313.shtml
> About 10 people fall off the commuter trains and die every day in Bombay. They tend to ride outside the train cars standing on the window sills (toes going inward) and fingers clinging to the rain gutters
Shhhhh! Don't give those cheap bastards at Ryanair any ideas.
China has many different railway suppliers and systems. Does anyone know if it was CTCS the Chinese Train Control System used on this line? These systems are expensive so China developed their own version of the European train control system. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Train_Control_System
For high-speed trains they pass the signals too fast for the drivers to see so they rely on computer control. Trains are supposed to communicate so if one in front stops or slows the other behind it knows where it is and so can slow down and stop. If the lightning fried the first train it could explain why the second didn't stop, but these systems are supposed to be design so if the first time suddenly goes quiet the second train assumes the worst and slows down to a stop until it is clear to proceed. Maybe they didn't think of that?
Yes, slashdot summary isn't good. Derailing is the end result. A collision between two bullet trains is what caused it. Maybe OP was in a rush to submit the story.
The newspapers, however, are crying foul, and alleged that it was done in retaliation for being sued for copyright violations.
Be careful what you wish for you. You might just get it
> We've loved them when we were tree-dwelling primates.
I speak for all Savannah-dwellers when I say that's exactly that sort of comment I'd expect a tree-dweller.
It's traditional to make a patent as long and droning as possible to make it sound unique and so get the USPTO to approve it because they don't really give a toss and figure patent trolls and victims can fight it out in the courts anyway amirite? Here. Let me show you:
... (2000 words later) ... and goes 'meow'.
A carbon-based form that is based on a chain based chemistry that is based on a carbon system with a conjunctive union with oxygen and nitrogen and through which forms a unit which has a spiral based form which in a system of steroidal based
Get the idea?
And *you* could win a special meeting with the boys from Seal Team Six in the comfort of your very own home.
In Australia a State Government used a ridiculously expensive "off the shelf" SAP payroll solution that turned into a complete disaster. A year later and staff still aren't being paid properly. Lots of finger pointing between IBM, SAP and Corptech who is the State Government's IT corporation. They paid $40M for software that didn't work, and still doesn't work.
Take that number in. $40M. Ridiculously overpriced even if it did work, but this doesn't even do that. Payroll isn't rocket science. A few competent programmers locked away for 6 months could do better. Far too much money is thrown at so-called 'enterprise software'.
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/218348,ibm-under-fire-for-qld-health-bungle.aspx
http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/351650/ibm_says_queensland_health_sap_failure_its_fault/
http://www.zdnet.com.au/qld-health-sap-woes-lead-to-cash-advances-339302381.htm
http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2010/05/07/215335_gold-coast-news.html
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/qld-health-pays-hefty-price-for-sick-payroll-system/story-e6frgakx-1225813063057
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/351608/updated_qld_govt_blames_ibm_health_payroll_bungle/