The lawsuit, if it succeeds, could force companies to give more thought to the risks of complying with mandates from foreign governments that violate US laws.
First of all - if you're doing business in more than one country, you are going to have to comply with the laws of those countries.
Secondly, if the recent polls are an indication, about half of Slashdot aren't in the US, so why would we care if some foreign country mandates something that may be illegal in the US? Now, if it had said "could force US companies [...]" it'd be a lot better.
But why are people surprised, that if you operate in a country, you will have to abide by the laws of that country? If you operate in a country that makes it illegal to give your customers' info to any third party without a court order, and another country has a law that says any government official can ask and it's illegal to deny the request - you're going to have to figure out how to build airtight shutters between the two companies.
Also, since there are places that see annual windstorms which tend to rip the occasional shingle off of the roof, err, how much would it cost to repair/replace?
Perhaps you would want to look into securing the shingles properly in the first place? Or if you live in places where your roof is going to get ripped off anyway, either move or don't build using expensive to repair/replace materials in the first place.
Just like how people living in Venice don't build their houses out of mud bricks.
For some strange reason, people always expect that new products should be suitable for use EVERYWHERE otherwise they're just crap. Why haven't anyone made a two piece bathing suit that's suitable for outdoor use in Antarctica? Why is my cagoule useless in the Sahara? Why does my water bottle freeze over when I'm on a dog sled expedition to the North Pole in the middle of winter?
"Nectar of the Gods" "The Last Command" "Reunion" "The Light of Darkness" "Neutron Tide" "Transit of Earth"
None of these stories are that long. Maybe 5 pages at the most I think. Easily read, not all of them SciFi in the "future" sense, but in the "fiction based in science" sense.
I have to second using SportTracks instead of the ghastly software that comes with the Garmin (I have a 705 myself).
1) The software for it sucks 2) The built in maps for my BICYCLE computer only has high ways... yeah, that's very helpful! 2a) The issue with that (ignoring the GPS unit map) is that the software is unable to pull down map overlays from anywhere! No Google maps or anything. Completely fucking useless
One thing I will recommend that you do: Change the default location of your logbooks, lest you forget to take back-ups.
I lost all the data I had from late April till early August on that account.
That's not an issue with SportsTracks, that's an issue with me. But if you change the default location, it's easier to back it up.
I swear to God, Shiva, The Flying Spaghetti Monster and all the other silly things, that I missed the first 'y' in that post. It was funny, but made not sense. Judge for yourself:
Tranny-loving politicians always try to scare the shit out of you to make it seem like they have no choice but to take your freedoms away. And it is always something horrible, like kidnapping or child rape. That way, if you don't give them what they want, then *you* must be responsible for their kidnapping/rape/death since you stood by and didn't let them do anything.
If it took them $500 million dollars to create the drug, and they have only 12 years to sell it, they have to make more than $500 million dollars to make the investment worthwhile. Don't forget, for each useful drug they invent, they also invest millions on drugs that don't work, or drugs that are eventually shown to have toxic side effects and must be pulled from the market. And just about every death that occurs while a patient is taking their drug ends up with a lawsuit that must be defended against.
Okay. Let's for the sake of argument say that their other costs are about 11 times the cost of each successful drugs. Now they have to earn US$ 500,000,000 a year. That's US$ 1,368,955 a day. If each pill have a gross profit of US$1.00 after direct production, distribution costs and tax, they now have to sell 1,368,955 pills a day. That's 0.46% of the US population buying one of these pills a day (well, more like packets of 30).
Since they have FDA approval and world wide patents, they have access to the EU as well. That's another almost 500,000,000 potential patients. Now we're looking at 0.18% of the potential patients needing to be on this drug. The Australian continent is ~30 million people, but that won't make much difference.
[...]they charge anywhere from $100/month to $1000/month or more
That's US$3 to US$33 per day. Then all the other costs (production, distribution, tax etc.) can still be US$2.00 to US$32.00. This is per pill, and I really doubt that the costs are that high for anything in those sizes.
I'm not saying patents on medicine is a bad idea (though at times, governments do need to ignore them to keep their population safe). Just that the money in medicine probably aren't quite as tight as you make it seem.
So what you're saying is that the old technology was huge monolithic building blocks (Windows) and the huge improvement was using tiny building blocks (Unix mindset)?
If anyone describes themselves as a nutritionist, just be slightly weary, alright? What they're saying might be perfectly true, but nutritionist isn't a protected term. Anyone can call themselves a nutritionist. Dietician is the legally protected term. A dietician is like dentist, and nutritionist is like "toothiologist".
1) Argue that it's "unjust" that some people can afford certain things while others cannot, set up a "from each according to his abilities to each according to his needs" system and watch it fail spectacularly
I give you the Scandinavian socialist democratic capitalist countries.
Try comparing their systems to that of the US which is spectacularly on the side of "if you can't afford treatment - die".
Like a telephone? LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! Phone can LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! be nice, but they have LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! a huge and very annoyLOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! annoying habit of breaking LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! your train of LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! thought. LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! People LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! ask me why my cellphone is LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! always set to silent LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! with a vibrate opLOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! option. It's LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! very simple. I hate thoLOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! those interruptions.
People just don't seem to understand what it means to be polite any more. Just the other day I was talking to a sales assistant when his phone rings. He then proceeds to answer the phone and starts talking to what is clearly another customer.
Instead of just doign like people usually do in those situations, which is to grumble quietly, I decided to act like a telephone. So while he was trying to talk with this customer, I kept saying this at a very loud voice: LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!.
When he finally said "just a moment" to the guy on the phone and gave me a look as if I was being insanely rude for no apparent reason I told him: "What makes the customer who's calling you, more important than the guy who is in the fucking store, cash in hand, looking to buy something? If you can't manage to handle a phone properly, and merely tell the guy on the phone to please hold, you need to go tell your boss that you're an idiot who shouldn't be trusted to have a phone on him. The guy on the phone is asking you for specs on a 100 dollar item, I'm looking at buying a 2,000 dollar item. And you just lost the sale. Have a nice day."
Yes, phones are interactive - that means you can ignore it. Most people won't. I suppose they're expecting Publisher's Clearing House to call them any minute now, telling them they've just won ten million dollars.
And yes, I hate it when IMs, emails and other communication tools decide that they are the most important thing in the world and need to jump in front of everything else to gain your attention. This goes for programs I'm starting as well - if I switch my attention to something else while waiting for that program to start, stay in the fucking background! I'm not the only one with this particular peeve either:
#4848
damn
FUCK
DAMN
i was just in an AIM convo with a chick, and my grandmother's window pops up
FUCK
i go like this to her
"i want to suck on your clit"
FUCK
That may be the case, but it can be highly confusing for the recipient.
It's a natural response to the fact that email dialogues begin at the top of the message
So, now the shoe is on the other glove, and you don't like the smoke in the forest?
Why the hell to you put my name at the top or your name at the bottom when its says right at the top who the emails is from and to?! This madness must end!!!
Kind regards Martin Schou
PS: Just be glad I didn't post like this (and yes, I've seen a ton of emails written in this way):
Dear ObsessiveMathsFreak (User ID 773371)
That depends on who you ask. That may be the case, but it can be highly confusing for the recipient. So, now the shoe is on the other glove, and you don't like the smoke in the forest?
Kind regards Martin Schou
Top posting is not evil. It's a natural response to the fact that email dialogues begin at the top of the message. Just because you'd like the actual new content of the message to be all the way at the bottom doesn't mean everyone else does. Gmail does this right. Top or bottom posted, the quoted text is automatically hidden, as it should be. The first and only thing that should be seen by default in an email message is new content.
We need to put such trivialities behind us and deal with the real problem facing email today. Salutations and Valedictions. Why the hell to you put my name at the top or your name at the bottom when its says right at the top who the emails is from and to?! This madness must end!!!
So, what is it? 1 Tb (terabit) or 1 TB (terabyte). If you are going to fuck up your abbreviations, at least be consistent about it instead of using Tb in the title and TB in the text.
Actually I think it's the editor that needs to be hit upside the head with a terrabat (no, that's not a typo, that's supposed to be a bat made out from the ground - i.e. granite), as he probably tried to "prettify" the title.
30,000 pages sounds like a lot, but you're barely pushing five pages a day on average.
Most pro-sumer printers will handle that easily. HPs prosumer inkjets are rated at 15,000 pages a MONTH (though the recommended level is less than 1,250)
Considering you're averaging six pages a day, you might actually be better off getting a cheap inkjet that you replace continually over buying a long haul workhorse. Pretty much any printer from any company will suit you, as long as the OS of your choice is supported.
But let me reiterate - six pages a day is a breeze on anything you can buy. If that's all you're printing, you don't need a printer for the long haul.
HPs consumer laser jets are all host based. This is best shown by how to reset the firmware - powercycle. I've only been supporter for the consumer line, but PCL5 is a business level feature for the laser jets.
The people who are complaining that 200 miles isn't enough for their daily commute will then complain that 500 isn't enough either. Get to 5,000 and they'll complain about charging time, get that down to an hour and they'll still complain.
As good as won't win over masses. Better than won't win over masses either if they have to change anything. Just look at how much people bitch if you suggest they buy a smaller model engine for the same car to save money on gas and purchase. Even if you're talking about a 350 BHP vs 400 BHP model. They'll whine about how they couldn't possibly tow their four ton trailer that they only need once every four years.
People really REALLY love to whine and complain. And that won't change any time soon.
Are we just talking pulling pictures off of a porn site without checking why?
I know that one of the most popular online news papers in Denmark, not only links to a Danish porn site, but pulls in (safe for work) banners from that domain as well. And if you are then using a browser that spiders at least one link level deep, you'd automatically be seen as browsing for porn, just because you're checking up on headlines.
Slashdot Mirror
That sounds suspiciously like an "In Soviet Russia" joke ... might need a little twist to really hit home ...
"In Sony's America, you buy it, they break it"?
First of all - if you're doing business in more than one country, you are going to have to comply with the laws of those countries.
Secondly, if the recent polls are an indication, about half of Slashdot aren't in the US, so why would we care if some foreign country mandates something that may be illegal in the US? Now, if it had said "could force US companies [...]" it'd be a lot better.
But why are people surprised, that if you operate in a country, you will have to abide by the laws of that country? If you operate in a country that makes it illegal to give your customers' info to any third party without a court order, and another country has a law that says any government official can ask and it's illegal to deny the request - you're going to have to figure out how to build airtight shutters between the two companies.
Duh!
Perhaps you would want to look into securing the shingles properly in the first place? Or if you live in places where your roof is going to get ripped off anyway, either move or don't build using expensive to repair/replace materials in the first place.
Just like how people living in Venice don't build their houses out of mud bricks.
For some strange reason, people always expect that new products should be suitable for use EVERYWHERE otherwise they're just crap. Why haven't anyone made a two piece bathing suit that's suitable for outdoor use in Antarctica? Why is my cagoule useless in the Sahara? Why does my water bottle freeze over when I'm on a dog sled expedition to the North Pole in the middle of winter?
Arthur C. Clarke has some awesome short stories.
"Nectar of the Gods"
"The Last Command"
"Reunion"
"The Light of Darkness"
"Neutron Tide"
"Transit of Earth"
None of these stories are that long. Maybe 5 pages at the most I think. Easily read, not all of them SciFi in the "future" sense, but in the "fiction based in science" sense.
I have to second using SportTracks instead of the ghastly software that comes with the Garmin (I have a 705 myself).
1) The software for it sucks ... yeah, that's very helpful!
2) The built in maps for my BICYCLE computer only has high ways
2a) The issue with that (ignoring the GPS unit map) is that the software is unable to pull down map overlays from anywhere! No Google maps or anything. Completely fucking useless
One thing I will recommend that you do: Change the default location of your logbooks, lest you forget to take back-ups.
I lost all the data I had from late April till early August on that account.
That's not an issue with SportsTracks, that's an issue with me. But if you change the default location, it's easier to back it up.
I swear to God, Shiva, The Flying Spaghetti Monster and all the other silly things, that I missed the first 'y' in that post. It was funny, but made not sense. Judge for yourself:
I'm not sure Glenn Beck would agree. Nor would the frog he tosses into the boiling water.
Okay. Let's for the sake of argument say that their other costs are about 11 times the cost of each successful drugs. Now they have to earn US$ 500,000,000 a year. That's US$ 1,368,955 a day. If each pill have a gross profit of US$1.00 after direct production, distribution costs and tax, they now have to sell 1,368,955 pills a day. That's 0.46% of the US population buying one of these pills a day (well, more like packets of 30).
Since they have FDA approval and world wide patents, they have access to the EU as well. That's another almost 500,000,000 potential patients. Now we're looking at 0.18% of the potential patients needing to be on this drug. The Australian continent is ~30 million people, but that won't make much difference.
That's US$3 to US$33 per day. Then all the other costs (production, distribution, tax etc.) can still be US$2.00 to US$32.00. This is per pill, and I really doubt that the costs are that high for anything in those sizes.
I'm not saying patents on medicine is a bad idea (though at times, governments do need to ignore them to keep their population safe). Just that the money in medicine probably aren't quite as tight as you make it seem.
So what you're saying is that the old technology was huge monolithic building blocks (Windows) and the huge improvement was using tiny building blocks (Unix mindset)?
To paraphrase Dara Ó Briain:
I'm fairly certain you can get a quick answer at the US embassy in Oslo just by calling them.
The one thing you DON'T want to do on the paper work, is to omit that you have these convictions.
And yes, it's quite stupid. Not just that the US cares, but also that it's illegal - but that's a different discussion altogether.
You do realise, that the transistor was all smoke, mirrors, grants and lab reports until someone managed to actually make one, right?
How about "awesome"?
When's the last time someone told you something was awesome, you looked at what they were talking about and you felt awe inspired or awestruck?
I give you the Scandinavian socialist democratic capitalist countries.
Try comparing their systems to that of the US which is spectacularly on the side of "if you can't afford treatment - die".
Like a telephone? LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! Phone can LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! be nice, but they have LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! a huge and very annoyLOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! annoying habit of breaking LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! your train of LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! thought.
LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!
LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!
LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!
People LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! ask me why my cellphone is LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! always set to silent LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! with a vibrate opLOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! option. It's LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! very simple. I hate thoLOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! those interruptions.
People just don't seem to understand what it means to be polite any more. Just the other day I was talking to a sales assistant when his phone rings. He then proceeds to answer the phone and starts talking to what is clearly another customer.
Instead of just doign like people usually do in those situations, which is to grumble quietly, I decided to act like a telephone. So while he was trying to talk with this customer, I kept saying this at a very loud voice: LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!.
When he finally said "just a moment" to the guy on the phone and gave me a look as if I was being insanely rude for no apparent reason I told him: "What makes the customer who's calling you, more important than the guy who is in the fucking store, cash in hand, looking to buy something? If you can't manage to handle a phone properly, and merely tell the guy on the phone to please hold, you need to go tell your boss that you're an idiot who shouldn't be trusted to have a phone on him. The guy on the phone is asking you for specs on a 100 dollar item, I'm looking at buying a 2,000 dollar item. And you just lost the sale. Have a nice day."
Yes, phones are interactive - that means you can ignore it. Most people won't. I suppose they're expecting Publisher's Clearing House to call them any minute now, telling them they've just won ten million dollars.
And yes, I hate it when IMs, emails and other communication tools decide that they are the most important thing in the world and need to jump in front of everything else to gain your attention. This goes for programs I'm starting as well - if I switch my attention to something else while waiting for that program to start, stay in the fucking background! I'm not the only one with this particular peeve either:
Dear ObsessiveMathsFreak (User ID 773371)
That depends on who you ask
That may be the case, but it can be highly confusing for the recipient.
So, now the shoe is on the other glove, and you don't like the smoke in the forest?
Kind regards
Martin Schou
PS:
Just be glad I didn't post like this (and yes, I've seen a ton of emails written in this way):
So, what is it? 1 Tb (terabit) or 1 TB (terabyte). If you are going to fuck up your abbreviations, at least be consistent about it instead of using Tb in the title and TB in the text.
Actually I think it's the editor that needs to be hit upside the head with a terrabat (no, that's not a typo, that's supposed to be a bat made out from the ground - i.e. granite), as he probably tried to "prettify" the title.
30,000 pages sounds like a lot, but you're barely pushing five pages a day on average.
Most pro-sumer printers will handle that easily. HPs prosumer inkjets are rated at 15,000 pages a MONTH (though the recommended level is less than 1,250)
Considering you're averaging six pages a day, you might actually be better off getting a cheap inkjet that you replace continually over buying a long haul workhorse. Pretty much any printer from any company will suit you, as long as the OS of your choice is supported.
But let me reiterate - six pages a day is a breeze on anything you can buy. If that's all you're printing, you don't need a printer for the long haul.
HPs consumer laser jets are all host based. This is best shown by how to reset the firmware - powercycle. I've only been supporter for the consumer line, but PCL5 is a business level feature for the laser jets.
Seriously, how long has Microsoft Security Essentials been on the market? Ten hours? Twenty?
How the hell can a piece of software that hasn't been on the market for more than a day or two have helped anyone, let alone hurt others?
Not going to happen.
The people who are complaining that 200 miles isn't enough for their daily commute will then complain that 500 isn't enough either. Get to 5,000 and they'll complain about charging time, get that down to an hour and they'll still complain.
As good as won't win over masses. Better than won't win over masses either if they have to change anything. Just look at how much people bitch if you suggest they buy a smaller model engine for the same car to save money on gas and purchase. Even if you're talking about a 350 BHP vs 400 BHP model. They'll whine about how they couldn't possibly tow their four ton trailer that they only need once every four years.
People really REALLY love to whine and complain. And that won't change any time soon.
No, The Internet Is For Porn!
I think you need a healthy dose of The Daily Show.
Are we just talking pulling pictures off of a porn site without checking why?
I know that one of the most popular online news papers in Denmark, not only links to a Danish porn site, but pulls in (safe for work) banners from that domain as well. And if you are then using a browser that spiders at least one link level deep, you'd automatically be seen as browsing for porn, just because you're checking up on headlines.
And there's a guarantee that the original one won't cause permanent blindness? Ever? To just one person?