Just last night I used the Ubuntu Software Center to add LXDE to my Ubuntu-running laptop and didn't even have to reboot to check it out. Your questions make me wonder whether you've ever even seen Ubuntu.
Normally I don't comment people's sigs, but yours is instructive here. The phrase "question authority" doesn't mean "question authority at a town hall meeting", it means, "question the legitimacy of authority to control you and take your stuff". Similarly, you believe that there are a whole host of things that high income countries have because they're provided by the government. But we're talking about a state sales tax, and you're talking about a list of services that Amazon doesn't get from the state of California:
* Roads used by the U.S. Postal Service to deliver things are paid by gas taxes paid by USPS out of the postage it collects. * The programmers' education was primarily to their benefit, not Amazons. They're not slaves. And to the extent those programmers got in state tuition, they or their families were taxpayers in that state. * Federal courts are not administered by the state of California. * Amazon doesn't need California police since they're not in California. * California doesn't protect Amazon from (absurdly hypothetical) foreign invaders. * Since Amazon's warehouses are not in California, so California's firefighters will not be the ones to protect them.
The California government is trying to shake down Amazon. Amazon is right to resist.
I realize you're referring to deferring to those with genuine expertise, and I respect that and agree, but as an aside, anyone who thinks that a PhD holder necessarily has more merit has never worked for a university. Talk about a sausage factory!
Although, one might say that libertarians believe that property rights would be more easily protected by the marketplace than the state, so even anarchist libertarians are covered. (In the sense that whether they're right or wrong, at least they're consistent.)
There's no scarcity in communism by definition (Marx and his followers described communism as "from everyone according to their abilities, to everyone according to their needs". It was supposed to be the society that socialism would transform into after scarcity is defeated by rapid technological progress. In that sense, the analogy is very apt - there's no scarcity in FOSS, and with copyleft, the above description of communism is implemented practically to the word.
Hmm. There's a difference between saying that there's no scarcity because the cost to produce and deliver a desired good or service is negligible, and saying there's no scarcity because people have embraced a culture in which they do not want anything that they do not actually need. For one, a true lack of scarcity would mean no problem obtaining the things that do need.
While Westerners have historically referred to Soviet Russia, China etc as "communist", the countries themselves have always maintained that they are "socialist". To remind, USSR stands for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Communism was always something on the horizon, with a floating date - they were saying they'd have it by 1940 in 1920, and by 1980 in 1960.
Fair enough. And their theoretical end goal doesn't actually sound like a bad way to live, provided that people go into it willingly. But it's extremely difficult to get real people to yield political power, so it's not surprising that, like any other mirage, communism from socialism would always recedes as it's approached.
The association is bad because they're not the same thing. When government reassigns scarce physical resources, someone else must lose each and every time someone else wins. With software there's no scarcity, so there's no losing required. That's also why referring to copyright as "property" instead of as an entitlement is such a scam.
It depends where in the city you want to go. In some places parking isn't hard. Downtown, it's very hard, unless you're willing to pay twenty bucks for a spot in a garage, in which case it's also easy. But not everyone has twenty dollar bills to throw around like that, so I see your point.
i can't speak about the other cities, but I live in the D.C. area. If you and your destination are both near Metro stations then public transportation is convenient here. But if not, it really isn't. And it's not very cheap either.
Financial markets need duck laws: if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it's taxed and regulated like a duck.
The problem is that "we can't define it, but we know it when we see it" is the enemy of the rule of law. Perhaps it would be better to announce that investors are now expected to do their own due diligence and will actually lose their money and not be bailed out by taxpayers if they make poor choices.
You have a point, but the problem here is that this story falsely implies that government is the only way to provide these services or that it is the most efficient way. That a system functions at all is not a reason not to improve it.
Slashdot Mirror
Unless, of course, you were being facetious and I was too pre-caffeinated to see it.
Just last night I used the Ubuntu Software Center to add LXDE to my Ubuntu-running laptop and didn't even have to reboot to check it out. Your questions make me wonder whether you've ever even seen Ubuntu.
Great, now I totally want a nuclear-powered flying car. Thanks a lot!
Normally I don't comment people's sigs, but yours is instructive here. The phrase "question authority" doesn't mean "question authority at a town hall meeting", it means, "question the legitimacy of authority to control you and take your stuff". Similarly, you believe that there are a whole host of things that high income countries have because they're provided by the government. But we're talking about a state sales tax, and you're talking about a list of services that Amazon doesn't get from the state of California:
* Roads used by the U.S. Postal Service to deliver things are paid by gas taxes paid by USPS out of the postage it collects.
* The programmers' education was primarily to their benefit, not Amazons. They're not slaves. And to the extent those programmers got in state tuition, they or their families were taxpayers in that state.
* Federal courts are not administered by the state of California.
* Amazon doesn't need California police since they're not in California.
* California doesn't protect Amazon from (absurdly hypothetical) foreign invaders.
* Since Amazon's warehouses are not in California, so California's firefighters will not be the ones to protect them.
The California government is trying to shake down Amazon. Amazon is right to resist.
I'm sure sooner or later Lucas will release a version of Episode IV that has AT-ATs.
I realize you're referring to deferring to those with genuine expertise, and I respect that and agree, but as an aside, anyone who thinks that a PhD holder necessarily has more merit has never worked for a university. Talk about a sausage factory!
Not to mention that information isn't property, so "ownership" in this sense is referring to responsibility, not to the right of exclusive use.
Although, one might say that libertarians believe that property rights would be more easily protected by the marketplace than the state, so even anarchist libertarians are covered. (In the sense that whether they're right or wrong, at least they're consistent.)
Wapner. Definitely, definitely Wapner.
There should be a word for when one is both in error and arrogant, such as "errogant".
Fish can't get to the body. It'd be in a regulation US Navy body bag specifically made for burials at sea, and loaded down with lead weights.
Well, not if this is accurate.
We prefer the term "Freetards".
DNF is shipping. Anything can happen.
You can't pre-pardon people who aren't even considered guilty yet.
Why not? Ford did it for Nixon, and Carter did it for those who fled conscription.
Finally acknowledged that most likely nothing useful (to mankind) will come of this discovery.
Wait... does that qualifier mean that it might be useful to our alien overlords or something?
So basically, they're mining digital blood diamonds? I guess everything really is available online these days!
There's no scarcity in communism by definition (Marx and his followers described communism as "from everyone according to their abilities, to everyone according to their needs". It was supposed to be the society that socialism would transform into after scarcity is defeated by rapid technological progress. In that sense, the analogy is very apt - there's no scarcity in FOSS, and with copyleft, the above description of communism is implemented practically to the word.
Hmm. There's a difference between saying that there's no scarcity because the cost to produce and deliver a desired good or service is negligible, and saying there's no scarcity because people have embraced a culture in which they do not want anything that they do not actually need. For one, a true lack of scarcity would mean no problem obtaining the things that do need.
While Westerners have historically referred to Soviet Russia, China etc as "communist", the countries themselves have always maintained that they are "socialist". To remind, USSR stands for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Communism was always something on the horizon, with a floating date - they were saying they'd have it by 1940 in 1920, and by 1980 in 1960.
Fair enough. And their theoretical end goal doesn't actually sound like a bad way to live, provided that people go into it willingly. But it's extremely difficult to get real people to yield political power, so it's not surprising that, like any other mirage, communism from socialism would always recedes as it's approached.
The association is bad because they're not the same thing. When government reassigns scarce physical resources, someone else must lose each and every time someone else wins. With software there's no scarcity, so there's no losing required. That's also why referring to copyright as "property" instead of as an entitlement is such a scam.
It depends where in the city you want to go. In some places parking isn't hard. Downtown, it's very hard, unless you're willing to pay twenty bucks for a spot in a garage, in which case it's also easy. But not everyone has twenty dollar bills to throw around like that, so I see your point.
i can't speak about the other cities, but I live in the D.C. area. If you and your destination are both near Metro stations then public transportation is convenient here. But if not, it really isn't. And it's not very cheap either.
We had the same response. I didn't know about it either, but now I have someone new to like.
Financial markets need duck laws: if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it's taxed and regulated like a duck.
The problem is that "we can't define it, but we know it when we see it" is the enemy of the rule of law. Perhaps it would be better to announce that investors are now expected to do their own due diligence and will actually lose their money and not be bailed out by taxpayers if they make poor choices.
You have a point, but the problem here is that this story falsely implies that government is the only way to provide these services or that it is the most efficient way. That a system functions at all is not a reason not to improve it.
Yeah, except this time he'll be sparkly.
Evidently, you didn't realize that "Tonight on a very special episode of..." was your cue to change the channel. :-)