And what about the other, other side. While I'm not in favor of it, there could always be a push to create a Federalized Linux distribution by using a tax on broadband to pay for it. If you payed for your broadband, you might have to kick in an extra $2 a month but you would basically allow something like a corporation for public computing to form up and make Linux. Instead of the GPL then, you would just have the work be in public domain.
As developers, we tend to be Aspberger's like focused on immediate and specific issues, but really, as soon as people in the government start to actually do something, you need to remember, anything can happen.
WW2 was certainly a huge capital outlay, and brought people to work, but let's not forget some basic things:
a. WW2 took place 9 years after Roosevelt was elected. He had nearly a decade of New Deal to end the Depression and really didn't accomplish anything.
b. We are already in a war, two of them actually, and the economy still sucks. IF we wanted to raise the military budget to 6T a year, we would have WWII levels of spending on the military, and, what would that accomplish?
c. The prosperity of US postwar had more to do with the total destruction of American industrial rivals. Even GB, our ally, was so bankrupted by the war that she hit the skids. Continental Europe and Japan were destroyed, and the damage caused to Russia by the German invasion was so severe it doomed Russia to be a third world economy for decades afterwards. USA economy has been in relative decline as each of these players rebuilt and retooled.
You're also ignoring the rest of the world. As each country implemented Keynesian policies, their economies quickly recovered
IT was Keynesian policies they implemented, it was classic mercantilism, protecting their own industries as much as possible to let them rebuild, while selling their goods to the USA. This dysfunctional world economy has persisted for 60 years. First it depleted USA gold reserves so that in the 1970s the USA floated the dollar. Then, it depleted USA dollars so that in the 1980s the USA began borrowing, and then, when Bush finally pulls the plug on the whole damned thing by lowering the dollar, we're left with an economy that is reflective of what it really is, a large economic power with a bunch of smaller, but capable, economic powers, and a bunch of goods and a so-called free trading system that is actually irrationally priced due to the junkie's desire to keep the postwar ball rolling.
No more.
Americans aren't going to tolerate the economic dislocation and fiscal ruin caused by all the imports, and finally, you are going to have to see USA's trading partners actually construct meaningful domestic demand on their end, while at the same time the USA will have to build more of what it needs and stop treating the developing world as so much indentured servants.
Open source people suddenly argue that the economy demands the government give them money, so that their software can continue to be "free". Always knew the end game of FOSS was a tax supported infrastructure.
Unfortunately, this 3D MRI can not be applied to imaging the human brain yet.
One problem is that though this machine has great spatial resolution (precision in space)....it may not have great temporal resolution (precision in time).
Forget that problem dude. The sample to be imaged by this MRI has to be placed on top of what the article calls a "silicon diving board". Now, I'm not the sharpest guy in the world, but "silicon diving board" does NOT sound like skull, which, to my lay understanding seems to be a pretty fair spot for brains to be placed in living things.
There's nothing hysterical or half mad about what I said at all. All I said was that Obama was beholden to media interests. They are going to want some concessions from him, and they are going to get them.
1. Web startups like to have patents of their own, to get venture capital.
2. Liberal economy means exactly what I said. The problem is the USA is a liberal economy with mercantile trading partners, except that instead of holding gold, they hold dollars and treasury bills.
3. Net neutrality isn't bad, but, you'll get other regulation as well. Right off the wheel, we have states looking to get internet sales taxes, the dems want to squelch conservative content, and the publishing houses want greater tracability to try and crush internet theft. Those are all issues advocated by the people that put Obama into the white house and they are going to want a return on their political investment.
4. Well, again, "better than Bush" is a subjective term. You have to go by industry and some industries did well under him, and others did not so well. If you worked in commodities, or other "red state" industries, you did rather well. Similarly, owing more towards an ideological bias against regulation than anything else, the open source movement, and software industry as a whole, did rather well under the Bush administration. On the other hand, if you worked in media, government or traditionally blue state service industries - like banking or wall street, you got screwed. It's the same deal with Obama. Strip away the rhetoric and there are clearly industries to align with in his administration. Favor products that support copyright, environmental stuff, renewable fuels, and you'll be in good shape. In my case, that means write for Windows and buy stock in biodiesel companies. Go Obama.
Sorry, but, you know, this whole hippy thing of nudity is love and violence is evil is just stupid.
Nudity has nothing to do with love. Sticking your dick into some slut's snatch and gushing it around until she says she loves you doesn't do anything for the country at all. Unless she decides she's up for breeding some good old babies for Jesus, otherwise, it's useless.
On the other hand, violence is plenty useful. It can get you more oil, access at the bargaining table with the great powers, AND, most of all, it can get your more broads to ram that fuckstick of yours into.
I know what Jesus said and all, but, the reality is different. If you want to be a big pussy and wish you had a girlfriend, value nudity. But, if you want to have tons of oil and power, then be violent, as you'll get tons of pussy to boot, and, they'll all be cranking out your genetic destiny in the form of children.
Who would you rather be, Ghandi, living impoversished in a tent, and getting shot in the end by some punk. Or, would you rather be Ghengis Khan, with an empire the size of Asia and the Middle East, tons of loot, and more women than you can name colors?
You guys are all giving each other high fives over Obama's FCC pick, and what you do not get is that commercially, he's going to be a very strong IP guy and a lot of you are going to be disappointed in that.
Think, people! How does a man who does venture capital for web startups NOT wind up being strongly in favor of copyright enforcement, software patents, and all the litigation that this board has come to despise?
I see a lot of media companies that did Obama a lot of favors, and Obama's bill for them is coming due. I would expect to see an Obama administration have -stricter- regulation than Bush's administration ever did, all to protect the big city newspapers, publishing houses, record companies, movie studios and other enterprises that form the economic backbone of what we would call the "liberal economy". I would expect to see increased liability on telcos for copyrighted content, a federal bureacracy to handle copyright claims, greater pressure on the rest of the world to get on board, and what's France going to do, when their own newspapers, movie studios, and more, are telling them to do the same thing. Bush had to sell out to Exxon and Halliburton, but Obama is a sellout to Time Warner and the New York Times. Every President, regardless of political party, has a business constituency that they whore out too, and in Obama's case, its the publishing industry. Bush brought us $4/gallon gasoline to appease his corporate masters, and Obama's going to kill the open internet, to do the same.
Fuck that. Not only am I for abortion, I am for RETROACTIVE abortion until the age of...uhh... how old is Joe Baka again?
War is retroactive abortion. But we could also throw in genocide as well. That would just be retroactive abortion with government issued quotas. I'm still trying to figure out a politically correct to make a video game that lets you run a good genocide with modern technology.
Due to aerodynamic lift, keeping a structurally sound aircraft up in the air is simply a matter of keeping it moving forward parallel to the ground at a sufficient speed.
Yes, and you have to continually apply force sufficient to lift the entire weight of the aircraft against the force of gravity. If the car is planted on terra firma, you need very little force at all. That is why a 3000 hp engine is sufficient to move a mile long train that with a mass of thousands of tons, but we have yet to build an aircraft that can actually haul as much as a train can push.
The last paragraph of the book's sale blip says it all.
Therefore this book should be a must for all those interested in the creation of a harmonious one-world. It is also the book for every thinking Muslim.
Flying cars are one of those sci-fi ideas that are good on paper but right now, not in practice. How much fuel does a flying car take to fly? Cars have rolling resistance, for sure, but keeping an aircraft up in the air would take more energy, and hence, more fuel, would it not?
It's the profit part of the equation that borks everything: when your money depends on not paying out benefits
Everyone seems to think that having something in the government removes the profit motive and really, nothing could be further from the truth. It's only a recent thing that government did not control the exclusive right to all commerce in the western world. Of course government wants to make a profit on something and then misuse them. In fact, on nearly every income stream, from social security set-asides to tobacco trust payments, turnpikes and port authorities, recent government enterprises has been nothing but a profit center with which to blow more money on other things.
Errr, strange question. Granted, the middle east (obviously mainly muslim) hasn't contributed a great deal to science in recent years
Recent years, that's 500 years ago since Islam made any real contributions to science and the arts. Secondly, babylonians, the world's first battery, etc, were all cultures that pre-dated Islam, and well, Christianity for that matter.
It seems like your views are somewhat narrow-minded and blinkered
500 years is an aweful long time without a showing in science or the arts dude. Face it, Islam is at a cultural dead end, a self inflicted dark ages.
Yes, under Nazi occupation, they had no choice. They were fucked up times. It was a long time ago. Go to Germany man, it's a great place full of nice people. Get with the times.
You always have a choice. I know plenty of Germans. They can be very entertaining but they still have that German thing where they think being cruel or bullying is funny.
t's not because Europeans are anti-semitic or pro-muslim. It's simply because we have our own (usually quite sensible) opinions on how to find a resolution to the ongoing conflicts and Israeli politics is often (not always) the limiting factor.
Sensible? I think long standing anti-semetism automatically makes Israeli's actions seem less palpable to Europeans. If European standards for Israel were applied to similar European problems, Kaliningrad and Danzig would be German, Basque would be a separate country, and the Island of Ireland would be one country. But oh no, Israel is the only place on earth that has to accept land for peace. France doesn't have to. Poland doesn't have to. Britain doesn't have to, but then Israel does.
As a European I've got to say that's absolute rubbish. Can't believe you got modded up for peddling such bullshit.
I think your track record proves it. Let's see, prior to World War II, there's 2000 years of anti-semitism. Then, during the war, well, there's plenty of people collaborating on the holocaust, and then, after the war, pretty much every European state unanimously sides with Islamic states in continual condemnations of Israel, no matter what she does. I can't how many times the only reason some resolution condemning Israel made it through the General Assembly on a unanimous vote, and that really means, Europeans sided with the Arabs to curry favor with the muslims. And, you did it again in opposition to Operation Desert Storm, and you bitched at the USA until the world is going to basically let Iran get the atomic bomb!
If they had a virtual deathmatch, they'd never stop fighting because neither side wants to ever admit defeat or can accept a peace of co-existence. So, the only deathmatch that there can be is a real one.
For all of this talking about Palestinians, you know, when are they actually going to accomplish something with what they have. When is any arab state going to do anything. Let's face it, islamic cultural is terrible right now and will remain so until they choose to not be ignorant. Why is it that a few million jews have contributed more to science and the arts than a billion muslims? Geez, are jews really that smart, or are muslims that ignorant.
If the UN had its way, Israel would be wiped off the map. Let's face it, Europeans hate Jews and will always hate Jews, even when Europeans themselves don't even see themselves as much as Christians any more. It's just irrational.
Just cut that shit out now and pay what is needed to hold this place in the world.
Why hold this place in the world? Let's see, right now the USA is spending about 600 billion a year bringing democracy to two countries that hate us, protecting allies that won't fight with us, all so that all of these countries can dump their goods onto our soil and take our jobs. Did you know that prior to World War II, the USA had FIFTY PERCENT of all the manufacturing capacity on the planet. Now we're down to less than 20%. This whole big standing army to keep our "allies" safe is symptomatic of a standing decline in the fortunes of the USA relative to the rest of the world that has taken place since World War II.
Enough already.
Seriously. What good does NATO do the USA? IF Europe wants to have another war, if North Korea wants to invade South Korea, China invade Taiwan, or Japan China, or vice versa, why should the average American even care. It's not our job to police the world. Let the world police itself. All these other nations scream diplomacy while safely under the American blanket, well, let's take that blanket off and let them fend for themselves.
That is the problem, and right now, its a major bitch to get a new power plant built. Natural gas is now obviously foolish given all the price variance, coal and nuclear are both politically impossible, and windmills and solar can't yet even fill the role of a good peak demand unit. So, there is no more electricity to buy, and therefor, the government rations it.
The argument that the F-35 can adequately "replace" or "fill in" for the F-22 Raptor is a political one
That's what I thought. The top speed of the F-22 is Mach 2+, but the F-35 is just supersonic. But, the F-35 is so expensive that we aren't getting nearly the volume of F-22 that we need. We really need at a least 1000 of these things, and then, for the USAF, I wonder why we could not build a ground attack variant and then cancel the F-35 for the USAF.
"Your an idiot" should be written "You're an idiot". I just thought I'd throw that out there.
Do you see a difference between what people see on the street, and what the government buys?
Of course the governments are stealing software, they just lie about it to save face. Do you really, seriously expect me to believe that some mid level manager in the Vietnamese government is genuinely going to be all that worried about whether Microsoft gets their licensing fee?
That's absolutely crazy.
Sure, he might lie to his boss to save face in terms of complying with government policy that he probably doesn't like, and in turn the boss will lie to Microsoft and the west, in exchange for getting access to American markets, but in the end, they are stealing software while selling American buyers shirts for a $1 a piece.
Slashdot Mirror
How about the other side?
And what about the other, other side. While I'm not in favor of it, there could always be a push to create a Federalized Linux distribution by using a tax on broadband to pay for it. If you payed for your broadband, you might have to kick in an extra $2 a month but you would basically allow something like a corporation for public computing to form up and make Linux. Instead of the GPL then, you would just have the work be in public domain.
As developers, we tend to be Aspberger's like focused on immediate and specific issues, but really, as soon as people in the government start to actually do something, you need to remember, anything can happen.
WW2 was the New Deal on steroids.
WW2 was certainly a huge capital outlay, and brought people to work, but let's not forget some basic things:
a. WW2 took place 9 years after Roosevelt was elected. He had nearly a decade of New Deal to end the Depression and really didn't accomplish anything.
b. We are already in a war, two of them actually, and the economy still sucks. IF we wanted to raise the military budget to 6T a year, we would have WWII levels of spending on the military, and, what would that accomplish?
c. The prosperity of US postwar had more to do with the total destruction of American industrial rivals. Even GB, our ally, was so bankrupted by the war that she hit the skids. Continental Europe and Japan were destroyed, and the damage caused to Russia by the German invasion was so severe it doomed Russia to be a third world economy for decades afterwards. USA economy has been in relative decline as each of these players rebuilt and retooled.
You're also ignoring the rest of the world. As each country implemented Keynesian policies, their economies quickly recovered
IT was Keynesian policies they implemented, it was classic mercantilism, protecting their own industries as much as possible to let them rebuild, while selling their goods to the USA. This dysfunctional world economy has persisted for 60 years. First it depleted USA gold reserves so that in the 1970s the USA floated the dollar. Then, it depleted USA dollars so that in the 1980s the USA began borrowing, and then, when Bush finally pulls the plug on the whole damned thing by lowering the dollar, we're left with an economy that is reflective of what it really is, a large economic power with a bunch of smaller, but capable, economic powers, and a bunch of goods and a so-called free trading system that is actually irrationally priced due to the junkie's desire to keep the postwar ball rolling.
No more.
Americans aren't going to tolerate the economic dislocation and fiscal ruin caused by all the imports, and finally, you are going to have to see USA's trading partners actually construct meaningful domestic demand on their end, while at the same time the USA will have to build more of what it needs and stop treating the developing world as so much indentured servants.
Open source people suddenly argue that the economy demands the government give them money, so that their software can continue to be "free". Always knew the end game of FOSS was a tax supported infrastructure.
Unfortunately, this 3D MRI can not be applied to imaging the human brain yet.
One problem is that though this machine has great spatial resolution (precision in space)....it may not have great temporal resolution (precision in time).
Forget that problem dude. The sample to be imaged by this MRI has to be placed on top of what the article calls a "silicon diving board". Now, I'm not the sharpest guy in the world, but "silicon diving board" does NOT sound like skull, which, to my lay understanding seems to be a pretty fair spot for brains to be placed in living things.
There's nothing hysterical or half mad about what I said at all. All I said was that Obama was beholden to media interests. They are going to want some concessions from him, and they are going to get them.
1. Web startups like to have patents of their own, to get venture capital.
2. Liberal economy means exactly what I said. The problem is the USA is a liberal economy with mercantile trading partners, except that instead of holding gold, they hold dollars and treasury bills.
3. Net neutrality isn't bad, but, you'll get other regulation as well. Right off the wheel, we have states looking to get internet sales taxes, the dems want to squelch conservative content, and the publishing houses want greater tracability to try and crush internet theft. Those are all issues advocated by the people that put Obama into the white house and they are going to want a return on their political investment.
4. Well, again, "better than Bush" is a subjective term. You have to go by industry and some industries did well under him, and others did not so well. If you worked in commodities, or other "red state" industries, you did rather well. Similarly, owing more towards an ideological bias against regulation than anything else, the open source movement, and software industry as a whole, did rather well under the Bush administration. On the other hand, if you worked in media, government or traditionally blue state service industries - like banking or wall street, you got screwed. It's the same deal with Obama. Strip away the rhetoric and there are clearly industries to align with in his administration. Favor products that support copyright, environmental stuff, renewable fuels, and you'll be in good shape. In my case, that means write for Windows and buy stock in biodiesel companies. Go Obama.
Sorry, but, you know, this whole hippy thing of nudity is love and violence is evil is just stupid.
Nudity has nothing to do with love. Sticking your dick into some slut's snatch and gushing it around until she says she loves you doesn't do anything for the country at all. Unless she decides she's up for breeding some good old babies for Jesus, otherwise, it's useless.
On the other hand, violence is plenty useful. It can get you more oil, access at the bargaining table with the great powers, AND, most of all, it can get your more broads to ram that fuckstick of yours into.
I know what Jesus said and all, but, the reality is different. If you want to be a big pussy and wish you had a girlfriend, value nudity. But, if you want to have tons of oil and power, then be violent, as you'll get tons of pussy to boot, and, they'll all be cranking out your genetic destiny in the form of children.
Who would you rather be, Ghandi, living impoversished in a tent, and getting shot in the end by some punk. Or, would you rather be Ghengis Khan, with an empire the size of Asia and the Middle East, tons of loot, and more women than you can name colors?
You guys are all giving each other high fives over Obama's FCC pick, and what you do not get is that commercially, he's going to be a very strong IP guy and a lot of you are going to be disappointed in that.
Think, people! How does a man who does venture capital for web startups NOT wind up being strongly in favor of copyright enforcement, software patents, and all the litigation that this board has come to despise?
I see a lot of media companies that did Obama a lot of favors, and Obama's bill for them is coming due. I would expect to see an Obama administration have -stricter- regulation than Bush's administration ever did, all to protect the big city newspapers, publishing houses, record companies, movie studios and other enterprises that form the economic backbone of what we would call the "liberal economy". I would expect to see increased liability on telcos for copyrighted content, a federal bureacracy to handle copyright claims, greater pressure on the rest of the world to get on board, and what's France going to do, when their own newspapers, movie studios, and more, are telling them to do the same thing. Bush had to sell out to Exxon and Halliburton, but Obama is a sellout to Time Warner and the New York Times. Every President, regardless of political party, has a business constituency that they whore out too, and in Obama's case, its the publishing industry. Bush brought us $4/gallon gasoline to appease his corporate masters, and Obama's going to kill the open internet, to do the same.
Fuck that. Not only am I for abortion, I am for RETROACTIVE abortion until the age of...uhh... how old is Joe Baka again?
War is retroactive abortion. But we could also throw in genocide as well. That would just be retroactive abortion with government issued quotas. I'm still trying to figure out a politically correct to make a video game that lets you run a good genocide with modern technology.
I'd say warmongering is better than abortion, because it always better to kill someone else's child than your own.
Due to aerodynamic lift, keeping a structurally sound aircraft up in the air is simply a matter of keeping it moving forward parallel to the ground at a sufficient speed.
Yes, and you have to continually apply force sufficient to lift the entire weight of the aircraft against the force of gravity. If the car is planted on terra firma, you need very little force at all. That is why a 3000 hp engine is sufficient to move a mile long train that with a mass of thousands of tons, but we have yet to build an aircraft that can actually haul as much as a train can push.
The last paragraph of the book's sale blip says it all.
Therefore this book should be a must for all those interested in the creation of a harmonious one-world. It is also the book for every thinking Muslim.
Flying cars are one of those sci-fi ideas that are good on paper but right now, not in practice. How much fuel does a flying car take to fly? Cars have rolling resistance, for sure, but keeping an aircraft up in the air would take more energy, and hence, more fuel, would it not?
It's the profit part of the equation that borks everything: when your money depends on not paying out benefits
Everyone seems to think that having something in the government removes the profit motive and really, nothing could be further from the truth. It's only a recent thing that government did not control the exclusive right to all commerce in the western world. Of course government wants to make a profit on something and then misuse them. In fact, on nearly every income stream, from social security set-asides to tobacco trust payments, turnpikes and port authorities, recent government enterprises has been nothing but a profit center with which to blow more money on other things.
Errr, strange question. Granted, the middle east (obviously mainly muslim) hasn't contributed a great deal to science in recent years
Recent years, that's 500 years ago since Islam made any real contributions to science and the arts. Secondly, babylonians, the world's first battery, etc, were all cultures that pre-dated Islam, and well, Christianity for that matter.
It seems like your views are somewhat narrow-minded and blinkered
500 years is an aweful long time without a showing in science or the arts dude. Face it, Islam is at a cultural dead end, a self inflicted dark ages.
Yes, under Nazi occupation, they had no choice. They were fucked up times. It was a long time ago. Go to Germany man, it's a great place full of nice people. Get with the times.
You always have a choice. I know plenty of Germans. They can be very entertaining but they still have that German thing where they think being cruel or bullying is funny.
t's not because Europeans are anti-semitic or pro-muslim. It's simply because we have our own (usually quite sensible) opinions on how to find a resolution to the ongoing conflicts and Israeli politics is often (not always) the limiting factor.
Sensible? I think long standing anti-semetism automatically makes Israeli's actions seem less palpable to Europeans. If European standards for Israel were applied to similar European problems, Kaliningrad and Danzig would be German, Basque would be a separate country, and the Island of Ireland would be one country. But oh no, Israel is the only place on earth that has to accept land for peace. France doesn't have to. Poland doesn't have to. Britain doesn't have to, but then Israel does.
As a European I've got to say that's absolute rubbish. Can't believe you got modded up for peddling such bullshit.
I think your track record proves it. Let's see, prior to World War II, there's 2000 years of anti-semitism. Then, during the war, well, there's plenty of people collaborating on the holocaust, and then, after the war, pretty much every European state unanimously sides with Islamic states in continual condemnations of Israel, no matter what she does. I can't how many times the only reason some resolution condemning Israel made it through the General Assembly on a unanimous vote, and that really means, Europeans sided with the Arabs to curry favor with the muslims. And, you did it again in opposition to Operation Desert Storm, and you bitched at the USA until the world is going to basically let Iran get the atomic bomb!
If they had a virtual deathmatch, they'd never stop fighting because neither side wants to ever admit defeat or can accept a peace of co-existence. So, the only deathmatch that there can be is a real one.
For all of this talking about Palestinians, you know, when are they actually going to accomplish something with what they have. When is any arab state going to do anything. Let's face it, islamic cultural is terrible right now and will remain so until they choose to not be ignorant. Why is it that a few million jews have contributed more to science and the arts than a billion muslims? Geez, are jews really that smart, or are muslims that ignorant.
If the UN had its way, Israel would be wiped off the map. Let's face it, Europeans hate Jews and will always hate Jews, even when Europeans themselves don't even see themselves as much as Christians any more. It's just irrational.
Just cut that shit out now and pay what is needed to hold this place in the world.
Why hold this place in the world? Let's see, right now the USA is spending about 600 billion a year bringing democracy to two countries that hate us, protecting allies that won't fight with us, all so that all of these countries can dump their goods onto our soil and take our jobs. Did you know that prior to World War II, the USA had FIFTY PERCENT of all the manufacturing capacity on the planet. Now we're down to less than 20%. This whole big standing army to keep our "allies" safe is symptomatic of a standing decline in the fortunes of the USA relative to the rest of the world that has taken place since World War II.
Enough already.
Seriously. What good does NATO do the USA? IF Europe wants to have another war, if North Korea wants to invade South Korea, China invade Taiwan, or Japan China, or vice versa, why should the average American even care. It's not our job to police the world. Let the world police itself. All these other nations scream diplomacy while safely under the American blanket, well, let's take that blanket off and let them fend for themselves.
That is the problem, and right now, its a major bitch to get a new power plant built. Natural gas is now obviously foolish given all the price variance, coal and nuclear are both politically impossible, and windmills and solar can't yet even fill the role of a good peak demand unit. So, there is no more electricity to buy, and therefor, the government rations it.
The argument that the F-35 can adequately "replace" or "fill in" for the F-22 Raptor is a political one
That's what I thought. The top speed of the F-22 is Mach 2+, but the F-35 is just supersonic. But, the F-35 is so expensive that we aren't getting nearly the volume of F-22 that we need. We really need at a least 1000 of these things, and then, for the USAF, I wonder why we could not build a ground attack variant and then cancel the F-35 for the USAF.
That's all I gotta say!
Your an idiot
"Your an idiot" should be written "You're an idiot". I just thought I'd throw that out there.
Do you see a difference between what people see on the street, and what the government buys?
Of course the governments are stealing software, they just lie about it to save face. Do you really, seriously expect me to believe that some mid level manager in the Vietnamese government is genuinely going to be all that worried about whether Microsoft gets their licensing fee?
That's absolutely crazy.
Sure, he might lie to his boss to save face in terms of complying with government policy that he probably doesn't like, and in turn the boss will lie to Microsoft and the west, in exchange for getting access to American markets, but in the end, they are stealing software while selling American buyers shirts for a $1 a piece.