Wouldn't know. Appears to involve Windows only crap. I have Flash Player 9 on Linux, it said my version didn't support "Express Install" and that I should upgrade. Wonder what sort of spyware it was intending to sneak into my machine?
> Given this statistical sampling, we'd have timely and verifiable results...
Horror story waiting to happen. Without thinking I can see ways to break it.
Rig the 'random' sample of machines to check. That only leaves the machines picked by the other party. Unless they get a fairly high number your odds of getting caught are low. And even if you get caught you can still win. Since the plan was to only count a trivial sampling of ballots the recount won't happen instantly, leaving plenty of time to stuff the paper ballots to match the machine totals.
But this all just wanking over conspiracy theories anyway. Democrats have known how to steal elections for over a century and it doesn't generally involve tampering with voting machines.
No, this guy needs to realize he is in the best place to prevent fraud already and concentrate on doing his job and not get distracted by the voting machines. When dead people (party hacks running from polling place to polling place with a handful of IDs) make it past the sign in sheet the fraud has already taken place, the machines can work perfectly and still elect the wrong person. The second opportunity is before and after the polls open/close. Odds are any machine tampering will happen at that point, so be alert.
> Care to actually look at the history of the death penalty > legislation I quoted you?
I did. I took the CNN article, figuring it would give Obama the most favorable spin and even that was pretty repulsive if one looks through said spin. Basically he is anti death penalty under any conditions, but was willing to settle for less as long as all movement in the bill was in his direction. Most Democrats are the same, as long as the direction is always towards their position most are quite willing to take the road to hell slow and scenic. He assumes every convicted criminal is innocent (20-1 at least half of those 'innocent' criminals he was whinging on about are guilty as hell and there is ins;t a lot of reasonable doubt on any of em, getting the evidence tossed on a techicallity typically means a monster is set loose, not that an innocent man was freed) like just about every Democrat but HE is a new kind of racist Democrat, he will actually sit at the same table with the police and discuss THEIR guilt. Bah.
> Obama's position at least does the courtesy of acknowledging that, > ya know, there are moral issues, and that while he believes as a > practical matter that abortion should be legal, it should be > avoided wherever possible.
So does Clinton, remember "safe, legal and rare" was Hillbilly's tag line. Boob bait for the bubbas. So long as the prolife[1] side accepts that abortion is a sacrement that must NEVER be infringed they are willing to 'compromise' and talk about policies that might make it occur less often. And when you ask just what those policies might be you find it is more condoms on cucumbers and little else of substance.
> You know that hardline "Republicans oppose abortion because they > hate your rights!" boilerplate that most Democrats use?
I'll admit that that sort of thing isn't HIS style and in a way it is an improvement and in a way it isn't. Because while HE doesn't talk that way you would be hard pressed to find a close associate of his who doesn't. He is more than willing to befriend, direct funds towards and accept political support from the most radical and hateful elements of the left. Start with the unholy trinity of religious figures at the center of his life along with that shrew[1] he married. If you can say anything positive about any of those four you are more of an optimist than I am. Move out to Rezko, Ayers, Dorm, Kalidi[sp] and the rest of the merry gang of corrupt venom spewing haters he hange out with.
And then there is the Islam issue. I'd like to be all 'enlightened' and say it doesn't matter.. but it just won't go away. If you read his own book the "never was a practicing Muslim" line is a lie. Not spin, not a politician parsing words, it is simply a lie.
Then there is the coincidence of his associates. Calypso Louie? Muslin, sorta[3]. Rev. Wright is ex Nation of Islam. Ayers and Dorm? Converted to Islam, raising their children in the religion. Rezko and Kalidi are both practitioners of the 'Religion of Peace^WPieces". Michelle appears to be (along with Barak?) more Marxist in religious belief than anything else.... in this case that is a positive thing... I think?
And unlike the petty religious issues involved with Catholics in public office, this religious question matters. We happen to be at war with the more faithful elements of this particular religion. And if we follow his stated policies we will soon be in open warfare with most of the Islamic world.
[1] I'm on neither 'side.' I think the pro infanticide (and that is what partial birth abortion IS) team including NARAL, Obama, etc. is evil and the fundies singing 'Every Sperm is Sacred" is loony. There has to be a middle position but as long as those gangs hog the microphone we ain't ever gonna find it.
[2] Mean? Probably, but from teh available evidence she is one real piece of work. From the bigoted thesis back in college to her more recent comments, one thing is clear: should Obama w
>..he tries to understand their positions and find some way to > make those positions compatible with his (still staunchly > Democratic) positions.
In other words he is is exactly like every other Democrat of the 20th Century, always ready to welcome a Republican with open arms who wants to 'compromise'.... so long as the word is defined as the Republican agreeing with the Democrat position while the Democrat agrees that he was right all along and isn't it great that the Republican has 'grown'.
Personally I WANT more rancor. I want fierce disagreements over substantitive policy differences. The personal attacks are what need to be reigned in, but most[1] of those come from people like Obama; the old rule that a bigot is anyone who disagrees with a Democrat is about to get totally insane.
[1] Ok, Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh excepted. But they are entertainers, more on the order of your side's Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert.
>..the vast majority of people have no way to verify that > their software is secure..
Doesn't matter. So long as we are ALLOWED to possess Free Software it keeps em honest. How can you enforce a backdoor when there are hundreds of distribution points? When anyone who wants to can replace/rewrite a major codebase at whim?
Now compare to closed commercial software. First off remember that all closed shops utterly depend on the government to grant and enforce the monopoly they depend upon for their revenue. As a practical matter there are only a handful of closed shops still in the operating system game, leaving a few pressure points we would all be left depending upon.
> The death penalty legislation he pulled together...
I hope there is better than that. A Democrat who is against the death penalty isn't exactly going to risk the wrath of his own. Personally I'd have voted against the so called compromise.
Compare to McCain's brand of cross party politics, Cap & Trade, No Mexican Left Behind (in Mexico), Gang of 14, etc.
Personally I hate the idea, but Obama claims to be the Third Way politician McCain actually is and somebody should question him on it instead of just buying the BS.
Me, I don't want to compromise with socialists I want to defeat them.
> I think he is as honorable a politician as you can find today.
Perhaps, but he is NOT honorable in my book. He did just fine defending the Republic from external threats. Hell, 'just fine' doesn't even cover it, he is a frickin' War Hero in the best use of the word. But he utterly failed the biggest challenge a man can face. When the time came to defend the Republic from Senator John McCain he failed. When his Oath of Office ran into his ego the ego won. My only question for Senator McCain is "Mr. McCain, do you have a literacy problem and just don't understand what 'Congress shall make no law...' and that it applies to you or do you understand and just not care?"
The rest of his 'compromising with Dems' I can disagree with and still vote for him, but the 1st Amendment is a bridge too far for me. Unless BHO really pisses me off between now and the election, I'll be going 3rd Party.
> I really hope he doesn't go for the fundamentalist christian vote..
No chance of that so don't worry. If he were to try it would put a renewed focus on his 'religious' beliefs and since it is clear that Wright, Phfleger(sp?) and Farrakan little unholy trinity have nothing at all to do with Christanity (Catholic or UCC) or Islam it wouldn't take most Christians long to connect the dots and realize he is nothing but a heathen practicing the heresy called Black Liberation Theology.
>..it wouldn't be outside his stated mission to bring people together..
I know that is what he bleats about in those gassey speeches that don't actually SAY anything, but I'll be damned is I can find a single instance of 'bringing people together' in his thin record. McCain on the other hand has plenty of recorded incidents of knifing his own to score points with the other side. It's why I, as a conservative leaning libertarian, am having so much trouble with the idea of supporting him.
Perhaps you, as an Obama supporter can supply some examples of this alleged bipartisanship?
> He's dirty as fuck, more corrupt than a louisiana politician.
Oh I doun't doubt Obama is a fully integrated part of the political machine 'yall got up there, but you Yanks don't know squat about corruption.
We have a Governor in Federal Prison. He got elected while under indictment, with the endorsement of BOTH major parties. Of course due to our crazy open primaries his opponent was David Duke so it wasn't like we had much of a choice.
We got us a Congresscritter who got caught with $90,000 in 'cold hard cash' sitting in his freezer. He is still in Congress, reelected by nice margins.
We got us a blooming idiot down in New Orleans as mayor, prone to foot in mouth like 'ya wouldn't believe. Makes Wright look like a beginner in the whitey hatin' business. And totally incompetent. You want to know why New Orleans didn't really TRY to evacuate, look no farther than Ray and the Ray Nagin Memorial Bus Lot.
We just got rid of a Governor who was so incompetent her own party made sure she didn't run for reelection.... didn't help em though, Jindal cleaned their clocks anyway, so we have some room for optimism.
Bagging a governor as a keynote speaker is generally a good thing PR wise. Some dipshits who can't see that is nothing new, and can't resist tunring an ordinary thing into yet another opportunity to flog their fringe political positions is all too common.
Summary after reading the links: Nothing to see here, move along.
Looks interesting. But it does have a few obvious downsides after a few minutes of looking.
1. It is bigger on two dimensions and about the same 2" depth vs a Model 100. After two decades I'd have expected a little improvement.:)
2. The keyboard LOOKS like the weak link, your statement that this actually IS a problem just confirms that the most important attribute of the Model 100, the wonderful keyboard, isn't replicated here.
3. No indication of battery life is given when using AA batteries, but since modern Li-ion rechargables have better energy density vs off the shelf AA Alkalines.... Again, it has been two decades and things like battery life are worse?
4. $350 for the base model seems a little much for what you get. Yes it has a bigger screen than my ancient Visor but it is just as monochromatic. Seriously, take my old Visor, double the RAM to 16MB, give it a bigger display and bolt on a keyboard and you get this product. Paid $99 for the Visor years ago.
For $350 you can get an Eeepc, smaller on all dimensions, similar chicklet keyboard but get a color screen and WiFi. Runtime is the only selling point for the AlphaSmart.
If they could either drastically reduce the sticker price or get a kick ass keyboard on it they would have a winner in my book.
Emphasize that it IS a Model 100, add links to confirm for the sceptical, and you should be able to move the machine at a profit. There is a resurgence in interest in the things.
What I'd liek to see is an updated version. Keep the idea but use modern semiconductors to give it a useful storage capacity, a little more CPU power and a better display. But DO keep both Windows AND probably Linux off of it to keep the best attribute, instant boot and AA batteries.
More than a "Word processor" less than a computer. Palm OS would be a perfect fit.
>..just change the doors so that you need your card to leave as well as enter the building.
Great plan... until the first inspection by the fire marshall and you get written up. Exits MUST always be open. Yes you can make em hit a special button that makes a special log entry or even a loud noise. And after it gets set off a dozen times the noise gets cut out and the logs quit being looked at.
Of course if you are in a really SECURE environment where that sort of thing is really needed you might be able to enforce the rules a little better. Might.
> People putting loaded handguns in their homes in the case of a wood-be > assailant or robber breaking in.
I won't even bother trying to reason with you because it would only devolve into my statistics are better than yours, nyee nyaa. Been there, done that, you guys are immune to rational thought.
So I'll just ask you to put your ass where your propaganda is. Put a "Gun Free Zone" sign in your yard. Better, get all yer loony neighbors to make your whole neighborhood a Gun Free Zone.
>... other acting professions are grossly overpaid.
Exactly. And if they weren't so overpaid the whole Hollywood inflated price scales would get in touch with reality all the way to the box office and DVD rack at Walmart. The MPAA and RIAA would lose most of their arguments. I'm not seeing a downside. Extra bonus, if Hollywood airheads weren't so mega rich, if they were just ordinary successful people, perhaps we wouldn't have a whole parasitic industry devoted to the worship of actors and singers and millions of people who know more about Ms. Spears life than their neighbor.
And I totally want to punch this Hollick guy in the nuts for his proposed fascist solution. No, a government monopoly[1] to threaten your employer with jail if he trys to buy services at market prices is wicked and he is a either an idiot or wicked for suggesting it. Sounds great (to an idiot) right up to the point the jobs take off for a place with a better 'business climate.'
[1] I'm not opposed to a union or collective bargaining. But in most states it went beyond that to become government granted monopolies, where a government chartered corporation calling itself a Union is given control over a trade and has sole descretion to set prices, work rules, etc. and it is illegal to tell em to go procreate with themselves and hire anyone else. In other words, they are given such market distorting powers that even Microsoft's iron grip on their market looks weak.
But this 'product' makes no sense to me. They admit it is more useful at this point as an FPGA dev kit. But $1500 is a lot to plunk down for an introduction to FPGA develeopment.
This product direct from xilink makes a lot more sense for someone getting started. Ok, it only has 128MB instead of 256M, a single VGA port instead of dual DVI and a smaller FPGA. On the upside though the cheaper board is PCIe instead of PCI-X which is getting hard to find a machine to stick it into. But it is in the same family and when ya actually have a design that won't fit in the smaller part is when you should think about buying a bigger one.
"Perhaps they thought Orwell was writing an instruction manual?"
No, Orwell was writing a warning.
> People thought Machiavelli was writhing an instruction manual, too.
I take it you haven't actually read _The Prince_ or you wouldn't write something that silly. No sane person can doubt that he was writing very explicit advice on the siezing and maintaining of a crown and exhorting a specific candidate to do exactly that. And doing so for almost purely patrotic reasons. Which just goes to show that patriotism isn't always a pure and noble thing. Although given the circumstances in which he wrote the book I wouldn't be willing to totally condemn him either, his argument that only a strong and ruthless ruler could save the day had merit.
Very interesting book though.... almost every word he wrote is both totally True and totally Evil. Although perhaps Evil isn't the best word, perhaps Amoral would be a better description.
And you are an ignorant twit. When you learn the difference between profit and profit margin you can come back. Of course energy companies make large profits, the deal in really large volume. But their profit margins are either in line with similarly capitalized operations or a little below.
Learn...
The value of a stock depends on many things, the most important of which are these:
1. The value of the assets under the control of the corporation. I.e. the breakup value.
2. The cash flow of the business.
3. The profit margin, i.e. the basic rate of return on the invested money. Even though most profits are reinvested, retained or used to buy back stock because of the tax implications of dividends, investors still win because those other activities tend to increase the stock price.
4. Intangibles such as good will.
Remember that a corporation isn't a job program, it doesn't exist to serve the public, it exists to serve the shareholders. If the shareholders aren't happy they sell their shares, replace the board, sell off the corporation, etc.
Now lets have a quick pop quiz to see if you have actually learned anything.
Q1. If an energy company were to forsake profits to make Democrats happy, i.e. lower profits than similar investments, can you tell me what would happen to it's stock price?
Q2. Would the reaction be economically 'correct'?
Q3. Bonus Question. Search out the actual costs associated with a gallon of gas and determine what rank oil company profits come in at when you rank the following costs in their correct order:
1. Crude oil 2. Refining 3. Taxes (amortized corporate taxes + gas taxes) 4. Distribution 5. Dealer markup 6. Oil Company profit 7. Advertising 8. Exploration 9. Research and Development
Too late. Google/YouTube has been censoring anything that 'insults Islam', they deem to be 'hate speech (they don't like/disagree with it)' and several other catagories beyond their strict legal obligations. So now they take a firm stand for free speech when it comes to protecting terrorists. But post a conservative video and watch how how few complaints it takes to get it yanked.
Folks, Google crossed the 'Don't be Evil.' line years back.
> when oil billionaires are getting out of the business
Not exactly. Oil billionaries can't drill for oil anymore in the first or second world so they are looking at new sources. Drilling for some terrorist despot in a third world hellhole and hoping the regime lasts long enough to pay you the percentage they promised before the next revolution nationalizes the fields isn't all that enticing.
Owning windmills in Texas is a solid moneymaking proposition now and since Texas isn't likely to experience a revolution anytime soon and seize your assets long term investing makes sense.
>...small dent in the oil companies' massive record profits....
I know most people who post on/. aren't exactly what I'd call educated folk.... especially the ones who have a piece of paper..... and logical reasoning is so 19th Century. But try reading some actual facts before you open yer piehole and repeating drivel stuffed into your head by bad people pushing an anti-human agenda.
First, go and compare the profit margin of the oil companies to other large industries. Their profit margins are pretty much in line with those other heavily capitalized industries. Their profits are puny compared to real monopolies like Microsoft who have to go to extreme efforts to make profits disappear lest they attract the attention of regulators.... even after writing off billions a year on perennial money losing operations like the Xbox.
Fact is most of the money you pay at the pump goes to taxes and terrorists, which are both good reasons to be looking for alternative energy sources. Of course as soon as an alternative actually becomes profitable Democrats will be right there with their hand out. Hey, somebody has to pay for millions not to work.:)
> It saddens me that my $200 is going to be going toward 67 Windows licenses instead of something useful.
The truly sad part is that it is just so obvious that the fix is in at OLPC. If it were true that they were having trouble getting acceptance because of Linux, and that a 'product' OS was needed to close deals, I can believe that part. The real world has idiots in it. But Steve offered em OS X for zero dollars and they refused on the ground it wasn't open source.
And I remember the way they argued so irrationally when anyone suggested a non x86 CPU to lower power consumption when the ONLY reason to put an x86 in a machine like that was to keep the door open to Windows.
Exactly. You could get the top experts to put out free ebook texts that were total works of art, where not a single complaint could be lodged against them and school districts would still buy texts from the usual suspects. Too many bribes to overcome.
Think it through. Go examime what states (just in the US) spend on texts and imagine how much less exensive it would be for them to pool a fraction of that money into paying quality experts to write really good sections/chapters/units/etc. on every topic, illustrated by top notch artists and have all the supplementary materials created, all as works for hire and then released into the public domain as official government publications. Then each school district could pick and choose the chapters they want and either have em published on demand or loaded onto ebook readers. Either option would be far less expensive than what they currently pay. And since only the chapters actually being used would be printed, kids wouldn't be lugging around so much dead weight.
Doing it this way would mean that after the initial expense was sunk only minor revisions would be needed in successive years. But it would be a net financial win in the FIRST set of textbooks issued to students and all of the current fights over textbook content would instantly become local issues amendable to the local political process, thus the warfare would end.
But what I just proposed is totally self evident, so that it doesn't happen and has no realistic chance of happening means the fix is in.
> He has fought from the very beginning against providing the OLPC > to 1st world countries.
That was when those of us with a clue smelled a rat. If they really cost what they claim there was zero reason not to do exactly that and allow the 1st world customers to help lower the cost by bootstrapping the volume. I started smelling a typical UN style debacle where cost overruns would be cost shifted.
> By forcing 1st world customers (who actually have money) to pay $400 > in the give one get one, he has eliminated the vast majority of > potential buyers.
The G1G1 program was targeted entirely at do gooders who thought they were helping someone in the third world. Wonder what they think now that they have learned they spent an extra $200 to supply some kid with a free hit of XP.
Slashdot Mirror
> That was pretty funny.
Wouldn't know. Appears to involve Windows only crap. I have Flash Player 9 on Linux, it said my version didn't support "Express Install" and that I should upgrade. Wonder what sort of spyware it was intending to sneak into my machine?
> Given this statistical sampling, we'd have timely and verifiable results ...
Horror story waiting to happen. Without thinking I can see ways to break it.
Rig the 'random' sample of machines to check. That only leaves the machines picked by the other party. Unless they get a fairly high number your odds of getting caught are low. And even if you get caught you can still win. Since the plan was to only count a trivial sampling of ballots the recount won't happen instantly, leaving plenty of time to stuff the paper ballots to match the machine totals.
But this all just wanking over conspiracy theories anyway. Democrats have known how to steal elections for over a century and it doesn't generally involve tampering with voting machines.
No, this guy needs to realize he is in the best place to prevent fraud already and concentrate on doing his job and not get distracted by the voting machines. When dead people (party hacks running from polling place to polling place with a handful of IDs) make it past the sign in sheet the fraud has already taken place, the machines can work perfectly and still elect the wrong person. The second opportunity is before and after the polls open/close. Odds are any machine tampering will happen at that point, so be alert.
> Care to actually look at the history of the death penalty
> legislation I quoted you?
I did. I took the CNN article, figuring it would give Obama the most favorable spin and even that was pretty repulsive if one looks through said spin. Basically he is anti death penalty under any conditions, but was willing to settle for less as long as all movement in the bill was in his direction. Most Democrats are the same, as long as the direction is always towards their position most are quite willing to take the road to hell slow and scenic. He assumes every convicted criminal is innocent (20-1 at least half of those 'innocent' criminals he was whinging on about are guilty as hell and there is ins;t a lot of reasonable doubt on any of em, getting the evidence tossed on a techicallity typically means a monster is set loose, not that an innocent man was freed) like just about every Democrat but HE is a new kind of racist Democrat, he will actually sit at the same table with the police and discuss THEIR guilt. Bah.
> Obama's position at least does the courtesy of acknowledging that,
> ya know, there are moral issues, and that while he believes as a
> practical matter that abortion should be legal, it should be
> avoided wherever possible.
So does Clinton, remember "safe, legal and rare" was Hillbilly's tag line. Boob bait for the bubbas. So long as the prolife[1] side accepts that abortion is a sacrement that must NEVER be infringed they are willing to 'compromise' and talk about policies that might make it occur less often. And when you ask just what those policies might be you find it is more condoms on cucumbers and little else of substance.
> You know that hardline "Republicans oppose abortion because they
> hate your rights!" boilerplate that most Democrats use?
I'll admit that that sort of thing isn't HIS style and in a way it is an improvement and in a way it isn't. Because while HE doesn't talk that way you would be hard pressed to find a close associate of his who doesn't. He is more than willing to befriend, direct funds towards and accept political support from the most radical and hateful elements of the left. Start with the unholy trinity of religious figures at the center of his life along with that shrew[1] he married. If you can say anything positive about any of those four you are more of an optimist than I am. Move out to Rezko, Ayers, Dorm, Kalidi[sp] and the rest of the merry gang of corrupt venom spewing haters he hange out with.
And then there is the Islam issue. I'd like to be all 'enlightened' and say it doesn't matter.. but it just won't go away. If you read his own book the "never was a practicing Muslim" line is a lie. Not spin, not a politician parsing words, it is simply a lie.
Then there is the coincidence of his associates. Calypso Louie? Muslin, sorta[3]. Rev. Wright is ex Nation of Islam. Ayers and Dorm? Converted to Islam, raising their children in the religion. Rezko and Kalidi are both practitioners of the 'Religion of Peace^WPieces". Michelle appears to be (along with Barak?) more Marxist in religious belief than anything else.... in this case that is a positive thing... I think?
And unlike the petty religious issues involved with Catholics in public office, this religious question matters. We happen to be at war with the more faithful elements of this particular religion. And if we follow his stated policies we will soon be in open warfare with most of the Islamic world.
[1] I'm on neither 'side.' I think the pro infanticide (and that is what partial birth abortion IS) team including NARAL, Obama, etc. is evil and the fundies singing 'Every Sperm is Sacred" is loony. There has to be a middle position but as long as those gangs hog the microphone we ain't ever gonna find it.
[2] Mean? Probably, but from teh available evidence she is one real piece of work. From the bigoted thesis back in college to her more recent comments, one thing is clear: should Obama w
> ..he tries to understand their positions and find some way to
> make those positions compatible with his (still staunchly
> Democratic) positions.
In other words he is is exactly like every other Democrat of the 20th Century, always ready to welcome a Republican with open arms who wants to 'compromise'.... so long as the word is defined as the Republican agreeing with the Democrat position while the Democrat agrees that he was right all along and isn't it great that the Republican has 'grown'.
Personally I WANT more rancor. I want fierce disagreements over substantitive policy differences. The personal attacks are what need to be reigned in, but most[1] of those come from people like Obama; the old rule that a bigot is anyone who disagrees with a Democrat is about to get totally insane.
[1] Ok, Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh excepted. But they are entertainers, more on the order of your side's Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert.
> ..the vast majority of people have no way to verify that
> their software is secure..
Doesn't matter. So long as we are ALLOWED to possess Free Software it keeps em honest. How can you enforce a backdoor when there are hundreds of distribution points? When anyone who wants to can replace/rewrite a major codebase at whim?
Now compare to closed commercial software. First off remember that all closed shops utterly depend on the government to grant and enforce the monopoly they depend upon for their revenue. As a practical matter there are only a handful of closed shops still in the operating system game, leaving a few pressure points we would all be left depending upon.
> The death penalty legislation he pulled together...
I hope there is better than that. A Democrat who is against the death penalty isn't exactly going to risk the wrath of his own. Personally I'd have voted against the so called compromise.
Compare to McCain's brand of cross party politics, Cap & Trade, No Mexican Left Behind (in Mexico), Gang of 14, etc.
Personally I hate the idea, but Obama claims to be the Third Way politician McCain actually is and somebody should question him on it instead of just buying the BS.
Me, I don't want to compromise with socialists I want to defeat them.
> I think he is as honorable a politician as you can find today.
Perhaps, but he is NOT honorable in my book. He did just fine defending the Republic from external threats. Hell, 'just fine' doesn't even cover it, he is a frickin' War Hero in the best use of the word. But he utterly failed the biggest challenge a man can face. When the time came to defend the Republic from Senator John McCain he failed. When his Oath of Office ran into his ego the ego won. My only question for Senator McCain is "Mr. McCain, do you have a literacy problem and just don't understand what 'Congress shall make no law...' and that it applies to you or do you understand and just not care?"
The rest of his 'compromising with Dems' I can disagree with and still vote for him, but the 1st Amendment is a bridge too far for me. Unless BHO really pisses me off between now and the election, I'll be going 3rd Party.
> I really hope he doesn't go for the fundamentalist christian vote..
..it wouldn't be outside his stated mission to bring people together..
No chance of that so don't worry. If he were to try it would put a renewed focus on his 'religious' beliefs and since it is clear that Wright, Phfleger(sp?) and Farrakan little unholy trinity have nothing at all to do with Christanity (Catholic or UCC) or Islam it wouldn't take most Christians long to connect the dots and realize he is nothing but a heathen practicing the heresy called Black Liberation Theology.
>
I know that is what he bleats about in those gassey speeches that don't actually SAY anything, but I'll be damned is I can find a single instance of 'bringing people together' in his thin record. McCain on the other hand has plenty of recorded incidents of knifing his own to score points with the other side. It's why I, as a conservative leaning libertarian, am having so much trouble with the idea of supporting him.
Perhaps you, as an Obama supporter can supply some examples of this alleged bipartisanship?
> He's dirty as fuck, more corrupt than a louisiana politician.
Oh I doun't doubt Obama is a fully integrated part of the political machine 'yall got up there, but you Yanks don't know squat about corruption.
We have a Governor in Federal Prison. He got elected while under indictment, with the endorsement of BOTH major parties. Of course due to our crazy open primaries his opponent was David Duke so it wasn't like we had much of a choice.
We got us a Congresscritter who got caught with $90,000 in 'cold hard cash' sitting in his freezer. He is still in Congress, reelected by nice margins.
We got us a blooming idiot down in New Orleans as mayor, prone to foot in mouth like 'ya wouldn't believe. Makes Wright look like a beginner in the whitey hatin' business. And totally incompetent. You want to know why New Orleans didn't really TRY to evacuate, look no farther than Ray and the Ray Nagin Memorial Bus Lot.
We just got rid of a Governor who was so incompetent her own party made sure she didn't run for reelection.... didn't help em though, Jindal cleaned their clocks anyway, so we have some room for optimism.
Bagging a governor as a keynote speaker is generally a good thing PR wise. Some dipshits who can't see that is nothing new, and can't resist tunring an ordinary thing into yet another opportunity to flog their fringe political positions is all too common.
Summary after reading the links: Nothing to see here, move along.
> I know just what you're looking for...
:)
Looks interesting. But it does have a few obvious downsides after a few minutes of looking.
1. It is bigger on two dimensions and about the same 2" depth vs a Model 100. After two decades I'd have expected a little improvement.
2. The keyboard LOOKS like the weak link, your statement that this actually IS a problem just confirms that the most important attribute of the Model 100, the wonderful keyboard, isn't replicated here.
3. No indication of battery life is given when using AA batteries, but since modern Li-ion rechargables have better energy density vs off the shelf AA Alkalines.... Again, it has been two decades and things like battery life are worse?
4. $350 for the base model seems a little much for what you get. Yes it has a bigger screen than my ancient Visor but it is just as monochromatic. Seriously, take my old Visor, double the RAM to 16MB, give it a bigger display and bolt on a keyboard and you get this product. Paid $99 for the Visor years ago.
For $350 you can get an Eeepc, smaller on all dimensions, similar chicklet keyboard but get a color screen and WiFi. Runtime is the only selling point for the AlphaSmart.
If they could either drastically reduce the sticker price or get a kick ass keyboard on it they would have a winner in my book.
Emphasize that it IS a Model 100, add links to confirm for the sceptical, and you should be able to move the machine at a profit. There is a resurgence in interest in the things.
What I'd liek to see is an updated version. Keep the idea but use modern semiconductors to give it a useful storage capacity, a little more CPU power and a better display. But DO keep both Windows AND probably Linux off of it to keep the best attribute, instant boot and AA batteries.
More than a "Word processor" less than a computer. Palm OS would be a perfect fit.
> ..just change the doors so that you need your card to leave as well as enter the building.
Great plan... until the first inspection by the fire marshall and you get written up. Exits MUST always be open. Yes you can make em hit a special button that makes a special log entry or even a loud noise. And after it gets set off a dozen times the noise gets cut out and the logs quit being looked at.
Of course if you are in a really SECURE environment where that sort of thing is really needed you might be able to enforce the rules a little better. Might.
> People putting loaded handguns in their homes in the case of a wood-be
> assailant or robber breaking in.
I won't even bother trying to reason with you because it would only devolve into my statistics are better than yours, nyee nyaa. Been there, done that, you guys are immune to rational thought.
So I'll just ask you to put your ass where your propaganda is. Put a "Gun Free Zone" sign in your yard. Better, get all yer loony neighbors to make your whole neighborhood a Gun Free Zone.
> ... other acting professions are grossly overpaid.
Exactly. And if they weren't so overpaid the whole Hollywood inflated price scales would get in touch with reality all the way to the box office and DVD rack at Walmart. The MPAA and RIAA would lose most of their arguments. I'm not seeing a downside. Extra bonus, if Hollywood airheads weren't so mega rich, if they were just ordinary successful people, perhaps we wouldn't have a whole parasitic industry devoted to the worship of actors and singers and millions of people who know more about Ms. Spears life than their neighbor.
And I totally want to punch this Hollick guy in the nuts for his proposed fascist solution. No, a government monopoly[1] to threaten your employer with jail if he trys to buy services at market prices is wicked and he is a either an idiot or wicked for suggesting it. Sounds great (to an idiot) right up to the point the jobs take off for a place with a better 'business climate.'
[1] I'm not opposed to a union or collective bargaining. But in most states it went beyond that to become government granted monopolies, where a government chartered corporation calling itself a Union is given control over a trade and has sole descretion to set prices, work rules, etc. and it is illegal to tell em to go procreate with themselves and hire anyone else. In other words, they are given such market distorting powers that even Microsoft's iron grip on their market looks weak.
> This is a prototype!
But this 'product' makes no sense to me. They admit it is more useful at this point as an FPGA dev kit. But $1500 is a lot to plunk down for an introduction to FPGA develeopment.
This product direct from xilink makes a lot more sense for someone getting started. Ok, it only has 128MB instead of 256M, a single VGA port instead of dual DVI and a smaller FPGA. On the upside though the cheaper board is PCIe instead of PCI-X which is getting hard to find a machine to stick it into. But it is in the same family and when ya actually have a design that won't fit in the smaller part is when you should think about buying a bigger one.
"Perhaps they thought Orwell was writing an instruction manual?"
No, Orwell was writing a warning.
> People thought Machiavelli was writhing an instruction manual, too.
I take it you haven't actually read _The Prince_ or you wouldn't write something that silly. No sane person can doubt that he was writing very explicit advice on the siezing and maintaining of a crown and exhorting a specific candidate to do exactly that. And doing so for almost purely patrotic reasons. Which just goes to show that patriotism isn't always a pure and noble thing. Although given the circumstances in which he wrote the book I wouldn't be willing to totally condemn him either, his argument that only a strong and ruthless ruler could save the day had merit.
Very interesting book though.... almost every word he wrote is both totally True and totally Evil. Although perhaps Evil isn't the best word, perhaps Amoral would be a better description.
And you are an ignorant twit. When you learn the difference between profit and profit margin you can come back. Of course energy companies make large profits, the deal in really large volume. But their profit margins are either in line with similarly capitalized operations or a little below.
Learn...
The value of a stock depends on many things, the most important of which are these:
1. The value of the assets under the control of the corporation. I.e. the breakup value.
2. The cash flow of the business.
3. The profit margin, i.e. the basic rate of return on the invested money. Even though most profits are reinvested, retained or used to buy back stock because of the tax implications of dividends, investors still win because those other activities tend to increase the stock price.
4. Intangibles such as good will.
Remember that a corporation isn't a job program, it doesn't exist to serve the public, it exists to serve the shareholders. If the shareholders aren't happy they sell their shares, replace the board, sell off the corporation, etc.
Now lets have a quick pop quiz to see if you have actually learned anything.
Q1. If an energy company were to forsake profits to make Democrats happy, i.e. lower profits than similar investments, can you tell me what would happen to it's stock price?
Q2. Would the reaction be economically 'correct'?
Q3. Bonus Question. Search out the actual costs associated with a gallon of gas and determine what rank oil company profits come in at when you rank the following costs in their correct order:
1. Crude oil
2. Refining
3. Taxes (amortized corporate taxes + gas taxes)
4. Distribution
5. Dealer markup
6. Oil Company profit
7. Advertising
8. Exploration
9. Research and Development
> Don't censor anything, please?
Too late. Google/YouTube has been censoring anything that 'insults Islam', they deem to be 'hate speech (they don't like/disagree with it)' and several other catagories beyond their strict legal obligations. So now they take a firm stand for free speech when it comes to protecting terrorists. But post a conservative video and watch how how few complaints it takes to get it yanked.
Folks, Google crossed the 'Don't be Evil.' line years back.
> when oil billionaires are getting out of the business
Not exactly. Oil billionaries can't drill for oil anymore in the first or second world so they are looking at new sources. Drilling for some terrorist despot in a third world hellhole and hoping the regime lasts long enough to pay you the percentage they promised before the next revolution nationalizes the fields isn't all that enticing.
Owning windmills in Texas is a solid moneymaking proposition now and since Texas isn't likely to experience a revolution anytime soon and seize your assets long term investing makes sense.
> ...small dent in the oil companies' massive record profits....
/. aren't exactly what I'd call educated folk.... especially the ones who have a piece of paper..... and logical reasoning is so 19th Century. But try reading some actual facts before you open yer piehole and repeating drivel stuffed into your head by bad people pushing an anti-human agenda.
:)
I know most people who post on
First, go and compare the profit margin of the oil companies to other large industries. Their profit margins are pretty much in line with those other heavily capitalized industries. Their profits are puny compared to real monopolies like Microsoft who have to go to extreme efforts to make profits disappear lest they attract the attention of regulators.... even after writing off billions a year on perennial money losing operations like the Xbox.
Fact is most of the money you pay at the pump goes to taxes and terrorists, which are both good reasons to be looking for alternative energy sources. Of course as soon as an alternative actually becomes profitable Democrats will be right there with their hand out. Hey, somebody has to pay for millions not to work.
> It saddens me that my $200 is going to be going toward 67 Windows licenses instead of something useful.
The truly sad part is that it is just so obvious that the fix is in at OLPC. If it were true that they were having trouble getting acceptance because of Linux, and that a 'product' OS was needed to close deals, I can believe that part. The real world has idiots in it. But Steve offered em OS X for zero dollars and they refused on the ground it wasn't open source.
And I remember the way they argued so irrationally when anyone suggested a non x86 CPU to lower power consumption when the ONLY reason to put an x86 in a machine like that was to keep the door open to Windows.
> Yeah, what were they thinking, using the OS that the vast
> majority of educational software runs on?
Warning, a low flying clue is about to be fired in your direction. The Truth has a tendency to be painful....
That vast library of educational software you speak of.... how much of it is localized in a language useful to the targets of the OLPC project?
Reader Rabbit ain't worth much unless you plan on teaching em English.
Windows XP itself probably isn't localized in some of the languages they will need for OLPC.
> Textbooks are clearly a lucrative business...
Exactly. You could get the top experts to put out free ebook texts that were total works of art, where not a single complaint could be lodged against them and school districts would still buy texts from the usual suspects. Too many bribes to overcome.
Think it through. Go examime what states (just in the US) spend on texts and imagine how much less exensive it would be for them to pool a fraction of that money into paying quality experts to write really good sections/chapters/units/etc. on every topic, illustrated by top notch artists and have all the supplementary materials created, all as works for hire and then released into the public domain as official government publications. Then each school district could pick and choose the chapters they want and either have em published on demand or loaded onto ebook readers. Either option would be far less expensive than what they currently pay. And since only the chapters actually being used would be printed, kids wouldn't be lugging around so much dead weight.
Doing it this way would mean that after the initial expense was sunk only minor revisions would be needed in successive years. But it would be a net financial win in the FIRST set of textbooks issued to students and all of the current fights over textbook content would instantly become local issues amendable to the local political process, thus the warfare would end.
But what I just proposed is totally self evident, so that it doesn't happen and has no realistic chance of happening means the fix is in.
> He has fought from the very beginning against providing the OLPC
> to 1st world countries.
That was when those of us with a clue smelled a rat. If they really cost what they claim there was zero reason not to do exactly that and allow the 1st world customers to help lower the cost by bootstrapping the volume. I started smelling a typical UN style debacle where cost overruns would be cost shifted.
> By forcing 1st world customers (who actually have money) to pay $400
> in the give one get one, he has eliminated the vast majority of
> potential buyers.
The G1G1 program was targeted entirely at do gooders who thought they were helping someone in the third world. Wonder what they think now that they have learned they spent an extra $200 to supply some kid with a free hit of XP.