The system works properly if everyone votes for whom they feel is the best candidate.
How I wish that were really true. But the fact is, in an election with more than 2 candidates, it's possible for two similar candidates to split the vote, allowing the third candidate to win even though for the majority of the voters he is the worst choice. This isn't just a theoretical concern, either -- it arguably happened in both the 1996 and 2000 US Presidential elections.
See my.sig for a reform that would help address this problem (or choose your own alternative reform... I don't too much care how the problem is addressed, as long as it gets addressed)
The difference is that the marginal costs of software reproduction are (for all practical purposes) zero. That is, once the code is written, the second copy of the program (and the 3rd and the 4th and the nth) cost approximately nothing to recreate. That's what makes it worth it in many cases to give the software away for free -- the benefits of many eyeballs, open standards, easy access, etc outweigh the trivial costs of distribution.
Unfortunately, support and upgrades don't work that way -- the more people you support, the more time and money it takes to do so. You could probably justify free documentation if you wanted to do it, though.
Not to sound too much like a shill (I'm just an unpaid fan, honest), but if you want to contribute to Dean's campaign, today is an excellent day to do it, because today is the last day of the 3rd fiscal quarter for FEC filing purposes. That means that contributions received today will be reported in the 3rd quarter, and (like it or not) a campaign's viability is usually measured by the press in terms of how much funding the campaign is receiving. So a contribution to Dean today will be more useful in terms of reinforcing Dean's image as a serious candidate than a contribution tomorrow will be (although I'm sure he'll welcome a contribution tomorrow too;^))
Also, if you want to hear more from and about Howard Dean, be sure to check out his interview on NPR's Talk of the Nation yesterday. His performance in this interview is a great example of why people are so excited about his candidacy.
A couple of years ago Enron stock was performing extremely well also... when the public found at that the company was based on lies, the stock value fell immediately to near zero. The only difference between that case and this one is that in this one, the public hasn't figured it out yet.
Nah, it was Microsoft strong-arming all the OEMs into not bundling BeOS with their hardware that put Be out of business, combined with Be's disastrous "focus shift" into making Internet Appliances that never worked right anyway. BONE (the new networking stack) was just collateral damage (along with the new OpenGL implementation and lots of other neat stuff that never saw the light of day... sniff)
NetPositive may suck as a general purpose web browser, but it reads Slashdot and other not-too-fancy-schmancy sites just fine, it's very fast and responsive, and it launches in about a third of a second. Because of that, I still use it instead of Mozilla whenever it can handle the content.
you want to know why this thing will never sell? it looks stupid, and, imagine getting broadsided by H2 in this. no, don't imagine-
Personally, I think it looks pretty cool, but that's a matter of opinion. As for getting broadsided, so what? Getting broadsided by an H2 while on a motorcycle would be even worse, and yet plenty of people buy and drive motorcycles.
And it still is. Nothing has changed. The nuclear power plants that went loco were poorly managed to the point of insanity.
What's changed is this: now instead of just "insanely poor management", we have people who would deliberately try to use nuclear materials to cause as much damage as possible. That means that nuclear energy can only be used in "trusted/secure" environments, which limits its usefulness quite a bit.
The Space Elevator would be a tempting target for terrorists, since it could be attacked using low tech weapons, if they could be delivered. We shouldn't underestimate their creativity in doing this.
True, destroying the Space Elevator would be a big demoralizer, and thus a big draw for the terrorists. Destroying elevator #6 of 27 wouldn't be such a big deal, though. That's why one of the first projects given to Space Elevator #1 should be the lifting up into orbit of Space Elevator #2, and so on.
It would be nice if there were a law that made it so that riders couldn't happen; a law could only cover one topic. The problem with that, of course, is that no one in Congress would be willing to pass such a law.
That problem is solved of course -- simply attach this anti-rider bill as a rider to another bill that is broadly popular and guaranteed to pass. Et voila!
The majority, the long end out in space, gains enough speed that it burns up in the atmosphere, with the lower portion falling into the sea. It will not fall on top of anyone.
3. For the portion that doesn't burn up in a fall- what effect will it have on the environment?
Honestly, it will make a little bit of a mess. But New York City tickertape parades have made bigger messes. Comparatively it will put much less dust, dirt, debris and chemicals into the environment than wildfires of the American west, any one of the large expendable rockets, or a month of natural meteors hitting Earth. The ribbon is light (7.5 kg/km) so, any pieces that fall to earth will slow down, in the air, to about the same terminal velocity as that of an open newspaper page falling. It will not have enough momentum to cause mechanical damage when it comes down. We have considered other health risks such as inhalation of very small fragments and believe this will not be a problem but we are conducting studies to make sure this isn't a problem. Since we are aware of the possible problems now we can design the elevator to avoid these problems.
Well sure... if the car is the same size as a CRX. It's unfair the compare the mileage of a larger, roomier, heavier car with a CRX and complain that they aren't equal.
as it could be replaced with biodesiel very easily, and if oil became scarce it would be economical to do so.
I wouldn't be so sure about that... the amount of waste oil generated by restaurants, etc, is negligible compared to the size of the auto market, and if you were planning on growing extra crops to produce all that biodiesel... guess what, it takes lots of fossil fuels to fertilize and grow crops too. In the end, the energy has to come from somewhere, and right now we've got it easy because we can millions of years worth of stored energy out of the ground, but once that's gone, we'll be left with only the energy we can collect "in real time" from the sun, wind, oceans, etc.
Hey, we didn't found the hell out of Iraq twice for nothing. Now we reap the rewards.;)
The rewards being, apparently, a long drawn-out messy occupation that costs $1 billion and several US soldiers' lives every week. Not to mention worldwide fear and hatred that increases the likelihood of future terror attacks.
You're assuming that MS is liable for anything now. You did read all of that 20-page click-through license agreement when you installed Windows, didn't you?
So, if an app has the Holy Seal, it is trustworthy?
Quite the opposite, I would think. If the product has the Holy Seal, that means the vendor knew the product has potential to cause major harm and took steps to cover itself from liability suits. Therefore, if you see a product with the seal on it, run like hell.
It was amazing re-reading all of these again and how many topics written in the 80's are still topical today - especially the strips with political overtones
I don't know what environmentalists you're referring to, but the ones I know are in favor of developing renewable energy sources, since that is the best way of reducing pollution.
There are a variety of problems associated with so-called "clean" energy sources.
Certainly there are, but there is one problem that non-renewable sources suffer from that is an absolute show-stopper: they aren't renewable. Eventually we will run out of coal, oil, and plutonium. When that happens, we'll either have successfully switched to renewable enery sources, or we'll have to go back to living in caves. I prefer the former.
Slashdot Mirror
How I wish that were really true. But the fact is, in an election with more than 2 candidates, it's possible for two similar candidates to split the vote, allowing the third candidate to win even though for the majority of the voters he is the worst choice. This isn't just a theoretical concern, either -- it arguably happened in both the 1996 and 2000 US Presidential elections.
See my
Unfortunately, support and upgrades don't work that way -- the more people you support, the more time and money it takes to do so. You could probably justify free documentation if you wanted to do it, though.
Also, if you want to hear more from and about Howard Dean, be sure to check out his interview on NPR's Talk of the Nation yesterday. His performance in this interview is a great example of why people are so excited about his candidacy.
A couple of years ago Enron stock was performing extremely well also... when the public found at that the company was based on lies, the stock value fell immediately to near zero. The only difference between that case and this one is that in this one, the public hasn't figured it out yet.
If you can operate your Etch-a-Sketch quickly enough to display 80Hz video on it, then you really need to cut down on the caffeine...
It has nothing to do with need, I lecture you because I enjoy lecturing you, Beryllium ;^)
Are you saying that the blood of a male virgin is less valuable somehow? Sexist bastard... ;^)
Nah, it was Microsoft strong-arming all the OEMs into not bundling BeOS with their hardware that put Be out of business, combined with Be's disastrous "focus shift" into making Internet Appliances that never worked right anyway. BONE (the new networking stack) was just collateral damage (along with the new OpenGL implementation and lots of other neat stuff that never saw the light of day... sniff)
So there
Personally, I think it looks pretty cool, but that's a matter of opinion. As for getting broadsided, so what? Getting broadsided by an H2 while on a motorcycle would be even worse, and yet plenty of people buy and drive motorcycles.
What's changed is this: now instead of just "insanely poor management", we have people who would deliberately try to use nuclear materials to cause as much damage as possible. That means that nuclear energy can only be used in "trusted/secure" environments, which limits its usefulness quite a bit.
True, destroying the Space Elevator would be a big demoralizer, and thus a big draw for the terrorists. Destroying elevator #6 of 27 wouldn't be such a big deal, though. That's why one of the first projects given to Space Elevator #1 should be the lifting up into orbit of Space Elevator #2, and so on.
That problem is solved of course -- simply attach this anti-rider bill as a rider to another bill that is broadly popular and guaranteed to pass. Et voila!
2. What if [the ribbon] breaks?
The majority, the long end out in space, gains enough speed that it burns up in the atmosphere, with the lower portion falling into the sea. It will not fall on top of anyone.
3. For the portion that doesn't burn up in a fall- what effect will it have on the environment?
Honestly, it will make a little bit of a mess. But New York City tickertape parades have made bigger messes. Comparatively it will put much less dust, dirt, debris and chemicals into the environment than
wildfires of the American west, any one of the large expendable rockets, or a month of natural meteors hitting Earth. The ribbon is light (7.5 kg/km) so, any pieces that fall to earth will slow down, in the air, to about the same terminal velocity as that of an open newspaper page falling. It will not have enough momentum to cause mechanical damage when it comes down. We have considered other health risks such as inhalation of very small fragments and believe this will not be a problem but we are conducting studies to make sure this isn't a problem. Since we are aware of the possible problems now we can design the elevator to avoid these problems.
Well sure... if the car is the same size as a CRX. It's unfair the compare the mileage of a larger, roomier, heavier car with a CRX and complain that they aren't equal.
I wouldn't be so sure about that... the amount of waste oil generated by restaurants, etc, is negligible compared to the size of the auto market, and if you were planning on growing extra crops to produce all that biodiesel... guess what, it takes lots of fossil fuels to fertilize and grow crops too. In the end, the energy has to come from somewhere, and right now we've got it easy because we can millions of years worth of stored energy out of the ground, but once that's gone, we'll be left with only the energy we can collect "in real time" from the sun, wind, oceans, etc.
The rewards being, apparently, a long drawn-out messy occupation that costs $1 billion and several US soldiers' lives every week. Not to mention worldwide fear and hatred that increases the likelihood of future terror attacks.
Hurray! Go Bush go!
Hmm... the Civic Hybrid looks almost identical to the regular Civic. Are you saying all Civics are ugly?
You're assuming that MS is liable for anything now. You did read all of that 20-page click-through license agreement when you installed Windows, didn't you?
Quite the opposite, I would think. If the product has the Holy Seal, that means the vendor knew the product has potential to cause major harm and took steps to cover itself from liability suits. Therefore, if you see a product with the seal on it, run like hell.
especially the strips with political overtones
The Boondocks (another great strip) has remarked on just that.
I don't know what environmentalists you're referring to, but the ones I know are in favor of developing renewable energy sources, since that is the best way of reducing pollution.
Certainly there are, but there is one problem that non-renewable sources suffer from that is an absolute show-stopper: they aren't renewable. Eventually we will run out of coal, oil, and plutonium. When that happens, we'll either have successfully switched to renewable enery sources, or we'll have to go back to living in caves. I prefer the former.
It worked for this guy...
Nope, I was frustrated as well. Is there any way to play .wmv files if you aren't running Windows?