The fact that close to 50% of the population is below middle class (per your definition) is indicative of the main issue in the US today. A large, educated middle class is essential to democracy.
Except that one of the two parties has already stated on multiple occassions a willingness to compromise. In fact many Republicans would be willing to as well. It is the dogged Tea Party (and their left wing counterparts who refuse to consider modifying any entitlements) that are the issue.
give rise to the space-inductrial complex. And the rise of the space lobby.
It still amazes me that anyone with sense would endorse the privatization of any government entity when it has shown time and time again to become a syphon for government money. Until lobbying by corporations is eliminated I would take the inefficiency of NASA over private companies any day.
Mind you, Im not sayiing they private companies shouldnt exist. Unlike the prisons and military, there is a place for private spaceflight orgs providing other private organizations with launch vehicles. But government....no way.
But just for shits and giggles, please site the soldiers killed by the information released in the NYT. Please site the evidence of other news papers/media outlets hacking the phones of murder victims. (mind you I am not saying they wouldn't, just that I have seen no evidence except idle speculation used to reenforce political/social opinions).
The only NYT issue I can recall in recent times was Jayson Blair. And I cannot find any articles/information which said that the editorial staff knew of his activities. Much less the president of the company. He was fired and rightfully so...
I know this may be hard for you to understand, but some of us look at these things with a critical eye, trying to figure out the turrth regardless of political leanings. I don't like NewsCorp. I think they regularly misrepresent the truth in order to make money (unlike many I dont think Murdoch cares one whit about politics). But when all of this came out I gave them the BoD, waiting for evidence and then making my decision. The evidence points to a systemic problem at the paper, one which warrants an investigation of other newscorp outlets in my opinion. I honestly doubt Fox News would do something like this,. Not because they are better, but because their staff is smarter and more risk averse. They already have the best ratings, why risk it.
Dont put Lulz, Anon and Wikileaks in the same category.
Wikileaks provides a non-standard method for whistle blowing. The same would have been said for a newspaper in 1500. Imagine what would have happened to a reporter in the Court of Henry the VIIIth. It is a valid outlet because our media has been co-opted and corrupted.
Anon takes it one step further but actively trying to get information. I am far less comofrtable with their actions, although I do understand the intent of most of their recent crusades.
Lulz was just a bunch of jerk who were out to tweak the noses of some people who pissed them off. Not a fan, just like I wouldnt be a fan if someone set the car of the Sony VP who deicded to Sue Geohot on fire as revenge.
As of July 1 Babylon 5 was removed from streaming (I assume due to contractual issues). The startrek Series are there. After B5 went dark I started watching Voyager (I missed most of it due to being in college at the time). Looks to me like every trek series is available. SG-1 and all the movies are available. Dr Who is available. Buffy/Angel were available (last checked 9 or 10 months ago).
Geek options ARE there.
Where the seleciton has been BAD lately is movies...horrible.
I did nt realize this until I upgraded from OTA and paid my cable company for HD. (Well actually I got a bundle and used the $10 a month I was saving on Hd).
Exactly. all it takes is one bad event to make people retract their support.
I am not against SaaS ('cloud' annoys me) for some services. Things like EDI and anti-spam services fit very well in such a model . Data is not stored only transferred, and there is a very narrow scope which makes management easy to handle. It also reduces the scope if an outage occurs.
But when people keep saying that everything is going to be cloud based in 10 years, they just are ignoring the reality of business.
As much as the anti-MS crowd on slashdot would like this to be true, just saying this does not make it the case. Even if MS got $10 for EVERY Android device, and the 500k untils/month I found on wikipedia is close to accurate, that is 6 million units per year, or $60 million a year. And even if you say that other patent troll-esque licensing agreements multiply that by 10x again to $600 million a year
Microsoft made almost 17 billion last quarter.
Microsoft is a lot of things, but they are not SCO. They are not classic patent trolls with no product. They are basically just like Apple, IBM and Oracle and Google and every other big company. They use their patents to maintain their market share and stifle competition. Bad, but not SCO bad.
This assumes that progress can be made in a legal manner. Actually this situation is quite similar to many other types of vigilante justice. If the populace cannot trust law enforcement to enforce the law, or if the laws are deemed immoral by the populace, it leads to actions by groups like Anon and Lulz.
The Sony breakin in particular is a prefect example. Sony used their clout to beat down someone, thereby corrupting the intent of the law (in the eyes of the hackers and many others). The only recourse the people saw was to punish Sony where they would notice, their money.
People are always saying vote with your pocketbook, and that is what is happening.
would stop.....and now people are complaining that they are being forced to accept a change (like many such internet service based apps).
I get being concerned about MS dropping support for smaller OS's (although it doesnt make a lot of business sense). But overreacting to everything that happens at Skype like we have seen in the last month is just silly.
your premise, that capture is inevitable, is false in my opinion. If regulating bodies are/were properly funded this would not be the case. The problem is to fund them properly, the governement would have to pay the regulators more than they would get in the industry itself. That is how you prevent losee of people to the industry and thus create minimal conflict of interest.
Actually by doing this you reverse the flow, making being the regulator the end goal, so that the best in the field are regulators.
The problem of course is the cost is really high for this. Especially in areas such as finance.
Why is it that researchers are always saying that their research is for helping those with medical conditions. Even if this is true (and it probably is), that is NOT the only reason and to imply that it would not be used for other functions is a lie by omission.
If this ever gets developed to the point where it could be used on people with brain damage or to remove trauma, it could also be used for memory wipes, selective memory cleanup, and other less pleasent actions.
I am not saying that we should not develop it, Im saying that how can we have discussions around the proper use of technology if we wont admit to what it can actually be used to accomplish.
The companies IT dept (should) have the companies best interests at heart. COnsultants and google have their own best interests at heart.
The ONLY thing that motivates them to good customer service is the risk of losing you and/or others as customers. Think about that when you are considering security & compliance.
yes because the cloud gives a shit about regulaitons and compliance you might violate by doing this. After all IT is just there to get in the way, right?
Example: Marketing wants to start sending out spam emails. Sure there are services for that. It is IT's job to point out the technical and non technical repercussions of this (like being block listed so email doesnt work).
Example: Sales wants to use a 'cloud service' which will maintain a customer Db, but doesn not understand the regulatory and privacy considerations of doing this. Mind you the cloud company certainly wont help in that regard, they would be shooting themselves in the foot and could lose a customer.
Example: Customer service wants to have a 3rd party credit card enabled website. But then know little or nothing of the PCI compliance needed for such hosting. By transmitting and storing such data with a 3rd party they expose the company to risk of losing the ability to process CC's.
Example: Exec want to be able to use the latest and greatest toys. But they dont know the security risks associated with those services/devices. They expose the network to new, unknown, and unmonitored attack vectors.
IT is the gatekeeper for the corporate informaiton, whether other departments like it or not. a good IT department will do that without being adversarial, with the business needs in mind but the best interest of the business always being the priority. If the IT department is run improperly, then a change needs to be made from the CxO level, not the department manager level.
I would guess the value is based upon what the person PAID for them, not their current worth. Which is pretty damn volitile right now if I understand things correctly.
minmized the recession (GAO andother non partisan economic bodies have said as much)
made the call on the Bin Laden raid. Killed a couple more high end AQ since then.
Has improved foreign relations with our allies and our adversaries.
Tried (and failed) to get the Bush era tax cuts eliminated.
I will agree that his extension of the Bush Era security and privacy policies have upset me. I had hoped those would go away. But in reality those were going to stay regardless of the president. Government doesnt give up power easily.
The healthcare thing was a bad idea. There was ZERO chance of getting real health care reform passed. I applaud the attempt, but there was WAY to much money lined up against him. He should have skipped it and focused on better targets while the Dems had congress. He went for the home run and it cost him a chance to fix other things (educaiton, taxes, jobs, etc).
Overall I would give him a C+/B- on domestic policies and a B+ on foreign policy. If he had closed gitmo (cock blocked by congress) or had killed the patriot act, I would bump him to a solid B or B+.
As for the economy being worse than 2.5 years ago...are you nuts?!? in Decembder of 08 people were talking about another great depression. Assuming they meant one to equal the previoud depression that would have been ~25% unemployment. We are in a weak recovery, and it might actually fizzle out, but as you said Presidents cant do much to fix the economy. Nothing he has done has actually hurt the economy, so your argument is weak at best.
Well then hold youe school district personnel more accountable. From what I understand, not one person was fired because of this.
Re:Reminds Me of Something the Sony CEO Said ...
on
Has iTunes Been Hacked?
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Half a dozen years ago, I worked at a company that got hacked due to a web vulnerability. The hackers simply used our storage to store geman porn. But it was still a hack. And it went unreported. It was detemrined that there was no value in reporting the hack since it would affect stock value.
I am betting that the VAST majority of hack never get reported for this exact reason.
Slashdot Mirror
That poll is almost a month old. Things change. Especially as people become more aware and educated on the subject at hand.
The fact that close to 50% of the population is below middle class (per your definition) is indicative of the main issue in the US today. A large, educated middle class is essential to democracy.
We have neither right now.
Except that one of the two parties has already stated on multiple occassions a willingness to compromise. In fact many Republicans would be willing to as well. It is the dogged Tea Party (and their left wing counterparts who refuse to consider modifying any entitlements) that are the issue.
give rise to the space-inductrial complex. And the rise of the space lobby.
It still amazes me that anyone with sense would endorse the privatization of any government entity when it has shown time and time again to become a syphon for government money. Until lobbying by corporations is eliminated I would take the inefficiency of NASA over private companies any day.
Mind you, Im not sayiing they private companies shouldnt exist. Unlike the prisons and military, there is a place for private spaceflight orgs providing other private organizations with launch vehicles. But government....no way.
dont look now, but your bias is showing.
But just for shits and giggles, please site the soldiers killed by the information released in the NYT. Please site the evidence of other news papers/media outlets hacking the phones of murder victims. (mind you I am not saying they wouldn't, just that I have seen no evidence except idle speculation used to reenforce political/social opinions).
The only NYT issue I can recall in recent times was Jayson Blair. And I cannot find any articles/information which said that the editorial staff knew of his activities. Much less the president of the company. He was fired and rightfully so...
I know this may be hard for you to understand, but some of us look at these things with a critical eye, trying to figure out the turrth regardless of political leanings. I don't like NewsCorp. I think they regularly misrepresent the truth in order to make money (unlike many I dont think Murdoch cares one whit about politics). But when all of this came out I gave them the BoD, waiting for evidence and then making my decision. The evidence points to a systemic problem at the paper, one which warrants an investigation of other newscorp outlets in my opinion. I honestly doubt Fox News would do something like this,. Not because they are better, but because their staff is smarter and more risk averse. They already have the best ratings, why risk it.
Dont put Lulz, Anon and Wikileaks in the same category.
Wikileaks provides a non-standard method for whistle blowing. The same would have been said for a newspaper in 1500. Imagine what would have happened to a reporter in the Court of Henry the VIIIth. It is a valid outlet because our media has been co-opted and corrupted.
Anon takes it one step further but actively trying to get information. I am far less comofrtable with their actions, although I do understand the intent of most of their recent crusades.
Lulz was just a bunch of jerk who were out to tweak the noses of some people who pissed them off. Not a fan, just like I wouldnt be a fan if someone set the car of the Sony VP who deicded to Sue Geohot on fire as revenge.
As of July 1 Babylon 5 was removed from streaming (I assume due to contractual issues).
The startrek Series are there. After B5 went dark I started watching Voyager (I missed most of it due to being in college at the time).
Looks to me like every trek series is available.
SG-1 and all the movies are available.
Dr Who is available.
Buffy/Angel were available (last checked 9 or 10 months ago).
Geek options ARE there.
Where the seleciton has been BAD lately is movies...horrible.
sports OTA is 720p vs 1080p on cable.
I did nt realize this until I upgraded from OTA and paid my cable company for HD. (Well actually I got a bundle and used the $10 a month I was saving on Hd).
1080p makes a big difference.
Exactly. all it takes is one bad event to make people retract their support.
I am not against SaaS ('cloud' annoys me) for some services. Things like EDI and anti-spam services fit very well in such a model . Data is not stored only transferred, and there is a very narrow scope which makes management easy to handle. It also reduces the scope if an outage occurs.
But when people keep saying that everything is going to be cloud based in 10 years, they just are ignoring the reality of business.
As much as the anti-MS crowd on slashdot would like this to be true, just saying this does not make it the case. Even if MS got $10 for EVERY Android device, and the 500k untils/month I found on wikipedia is close to accurate, that is 6 million units per year, or $60 million a year. And even if you say that other patent troll-esque licensing agreements multiply that by 10x again to $600 million a year
Microsoft made almost 17 billion last quarter.
Microsoft is a lot of things, but they are not SCO. They are not classic patent trolls with no product. They are basically just like Apple, IBM and Oracle and Google and every other big company. They use their patents to maintain their market share and stifle competition. Bad, but not SCO bad.
This assumes that progress can be made in a legal manner. Actually this situation is quite similar to many other types of vigilante justice. If the populace cannot trust law enforcement to enforce the law, or if the laws are deemed immoral by the populace, it leads to actions by groups like Anon and Lulz.
The Sony breakin in particular is a prefect example. Sony used their clout to beat down someone, thereby corrupting the intent of the law (in the eyes of the hackers and many others). The only recourse the people saw was to punish Sony where they would notice, their money.
People are always saying vote with your pocketbook, and that is what is happening.
becausr THAT will be a money maker.
would stop.....and now people are complaining that they are being forced to accept a change (like many such internet service based apps).
I get being concerned about MS dropping support for smaller OS's (although it doesnt make a lot of business sense). But overreacting to everything that happens at Skype like we have seen in the last month is just silly.
wish I had mod points.
of course they never would have because there is no money in it....
(yes Im being snarky, deal with it)
your premise, that capture is inevitable, is false in my opinion. If regulating bodies are/were properly funded this would not be the case. The problem is to fund them properly, the governement would have to pay the regulators more than they would get in the industry itself. That is how you prevent losee of people to the industry and thus create minimal conflict of interest.
Actually by doing this you reverse the flow, making being the regulator the end goal, so that the best in the field are regulators.
The problem of course is the cost is really high for this. Especially in areas such as finance.
Why is it that researchers are always saying that their research is for helping those with medical conditions. Even if this is true (and it probably is), that is NOT the only reason and to imply that it would not be used for other functions is a lie by omission.
If this ever gets developed to the point where it could be used on people with brain damage or to remove trauma, it could also be used for memory wipes, selective memory cleanup, and other less pleasent actions.
I am not saying that we should not develop it, Im saying that how can we have discussions around the proper use of technology if we wont admit to what it can actually be used to accomplish.
The companies IT dept (should) have the companies best interests at heart. COnsultants and google have their own best interests at heart.
The ONLY thing that motivates them to good customer service is the risk of losing you and/or others as customers. Think about that when you are considering security & compliance.
yes because the cloud gives a shit about regulaitons and compliance you might violate by doing this. After all IT is just there to get in the way, right?
Actually the legal/illegal is valid.
Example: Marketing wants to start sending out spam emails. Sure there are services for that. It is IT's job to point out the technical and non technical repercussions of this (like being block listed so email doesnt work).
Example: Sales wants to use a 'cloud service' which will maintain a customer Db, but doesn not understand the regulatory and privacy considerations of doing this. Mind you the cloud company certainly wont help in that regard, they would be shooting themselves in the foot and could lose a customer.
Example: Customer service wants to have a 3rd party credit card enabled website. But then know little or nothing of the PCI compliance needed for such hosting. By transmitting and storing such data with a 3rd party they expose the company to risk of losing the ability to process CC's.
Example: Exec want to be able to use the latest and greatest toys. But they dont know the security risks associated with those services/devices. They expose the network to new, unknown, and unmonitored attack vectors.
IT is the gatekeeper for the corporate informaiton, whether other departments like it or not. a good IT department will do that without being adversarial, with the business needs in mind but the best interest of the business always being the priority. If the IT department is run improperly, then a change needs to be made from the CxO level, not the department manager level.
I would guess the value is based upon what the person PAID for them, not their current worth. Which is pretty damn volitile right now if I understand things correctly.
doesn't have what it takes.....
let's see:
minmized the recession (GAO andother non partisan economic bodies have said as much)
made the call on the Bin Laden raid. Killed a couple more high end AQ since then.
Has improved foreign relations with our allies and our adversaries.
Tried (and failed) to get the Bush era tax cuts eliminated.
I will agree that his extension of the Bush Era security and privacy policies have upset me. I had hoped those would go away. But in reality those were going to stay regardless of the president. Government doesnt give up power easily.
The healthcare thing was a bad idea. There was ZERO chance of getting real health care reform passed. I applaud the attempt, but there was WAY to much money lined up against him. He should have skipped it and focused on better targets while the Dems had congress. He went for the home run and it cost him a chance to fix other things (educaiton, taxes, jobs, etc).
Overall I would give him a C+/B- on domestic policies and a B+ on foreign policy. If he had closed gitmo (cock blocked by congress) or had killed the patriot act, I would bump him to a solid B or B+.
As for the economy being worse than 2.5 years ago...are you nuts?!? in Decembder of 08 people were talking about another great depression. Assuming they meant one to equal the previoud depression that would have been ~25% unemployment. We are in a weak recovery, and it might actually fizzle out, but as you said Presidents cant do much to fix the economy. Nothing he has done has actually hurt the economy, so your argument is weak at best.
So does that mean if the intent is to make money from advertising (say.....2girls1cup) or lead you to another website, then its ok?
Well then hold youe school district personnel more accountable. From what I understand, not one person was fired because of this.
Half a dozen years ago, I worked at a company that got hacked due to a web vulnerability. The hackers simply used our storage to store geman porn. But it was still a hack. And it went unreported. It was detemrined that there was no value in reporting the hack since it would affect stock value.
I am betting that the VAST majority of hack never get reported for this exact reason.