While it's true that Microsoft does not meet the textbook definition of a monopoly (being the sole seller), no one questions that they dominate the market to the point where they distort it. Adam Smith himself was very concerned about any firm that controlled more than 40% of the market, because it could use its weight to control prices unfairly. So, not being a monopoly in the strict sense hardly means that Microsoft is just another player in a free market.
Has anyone considered putting together a submission etiquette guide for the editors to use when greenlighting stuff?
I'm sure there's something that bears a passing resemblance to this in Slashdot's secret bunker under the polar ice. However, as it doesn't seem to be having the desired effect, I think what we need is to be able to moderate the submission itself and the editor who posted it.
I'm the parent poster, and yes, I am USian. I've been to Cuba twice, and found it to be neither the hell the right paints nor the paradise the left paints (for the record, I'm well to the left). The Cuban people are well-educated, articulate, and the healthiest people in the Western Hemisphere, bar none (and maybe the world). On the other hand, all the media belong to the state, almost everyone is underpaid, and the people can't leave except under highly particular circumstances.
My take on Cuba is considerably more nuanced than the average USian, since I've actually spent time there and talked at length - in Spanish - with real Cubans (not the gusanos in Miami). The point in my original post about Cuba was not that I feel that way, but that that's the level of knee-jerk pro-US posts I was seeing. For the record, I would, in fact, not like to see Cuba run the Internet, not because I think they've done a poor job with freedom of the press (though, for the record, I do), but because I don't want to see any one nation control the Internet. That was my point.
I think it's pretty ridiculous to argue that the governance of the Internet should remain in the hands of any one government, even the US. There are those who would say especially the US. Most of the counter-arguments go something like this: "What, you want Cuba running the Internet?" No, I don't. But I think it's really small-minded, not to mention willfully blind, to think that the US has a monopoly on goodness and freedom. The Internet is global, and no one nation should have a chokehold over a global system. If it were any other nation, the US government would be on the side of those calling for it to surrender control to an international body.
No, but it is what prevents our economy from looking like Cuba (no food is available),
This is flat out not true. I speak not from second-hand accounts, but from many hours walking the streets of Havana. As a sidenote, Havana is far and away the safest major city I've ever seen, and I've seen many.
or Canada (9 months of waiting for a mammogram).
This sounds like hearsay, or Internet rumors. Polls show that a vast majority of Canadians prefer their own health system to that of the US, and when the subject comes up in conversation with my Canadian friends, they express their deepest sympathy for us and the health system we have.
Slashdot Mirror
While it's true that Microsoft does not meet the textbook definition of a monopoly (being the sole seller), no one questions that they dominate the market to the point where they distort it. Adam Smith himself was very concerned about any firm that controlled more than 40% of the market, because it could use its weight to control prices unfairly. So, not being a monopoly in the strict sense hardly means that Microsoft is just another player in a free market.
When viruses can use Jedi mind tricks, civilization will collapse in 12 hours.
"You will port me to Linux. You will give me root. You will post me on Slashdot."
Has anyone considered putting together a submission etiquette guide for the editors to use when greenlighting stuff?
I'm sure there's something that bears a passing resemblance to this in Slashdot's secret bunker under the polar ice. However, as it doesn't seem to be having the desired effect, I think what we need is to be able to moderate the submission itself and the editor who posted it.
I didn't RTFA, or the posted text, but... wait, what was this about, again?
Or mine...
Chicken Soup for Dummies
I'm trying to figure out... could there be incomplete malarky?
Everyone always told me to invest in land, because "they're not making any more of it!"
Little did everyone know....
If the Internet did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it.
Apologies to Voltaire.
Thanks for re-making my point for me. Is there a Latin term for "arguement by harping on the worst-case scenario?" Or will "scaremongering" do?
Oh, good. Let's trade in national governments, which pretend to be accountable, for corporations, which don't.
I'm the parent poster, and yes, I am USian. I've been to Cuba twice, and found it to be neither the hell the right paints nor the paradise the left paints (for the record, I'm well to the left). The Cuban people are well-educated, articulate, and the healthiest people in the Western Hemisphere, bar none (and maybe the world). On the other hand, all the media belong to the state, almost everyone is underpaid, and the people can't leave except under highly particular circumstances.
My take on Cuba is considerably more nuanced than the average USian, since I've actually spent time there and talked at length - in Spanish - with real Cubans (not the gusanos in Miami). The point in my original post about Cuba was not that I feel that way, but that that's the level of knee-jerk pro-US posts I was seeing. For the record, I would, in fact, not like to see Cuba run the Internet, not because I think they've done a poor job with freedom of the press (though, for the record, I do), but because I don't want to see any one nation control the Internet. That was my point.
I think it's pretty ridiculous to argue that the governance of the Internet should remain in the hands of any one government, even the US. There are those who would say especially the US. Most of the counter-arguments go something like this: "What, you want Cuba running the Internet?" No, I don't. But I think it's really small-minded, not to mention willfully blind, to think that the US has a monopoly on goodness and freedom. The Internet is global, and no one nation should have a chokehold over a global system. If it were any other nation, the US government would be on the side of those calling for it to surrender control to an international body.
A Beowulf cluster of phones? The horror!
I'm waiting for the dude (I presume) with the .sig about counting him in with the robot smashers to chime in.
Yes, I recognize people by their sigs. So why do I keep changing mine?
In a similar vein, I would like to institute a sub-thread for the "In my day, 'student plants' meant something totally different" jokes.
Thanks.
Clause 6. Natalie Portman
Clause 7. Hot grits
Clause 8. In Soviet Russia, posters mod YOU down!
Clasue 9. Great Google-y moogley
Clause 10. iPod! Video iPod! Trans-dimensional, cancer-curing, Google-a-matic iPod!
Clause 11. Steve Ballmer and obligatory chair/monkey/DEVELOPERS reference
Clause 12 is dying... Netcraft confirms it...
post
Did anyone else have to read this headline four or five times?
I finally got it, though. Someone had their iPod in their suit, which managed to scratch their results.
Wednesday: University of Michigan and University of Wisconsin.
Typical Microsoft planning: Tuesday, Wisconsin. Wednesday, Michigan - then back to Wisconsin!
Right. 'Cause we all know how difficult it is to fool a fish.
This is flat out not true. I speak not from second-hand accounts, but from many hours walking the streets of Havana. As a sidenote, Havana is far and away the safest major city I've ever seen, and I've seen many.
This sounds like hearsay, or Internet rumors. Polls show that a vast majority of Canadians prefer their own health system to that of the US, and when the subject comes up in conversation with my Canadian friends, they express their deepest sympathy for us and the health system we have.
Note to editors: check dates before filling in the dept.
Well, if we're going to bring up Monty Python, then I think someone better mention the Being Eaten by a Crocodile sketch, as well.
It could be worse. I originally read the headline as "American Airlines Company Tries Torrents."
If you have to take me apart to get me there, then I don't want to go.
Or Winken, Blinken and Nod.
Or Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego.
Or Caspar, Melchoir and Balthasar.
Or Athos, Porthos and D'Artagnan.
Or Carreras, Domingo and Pavarotti.
Or Lee, Lifeson, and Peart.
...the first time I saw a "Don't Copy That Floppy!" poster, back in 1992.
I stole it.