Most of our taxes are based on income, not assets. The highest 1% income group pays 37% of the taxes on 17% of the income: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.heritage.org/federalbudget/charts/2012/top10-percent-income-earners-680.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.heritage.org/federalbudget/top10-percent-income-earners&h=483&w=680&sz=91&tbnid=jdfoY4P4QYOmzM:&tbnh=88&tbnw=124&zoom=1&usg=__2IhbUPh1aQAG2MD19HsQuDZUChc=&docid=koaHxadwdYjGuM&sa=X&ei=4EAAUf6LGM-B0QGFmYG4Ag&ved=0CIcBEPUBMAk&dur=2890
Fundamental human rights should be limited to the basics. If we expand the definition of fundamental human right to include ownership of a high-tech device that did not even exist 20 years ago, we really miss the point.
I have heard that sudden stressful events can delay or prevent ovulation. Pregnancy can occur either from sex when a woman has recently ovulated (and still carries a viable egg) or from sex a few days prior to ovulation (sperm can live inside the vagina for several days). It seems logical (though I am not aware of a study about it) that the stress of rape could prevent a woman from ovulating (if she would normally have ovulated within the next few days) and therefore make pregnancy (that otherwise would have occurred a few days after sex) less likely. Pregnancy from rape is certainly possible, but may be statistically less likely than pregnancy from consensual sex.
What about noise sent over a frequqncy high (or low) enough that we can't hear it but that still is available through your stereo speakers? Could a watermark be encoded in barely-out-of-range (for human hearing) frequencies?
What advice would you give to people who are interested in technology and intellectual property and who are considering a cereer in law? What is the best way to start such a career? Can someone make an impact on the future of IP rights by pursuing a legal career? And do you consider it a viable career path?
Code is like a recipe for a computer. While it may be ilegal for me to make a bomb, the recipe for making the bomb is protected speach. While it may be illegal (in certain circumstances) for me to make a copy of a movie, the instructions detailing how to make that copy are protected speach.
The difference is that in a democracy, we as consumers and voters ultimately control both corporations and the government. We can elect new government officials if we don't like the old ones and can choose not to do cusiness with corporations we are opposed to. Single party communist governments do not give people these freedoms.
On standard PC configs, a monkey could install Win9x. Last time I blanked my hard drive to reinstall Win9x, I had all the driver disks ready for cdrom, mice, etc but I didn't need any of them. It did everything automatically. And it worked right the first time. As far as NT goes, I don't remember that much trouble with raid drivers from last time I tried it. No OS is going to install perfectly easily every time. I don't think you are a moron for having a little trouble with NT, but it is also true that linux installs can get just as nasty.
For a novice Windows is way easier to setup than Linux. I can just imagine my mother trying to install RedHat 6.1. First she would have had problems wiht the "what IRQ does your mouse use?" question. Then she would have been totally confused by the "select a mount point." Come on. Linux may have advantages over Windows but ease of installation is not one of them.
In general patents do promote advancement. While the patent systems needs to be revised (no more stupid patents like 1-click and hyperspace ideas that don't work yet, and patents should be reviewed more thoroughly) the idea of patents is very important to innovation and progress. Would we have any of these new drugs and medical devices if not for patents? Probably not. No company is going to spend millions of dollars to research a new drug if they will not be able to make a substantial profit from it. The cost of research requires the use of patents in many fields.
while a dual Xeon system does get closer to the price of SGI, Sun, etc, it still is significantly cheaper. A few months ago I priced Xeon systems vs SGIs for some engineering work. The Xeons came in much cheaper, although we still went with the SGI for better performance. It is still a price/performance game, and always will be.
Kids should have access to computers while in school, computers are an important part of modern life and an important skill to master. But young children are not responsible enough (in general, not true for everybody) to carry around expensive computing equipment. What will happen when kids are all given laptops? They will be lost, stolen, broken, cause a tech support nightmare, and end up costing way more than originally planned. Computer labs open to students are a good idea, but passing out free (or cheap) portables is asking for trouble.
Learning about computer security is great, as long as you don't compromise someone else's security in the process. Why do so many/.ers support breaking into other systems? If someone broke into my house and walked around I would be rather ticked off, even if they didn't actually steal anything. The same thing goes for my computer systems. The only way to get people to stop referring to programmers as "hackers" is to stop acting like we think we own the world and to start respecting other people's property.
yes, taxpayers pay for roads, the military, and other things. But the distinction can be made that it is not practical for a single person to buy a road, so this cost must be shared if society is to have the benefits of roads. The same goes for the military - whether you want it or not all taxpayers support the military because it is impractical for each person to hire his own army. Unlike these examples, internet access can be purchased by a single person so does not necessarily require government payments.
Slashdot Mirror
actually adjusting average income from 1950 ($3300) to present day based on CPI yields around $34k
Most of our taxes are based on income, not assets. The highest 1% income group pays 37% of the taxes on 17% of the income:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.heritage.org/federalbudget/charts/2012/top10-percent-income-earners-680.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.heritage.org/federalbudget/top10-percent-income-earners&h=483&w=680&sz=91&tbnid=jdfoY4P4QYOmzM:&tbnh=88&tbnw=124&zoom=1&usg=__2IhbUPh1aQAG2MD19HsQuDZUChc=&docid=koaHxadwdYjGuM&sa=X&ei=4EAAUf6LGM-B0QGFmYG4Ag&ved=0CIcBEPUBMAk&dur=2890
Fundamental human rights should be limited to the basics. If we expand the definition of fundamental human right to include ownership of a high-tech device that did not even exist 20 years ago, we really miss the point.
I have heard that sudden stressful events can delay or prevent ovulation. Pregnancy can occur either from sex when a woman has recently ovulated (and still carries a viable egg) or from sex a few days prior to ovulation (sperm can live inside the vagina for several days). It seems logical (though I am not aware of a study about it) that the stress of rape could prevent a woman from ovulating (if she would normally have ovulated within the next few days) and therefore make pregnancy (that otherwise would have occurred a few days after sex) less likely. Pregnancy from rape is certainly possible, but may be statistically less likely than pregnancy from consensual sex.
test
What about noise sent over a frequqncy high (or low) enough that we can't hear it but that still is available through your stereo speakers? Could a watermark be encoded in barely-out-of-range (for human hearing) frequencies?
What advice would you give to people who are interested in technology and intellectual property and who are considering a cereer in law? What is the best way to start such a career? Can someone make an impact on the future of IP rights by pursuing a legal career? And do you consider it a viable career path?
Code is like a recipe for a computer. While it may be ilegal for me to make a bomb, the recipe for making the bomb is protected speach. While it may be illegal (in certain circumstances) for me to make a copy of a movie, the instructions detailing how to make that copy are protected speach.
The difference is that in a democracy, we as consumers and voters ultimately control both corporations and the government. We can elect new government officials if we don't like the old ones and can choose not to do cusiness with corporations we are opposed to. Single party communist governments do not give people these freedoms.
I don't remember where, but in a catalogue I saw a small hand crank device designed to power a cell phone in emergencies.
On standard PC configs, a monkey could install Win9x. Last time I blanked my hard drive to reinstall Win9x, I had all the driver disks ready for cdrom, mice, etc but I didn't need any of them. It did everything automatically. And it worked right the first time. As far as NT goes, I don't remember that much trouble with raid drivers from last time I tried it. No OS is going to install perfectly easily every time. I don't think you are a moron for having a little trouble with NT, but it is also true that linux installs can get just as nasty.
For a novice Windows is way easier to setup than Linux. I can just imagine my mother trying to install RedHat 6.1. First she would have had problems wiht the "what IRQ does your mouse use?" question. Then she would have been totally confused by the "select a mount point." Come on. Linux may have advantages over Windows but ease of installation is not one of them.
oops. I should read things more thoroughly.
In general patents do promote advancement. While the patent systems needs to be revised (no more stupid patents like 1-click and hyperspace ideas that don't work yet, and patents should be reviewed more thoroughly) the idea of patents is very important to innovation and progress. Would we have any of these new drugs and medical devices if not for patents? Probably not. No company is going to spend millions of dollars to research a new drug if they will not be able to make a substantial profit from it. The cost of research requires the use of patents in many fields.
while a dual Xeon system does get closer to the price of SGI, Sun, etc, it still is significantly cheaper. A few months ago I priced Xeon systems vs SGIs for some engineering work. The Xeons came in much cheaper, although we still went with the SGI for better performance. It is still a price/performance game, and always will be.
Kids should have access to computers while in school, computers are an important part of modern life and an important skill to master. But young children are not responsible enough (in general, not true for everybody) to carry around expensive computing equipment. What will happen when kids are all given laptops? They will be lost, stolen, broken, cause a tech support nightmare, and end up costing way more than originally planned. Computer labs open to students are a good idea, but passing out free (or cheap) portables is asking for trouble.
Learning about computer security is great, as long as you don't compromise someone else's security in the process. Why do so many /.ers support breaking into other systems? If someone broke into my house and walked around I would be rather ticked off, even if they didn't actually steal anything. The same thing goes for my computer systems. The only way to get people to stop referring to programmers as "hackers" is to stop acting like we think we own the world and to start respecting other people's property.
umm could someone possibly tell me what this has to do with Chuck D and MP3?
yes, taxpayers pay for roads, the military, and other things. But the distinction can be made that it is not practical for a single person to buy a road, so this cost must be shared if society is to have the benefits of roads. The same goes for the military - whether you want it or not all taxpayers support the military because it is impractical for each person to hire his own army. Unlike these examples, internet access can be purchased by a single person so does not necessarily require government payments.