If your company is large enough to have a legal department, contact them. They'll be better able to convey to management the amount of liability the company is being exposed to. If your company is publically traded and SOX compliant, there are anonymous whistleblower numbers to contact. If not, make it known to a variety of management people "in an effort to get conformation" then report them to the BSA. Then deny, deny, deny when they claim it is you (since everyone else knows too, it could be anyone in the chain of command that ratted the company out). If they still fire you, sue them for wrongful dismissal and reap a year or two of free no work salary.
If your theory on inflation and interest rates were true, then risk free interest rates would be 10%. However, inflation is not 10%. Instead, inflation-- depending on how you measure it-- is closer to 2.8% The market rate for fed funds is hovering a little under the target of 5.25% at about 5.2%. Similarly, the yield on treasuries is about 5%.
No, the reason people invest is because they have a time preference of money: businesses or governments need money now to finance expansion, people want more money later when they need it to retire/buy a house/whatever. It is better to have money now rather than later (if you were to be given $1,000 you would rather have it today than in a year), so this puts a premium on current dollars. Pure and simple economics 101.
Yes, 6x. 6x for awhile. The concentration limits are based on what average amount is safe if you are in that environment all the time. For, what is the highest concentration of mercury that should be in the air outside, that you inhale all year. If you break a bulb, (like a traditional flourescent bulb or CFL [oh wait, we're only alarmed about CFLs and not the old tube kind]) and the mercury level temporarily spikes to 6x times, you aren't in trouble. Crack a window, wipe up the mess and quit crying. If it were 3000x, you might be in trouble from instantaneous exposure.
Revenues are fine, but they are sort of dictated to you-- you make as much profit as you can. Private equity is great, if you can find it. For young businesses, you just go to your cousin or friend or somebody and ask them if they want to own half the company you are starting. At MySQLs level, they would have to seek out either VC Firms (which are arguably worse than public trading, since they try to micromanage your operations) or industry firms interested in acquiring a piece (which is bad, because any such company will probably try to suck MySQL dry and then move on).
Hate to break it to you, but MySQL is already run by stockholders... just because it isn't _publically_ traded doesn't mean their aren't owners who control have an equity stake. Those owners had the same interest in enhancing the company's revenues as purchasers of stock would. And since realistically the public stock holders don't control day to day operations (i.e. engineering), I doubt you'll see a drop in product quality just because all of the sudden you can buy stock in the company.
Except for the part that says "upon initialization of the software" i.e. Adobe can only check if I run a legal copy of Photoshop when I start up Photoshop. And yes, I know what initialization means under the law. It means "to prepare for use". You'll notice how closely it is related to "initial." As in, when you first start the program.
And yes, I agree that WGA and similar methods are bad technically, but if you consider a product inferior, simply don't use it. The law isn't mandating WGA for all, it simply prevents you from suing Microsoft when you try to start up Windows and it phones home (which their contract with you already does).
There's no limit on the percentage of market share you can have and still be legal. Did you know that there are some companies with 100% market share that aren't illegal monopolies (monopolies, but not illegal ones)? In fact, in some markets, monopolies form naturally (because either the market can't bear more than one firm or because there are high fixed costs associated with entering the market). So, the legal test isn't market share or number of competing companies, but rather whether the company has demonstrated an abuse of their monopoly posistion. Intel has done this in the past, and has been taken to court over it (by AMD) and lost. As a result, they had to hand over a lot of documentation to AMD and anyone else who asks for it (which is why I have seven volumes of manuals on the x86 and x86-64 ISA from Intel and a matching set from AMD).
It also wouldn't be expensed. Profit is calculated by taking revenues and subtracting costs. Since the new factory goes on the books as an asset, and is counter balanced by reductions in other assets (cash on hand) and increased liabilities (loans), revenue accounts never factor into it.
On the other hand, it probably will lead to lower variable costs when up and running at full capacity. I'm not too familiar with AMD's financials, but it seems that the key question is whether it is that their fixed costs are dragging them down (in which case they need to either improve sales or cut some dead weight), or their variable costs (in which case they need better manufacturing processes or to raise unit prices).
I wonder what you are talking about. Contrary to popular belief, it is totally legal to visit Cuba (up to X times per year, [IIRC X is one]). There are also controls on how much currency you can bring with you, but to a certain extent, it is perfectly legal to vacation in Cuba (this is, in fact, common for citizens of Cuban descent).
The thing that annoys me about all this is that 10,000 years ago, a kid the age of the ones we are trying to protect from "blood on the screen" would be bashing a deer's head in with a rock, ripping its flesh off the bone and eating it. Yeah, it would be awful for a kid to be subjected to realistic depictions of violence. I don't know how a species would survive like that.
Keynesianism is not socialism, at least in the way most people think of socialism.
Socialism involves total government ownership, Keynes was a free market economist who thought the market occasionally failed in a correctable manner. In particular, socialism relies upon total production planning-- the targetting of levels of production for n different commodities, using m different inputs. This is quite a challenge, considering how large n is (in the millions) and the fact that an accurate model would boil down to a non-linear system of equations of n x m different variables. Oh, and did I mention that the member functions of the NLSE are impossible to precisely measure in the real world?
On the other hand, as you pointed out, we do have a (somewhat) functioning Keynesian system. We only have to control a couple of factors (government expenditure and interest rates), which have fairly well understood behavior (ok, interest rates do). I would even argue that controlling the interest rate alone might be enough.
The difference, despite your cleverly constructed textual parallelism, is that the mafia threatens you with violence or arson which are illegal and no fault of your own as the victim. The RIAA is "threatening" to enforce their rights under our laws. It is your fault if you are illegally infringing on their copyrights. You don't like it, protest it, but calling it "extortion" is muddying the waters in the same way that equating theft and copyright infrigement do.
I guess Linus could try to sue them, since he is the owner of the trademark. Of course, the Linux trademark has not been defended very aggresively previously and more importantly, Linus doesn't seem like the kind of chap to get the lawyers involved.
Re:Ian Murdock doesn't like democracy
on
Ian Murdock Joins Sun
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
In other words, democracy has given people exactly what they want. Oh no, boo hoo, the largest portion of the population is comfortable and happy.
Who are you to say a football player is less important than a programmer? Typical geek chauvinism. Only our kind of talent counts. The world should bow to OUR agenda (witness the "you shouldn't be licensed to use a PC until you understand how one works crowd). And DAMN IT, Dr. Who is better than other TV, even if everyone else says otherwise. I say so, and I am so smart that I must be right.
You know what though? History has shown that dictatorships and eugenics don't advance the best and brightest, they advance the middle and average. Why? Because every dictator needs the support of a mob. Mobs only support people like them. And by definition, every mob member is on average,well, average.
it isn't despite of crime and homelessness that our government is spending this money on better entertainment. It is because our world is such a shitty place that they are. Public spectacle and subsidized entertainment worked for the roman empire, why not the United States?
*sigh* Look, for my peer posts that don't get this at all, he isn't saying he's showing up way early because he's afraid his plane might leave (OMG, I forgot it is daylights savings time! OMG!). He's probably concerned that with all of the software that needs to be updated, airports are likely to be a cluster fuck. Imagine, for instance, trying to check in at the front desk while the computer there thinks it is a different time than it actually is. Your flight isn't on the list of flights that are in the next couple of hours. Instead, the staffperson has to manually search for the flight by keying in destination, time, etc. Multiply this by the number of people in line, and you can easily see cascading delays.
What? How is it extortion or blackmail? They send a letter saying that they are going to take you to court. In the same letter it has an offer to settle out of court. Importantly, the matter goes away if you pay up. It is settled. The RIAA agrees to not go after you again unless, of course, you violate their members copyrights again.
In the case of extortion and blackmail, the matter is not settled. The extortionist can come back at any time and hit you up for cash again.
There is a role for both the private sector and the public sector in space, just like there is a role for the private sector and the public sector in all kinds of research.
There are some kinds of research that will not be profitable to a corporation, but will have benefits outside of the market (a form of market externality [anyone who talks a lot about free market capitalism should be familiar with the term-- surprisingly few are]). For example, take the hubble space telescope. Despite all of the good posters it has produced, I seriously doubt a private venture could find a profitability angle on it (unless it sold instrument time to public researchers at universities and the like... in which case, we're back to square one). However, though it isn't profitable , the hubble has provided amazing insight into the origin and nature of the universe, which goes to the very heart of the things we are curious about as human beings.
On the other hand, there IS a commercial market to put cargo into space. We need more broadcast, communications, and monitoring satilites every day. A lot of them are even owned privately. There might even be a market for passenger flights (space tourism, high speed travel).
Bravo. I'm glad someone finally said something sensible in this discussion. I'm tired of all of the backseat-astronauts who don't know anything about the mission but go on and on about the million dollar space hammer or how the mission would have been better performed by the private sector (nevermind the total lack of manned orbital ability in the private sector). Look, if you don't work at NASA, in the manned flight group, you don't know the full details of the mission. Therefore, you should question whether things are really as absurd or simple as they seem (note-- I didn't say not criticize NASA; just re-evaluate whether you can really make worthwhile suggestions with your limited knowledge of the subject). This is quadrupley true is you don't even read the whole article.
What? Unemployment at record lows? The record post-world war II is 2.4%. The current unemployment rate is 5% (both according to the BLS). Even in the last decade the record is 3.6%.
Of course, one has to wonder about the sustainability of american consumer spending (considering the average american spends 101% of what they earn) and incredible trade deficits. Interest rates have got to adjust at some point... and as goes capital so goes labor.
Slashdot Mirror
If your company is large enough to have a legal department, contact them. They'll be better able to convey to management the amount of liability the company is being exposed to. If your company is publically traded and SOX compliant, there are anonymous whistleblower numbers to contact. If not, make it known to a variety of management people "in an effort to get conformation" then report them to the BSA. Then deny, deny, deny when they claim it is you (since everyone else knows too, it could be anyone in the chain of command that ratted the company out). If they still fire you, sue them for wrongful dismissal and reap a year or two of free no work salary.
If your theory on inflation and interest rates were true, then risk free interest rates would be 10%. However, inflation is not 10%. Instead, inflation-- depending on how you measure it-- is closer to 2.8% The market rate for fed funds is hovering a little under the target of 5.25% at about 5.2%. Similarly, the yield on treasuries is about 5%.
No, the reason people invest is because they have a time preference of money: businesses or governments need money now to finance expansion, people want more money later when they need it to retire/buy a house/whatever. It is better to have money now rather than later (if you were to be given $1,000 you would rather have it today than in a year), so this puts a premium on current dollars. Pure and simple economics 101.
Yes, 6x. 6x for awhile. The concentration limits are based on what average amount is safe if you are in that environment all the time. For, what is the highest concentration of mercury that should be in the air outside, that you inhale all year. If you break a bulb, (like a traditional flourescent bulb or CFL [oh wait, we're only alarmed about CFLs and not the old tube kind]) and the mercury level temporarily spikes to 6x times, you aren't in trouble. Crack a window, wipe up the mess and quit crying. If it were 3000x, you might be in trouble from instantaneous exposure.
Yes. Absolutely. People sweep carpet all of the time.
Revenues are fine, but they are sort of dictated to you-- you make as much profit as you can. Private equity is great, if you can find it. For young businesses, you just go to your cousin or friend or somebody and ask them if they want to own half the company you are starting. At MySQLs level, they would have to seek out either VC Firms (which are arguably worse than public trading, since they try to micromanage your operations) or industry firms interested in acquiring a piece (which is bad, because any such company will probably try to suck MySQL dry and then move on).
Hate to break it to you, but MySQL is already run by stockholders... just because it isn't _publically_ traded doesn't mean their aren't owners who control have an equity stake. Those owners had the same interest in enhancing the company's revenues as purchasers of stock would. And since realistically the public stock holders don't control day to day operations (i.e. engineering), I doubt you'll see a drop in product quality just because all of the sudden you can buy stock in the company.
Except for the part that says "upon initialization of the software" i.e. Adobe can only check if I run a legal copy of Photoshop when I start up Photoshop. And yes, I know what initialization means under the law. It means "to prepare for use". You'll notice how closely it is related to "initial." As in, when you first start the program.
And yes, I agree that WGA and similar methods are bad technically, but if you consider a product inferior, simply don't use it. The law isn't mandating WGA for all, it simply prevents you from suing Microsoft when you try to start up Windows and it phones home (which their contract with you already does).
There's no limit on the percentage of market share you can have and still be legal. Did you know that there are some companies with 100% market share that aren't illegal monopolies (monopolies, but not illegal ones)? In fact, in some markets, monopolies form naturally (because either the market can't bear more than one firm or because there are high fixed costs associated with entering the market). So, the legal test isn't market share or number of competing companies, but rather whether the company has demonstrated an abuse of their monopoly posistion. Intel has done this in the past, and has been taken to court over it (by AMD) and lost. As a result, they had to hand over a lot of documentation to AMD and anyone else who asks for it (which is why I have seven volumes of manuals on the x86 and x86-64 ISA from Intel and a matching set from AMD).
It also wouldn't be expensed. Profit is calculated by taking revenues and subtracting costs. Since the new factory goes on the books as an asset, and is counter balanced by reductions in other assets (cash on hand) and increased liabilities (loans), revenue accounts never factor into it.
On the other hand, it probably will lead to lower variable costs when up and running at full capacity. I'm not too familiar with AMD's financials, but it seems that the key question is whether it is that their fixed costs are dragging them down (in which case they need to either improve sales or cut some dead weight), or their variable costs (in which case they need better manufacturing processes or to raise unit prices).
I wonder what you are talking about. Contrary to popular belief, it is totally legal to visit Cuba (up to X times per year, [IIRC X is one]). There are also controls on how much currency you can bring with you, but to a certain extent, it is perfectly legal to vacation in Cuba (this is, in fact, common for citizens of Cuban descent).
The thing that annoys me about all this is that 10,000 years ago, a kid the age of the ones we are trying to protect from "blood on the screen" would be bashing a deer's head in with a rock, ripping its flesh off the bone and eating it. Yeah, it would be awful for a kid to be subjected to realistic depictions of violence. I don't know how a species would survive like that.
Keynesianism is not socialism, at least in the way most people think of socialism.
Socialism involves total government ownership, Keynes was a free market economist who thought the market occasionally failed in a correctable manner. In particular, socialism relies upon total production planning-- the targetting of levels of production for n different commodities, using m different inputs. This is quite a challenge, considering how large n is (in the millions) and the fact that an accurate model would boil down to a non-linear system of equations of n x m different variables. Oh, and did I mention that the member functions of the NLSE are impossible to precisely measure in the real world?
On the other hand, as you pointed out, we do have a (somewhat) functioning Keynesian system. We only have to control a couple of factors (government expenditure and interest rates), which have fairly well understood behavior (ok, interest rates do). I would even argue that controlling the interest rate alone might be enough.
Are you Scottish?
The difference, despite your cleverly constructed textual parallelism, is that the mafia threatens you with violence or arson which are illegal and no fault of your own as the victim. The RIAA is "threatening" to enforce their rights under our laws. It is your fault if you are illegally infringing on their copyrights. You don't like it, protest it, but calling it "extortion" is muddying the waters in the same way that equating theft and copyright infrigement do.
I guess Linus could try to sue them, since he is the owner of the trademark. Of course, the Linux trademark has not been defended very aggresively previously and more importantly, Linus doesn't seem like the kind of chap to get the lawyers involved.
In other words, democracy has given people exactly what they want. Oh no, boo hoo, the largest portion of the population is comfortable and happy.
Who are you to say a football player is less important than a programmer? Typical geek chauvinism. Only our kind of talent counts. The world should bow to OUR agenda (witness the "you shouldn't be licensed to use a PC until you understand how one works crowd). And DAMN IT, Dr. Who is better than other TV, even if everyone else says otherwise. I say so, and I am so smart that I must be right.
You know what though? History has shown that dictatorships and eugenics don't advance the best and brightest, they advance the middle and average. Why? Because every dictator needs the support of a mob. Mobs only support people like them. And by definition, every mob member is on average,well, average.
Yes, because those hydrogen tanks will make an awesome fire, with all that oxygen floating around and all.
it isn't despite of crime and homelessness that our government is spending this money on better entertainment. It is because our world is such a shitty place that they are. Public spectacle and subsidized entertainment worked for the roman empire, why not the United States?
wwwaaa ddddarrrrrr dddarrrr
wwwaaaaAa?
DDDDDDDAAARRRRRR.
*sigh* Look, for my peer posts that don't get this at all, he isn't saying he's showing up way early because he's afraid his plane might leave (OMG, I forgot it is daylights savings time! OMG!). He's probably concerned that with all of the software that needs to be updated, airports are likely to be a cluster fuck. Imagine, for instance, trying to check in at the front desk while the computer there thinks it is a different time than it actually is. Your flight isn't on the list of flights that are in the next couple of hours. Instead, the staffperson has to manually search for the flight by keying in destination, time, etc. Multiply this by the number of people in line, and you can easily see cascading delays.
What? How is it extortion or blackmail? They send a letter saying that they are going to take you to court. In the same letter it has an offer to settle out of court. Importantly, the matter goes away if you pay up. It is settled. The RIAA agrees to not go after you again unless, of course, you violate their members copyrights again.
In the case of extortion and blackmail, the matter is not settled. The extortionist can come back at any time and hit you up for cash again.
Nazis? What is this? 1940?
Everyone knows the new boogey men are "terrorists" and "dope".
There is a role for both the private sector and the public sector in space, just like there is a role for the private sector and the public sector in all kinds of research.
There are some kinds of research that will not be profitable to a corporation, but will have benefits outside of the market (a form of market externality [anyone who talks a lot about free market capitalism should be familiar with the term-- surprisingly few are]). For example, take the hubble space telescope. Despite all of the good posters it has produced, I seriously doubt a private venture could find a profitability angle on it (unless it sold instrument time to public researchers at universities and the like... in which case, we're back to square one). However, though it isn't profitable , the hubble has provided amazing insight into the origin and nature of the universe, which goes to the very heart of the things we are curious about as human beings.
On the other hand, there IS a commercial market to put cargo into space. We need more broadcast, communications, and monitoring satilites every day. A lot of them are even owned privately. There might even be a market for passenger flights (space tourism, high speed travel).
Bravo. I'm glad someone finally said something sensible in this discussion. I'm tired of all of the backseat-astronauts who don't know anything about the mission but go on and on about the million dollar space hammer or how the mission would have been better performed by the private sector (nevermind the total lack of manned orbital ability in the private sector). Look, if you don't work at NASA, in the manned flight group, you don't know the full details of the mission. Therefore, you should question whether things are really as absurd or simple as they seem (note-- I didn't say not criticize NASA; just re-evaluate whether you can really make worthwhile suggestions with your limited knowledge of the subject). This is quadrupley true is you don't even read the whole article.
What? Unemployment at record lows? The record post-world war II is 2.4%. The current unemployment rate is 5% (both according to the BLS). Even in the last decade the record is 3.6%.
Of course, one has to wonder about the sustainability of american consumer spending (considering the average american spends 101% of what they earn) and incredible trade deficits. Interest rates have got to adjust at some point... and as goes capital so goes labor.