The problem is: These decisions are not competent, but they are representative for large companies. (In my 10+ years as consultant I see this kind of decisions all the time.) They are so ubiqutious that there is a whole cartoon series out there -- called Dilbert, you surely have seen them...
That is more a comment on the sad state of our IT world than on the study (which I haven't read).
You have to see that while I quite agree with the GGP, I just wanted to comment on his comment on the EU pact, the de-populization by 30%, and the extremely high official unemployment numbers of 20% and more -- all this comments point towards the east and don't really cover the basic economic problems of Germany as a whole.
Concerning dishonesty of the EU pact process, I could take the cheap shot and ask why you expect politicians to be honest. But seriously, I think that they couldn't do it otherwise. The Bundesbank was pressing and was not willing to release their control of the DM, and for them stability was the holy grail. Already at this time, the majority of economic pundits found that strict limit garbage; but the politicians found themselves in a catch-22 and had to strive for hard limits to get the treaty accepted. And as far as I have read in the Zeit, they *do* plan to renegotiate it.
In fact, as you wrote in your second follow-up, the fear of the people may be the main factor of our economic demise. I'd add another factor, though: That politics cater so much for the need of Big Business (who just laugh at them) and ignore the needs and well-being of small and mid-sized companies (who provide the most employment in Germany). As our proverb goes, the fish starts stinking at the head. But I have to admit that I'm biased in that opinion, being the CEO of a mid-sized company in IT consulting.;-)
While I agree factually with most of your comments (I live now since more than 43 years in Germany...), not keeping the EU stability pact is the least of our worries. It is more or less a direct consequence of moving 4% of our GNP every year to the new states -- and worse, for subsidizing, not as investment. Without that money transfer it would be easy to be within the stability limits.
From the description of your environment, it reads as if you live in East Germany now. Then you see that still all this money is not taking effect -- and won't do so for the forseeable future. That's one of the really big hurdles the German economy faces.
If you're not married, only the mother is registered. Then the father has no legal representation for the child. To get it, he has to adopt his own child.
Even if you can afford all washing machines in the world, you will want only one and have to select. And if you've got enough money, it's not the question any more how much it costs, but how good it is. And no money in the world will take that selection process away. (Well, one could delegate it -- but then one needs first to find someone who trusts that the decision is right.)
It seems that you don't have much money. If you think that more money means less work and less decisions, you're in for a surprise if you ever get some.
I cannot understand at all why that's called wierd.
When we bought our last one, we needed four evenings to decide. And that was quick because we didn't need to talk about the brand -- that it would be Miele was clear from the start. The actual question was `which Miele machine'? (Our previous Miele worked for 20 years without a flaw, btw.)
They're a bit more expensive than others, but worth every Euro.
While I like many of Greg Bear's books, he also stretches physics.
Take Eon's singularity description, or Moving Mars, as examples.
But, as I wrote, I have no problems with that. For me, one of the best SF books ever is Stars in my pockets like grains of sand and that is ridiculous with its pseudo-science hogwash. I don't care, because the book itself is good. Similarly, Hyperion or others.
I have roughly 3000 SF (Speculative Fiction) books here at home.
And almost none of them acknowledges that `science thing'. For once, most space-based stories assume faster than light travel. Read Relativity and FTL Travel for a scientific treaty on that topic. And then check your so-called Hard Sci-Fi books and look how many handle the science right.
Frankly, I can think of very few honest Hard Sci-Fi efforts in books. In fact, there is only a few promille in the thousands of books that I own from that category.
So, my message to all posters here (not just you) who decry the missing science: Get a life. The question is not `how good is the science', but `how well is it written'. This is fiction, after all.
All problems that I had with USB devices in VMware were caused by Linux loading some special module. Placing that module in hotplug's blacklist solved the problem.
Of course, if you need USB 2.0, you're currently lost with all virtual machine products.
Well, did it occur to you that your post can be interpreted to be off topic?
The article is about/.'s optical design and CSS. It explicitly tells that the architecture is off topic for the next change. It was made clear from the start that the moderation system is not the topic of this article. Event TFA of this Onion redesigner does mention only information architecture and navigation structure, but not such things as the moderation system.
I accept that there is no place to discuss/.'s architecture and design decisions and that this article halfheartedly provided such a place, so I didn't mod you down. Others might have thought differently.
Still, the moderation system works for me. Like you, I browse at +4 or +5, and I wait at least 4 hours after posting before I read any comments. The exception is when I have mod points myself. I see few trolls and mostly balanced discussions.
Of course, it's trickier. But I before rolling out a world-wide Internet-based product, I would at least check if there are domains with that product name in them and if these domains seem to run legitimate stuff and are not only there to capture something.
Actually, I don't say that Google is to blaim -- maybe they should have used one of these agencies that specialize in creating world-wide usable product names. I don't know what they could do; I just wanted to mention that I don't think IIIR is to blame for their actions as the OP did when he called them `freeloaders'.
They owned the trademark, but did not register it before.
There is the difference between TM and (r), you know?
I have several projects where I haven't bothered to register any trademark for. If a giant like Google or Yahoo would announce a project with the same name, I would be quick to register my existing trademark, too. After all, they exist and are established and I don't want to loose them. Every business would do so, everything else would be neglection.
In fact, I think it's almost too high. (I have mod points, but don't mod you down, btw.) RedWizzard does a good job in explaining your erroneous assumptions.
I would even say that the moderation works quite well. Just wait a few hours and read at +4 or +5. You will find well-balanced selection of comments, actually.
I mean seriously, Shakespeare was great, but would we want to have saved every piece of parchment he scribbled on?
Yes, of course. Lots of literati would give a lot to see how the works of Shakespeare have evolved over time. If you don't see the worth of this, don't bother. Others do.
If all US Americans think like you, I can see why you have more people in jails as the rest of the world.
I always joked it's because the US has more criminals. (Which I personally don't think is probable.) More and more it gets clear that people with opinions similar to yours cause this problem.
You forget one precondition: Pharmacy and biology companies agree to change the patent system. We wine about the absurdity of software patents. Have you looked at bio patents? Our problems are peanuts compared to the outragous stuff that's happening there.
As a German, let me tell you: They were opportunists who would have sold their mothers to work on rockets. They did nothing against the slave workers. They were proud on their V2 work to target London.
There are other German scientists who either knew what happened and went to exile in the first place, or who downplayed the war-related abilities to the Nazis. von Braun et.al. did not do this.
In my opinion, these folks were as dangerous as the Nazis. We had lots of such opportunits, and without them the NSDAP couldn't have got such power.
Slashdot Mirror
That is more a comment on the sad state of our IT world than on the study (which I haven't read).
More probably, they pressed Ctrl-Alt-3 or Ctrl-Alt-4 (3 and 4 are above the E key) and switched to that virtual console.
Concerning dishonesty of the EU pact process, I could take the cheap shot and ask why you expect politicians to be honest. But seriously, I think that they couldn't do it otherwise. The Bundesbank was pressing and was not willing to release their control of the DM, and for them stability was the holy grail. Already at this time, the majority of economic pundits found that strict limit garbage; but the politicians found themselves in a catch-22 and had to strive for hard limits to get the treaty accepted. And as far as I have read in the Zeit, they *do* plan to renegotiate it.
In fact, as you wrote in your second follow-up, the fear of the people may be the main factor of our economic demise. I'd add another factor, though: That politics cater so much for the need of Big Business (who just laugh at them) and ignore the needs and well-being of small and mid-sized companies (who provide the most employment in Germany). As our proverb goes, the fish starts stinking at the head. But I have to admit that I'm biased in that opinion, being the CEO of a mid-sized company in IT consulting. ;-)
(Sorry, couldn't resist. :-)
From the description of your environment, it reads as if you live in East Germany now. Then you see that still all this money is not taking effect -- and won't do so for the forseeable future. That's one of the really big hurdles the German economy faces.
If you're not married, only the mother is registered. Then the father has no legal representation for the child. To get it, he has to adopt his own child.
Try Urchin.
It seems that you don't have much money. If you think that more money means less work and less decisions, you're in for a surprise if you ever get some.
They're a bit more expensive than others, but worth every Euro.
But, as I wrote, I have no problems with that. For me, one of the best SF books ever is Stars in my pockets like grains of sand and that is ridiculous with its pseudo-science hogwash. I don't care, because the book itself is good. Similarly, Hyperion or others.
And almost none of them acknowledges that `science thing'. For once, most space-based stories assume faster than light travel. Read Relativity and FTL Travel for a scientific treaty on that topic. And then check your so-called Hard Sci-Fi books and look how many handle the science right.
Frankly, I can think of very few honest Hard Sci-Fi efforts in books. In fact, there is only a few promille in the thousands of books that I own from that category.
So, my message to all posters here (not just you) who decry the missing science: Get a life. The question is not `how good is the science', but `how well is it written'. This is fiction, after all.
So, my compliments, Sir. (Or, ma'am -- or, whoever you are.)
I.e., a good thing for some chill-out at our party tomorrow. :-)
Read up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montesquieu and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_powers for some interesting new historical information.
Of course, if you need USB 2.0, you're currently lost with all virtual machine products.
The article is about /.'s optical design and CSS. It explicitly tells that the architecture is off topic for the next change. It was made clear from the start that the moderation system is not the topic of this article. Event TFA of this Onion redesigner does mention only information architecture and navigation structure, but not such things as the moderation system.
I accept that there is no place to discuss /.'s architecture and design decisions and that this article halfheartedly provided such a place, so I didn't mod you down. Others might have thought differently.
Still, the moderation system works for me. Like you, I browse at +4 or +5, and I wait at least 4 hours after posting before I read any comments. The exception is when I have mod points myself. I see few trolls and mostly balanced discussions.
Actually, I don't say that Google is to blaim -- maybe they should have used one of these agencies that specialize in creating world-wide usable product names. I don't know what they could do; I just wanted to mention that I don't think IIIR is to blame for their actions as the OP did when he called them `freeloaders'.
There is the difference between TM and (r), you know?
I have several projects where I haven't bothered to register any trademark for. If a giant like Google or Yahoo would announce a project with the same name, I would be quick to register my existing trademark, too. After all, they exist and are established and I don't want to loose them. Every business would do so, everything else would be neglection.
In fact, I think it's almost too high. (I have mod points, but don't mod you down, btw.) RedWizzard does a good job in explaining your erroneous assumptions.
I would even say that the moderation works quite well. Just wait a few hours and read at +4 or +5. You will find well-balanced selection of comments, actually.
I always joked it's because the US has more criminals. (Which I personally don't think is probable.) More and more it gets clear that people with opinions similar to yours cause this problem.
You forget one precondition: Pharmacy and biology companies agree to change the patent system. We wine about the absurdity of software patents. Have you looked at bio patents? Our problems are peanuts compared to the outragous stuff that's happening there.
There are other German scientists who either knew what happened and went to exile in the first place, or who downplayed the war-related abilities to the Nazis. von Braun et.al. did not do this.
In my opinion, these folks were as dangerous as the Nazis. We had lots of such opportunits, and without them the NSDAP couldn't have got such power.