Although I don't know this for sure, but it would appear to me that pharmaceutical companies are wealthy beyond comprehension. This would leave me to believe that their profit margins are so great that the productions of the drugs (including R&D) must be very inexpensive. Sure, R&D still costs money but compared to the money they make on the drugs, the cost of R&D would appear to be insignificant. That being the case, I bet that if all the numbers were made public (total cost of R&D, cost of raw materials to make each pill/oz/mg of drug, and price at which the pill/oz/mg is sold at, I think the real picture would become clear. I believe that the cost of drugs could be dropped 50% or more and still have plenty of money left over to be well into the green and put money into everyone's pockets (shareholders, R&D researchers, lazy worthless whiny executives, everything/one else). Because there would still be a profit and still be giving doctors jobs making the same amount of money, R&D would continue anyway. Sure, the executives and shareholders wouldn't be robbing the sick blind as much and would probably whine about it, but too bad. They'd still be making a worth-while profit.
Oh, and let's not forget that nearly all of the new drugs produced today are mostly ineffective or have such severe side effects compared to the value they give that it is not worth it to take the drug. Also, these new ineffective drugs cost so much money that it doesn't really make sense to buy and use them. It would seem that excellence in R&D ceased some decades ago and that is why we're seeing so many stories now a days about drugs from 20/30/50 years ago are still just as effective now, if not more so, than new drugs created today which cost 10 to 100 times the cost of the old drugs.
In the end, I believe that a federal controlled system would not stop progress, only stop the super rich from getting more super rich and allow the average and poor Joes/Janes out there to be able to afford drugs and stay alive longer while potentially living a happier life due to better (affordable) healthcare. Perhaps other countries know this. I'm sure the US does too but as long as we allow corporations to buy our politicians (especially now after the recent supreme court ruling), we'll never be able to have drugs which everyone can afford.
So he's under no obligation whatsoever to render services.
You're correct in thinking he's under no obligation to render services. However, the passwords to the equipment is the same as physical keys and they are the property of the city. He is obligated to return that property upon request of the city without delay.
I went through a situation like this when I lost my job. My workstation was encrypted with truecrypt (boot partition). I was running tests with it to see if it was reliable enough to put on all the company laptops. When I was let go, my supervisor stopped by my house some days later telling me that if I didn't give up the password to the encrypted workstation that they would have the police come over and ask me for them. Yea, ok, whatever. I figured I was no longer under any obligation to give up that password, especially since all previous employee workstations were typically reformatted anyway. I couldn't figure out why the wanted to get into my personal workstation anyway. All data was stored on the server shares where management had full access to. They obviously just wanted to be nosy after the fact which I didn't really care (I had nothing on the workstation worth hiding and I was already fired anyway so.. so what) so I gave up the password right then and there without protest. I was in fact very cooperative on that. This was a few years ago. I had a good friend call that company for a 'reference check' and they told him without even asking who he was or what company he was calling from that I refused to give up the password. That's off topic here so I won't continue but let's say that I'm investigating legal options.
Some months later I mentioned this situation on a legal board online somewhere and an attorney told me the same thing I just said above; the passwords are the property of the company and I am obligated to return that property when requested.
One thing I'm wondering is what would have happened if the password would have been kept on a post it note on my desk somewhere (since this was just a truecrypt boot password that was for experimental purposes and wasn't necessary or required through policies/procedures to be protected) and management threw it away after I left the building for good thinking it was trash then later show up at my door asking for he password but I don't know it since I never memorized it and kept it on the post-it note? I don't know what the legal ramifications of that would have been. It was like leaving a physical key on my desk and them throwing it away thinking it was just a random piece of metal. Then again, it would have also been a key that wasn't officially issued to me but one I created myself after putting on a new door lock on my computer under testing purposes (which IT does). Anyone care to give an answer to that complex situation?
Holy crap!
You can bet your ass I'll NEVER set foot in that state!
That's really, really bad. Once again, we should be able to rapidly remove prosecutors who abuse the laws. There should be a federal law stating that prosecutors (at every level) are forbidden fro using laws for which they were not originally intended.
You're right. I fear for Mr. Childs. I believe he's done no wrong (I'm a systems admin of 7 years myself) but unless his attorney can turn technical stuff into laymens terms really, Really well, then Mr. Childs will be spending three and a half more years in jail (assuming they do a time already served kind of thing). Of course, they may slap him with different sentenced terms for each count they find him guilty of and give him a hefty twenty or so years in prison. This is sadly how it usually ends up for the innocent in our justice system. But, once again, it all boils down to how good his attorney is at turning technical information into information that the dummies in the jury can understand, which will be a very difficult job indeed. I can picture some grannies and hair dressers and other similar people on the jury and already know that he'll be convicted.
If he gets found not guilty on all charges (which I just don't see happening because of my above comments) then I hope he sues the city for millions and millions of dollars. He should also be able to have others criminally charged for false imprisonment but stupid things like immunity for cops and judges and prosecutors will keep such justice from happening.
I really do wish we could remove all immunity for all members of government (local, state and federal). Even the president should be able to be imprisoned for crimes committed.
The day we have cameras attached to us at all times that stream the video to a far off server is the day that the police have a (legally permitted) way to turn it off before they plant drugs and guns on us and then gun us down in 'self defense'. Then they'll happily turn it back on for us.
I'm not sure that the average driver needs to worry about three dimensions if he can't handle two well enough.
Exactly.
We may never have flying cars just because of the danger involved. On the road, a fender bender may cause people to pull off to the side and exchange insurance info but fender benders in the air would be disastrous potentially killing all occupants of both vehicles and others on the ground as well not to mention the potential for much greater property damages when falling vehicles fall on expensive buildings or other structures/places of value. There's just too much that could and would go wrong for us to have flying vehicles in the foreseeable future.
Once global computer infrastructures are created and mature to the point of being able to control everything for us with near perfect accuracy then that may be the day we start seeing personal flying aircraft for the whole family to enjoy.
Well, yea, having older machines to play older games is akin to having an NES still around so you can play your NES cartridges. It works both ways. However, with PC gaming there's still a chance you could get your older games to play on newer OSes with tweaks or emulators or something (you can emu your NES/SNES too but it's not as good as having the original console by any means). Of course, it may not play as well as it would on the original OS/333MHz PC, but it would still be playable enough to enjoy it. Now, enter x64 computers and hardly anything works. haha
SO, yea, my point is that playing old games is like playing old console titles. It's best to keep an old machine around just as it is to keep your old console around. However, keeping around a big bulky PC sucks compared to keeping around a tiny console.
.. banded together with sufficient legal representation, they could put the hurt on EA
The hurt? You know how these things are going now a days. All the victims involved in the class action suit, in the end, will get a 50 cent off coupon for their next video game purchase and/or they'll be entitled to one free month of warhammer online services with the purchase of a 2 year warhammer online contract. This will end up being a win/win situation for EA all 'round.
Although I'm not a warhammer online customer, because EA has failed to step up and take the proper responsibility by offering to fix the problem with the banks of all those involved so as not to burden the victimized customer any more than is absolutely necessary, I have decided to put EA on my purchasing black list for two years. I will not spend a single fucking penny on any EA product or service for two years. I'm a patient man and will happily wait that long to purchase any game they may be involved with. This is my way of telling EA that I do not approve of their actions (or inaction). It's not much but it is indeed something. If everyone would do such a thing, I believe companies would be more responsible otherwise they would risk much. Mistakes happen but they still need to help out their customers as much as possible.
When Sony did that root kit thing, I stopped putting money into the Sony coffers for three whole years. That included Tristar movies as well.
Damn! You guys in the UK are lucky to have such a nice set of consumer protection laws. There's no way in hell we'd ever see anything so grand in the US; not with all the politicians being bought off by the companies who sponsor them, especially now with that recent supreme court ruling where companies can contribute all the money they want to candidates. We're so screwed.:(
I once lost my job as the internal systems engineer for an ISP. My workstation I used there I had encrypted using truecrypt. Of course, when I was let go I wasn't allowed to pass go or anything... just sent strait home (or strait out the building). A week later a supervisor stopped by my house asking for the password to my workstation with threat of bringing the police over. I don't know why my workstation was so important to them but I gave the password over anyway since it was not a big deal if they had it or not. I didn't argue one bit about it. That was the last I heard from them. A short while later I asked an attorney friend of mine about it. I asked if I had to give the password up since my relationship with the company was over with. He said that the password technically belonged to the company, just like a physical key would. So, if they asked for it, I was obligated to give it back, so to speak. That surprised me a bit but makes sense too.
OH.. and on a side note, I had a friend of mine call this company up more than a year after I left to do a reference check and they told my friend, without even asking who he was or what company he worked for, that I had refused to give up my password to them at first. Talk about blatant lies. That wasn't the only bad thing (lie) they said . I haven't found an attorney that would take the case on pro-bono because, apparently, there wouldn't be enough money in it for them. Too bad. I would love to see some justice brought down on them. Justice is just too expensive for poor people though.
Some kids go to high school with shoes that cost more than a serviceable laptop.
Some shoes are costing more than $200 now a days? OMG! What the hell kind of shoes are these and who is stupid enough to buy them? Also, since these are macbooks we're talking about, they can't possibly be that cheap, can they?
Holy yuk! Yea, that's one reason (and I've given it serious thought in the past) that I could never be a doctor. That image of the guy who got ripped in half while driving his little car and running head on into a big truck was too much for my fragile eyes to handle and when I consider the potential odors around traumas like that... I knew right then for sure I could never go into the medial profession. I'm glad for those that can and do, however. Thanks doc.
Perhaps the innovation he spoke of (for walmart) is marketing, supply and logistics methods and store shelving. They have developed new systesm (and continue to do so) to improve efficiency all around. It's due to these many innovations that helps keep them on top by keeping prices lower (as can be) than most of the competitors. Of course, treating their huge employee base badly with low wages and no benefits of any kind also helps the walton heiress's pockets lined with cash. I'm sure she feels absolutely no tears at all for all the lives she keeps in the poverty heap while she laughs all the way to the banks. Evil has many faces.
Slashdot Mirror
Although I don't know this for sure, but it would appear to me that pharmaceutical companies are wealthy beyond comprehension. This would leave me to believe that their profit margins are so great that the productions of the drugs (including R&D) must be very inexpensive. Sure, R&D still costs money but compared to the money they make on the drugs, the cost of R&D would appear to be insignificant. That being the case, I bet that if all the numbers were made public (total cost of R&D, cost of raw materials to make each pill/oz/mg of drug, and price at which the pill/oz/mg is sold at, I think the real picture would become clear. I believe that the cost of drugs could be dropped 50% or more and still have plenty of money left over to be well into the green and put money into everyone's pockets (shareholders, R&D researchers, lazy worthless whiny executives, everything/one else). Because there would still be a profit and still be giving doctors jobs making the same amount of money, R&D would continue anyway. Sure, the executives and shareholders wouldn't be robbing the sick blind as much and would probably whine about it, but too bad. They'd still be making a worth-while profit.
Oh, and let's not forget that nearly all of the new drugs produced today are mostly ineffective or have such severe side effects compared to the value they give that it is not worth it to take the drug. Also, these new ineffective drugs cost so much money that it doesn't really make sense to buy and use them. It would seem that excellence in R&D ceased some decades ago and that is why we're seeing so many stories now a days about drugs from 20/30/50 years ago are still just as effective now, if not more so, than new drugs created today which cost 10 to 100 times the cost of the old drugs.
In the end, I believe that a federal controlled system would not stop progress, only stop the super rich from getting more super rich and allow the average and poor Joes/Janes out there to be able to afford drugs and stay alive longer while potentially living a happier life due to better (affordable) healthcare. Perhaps other countries know this. I'm sure the US does too but as long as we allow corporations to buy our politicians (especially now after the recent supreme court ruling), we'll never be able to have drugs which everyone can afford.
So he's under no obligation whatsoever to render services.
You're correct in thinking he's under no obligation to render services. However, the passwords to the equipment is the same as physical keys and they are the property of the city. He is obligated to return that property upon request of the city without delay.
.. so what) so I gave up the password right then and there without protest. I was in fact very cooperative on that. This was a few years ago. I had a good friend call that company for a 'reference check' and they told him without even asking who he was or what company he was calling from that I refused to give up the password. That's off topic here so I won't continue but let's say that I'm investigating legal options.
I went through a situation like this when I lost my job. My workstation was encrypted with truecrypt (boot partition). I was running tests with it to see if it was reliable enough to put on all the company laptops. When I was let go, my supervisor stopped by my house some days later telling me that if I didn't give up the password to the encrypted workstation that they would have the police come over and ask me for them. Yea, ok, whatever. I figured I was no longer under any obligation to give up that password, especially since all previous employee workstations were typically reformatted anyway. I couldn't figure out why the wanted to get into my personal workstation anyway. All data was stored on the server shares where management had full access to. They obviously just wanted to be nosy after the fact which I didn't really care (I had nothing on the workstation worth hiding and I was already fired anyway so
Some months later I mentioned this situation on a legal board online somewhere and an attorney told me the same thing I just said above; the passwords are the property of the company and I am obligated to return that property when requested.
One thing I'm wondering is what would have happened if the password would have been kept on a post it note on my desk somewhere (since this was just a truecrypt boot password that was for experimental purposes and wasn't necessary or required through policies/procedures to be protected) and management threw it away after I left the building for good thinking it was trash then later show up at my door asking for he password but I don't know it since I never memorized it and kept it on the post-it note? I don't know what the legal ramifications of that would have been. It was like leaving a physical key on my desk and them throwing it away thinking it was just a random piece of metal. Then again, it would have also been a key that wasn't officially issued to me but one I created myself after putting on a new door lock on my computer under testing purposes (which IT does). Anyone care to give an answer to that complex situation?
Garry Kasparov is coming to kill you, and the only way to change his mind is for you to beat him at chess. What do you do
Call IBM.
Well then I hope you're wealthy otherwise you're screwed!
Holy crap! You can bet your ass I'll NEVER set foot in that state! That's really, really bad. Once again, we should be able to rapidly remove prosecutors who abuse the laws. There should be a federal law stating that prosecutors (at every level) are forbidden fro using laws for which they were not originally intended.
You're right. I fear for Mr. Childs. I believe he's done no wrong (I'm a systems admin of 7 years myself) but unless his attorney can turn technical stuff into laymens terms really, Really well, then Mr. Childs will be spending three and a half more years in jail (assuming they do a time already served kind of thing). Of course, they may slap him with different sentenced terms for each count they find him guilty of and give him a hefty twenty or so years in prison. This is sadly how it usually ends up for the innocent in our justice system. But, once again, it all boils down to how good his attorney is at turning technical information into information that the dummies in the jury can understand, which will be a very difficult job indeed. I can picture some grannies and hair dressers and other similar people on the jury and already know that he'll be convicted.
If he gets found not guilty on all charges (which I just don't see happening because of my above comments) then I hope he sues the city for millions and millions of dollars. He should also be able to have others criminally charged for false imprisonment but stupid things like immunity for cops and judges and prosecutors will keep such justice from happening.
I really do wish we could remove all immunity for all members of government (local, state and federal). Even the president should be able to be imprisoned for crimes committed.
The day we have cameras attached to us at all times that stream the video to a far off server is the day that the police have a (legally permitted) way to turn it off before they plant drugs and guns on us and then gun us down in 'self defense'. Then they'll happily turn it back on for us.
I'm not sure that the average driver needs to worry about three dimensions if he can't handle two well enough.
Exactly.
We may never have flying cars just because of the danger involved. On the road, a fender bender may cause people to pull off to the side and exchange insurance info but fender benders in the air would be disastrous potentially killing all occupants of both vehicles and others on the ground as well not to mention the potential for much greater property damages when falling vehicles fall on expensive buildings or other structures/places of value. There's just too much that could and would go wrong for us to have flying vehicles in the foreseeable future.
Once global computer infrastructures are created and mature to the point of being able to control everything for us with near perfect accuracy then that may be the day we start seeing personal flying aircraft for the whole family to enjoy.
Well, yea, having older machines to play older games is akin to having an NES still around so you can play your NES cartridges. It works both ways. However, with PC gaming there's still a chance you could get your older games to play on newer OSes with tweaks or emulators or something (you can emu your NES/SNES too but it's not as good as having the original console by any means). Of course, it may not play as well as it would on the original OS/333MHz PC, but it would still be playable enough to enjoy it. Now, enter x64 computers and hardly anything works. haha SO, yea, my point is that playing old games is like playing old console titles. It's best to keep an old machine around just as it is to keep your old console around. However, keeping around a big bulky PC sucks compared to keeping around a tiny console.
.. banded together with sufficient legal representation, they could put the hurt on EA
The hurt? You know how these things are going now a days. All the victims involved in the class action suit, in the end, will get a 50 cent off coupon for their next video game purchase and/or they'll be entitled to one free month of warhammer online services with the purchase of a 2 year warhammer online contract. This will end up being a win/win situation for EA all 'round.
Although I'm not a warhammer online customer, because EA has failed to step up and take the proper responsibility by offering to fix the problem with the banks of all those involved so as not to burden the victimized customer any more than is absolutely necessary, I have decided to put EA on my purchasing black list for two years. I will not spend a single fucking penny on any EA product or service for two years. I'm a patient man and will happily wait that long to purchase any game they may be involved with. This is my way of telling EA that I do not approve of their actions (or inaction). It's not much but it is indeed something. If everyone would do such a thing, I believe companies would be more responsible otherwise they would risk much. Mistakes happen but they still need to help out their customers as much as possible.
When Sony did that root kit thing, I stopped putting money into the Sony coffers for three whole years. That included Tristar movies as well.
Damn! You guys in the UK are lucky to have such a nice set of consumer protection laws. There's no way in hell we'd ever see anything so grand in the US; not with all the politicians being bought off by the companies who sponsor them, especially now with that recent supreme court ruling where companies can contribute all the money they want to candidates. We're so screwed. :(
I once lost my job as the internal systems engineer for an ISP. My workstation I used there I had encrypted using truecrypt. Of course, when I was let go I wasn't allowed to pass go or anything ... just sent strait home (or strait out the building). A week later a supervisor stopped by my house asking for the password to my workstation with threat of bringing the police over. I don't know why my workstation was so important to them but I gave the password over anyway since it was not a big deal if they had it or not. I didn't argue one bit about it. That was the last I heard from them. A short while later I asked an attorney friend of mine about it. I asked if I had to give the password up since my relationship with the company was over with. He said that the password technically belonged to the company, just like a physical key would. So, if they asked for it, I was obligated to give it back, so to speak. That surprised me a bit but makes sense too.
OH .. and on a side note, I had a friend of mine call this company up more than a year after I left to do a reference check and they told my friend, without even asking who he was or what company he worked for, that I had refused to give up my password to them at first. Talk about blatant lies. That wasn't the only bad thing (lie) they said . I haven't found an attorney that would take the case on pro-bono because, apparently, there wouldn't be enough money in it for them. Too bad. I would love to see some justice brought down on them. Justice is just too expensive for poor people though.
Some kids go to high school with shoes that cost more than a serviceable laptop.
Some shoes are costing more than $200 now a days? OMG! What the hell kind of shoes are these and who is stupid enough to buy them? Also, since these are macbooks we're talking about, they can't possibly be that cheap, can they?
Holy yuk! Yea, that's one reason (and I've given it serious thought in the past) that I could never be a doctor. That image of the guy who got ripped in half while driving his little car and running head on into a big truck was too much for my fragile eyes to handle and when I consider the potential odors around traumas like that... I knew right then for sure I could never go into the medial profession. I'm glad for those that can and do, however. Thanks doc.
Scrolling down that page caused me to laugh into tears. What the hell is wrong with people!?
Perhaps the innovation he spoke of (for walmart) is marketing, supply and logistics methods and store shelving. They have developed new systesm (and continue to do so) to improve efficiency all around. It's due to these many innovations that helps keep them on top by keeping prices lower (as can be) than most of the competitors. Of course, treating their huge employee base badly with low wages and no benefits of any kind also helps the walton heiress's pockets lined with cash. I'm sure she feels absolutely no tears at all for all the lives she keeps in the poverty heap while she laughs all the way to the banks. Evil has many faces.