This is the same cop out used by those who have complied rather than challenged wrongdoings of the past. It is only by this complicity that those with abhorent ideas can gain/keep power.
Apologies for vanity, but the Leaf is simply TOO boring. BMW has done well with the i3, but it is butt ugly. I'm currently in the market for an all electric replacement for my current car, and have driven both - and they are excellent cars. I can just about afford a Tesla (haven't driven one yet - their test machine is coming over to me next month apparently) but it's American girth is troubling (and the fact it looks like a middle-aged saloon car). Early adopters want something they get passionate about.
NISSAN - make a GT-E that's faster than the GT-R and the halo will make everything sell.
The Neato Signature Pro I got for Christmas (named Sebastian by my manga obsessed daughter) is frankly marvellous - have not hoovered myself since. The future indeed is this way. Dyson will have a job doing better... only some way of climbing stairs (which I cannot even begin to fathom) would improve things dramatically.
Disclaimer: I have absolutely no connection with the Neato guys (even though they clearly are rather neat (in all senses))
A competing product without a camera would interest me. Notifications, directions, quick look ups - even rough GPS / direction tracking AR appeal without having every guy ready to punch me and every girls creeped out.
Oh, and most of this passion was inspired by Minecraft; Notch should be credited with showing the next generation there is more to gaming than big studio blockbusters - and further; that being creative is genuinely more rewarding.
I have a 12 yr old daughter who is into gaming; too many voices write it off as artistically/culturally invalid - I guess just as they did Rock and Roll and Film in generations previous... and as with those earlier mediums there is good and there is bad. Classic games have the benefit of time self-selecting the best - artistically speaking. I've hugely enjoyed curating her discovery of games - many of which I missed at the time because they were commercial flops, such as Shadow of the Collosus. Here's an outline of what we've covered so far:
- Ocarina of Time
- Grim Fandango
- Ico / Shadow of the Collosus
- Half-life
- Final Fantasy VII
- Portal / Portal 2
Looking forward in future to:
- Silent Hill 2
- Resident Evil 4
And emerging classics:
- Papers, Please!
- Brothers
- Gone Home
I'll just note that currently her dystopian novel is closer to the mark than other classic dystopian novels of those times (such as 1984 or Brave New World).
Give GCHQ a call (there, no need - they're already reading now) - I think you'll find we _are_ living in 1984
Which of the following goods and services are essential?
insulin for a diabetic
acetaminophen for someone with a broken arm
acetaminophen for a child with muscle pains
a refrigerator at home to prevent food spoilage
hospice for a terminally ill patient
a liver transplant
a sex-change operation
a mammogram for a 55-year-old
a mammogram for a 16-year-old
genetic testing for Huntington's
jaw surgery to eliminate TMJ
a high-quality mattress
a quadruple bypass
a gastric bypass
cholesterol-lowering drugs
anxiety-reducing drugs
an electric toothbrush
sex
setting a broken leg
Everything on that list is provided by the NHS - with the exception of fridges and sex. Works for the UK - even the right wing supports it here.
The US seems ever more bizarre and anachronistic as staunch Christians fight _against_ sick & ill people being helped by others..! The hypocrisy is seemingly lost
These things are NOT mutually exclusive. I'm a full time developer and still run the tech companies I set-up. But I also spent 5 years in my 20s being a rock-star, touring, releasing albums, doing TV, getting in the charts. It was fun, yes - but I ALSO love coding. Please don't force stereotypes on anybody.
This is free market capitalism at it's worst. Why not create a website featuring the mugshots of the people who run these sites, with a critique of why they are such morality free capitalist douchebags?
Most hated job in tech? The guys & girls who get the task of redesigning/. - regardless how good a job they do, it will always lead to the equivalent of being locked in stocks and handing an infinite basket of apples to the monkey cage.
It's arrival last week caused a similar "Meh" in the office - unless executed so brilliantly that natural intuition and subsequent satifaction of use flow from it, it will be a 90s WinCE feature phone rather than the iOS to (maybe) come.
The real lesson from this is that making a cool tech device under the early adopter impulse buy margin ($99?) will create massive pre-orders regardless of execution.
So let's change the rules...create a Kickstarter campaign to fund a patent-bounty system. If funded, the fund pays out $10 per-patent that is squashed. Suddenly, it becomes a game for people to compete with each other to kill off patents. Even if a person can only do one an hour, that is better pay than minimum wage in many US States, or around the world. And once a year, they can throw a conference, and give out awards to the top "sharp-shooters" who kill off the most patents!
Turn killing bad patents into a game where you can make money, and we can have the patent-trolls slain in short order!
It's sad that I feel so wary in replying to this non-anonymously with a positive viewpoint, even though posting from a society with free speech on a global service.
The de-facto speed on UK motorways is about 80-85 mph. This is the speed that something like 80% of car traffic travels at (making all of those people offenders). When a speed camera is erected, everyone breaks hard - and concentrates on the camera - causing it to become a source of hazard rather than a prevention.
I didn't start my business because I'm "passionate" about what I do or because I "love" my work. I started it to make money, and for no other reason.
One of the biggest mistakes so-called entrepreneurs make is getting emotionally attached to their work - and I see it happen all the time in my VC club. I've been an angel for a number of startups, but we almost always turn down the ones where the pitch is not much more than how "passionate" the people are about their companies.
Could not disagree more. Everything that is wrong with VC and Capitalism in general in embodied in your reply IMO. The reason Apple did so well is because Steve Jobs was passionate about making the stuff he wanted to make. Sure, he was not _averse_ to making mountains of cash, but if he was purely pursuing profits (such as Steve Balmer, or any other shareholder beholden jobbing manager) he would not have been driven to make his perfect phone / tablet. It's all about what your intrinsic motivation is... if it is _purely_ to make oodles of cash, your end product isn't going to be as good as if you actually love the product.
If you have a shitty business, then of course you are not going to care about anything other than the money. So get a business you care about. Unless your life is solely about making money as an end in and of itself? But remember - when you die they don't say "he made huge amounts of cash, wasn't he amazing?" rather "she started that amazingly useful service we all depend on now" or "he created an incredible album".
Here in the UK we are running at about $10 / gallon (assuming £1.40/ltr) and so fuel costs are actually a big deal for us.
I'm a Prius driver, and conversely couldn't imagine going back to petrol / diesel - in fact, I will almost certainly trade-up to the plug-in Prius (that comes out July 2012) so that my daily 10miles round trip commute can be entirely on cheap electric.
I've been a self-employed software architect for 4 years now, and all I can say is DON'T DO IT. After the first year of "working" from home I took a punt on a small, cheap office in my nearest city and never looked back. No family, fewer distractions, and yes - less wanking.
Shared offices BTW are even worse than being at home. The office environment for anyone doing anything even mildly technical (most of the people here) is a disaster as you cannot get more than 20mins concentration time before someone calls / leans over & speaks to you / you go grab a coffee with someone. 2 clear hrs gets more coding/design etc done than a whole day in an Office. Office-folk try this - hole up in isolation for a couple hrs - it's revolutionary.
Failing that, just go to a forgiving coffee house, buy an americano and code for as long as you feel your welcome is not overstayed.
Because without that profit motive from those patents, the drug companies sure aren't going to be developing anything new.
I was with you right up to that last point. When will we in the west realise that most people are not exclusively motivated by profit? This pure-free-market thinking ignores that most great works / breakthroughs come from people who do it principally because they love it - in the case of medicines the academics (sure they earn money too, but not the millions that Bayer's CEOs almost certainly do). Profit motives drive drugs with good profit margins. Helping-people-to-live motives drive good drugs.
Slashdot Mirror
This is the same cop out used by those who have complied rather than challenged wrongdoings of the past. It is only by this complicity that those with abhorent ideas can gain/keep power.
This discussion has been going for some time on the G+ Computing and Morality Community BTW: https://plus.google.com/communities/108602408537353548493
Apologies for vanity, but the Leaf is simply TOO boring. BMW has done well with the i3, but it is butt ugly. I'm currently in the market for an all electric replacement for my current car, and have driven both - and they are excellent cars. I can just about afford a Tesla (haven't driven one yet - their test machine is coming over to me next month apparently) but it's American girth is troubling (and the fact it looks like a middle-aged saloon car). Early adopters want something they get passionate about.
NISSAN - make a GT-E that's faster than the GT-R and the halo will make everything sell.
The Neato Signature Pro I got for Christmas (named Sebastian by my manga obsessed daughter) is frankly marvellous - have not hoovered myself since. The future indeed is this way. Dyson will have a job doing better... only some way of climbing stairs (which I cannot even begin to fathom) would improve things dramatically.
Disclaimer: I have absolutely no connection with the Neato guys (even though they clearly are rather neat (in all senses))
A competing product without a camera would interest me. Notifications, directions, quick look ups - even rough GPS / direction tracking AR appeal without having every guy ready to punch me and every girls creeped out.
The first version of this experiment had positive results.
Oh, and most of this passion was inspired by Minecraft; Notch should be credited with showing the next generation there is more to gaming than big studio blockbusters - and further; that being creative is genuinely more rewarding.
I have a 12 yr old daughter who is into gaming; too many voices write it off as artistically/culturally invalid - I guess just as they did Rock and Roll and Film in generations previous... and as with those earlier mediums there is good and there is bad. Classic games have the benefit of time self-selecting the best - artistically speaking. I've hugely enjoyed curating her discovery of games - many of which I missed at the time because they were commercial flops, such as Shadow of the Collosus. Here's an outline of what we've covered so far:
- Ocarina of Time
- Grim Fandango
- Ico / Shadow of the Collosus
- Half-life
- Final Fantasy VII
- Portal / Portal 2
Looking forward in future to:
- Silent Hill 2
- Resident Evil 4
And emerging classics:
- Papers, Please!
- Brothers
- Gone Home
Back to MusicMatch it is then...
I'll just note that currently her dystopian novel is closer to the mark than other classic dystopian novels of those times (such as 1984 or Brave New World).
Give GCHQ a call (there, no need - they're already reading now) - I think you'll find we _are_ living in 1984
Which of the following goods and services are essential?
Everything on that list is provided by the NHS - with the exception of fridges and sex. Works for the UK - even the right wing supports it here. The US seems ever more bizarre and anachronistic as staunch Christians fight _against_ sick & ill people being helped by others..! The hypocrisy is seemingly lost
These things are NOT mutually exclusive. I'm a full time developer and still run the tech companies I set-up. But I also spent 5 years in my 20s being a rock-star, touring, releasing albums, doing TV, getting in the charts. It was fun, yes - but I ALSO love coding. Please don't force stereotypes on anybody.
This is free market capitalism at it's worst. Why not create a website featuring the mugshots of the people who run these sites, with a critique of why they are such morality free capitalist douchebags?
That's what MS believes. I don't think it works anymore.
In the UK it does. Look at housing.
Most hated job in tech? The guys & girls who get the task of redesigning /. - regardless how good a job they do, it will always lead to the equivalent of being locked in stocks and handing an infinite basket of apples to the monkey cage.
It's arrival last week caused a similar "Meh" in the office - unless executed so brilliantly that natural intuition and subsequent satifaction of use flow from it, it will be a 90s WinCE feature phone rather than the iOS to (maybe) come. The real lesson from this is that making a cool tech device under the early adopter impulse buy margin ($99?) will create massive pre-orders regardless of execution.
So let's change the rules...create a Kickstarter campaign to fund a patent-bounty system. If funded, the fund pays out $10 per-patent that is squashed. Suddenly, it becomes a game for people to compete with each other to kill off patents. Even if a person can only do one an hour, that is better pay than minimum wage in many US States, or around the world. And once a year, they can throw a conference, and give out awards to the top "sharp-shooters" who kill off the most patents!
Turn killing bad patents into a game where you can make money, and we can have the patent-trolls slain in short order!
You can have my pledge now.
It's sad that I feel so wary in replying to this non-anonymously with a positive viewpoint, even though posting from a society with free speech on a global service.
No, it's the hip new way of creating zip guns that cost more than several actual firearms would, considering the cost of the printer and materials.
Not in sensible parts of the world where firearms cannot be bought. For example, in the UK I have never even seen a handgun whilst on home soil.
The de-facto speed on UK motorways is about 80-85 mph. This is the speed that something like 80% of car traffic travels at (making all of those people offenders). When a speed camera is erected, everyone breaks hard - and concentrates on the camera - causing it to become a source of hazard rather than a prevention.
I didn't start my business because I'm "passionate" about what I do or because I "love" my work. I started it to make money, and for no other reason.
One of the biggest mistakes so-called entrepreneurs make is getting emotionally attached to their work - and I see it happen all the time in my VC club. I've been an angel for a number of startups, but we almost always turn down the ones where the pitch is not much more than how "passionate" the people are about their companies.
Could not disagree more. Everything that is wrong with VC and Capitalism in general in embodied in your reply IMO. The reason Apple did so well is because Steve Jobs was passionate about making the stuff he wanted to make. Sure, he was not _averse_ to making mountains of cash, but if he was purely pursuing profits (such as Steve Balmer, or any other shareholder beholden jobbing manager) he would not have been driven to make his perfect phone / tablet. It's all about what your intrinsic motivation is... if it is _purely_ to make oodles of cash, your end product isn't going to be as good as if you actually love the product. If you have a shitty business, then of course you are not going to care about anything other than the money. So get a business you care about. Unless your life is solely about making money as an end in and of itself? But remember - when you die they don't say "he made huge amounts of cash, wasn't he amazing?" rather "she started that amazingly useful service we all depend on now" or "he created an incredible album".
Why does anyone do business there? It baffles me...
Here in the UK we are running at about $10 / gallon (assuming £1.40/ltr) and so fuel costs are actually a big deal for us.
I'm a Prius driver, and conversely couldn't imagine going back to petrol / diesel - in fact, I will almost certainly trade-up to the plug-in Prius (that comes out July 2012) so that my daily 10miles round trip commute can be entirely on cheap electric.
A friend of mine (who's 15) and myself (I'm 28 with a CS degree) have a nearly working programmable 8-bit computer in Minecraft.
Can't wait to see this. Can you message (or tweet me - @jamestinman), thanks!
I've been a self-employed software architect for 4 years now, and all I can say is DON'T DO IT. After the first year of "working" from home I took a punt on a small, cheap office in my nearest city and never looked back. No family, fewer distractions, and yes - less wanking.
Shared offices BTW are even worse than being at home. The office environment for anyone doing anything even mildly technical (most of the people here) is a disaster as you cannot get more than 20mins concentration time before someone calls / leans over & speaks to you / you go grab a coffee with someone. 2 clear hrs gets more coding/design etc done than a whole day in an Office. Office-folk try this - hole up in isolation for a couple hrs - it's revolutionary.
Failing that, just go to a forgiving coffee house, buy an americano and code for as long as you feel your welcome is not overstayed.
Because without that profit motive from those patents, the drug companies sure aren't going to be developing anything new.
I was with you right up to that last point. When will we in the west realise that most people are not exclusively motivated by profit? This pure-free-market thinking ignores that most great works / breakthroughs come from people who do it principally because they love it - in the case of medicines the academics (sure they earn money too, but not the millions that Bayer's CEOs almost certainly do). Profit motives drive drugs with good profit margins. Helping-people-to-live motives drive good drugs.