Perhaps it's working as designed -- in which case you're only permitted access to this information if you have a Trusted Computing(tm) BIOS+OS. Otherwise, you get nothing.
Isn't this essentially what the Trusted Computing alliance is promoting; control over information?
>which charity?... wiccans? or muslims?... big companioes ?
All of the above. In a free country, you and other like-minded people of whatever political persuasion would be free to form a library (or join with an existing one) and stock it with whatever books you choose. And patrons would be free to choose which library they to visit.
>do you think that you would get a content-neutral view?
Do you believe that existing libraries provide a content-neutral view NOW? If so, you're sadly mistaken. It's well documented that libraries (both university and general public) have a left-of-center political slant to their book choices. Search for Hilary Clinton's Living History and Ann Coulter's Treason, for instance. Chances are you'll only find the former.
Or try to find something really politically incorrect, such as something about whether or not the 16th Amendment (income tax) was properly ratified, or The Turner Diaries (an anti-government screed with racism and naziism thrown in). I suspect that merely searching for either will get you posted to a government list which, thanks to the recent Ashcroft laws, the Feds are allowed to collect without your consent.
>Yeah, and then poor people couldn't afford information. Wonderful.
Is this not the proper role of charity? Or do you so lack in a belief of the goodness of mankind as to think that things such as libraries would exist only through compulsary funding?
>>Maybe if we gave the libraries more actual funding...
<sarcasm> Of course! Why hold a government library to the unrealistic standards of being financially responsible when we can just force the taxpayers to cough up some more money to cover their inefficiencies? </sarcasm>
>>...they wouldn't need to turn to good old-fashioned capitalism to raise the funds they need to stay current.
You say that as if it's a dirty word. What's wrong with capitalism? Under it, scarcity encourages innovation of exactly the sort we're seeing here: rather than dumping these used books in the landfill or selling them for pennies each they're being sold to willing buyers, yielding a much higher return to the library which is free to pour that money back into it's operations to either 1) reduce operating expenses, lessening it's burden on the taxpayer, or 2) EXPAND operations at the same cost to the taxpayer.
>>i don't see any point why china for example would like to contribute at all now.
The Chinese are easy to understand -- simply look for the military application. Just like the old Soviet empire, China is a government structured to build military power first, and provide for the citizenry second. Why support it? Three words: Missle Guidance System. Galileo has a higher resolution (read: more accurate) than the American GPS system. Of course if one's lobbing megaton nukes (as when the Chinese threatened "trading" Los Angeles for Beijing a few years ago) precision accuracy isn't critical, but if instead small pilotless drone aircraft or a cruise missle is being flown at low altitude through a city on way to a target, GPS accuracy *is* critical. It sure would be handy, for instance, if China wanted to wipe out the Tiawanese military command structure from afar.
It's not just China, of course, but also it's allies that are a risk. Wouldn't Kim Jong Ill just love to be able to wipe out the capitol of South Korea with a precision guided missle?
Of course, this also explains why the US military wants to block the system -- it's a risk both domestically and internationally among allies. Many of the same arguments were made by Europe and ROW (rest of world) at the time of deployment of the American GPS system, though.
>>singing and speech aren't mediated by the same parts of the brain... there's examples of people who can sing sentences, but can't speak them.
More than that, it's in fact common that those who stutter find that they can sing without the impediment. And, curiously enough, this is one of the treatments for stuttering -- teaching the patient to "sing" sentences, then over a period of weeks/months moderating the prosody (think: "melody") to equal that of conversational spoken speech.
>>How can any of them possibly believe that this would do any good?
Define "good." If, by "good" you mean "will stop spam" forget it. If good means "giving the pols a talking point for their reelection bid" then perhaps it might help.
>>Protesters at Bush events are put into "Free Speech Zones" far from the actual event.
Let's be fair here -- it's not just Bush.
Patricia Mendoza was jailed for shouting "You suck, and those boys died!" at President Clinton at a Chicago festival on July 2, 1996. (She was angry about the lack of American response to the bombing death of 19 American soldiers in Saudi Arabia.) In the opinion of the Secret Service, saying "you suck" amounts to threatening the President, a Federal crime, so she was jailed and interrogated for 12 hours.
In 1993, William Kelly challenged President Clinton about his unfulfilled promise for a middle-class tax cut. He was booed out of the meeting, and armed agents showed up at his home later that night and hauled him off to jail in leg irons and cuffs.
And it's not just the office of the President that doesn't like to be challenged. Consider Berkley, California's HUD (Housing and Urban Development) department -- it sued those who spoke out about a planned homeless shelter in their neighborhood.
Contempt for the "commoners" is not limited to just one political party or even the office of the President; it's widespread.
This is disgraceful! Hundreds of Macs on one purchase order, and they couldn't (or chose not to!) negotiate a deal? The Virginia taxpayers should be outraged! Good grief, if I bought 600 loaves of bread from the corner market, I'd expect a discount. Perhaps they were more interested in making the press than being good stewards of the public trust. After all, the college knows the taxpayers will have pay the bills, sooner or later. Shameful.
Re:Nine weeks more work? That's good!
on
Take Back Your Time!
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· Score: 0, Flamebait
>>Those who choose to work hard will be succesfull anywhere. No. Not at all. Some points for you to consider: France PROHIBITS people in many industries from working more than 35 hours per week. They actually have a police force which inspects employee parking lots to observe whether cars are present after "official" work hours and whether people take work home with them. Citizens have a "right" to theatre tickets, but don't have a right to decide how hard to work, at their own choice! America accepts a huge number of French ex-patriots that have decided to emigrate to a place where their hard work pays off. How is one expected to build wealth and improve their standard of living in a Socialist nation? How can one be successful where the tax burden exceeds 70% (as do some EU states)? Why would anyone bother to work hard if they're penalized for the extra effort? "That's one for you, nineteen for me 'Cause I'm the Taxman" is more than just the lyrics to a song, you realize.
>>I wouldn't call the inner-city slums in America a great success Nor would I. However, what percentage of those living in America's slums and ghettos make an effort to leave and/or radically change their lifestyle? Many of the poor stay poor because of their choices. Buying cigarettes, beer and Camaros, watching Pro Wrestling instead of PBS, and reading sports illustrated instead of a textbook doesn't make for a bright future. Pack a bag and move where the jobs are. Get a job -- and job -- and keep it until you have an offer for a better one. Learn everything you can about everything you can. Do more than is expected of you, try harder and work harder and success will come. Success takes hard work, lots of it. It's not politically correct, but that's just the brutal truth. The rich get richer because they keep doing the things that made them successful in the first place, and vice-versa. I, and several people I know, are living proof. And I can recount related stories of failure.
How many of those people are dependant on the government for their incomes? The "War On Poverty" has only increased the percentage on the dole -- it made the problem worse! The inner cities and the Welfare State are evidence of this.
>>and I wouldn't call the states' lack of funding for education a sucess What "lack of funding" are you talking about? $11,000 per student per year spent in many states for government k-12 school isn't enough? Good God, man, that's enough for a semester at Duke University!! The results of these "poor, underfunded" schools are stunning, too -- 1/3 drop out and apalling literacy rates even among the so-called "graduates." I think many of the students would be better off if we didn't even try to educate them -- just put the $120,000 in a bank account and give it to them when they turn 18 so they can live off the interest. The ones who want to learn will figure out a way to educate themselves. It's tough, but at least with that approach the ones who have no education at all will have something to live on rather than the current situation -- $120,000 spent and nothing to show for it.
>>nor would I call the lack of universal health care a success. What?!? I would say that they fact that we've avoided creating a socialist bottleneck in our medical system is a triumph! I could travel to almost any hospital in America and, if medically necessary, get an MRI, TODAY, whether or not I'm financially capable (responsible?) for the costs. Try that in Canada or England -- you'll wait for weeks. There's no way I want my medical decisions made by the same bureaucrats that set up the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Internal Revenue Service.
>>Different people, different measures for success, but I'll still dare you to find a person who is at the wrong end of your successful system to agree with you.
The difference is that in America, with enough hard work, you can move from one end of the financial spectrum to the other. I've done so, and so can others. It's not easy, but it's *possible*.
So I win the dare. Now what? Are you open-minded enough to admit that there are alternatives to your worldview that *just might* be correct?
Nine weeks more work? That's good!
on
Take Back Your Time!
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
So Americans work nine more weeks than Europeans. America's also more successful than the EU and those who choose to work hard in America enjoy a higher standard of living.
Coincidence? I think not.
This article/press release/petition is a borderline socialist puff-piece. Move along, nothing to see here.
>>petrol is taxed heavily by most countries in Europe.
Here's a free whack with the clue-bat -- EVERYTHING is taxed heavily by most countries in Europe. Socialism and social engineering doesn't come for free, you know.
Regardless, I stand behind the argument that a domestic source for oil results in a lower cost.
>>If you're going to try for a straw man argument, at least make it less transparent than this.
Don't dismiss it so readily -- it's not a strawman argument. Just this past weekend I did take my family of four and our dog to visit Grandma 250 miles away. Left on Friday, returned home Monday morning. What's the alternative? Take an interstate bus @$50 per passenger, then rent a car when we get there?
Besides, I gave several other examples which you chose to ignore. You want real-world? Here's exactly where & when I've traveled today...
7:45am: Drop my daughter off with her backpack full of books off at school. ~10 miles from home, weather approximately 46 degrees Fahrenheiht (cold). 8:00am: I continue my commute to work with my laptop in it's case, two books which I use for reference, and a mug full of hot coffee. ~25 miles. 12:30pm Temperature is in the 70's. Take a spin down to Borders bookstore my during lunch break, pick up another book I need for work (Applied.Net) and something to read for fun (The Sparrow) & grab lunch. Back at office in just over an hour. ~5 miles. ~7:00pm Temperatures in the 50s. Dark. Commute home with laptop and books. Pick up groceries from supermarket on way home. ~25 miles.
How am I supposed to pack a laptop+books, take my daughter to school, and transport groceries on a scooter? What's that I hear you saying; Investigate "public transportation?" First of all, there is no bus line within ten miles of my house -- I'd have to drive my car to a bus stop, get out of my warm car, and wait for a bus to arrive, then transfer at least two different times to get where I'm going. No thanks. And what about that bag full of groceries? Will the bus wait while I shop? I don't think so. Look, I'm not going to get up an hour earier and get home an hour later to build my life around the schedules of public transportation.
One final point, in my car I can adjust the music, control the temperature, etc. and I don't have to share a seat with some fellow traveler who talks to themselves or bathes semi-monthly. I can choose whether to take the (slighly longer) route through the scenic countryside, or the more direct route through the city. Finally, I can't carry my firearm on government vehicles, even with a CCW permit. I'm not about to abandon my safety for no good reason.
So there you have it -- a diary of a typical suburban geek's travels. I've given you what you've asked for, now you tell me how I could make that work with a scooter or public transportation. Hint: You can't.
So go lead your life as you see fit, and I expect the same courtesy rather than disdain.
>>In several countries, the price of petrol has skyrocketed in the past decade (now about $5 per liter (about 0.5 gallons) taking into account the cost of living).
Yes, and what makes us different from most of the rest of the world is that we have an advanced society and a DOMESTIC supply for approx. 50% of our oil demand. (Which is about 50% too low. IMO it's time to drill in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska and anywhere else we can find domestic supplies, then tell the Saudis and the rest of the mid-east to go F themselves.)
>>US is also one of the few countries where 2 wheeled vehicles like motorbikes/scooters are almost non existent.
Gosh, do you think that may be because they're not very PRACTICAL? "C'mon, kids, let's all hop on Dad's 38cc scooter and go visit Grandma. Junior, you sit on the front fender, sis can ride on your shoulders, Mom gets the basket on the back, and Fido can just follow along since we won't be doing more than 2 mph even with a tailwind."
Yeah. That's what America needs -- swarms of millions of buzzing scooters flooding the landscape and the cities. That's a real vision for the future you have there. So let me ask you -- when was the last time you picked up groceries for a family of four on a scooter? Or drove it to work in the rain? Or during humid, 100 degree weather in the summer or single-digit snowstorms? Yeah. That's what I thought. Besides, even if weather weren't an issue, it's just so much fun to show up for work stinking of diesel fumes.
I drove a motorcycle to school and work when I was single and it was a compromise even then -- there's no way it's practical for me now.
You can choose to go live your life styled after the average scooter-riding borderline third-world peasant. I'll stick to my big air conditioned cars and house in the 'burbs, thankyouverymuch.
go the next $PARTY fundraising dinner, provide a large contribution. Then, using the telephone, you can call the boss of the FCC head and tell him you think that a particular point of view is very important to you.
TRANSLATION:
A picture's worth a thousand words, especially if it's a picture of Franklin on a crisp green federal reserve note. Or, to state it more plainly, a bribe is worth more than a lot of bitching.
>>When a state gets it wrong, everyone pays the penalty.
Excellent point, but it's also important to note that only those who pay taxes pay the penalty. And considering how the tax burden has shifted in america (the lowest 50% of income earners pay WAY LESS than 10% of the taxes collected) that means the "wealthy" are getting stuck with the bill.
Of course!! Everyone knows that only Soviet-style central planning authority can produce an efficient system at any scale! Stalin and Mussolini were able to make the trains run on time, after all, and Hitler produced a fine automobile.
That was satire, folks.
Don't you think that the problems may come from TOO MUCH regulation and oversight? The energy production grid in America is anything but free market -- just look at the difficulty in convincing that California had to overcome convincing the EPA to "allow" it to temporarily bring additional powerplants on line last year.
You go ahead and play games in your communist wonderlands, but please leave my country the hell alone.
>Having a seperate machine on a seperate physical network would be more secure, but would cost much more than the VMWare approach.
Sure, until a "29% fall in revenue and an operating loss of $61.36 million this year" results when the code is stolen via some previously undiscovered exploit or plain old carelessness. Physical separation from the Internet is the solution. Everything else is a compromise with varying levels of risk.
Besides, what's a half-dozen development machines, a server, and some cables cost? Under 50k easy. Seems like reasonable insurance, to me, given the risks of losing control over intellectual property.
>> have to wonder whatfor people living in some... slum need a computer!... >>I'm a programmer now.
Enjoy it while it lasts. I can't help but wonder how long before your company outsources your job to some kid with a Simputer willing to work for 35 cents a day? Ouch!
>>They can use the computers to learn about ways of improving their farming...
So what's wrong with a photocopied pamphlet or even a book? Hundreds, perhaps thousands of booklets could be printed for the cost of one of these computers.
If the goal is the distribution of information, this is the wrong tool for the job.
Slashdot Mirror
>>Fix the link
Perhaps it's working as designed -- in which case you're only permitted access to this information if you have a Trusted Computing(tm) BIOS+OS. Otherwise, you get nothing.
Isn't this essentially what the Trusted Computing alliance is promoting; control over information?
>lol... i gotta say - you're comparing apples with a pile of bleach blond, anorexic, chainsmoking dungheap here.
I didn't know Hillary smoked.
>which charity?... wiccans? or muslims? ... big companioes ?
All of the above. In a free country, you and other like-minded people of whatever political persuasion would be free to form a library (or join with an existing one) and stock it with whatever books you choose. And patrons would be free to choose which library they to visit.
>do you think that you would get a content-neutral view?
Do you believe that existing libraries provide a content-neutral view NOW? If so, you're sadly mistaken. It's well documented that libraries (both university and general public) have a left-of-center political slant to their book choices. Search for Hilary Clinton's Living History and Ann Coulter's Treason, for instance. Chances are you'll only find the former.
Or try to find something really politically incorrect, such as something about whether or not the 16th Amendment (income tax) was properly ratified, or The Turner Diaries (an anti-government screed with racism and naziism thrown in). I suspect that merely searching for either will get you posted to a government list which, thanks to the recent Ashcroft laws, the Feds are allowed to collect without your consent.
>How should a six-year-old girl who uses the library pay for it then?
How 'bout a tax on pathetic straw-man arguments?
>Yeah, and then poor people couldn't afford information. Wonderful.
Is this not the proper role of charity? Or do you so lack in a belief of the goodness of mankind as to think that things such as libraries would exist only through compulsary funding?
>>Maybe if we gave the libraries more actual funding...
<sarcasm> Of course! Why hold a government library to the unrealistic standards of being financially responsible when we can just force the taxpayers to cough up some more money to cover their inefficiencies? </sarcasm>
>>...they wouldn't need to turn to good old-fashioned capitalism to raise the funds they need to stay current.
You say that as if it's a dirty word. What's wrong with capitalism? Under it, scarcity encourages innovation of exactly the sort we're seeing here: rather than dumping these used books in the landfill or selling them for pennies each they're being sold to willing buyers, yielding a much higher return to the library which is free to pour that money back into it's operations to either
1) reduce operating expenses, lessening it's burden on the taxpayer, or
2) EXPAND operations at the same cost to the taxpayer.
I don't see the problem here.
>>i don't see any point why china for example would like to contribute at all now.
The Chinese are easy to understand -- simply look for the military application. Just like the old Soviet empire, China is a government structured to build military power first, and provide for the citizenry second. Why support it? Three words: Missle Guidance System. Galileo has a higher resolution (read: more accurate) than the American GPS system. Of course if one's lobbing megaton nukes (as when the Chinese threatened "trading" Los Angeles for Beijing a few years ago) precision accuracy isn't critical, but if instead small pilotless drone aircraft or a cruise missle is being flown at low altitude through a city on way to a target, GPS accuracy *is* critical. It sure would be handy, for instance, if China wanted to wipe out the Tiawanese military command structure from afar.
It's not just China, of course, but also it's allies that are a risk. Wouldn't Kim Jong Ill just love to be able to wipe out the capitol of South Korea with a precision guided missle?
Of course, this also explains why the US military wants to block the system -- it's a risk both domestically and internationally among allies.
Many of the same arguments were made by Europe and ROW (rest of world) at the time of deployment of the American GPS system, though.
>>singing and speech aren't mediated by the same parts of the brain... there's examples of people who can sing sentences, but can't speak them.
More than that, it's in fact common that those who stutter find that they can sing without the impediment. And, curiously enough, this is one of the treatments for stuttering -- teaching the patient to "sing" sentences, then over a period of weeks/months moderating the prosody (think: "melody") to equal that of conversational spoken speech.
>>How can any of them possibly believe that this would do any good?
Define "good." If, by "good" you mean "will stop spam" forget it. If good means "giving the pols a talking point for their reelection bid" then perhaps it might help.
>>isnt the semi-unique sequence of D's and F's my copyright?
No. Unfortunately for me, I can claim prior art.
>>I'm going to start buying products with no features at all. . .
You're switching to SCO? Oh, wait, that's features with no product. Nevermind.
>>Protesters at Bush events are put into "Free Speech Zones" far from the actual event.
Let's be fair here -- it's not just Bush.
Patricia Mendoza was jailed for shouting "You suck, and those boys died!" at President Clinton at a Chicago festival on July 2, 1996. (She was angry about the lack of American response to the bombing death of 19 American soldiers in Saudi Arabia.) In the opinion of the Secret Service, saying "you suck" amounts to threatening the President, a Federal crime, so she was jailed and interrogated for 12 hours.
In 1993, William Kelly challenged President Clinton about his unfulfilled promise for a middle-class tax cut. He was booed out of the meeting, and armed agents showed up at his home later that night and hauled him off to jail in leg irons and cuffs.
And it's not just the office of the President that doesn't like to be challenged. Consider Berkley, California's HUD (Housing and Urban Development) department -- it sued those who spoke out about a planned homeless shelter in their neighborhood.
Contempt for the "commoners" is not limited to just one political party or even the office of the President; it's widespread.
>>yes, VT paid full price
This is disgraceful! Hundreds of Macs on one purchase order, and they couldn't (or chose not to!) negotiate a deal? The Virginia taxpayers should be outraged! Good grief, if I bought 600 loaves of bread from the corner market, I'd expect a discount. Perhaps they were more interested in making the press than being good stewards of the public trust. After all, the college knows the taxpayers will have pay the bills, sooner or later.
Shameful.
>>Those who choose to work hard will be succesfull anywhere.
No. Not at all. Some points for you to consider:
France PROHIBITS people in many industries from working more than 35 hours per week. They actually have a police force which inspects employee parking lots to observe whether cars are present after "official" work hours and whether people take work home with them. Citizens have a "right" to theatre tickets, but don't have a right to decide how hard to work, at their own choice! America accepts a huge number of French ex-patriots that have decided to emigrate to a place where their hard work pays off.
How is one expected to build wealth and improve their standard of living in a Socialist nation?
How can one be successful where the tax burden exceeds 70% (as do some EU states)? Why would anyone bother to work hard if they're penalized for the extra effort? "That's one for you, nineteen for me 'Cause I'm the Taxman" is more than just the lyrics to a song, you realize.
>>I wouldn't call the inner-city slums in America a great success
Nor would I. However, what percentage of those living in America's slums and ghettos make an effort to leave and/or radically change their lifestyle? Many of the poor stay poor because of their choices. Buying cigarettes, beer and Camaros, watching Pro Wrestling instead of PBS, and reading sports illustrated instead of a textbook doesn't make for a bright future. Pack a bag and move where the jobs are. Get a job -- and job -- and keep it until you have an offer for a better one. Learn everything you can about everything you can. Do more than is expected of you, try harder and work harder and success will come. Success takes hard work, lots of it. It's not politically correct, but that's just the brutal truth. The rich get richer because they keep doing the things that made them successful in the first place, and vice-versa. I, and several people I know, are living proof. And I can recount related stories of failure.
How many of those people are dependant on the government for their incomes? The "War On Poverty" has only increased the percentage on the dole -- it made the problem worse! The inner cities and the Welfare State are evidence of this.
>>and I wouldn't call the states' lack of funding for education a sucess
What "lack of funding" are you talking about? $11,000 per student per year spent in many states for government k-12 school isn't enough? Good God, man, that's enough for a semester at Duke University!! The results of these "poor, underfunded" schools are stunning, too -- 1/3 drop out and apalling literacy rates even among the so-called "graduates." I think many of the students would be better off if we didn't even try to educate them -- just put the $120,000 in a bank account and give it to them when they turn 18 so they can live off the interest. The ones who want to learn will figure out a way to educate themselves. It's tough, but at least with that approach the ones who have no education at all will have something to live on rather than the current situation -- $120,000 spent and nothing to show for it.
>>nor would I call the lack of universal health care a success.
What?!? I would say that they fact that we've avoided creating a socialist bottleneck in our medical system is a triumph! I could travel to almost any hospital in America and, if medically necessary, get an MRI, TODAY, whether or not I'm financially capable (responsible?) for the costs. Try that in Canada or England -- you'll wait for weeks. There's no way I want my medical decisions made by the same bureaucrats that set up the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Internal Revenue Service.
>>Different people, different measures for success, but I'll still dare you to find a person who is at the wrong end of your successful system to agree with you.
The difference is that in America, with enough hard work, you can move from one end of the financial spectrum to the other. I've done so, and so can others. It's not easy, but it's *possible*.
So I win the dare. Now what? Are you open-minded enough to admit that there are alternatives to your worldview that *just might* be correct?
So Americans work nine more weeks than Europeans. America's also more successful than the EU and those who choose to work hard in America enjoy a higher standard of living.
Coincidence? I think not.
This article/press release/petition is a borderline socialist puff-piece. Move along, nothing to see here.
>>petrol is taxed heavily by most countries in Europe.
.Net) and something to read for fun (The Sparrow) & grab lunch. Back at office in just over an hour. ~5 miles.
Here's a free whack with the clue-bat -- EVERYTHING is taxed heavily by most countries in Europe. Socialism and social engineering doesn't come for free, you know.
Regardless, I stand behind the argument that a domestic source for oil results in a lower cost.
>>If you're going to try for a straw man argument, at least make it less transparent than this.
Don't dismiss it so readily -- it's not a strawman argument. Just this past weekend I did take my family of four and our dog to visit Grandma 250 miles away. Left on Friday, returned home Monday morning. What's the alternative? Take an interstate bus @$50 per passenger, then rent a car when we get there?
Besides, I gave several other examples which you chose to ignore. You want real-world? Here's exactly where & when I've traveled today...
7:45am: Drop my daughter off with her backpack full of books off at school. ~10 miles from home, weather approximately 46 degrees Fahrenheiht (cold).
8:00am: I continue my commute to work with my laptop in it's case, two books which I use for reference, and a mug full of hot coffee. ~25 miles.
12:30pm Temperature is in the 70's. Take a spin down to Borders bookstore my during lunch break, pick up another book I need for work (Applied
~7:00pm Temperatures in the 50s. Dark. Commute home with laptop and books. Pick up groceries from supermarket on way home. ~25 miles.
How am I supposed to pack a laptop+books, take my daughter to school, and transport groceries on a scooter? What's that I hear you saying; Investigate "public transportation?" First of all, there is no bus line within ten miles of my house -- I'd have to drive my car to a bus stop, get out of my warm car, and wait for a bus to arrive, then transfer at least two different times to get where I'm going. No thanks. And what about that bag full of groceries? Will the bus wait while I shop? I don't think so. Look, I'm not going to get up an hour earier and get home an hour later to build my life around the schedules of public transportation.
One final point, in my car I can adjust the music, control the temperature, etc. and I don't have to share a seat with some fellow traveler who talks to themselves or bathes semi-monthly. I can choose whether to take the (slighly longer) route through the scenic countryside, or the more direct route through the city. Finally, I can't carry my firearm on government vehicles, even with a CCW permit. I'm not about to abandon my safety for no good reason.
So there you have it -- a diary of a typical suburban geek's travels. I've given you what you've asked for, now you tell me how I could make that work with a scooter or public transportation. Hint: You can't.
So go lead your life as you see fit, and I expect the same courtesy rather than disdain.
>>In several countries, the price of petrol has skyrocketed in the past decade (now about $5 per liter (about 0.5 gallons) taking into account the cost of living).
Yes, and what makes us different from most of the rest of the world is that we have an advanced society and a DOMESTIC supply for approx. 50% of our oil demand. (Which is about 50% too low. IMO it's time to drill in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska and anywhere else we can find domestic supplies, then tell the Saudis and the rest of the mid-east to go F themselves.)
>>US is also one of the few countries where 2 wheeled vehicles like motorbikes/scooters are almost non existent.
Gosh, do you think that may be because they're not very PRACTICAL? "C'mon, kids, let's all hop on Dad's 38cc scooter and go visit Grandma. Junior, you sit on the front fender, sis can ride on your shoulders, Mom gets the basket on the back, and Fido can just follow along since we won't be doing more than 2 mph even with a tailwind."
Yeah. That's what America needs -- swarms of millions of buzzing scooters flooding the landscape and the cities. That's a real vision for the future you have there. So let me ask you -- when was the last time you picked up groceries for a family of four on a scooter? Or drove it to work in the rain? Or during humid, 100 degree weather in the summer or single-digit snowstorms? Yeah. That's what I thought. Besides, even if weather weren't an issue, it's just so much fun to show up for work stinking of diesel fumes.
I drove a motorcycle to school and work when I was single and it was a compromise even then -- there's no way it's practical for me now.
You can choose to go live your life styled after the average scooter-riding borderline third-world peasant. I'll stick to my big air conditioned cars and house in the 'burbs, thankyouverymuch.
go the next $PARTY fundraising dinner, provide a large contribution. Then, using the telephone, you can call the boss of the FCC head and tell him you think that a particular point of view is very important to you.
TRANSLATION:
A picture's worth a thousand words, especially if it's a picture of Franklin on a crisp green federal reserve note. Or, to state it more plainly, a bribe is worth more than a lot of bitching.
>>When a state gets it wrong, everyone pays the penalty.
Excellent point, but it's also important to note that only those who pay taxes pay the penalty. And considering how the tax burden has shifted in america (the lowest 50% of income earners pay WAY LESS than 10% of the taxes collected) that means the "wealthy" are getting stuck with the bill.
Of course!! Everyone knows that only Soviet-style central planning authority can produce an efficient system at any scale! Stalin and Mussolini were able to make the trains run on time, after all, and Hitler produced a fine automobile.
That was satire, folks.
Don't you think that the problems may come from TOO MUCH regulation and oversight? The energy production grid in America is anything but free market -- just look at the difficulty in convincing that California had to overcome convincing the EPA to "allow" it to temporarily bring additional powerplants on line last year.
You go ahead and play games in your communist wonderlands, but please leave my country the hell alone.
>Having a seperate machine on a seperate physical network would be more secure, but would cost much more than the VMWare approach.
Sure, until a "29% fall in revenue and an operating loss of $61.36 million this year" results when the code is stolen via some previously undiscovered exploit or plain old carelessness. Physical separation from the Internet is the solution. Everything else is a compromise with varying levels of risk.
Besides, what's a half-dozen development machines, a server, and some cables cost? Under 50k easy. Seems like reasonable insurance, to me, given the risks of losing control over intellectual property.
>Well you can't get geekier and VIPer than a Seqway.
I dunno. What about a Sony Aibo riding a Segway?
>>with my Automated Bead Array Computational Unit System. This can be made much more cheaply, the batteries alst forever, and it never crashes!
Is this compatible with Dirt-And-Stick 1.0? I've been looking to upgrade. I hate losing all my documents every time it rains...
>> have to wonder whatfor people living in some ... slum need a computer! ...
>>I'm a programmer now.
Enjoy it while it lasts. I can't help but wonder how long before your company outsources your job to some kid with a Simputer willing to work for 35 cents a day? Ouch!
>>They can use the computers to learn about ways of improving their farming...
So what's wrong with a photocopied pamphlet or even a book? Hundreds, perhaps thousands of booklets could be printed for the cost of one of these computers.
If the goal is the distribution of information, this is the wrong tool for the job.