My credit card company offers reshipping, and temporary credit card numbers that appear to be US ones (or UK) as a service to get around geoblocking to its customers. Never used it, as their fees are ridiculous, and I have friends I can call on if I really need something, but it struck me as ironic that a major US based international bank would flout geographic restrictions so blatantly when I was offered it.
I don't know if this applies to software, but I know that music and movies have been seriously hindered by archaic regional licensing agreements going back to the days when physical media was the only means of distribution.
Which is exactly why Grey Market Importing was legalized in Australia back in the mid 1990's. I haven't been keeping up, did the US finally get that overturned as part of one of their "Free Trade" agreements, and the current problem with software pricing is a result of that?
About 1 minute into this video for example, is a simulated fish tank, which was one of the more impressive prototypes. A lot of it was probably smoke and mirrors, and some of them weren't particularly convincing (I remember some rear projection systems that you had to stare at for a while before your eyes started to decieve you into seeing depth, and some "3D displays" were clearly just showing 3D computer graphics on a 2D display, which is nothing special these days, but in 1989 was enough to get people excited. But the impression I had at the time was that there was technology there that would be commercialized within 10 years.
I remember glasses-free 3D displays being one of the next big things exhibited by every Japanese electronics company at the World Design Expo in Nagoya, 1989.
Cheney held 50,000 shares in Haliburton. Rumsfield and the Bush family had strong ties to the Carlyle Group. Both companies did quite nicely out of the Iraq war. There are other avenues of profit, but those two are the biggest and most obvious.
However, I maintain that Saddam had already used WMDs on his Kurdish population
Chemical weapons that had been provided by the US for use against Iran in the early 1980s. Those chemical weapons were long past their use-by date by the time of the second Iraq war, and in the end there was no genuine evidence that more were being produced inside Iraq.
The media failed in it's role as a government watchdog, it failed most significantly in the US, the ABC/SBS here in Oz shot massive holes through Powell's slide show, it was quite clear that the presentation was at best an exaggeration ("sexed up" as the BBC would say).
UK media was similar to Australian media, yet UK and Australia were first in line to jump into the war alongside the US. Which quite strongly suggests that Twitter would not have made any difference whatsoever. Politicians were ignoring all evidence, public sentiment and the inevitable consequence to their career and going ahead with the war anyway.
Why is there this rush to put everything in the cloud? Are you telling me that my device can't store a few bytes to kilobytes of textual data on it...
Because you have multiple devices, and spending your spare time plugging them all into each other to sync them is a bit like passing punch cards around your development team when you could be using git.
Yes, you can find a small selection if you look hard amongst the VCDs in the likes of Speedy, but check the prices in the link. RM149 for a DVD? That's US$50! Or to put it in perspective, 3 days wages for the guy working behind the counter in the shop. Who in their right mind is going to pay that, when any downmarket mall is full of shops selling higher quality Bluray rips for RM10?
Alcohol is not cheap compared with some neighboring countries like Thailand, or compared with the price of food. But it isn't much different to prices in the more affluent parts of Europe, or the US. As for DVDs, where do you buy original copies of DVDs in Malaysia? As far as I can tell, the movie companies have adopted a policy of supporting piracy by releasing only VCDs officially in this part of the world.
Want the legal route? Not going to happen, unless you become an expat for a US company.
Work Permits are quite easy to get, at least in Malaysia and Singapore for qualified people with in-demand skills. There are also entrepreneurial visas if you are already independently wealthy and want to start a business that will employ locals. Intra-company transfers are by no means the only way in legally, and US companies are perhaps less well represented than Japanese and European (particularly Germany) companies, most of which also have a presence in US which could be a path in.
It would eliminate people sitting in their bedrooms messing with traffic data in random places just for kicks. But if anyone was doing this for a reason (improve traffic flow on their own route, route traffic away from their house), they would be doing it locally, so you'd have to do a bit more than correlate cell towers with reported position.
He lives next door to Singapore. Every 89 days, he goes on a bus trip across the bridge. I have numerous friends doing the same up the other end of the country, with regular trips to Thailand (and there are always queues outside the Thai consulate here with people doing the same in the opposite direction - Thailand only allows one month for visa-waiver, so everyone comes to the consulate to get their 3 month extended tourist visas).
Medical care in Malaysia is not cheap (he says he has cheap medical insurance, but we don't know what his insurance covers). And in parts of Malaysia, including Johor where he is living, housing isn't either (I'm sure there are plenty of 3 bedroom houses available in the US for less than the $800/month he is paying, and he doesn't say what it would cost him to purchase rather than rent). Food is though, and if you're healthy and single you can live off very little.
I assume you are working from Malaysia with US clients, of course, not Malaysian clients who wouldn't pay for $10/hour if that what it takes to live a king there.
$10 an hour would be quite low for any type of contract IT work in Malaysia. And he is living in Johor, so could easily take work from Singapore, where incomes are much higher.
The reason is that after the war or so, the first people to start running businesses and such were Chinese (most likely chased out from Singapore by the Japanese)
Because before the war, there was no business in Malaya, and all the Chinese were on Singapore? How about learning some history before you start trying to teach it.
It's quite awesome and I tend to catch less exotic diseases here than in Malaysia.
From the UK recent travel health advisories:
Malaysia
1 November 2012
Sarcocystosis in travellers to Malaysia
USA
16 January 2013
Seasonal influenza – advice for travellers
23 November 2012
West Nile virus: advice for travellers to USA, Europe and neighbouring countries - update
5 October 2012
West Nile virus: advice for travellers to USA, Europe and neighbouring countries
Tracking sources of spam seems to be the best way to see where growth is happening in internet connectivity. Remember when South Korea was the source of all our spam? For no other reason that there were a lot of very fast internet connections popping up faster than they were being secured.
Slashdot Mirror
My credit card company offers reshipping, and temporary credit card numbers that appear to be US ones (or UK) as a service to get around geoblocking to its customers. Never used it, as their fees are ridiculous, and I have friends I can call on if I really need something, but it struck me as ironic that a major US based international bank would flout geographic restrictions so blatantly when I was offered it.
I think you've got a narrow view of Australians. Not all of them can fit a large knife in their purse.
Which is exactly why Grey Market Importing was legalized in Australia back in the mid 1990's. I haven't been keeping up, did the US finally get that overturned as part of one of their "Free Trade" agreements, and the current problem with software pricing is a result of that?
Vapour is not gas.
Neither is petrol at room temperature (for budding young scientists, I am not suggesting an experiment to find the boiling point of petrol).
Working holograms are easy. The problem with them that makes them unsuitable for 3D TV is that they cannot convey color information.
About 1 minute into this video for example, is a simulated fish tank, which was one of the more impressive prototypes. A lot of it was probably smoke and mirrors, and some of them weren't particularly convincing (I remember some rear projection systems that you had to stare at for a while before your eyes started to decieve you into seeing depth, and some "3D displays" were clearly just showing 3D computer graphics on a 2D display, which is nothing special these days, but in 1989 was enough to get people excited. But the impression I had at the time was that there was technology there that would be commercialized within 10 years.
I remember glasses-free 3D displays being one of the next big things exhibited by every Japanese electronics company at the World Design Expo in Nagoya, 1989.
Cheney held 50,000 shares in Haliburton. Rumsfield and the Bush family had strong ties to the Carlyle Group. Both companies did quite nicely out of the Iraq war. There are other avenues of profit, but those two are the biggest and most obvious.
Chemical weapons that had been provided by the US for use against Iran in the early 1980s. Those chemical weapons were long past their use-by date by the time of the second Iraq war, and in the end there was no genuine evidence that more were being produced inside Iraq.
UK media was similar to Australian media, yet UK and Australia were first in line to jump into the war alongside the US. Which quite strongly suggests that Twitter would not have made any difference whatsoever. Politicians were ignoring all evidence, public sentiment and the inevitable consequence to their career and going ahead with the war anyway.
Really?
Because you have multiple devices, and spending your spare time plugging them all into each other to sync them is a bit like passing punch cards around your development team when you could be using git.
Yes, you can find a small selection if you look hard amongst the VCDs in the likes of Speedy, but check the prices in the link. RM149 for a DVD? That's US$50! Or to put it in perspective, 3 days wages for the guy working behind the counter in the shop. Who in their right mind is going to pay that, when any downmarket mall is full of shops selling higher quality Bluray rips for RM10?
As opposed to the third rate service you get when they outsource it?
Alcohol is not cheap compared with some neighboring countries like Thailand, or compared with the price of food. But it isn't much different to prices in the more affluent parts of Europe, or the US. As for DVDs, where do you buy original copies of DVDs in Malaysia? As far as I can tell, the movie companies have adopted a policy of supporting piracy by releasing only VCDs officially in this part of the world.
Work Permits are quite easy to get, at least in Malaysia and Singapore for qualified people with in-demand skills. There are also entrepreneurial visas if you are already independently wealthy and want to start a business that will employ locals. Intra-company transfers are by no means the only way in legally, and US companies are perhaps less well represented than Japanese and European (particularly Germany) companies, most of which also have a presence in US which could be a path in.
Zulu time would be UTC+2?
It would eliminate people sitting in their bedrooms messing with traffic data in random places just for kicks. But if anyone was doing this for a reason (improve traffic flow on their own route, route traffic away from their house), they would be doing it locally, so you'd have to do a bit more than correlate cell towers with reported position.
He lives next door to Singapore. Every 89 days, he goes on a bus trip across the bridge. I have numerous friends doing the same up the other end of the country, with regular trips to Thailand (and there are always queues outside the Thai consulate here with people doing the same in the opposite direction - Thailand only allows one month for visa-waiver, so everyone comes to the consulate to get their 3 month extended tourist visas).
Medical care in Malaysia is not cheap (he says he has cheap medical insurance, but we don't know what his insurance covers). And in parts of Malaysia, including Johor where he is living, housing isn't either (I'm sure there are plenty of 3 bedroom houses available in the US for less than the $800/month he is paying, and he doesn't say what it would cost him to purchase rather than rent). Food is though, and if you're healthy and single you can live off very little.
$10 an hour would be quite low for any type of contract IT work in Malaysia. And he is living in Johor, so could easily take work from Singapore, where incomes are much higher.
Because before the war, there was no business in Malaya, and all the Chinese were on Singapore? How about learning some history before you start trying to teach it.
From the UK recent travel health advisories:
Malaysia
1 November 2012 Sarcocystosis in travellers to MalaysiaUSA
16 January 2013 Seasonal influenza – advice for travellers 23 November 2012 West Nile virus: advice for travellers to USA, Europe and neighbouring countries - update 5 October 2012 West Nile virus: advice for travellers to USA, Europe and neighbouring countriesTracking sources of spam seems to be the best way to see where growth is happening in internet connectivity. Remember when South Korea was the source of all our spam? For no other reason that there were a lot of very fast internet connections popping up faster than they were being secured.