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User: the+eric+conspiracy

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  1. Re:Proud on European Parliament Committees Reject ACTA As IP Backlash Grows · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I said it before, and I'll say it again. The EU's problems are the result of a political structure and cannot succeed due to lack of sufficient federalization.

    America figured this out 225 years ago. How long will it take for Europe?

  2. Re:Face Palm on Technicolor Takes Aim At Apple, Samsung, Others for Patent Infringement · · Score: 1

    No, actually they are not frivolous at all. Design patents have a valid purpose, similar to that of trademarks. By protecting the physical design they prevent copying of the appearance of a good being sold.

  3. Re:Face Palm on Technicolor Takes Aim At Apple, Samsung, Others for Patent Infringement · · Score: 1

    Patents only run 20 years. SO if they haven't contributed anything they wouldn't have any current patents to enforce.

  4. Re:Nothing wrong with patents per se. on Technicolor Takes Aim At Apple, Samsung, Others for Patent Infringement · · Score: 1

    Lots of patents are 40 years and older. In fact these are the best kind of patents because they constitute published technology that everyone is free to use.

  5. Not Woking on Political Campaigns Mining Online Data To Target Voters · · Score: 2

    I'm definitely not impressed by the efficiency of the Republican campaign. My father, who passed away 3 years ago gets multiple pieces of mail daily from various Republican candidates and fund raising committees.

    Some of these I've responded to stating he is deceased. Doesn't do any good, the begging continues.

  6. Re:Representing the other side on Debate Over Evolution Will Soon Be History, Says Leakey · · Score: 1

    Genesis is fundamentally incompatible with science based explanations of creation and evolution because Genesis is based on supernatural hypotheses.

    These hypotheses are extraneous and are not justifiable or falsifiable.

    The details of the scientific narrative change as factual evidence becomes available. However the biblical narrative does not change regardless of what evidence if presented to counter it. As such it is a failure. For example the account of Genesis has the stars being created after the Earth. Obviously that didn't happen.

    As far as the Hittites, there is still discussion as to whether or not the Biblical Hittites have anything to do with the Hattians of Anatolia.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Hittites

    For example E. A. Speiser, referring to "the children of Heth" in the Book of Genesis writes "For reasons of both history and geography, it is most unlikely that this group name has any direct connection either with the Hattians of Anatolia or with their 'Hittite' successors."

  7. Re:What was the original submitter smoking on Apple Fires Back At DoJ Over eBook Price Fixing · · Score: 1

    Your statement about "profit" is very inaccurate.

    "Once a single e-book is created by the publisher. You can distribute it an unlimited number of times. So the publishers make nearly a 100% profit on electronic sales. "

    Yes, costs are lower because of electronic distribution. But no accountant in his right mind would calculate the profit after the first copy in the manner you have. The costs of editing, proofing, legal, writing and marketing are always distributed over the total number of books sold when determining the profitability. Some of these costs, like marketing are ongoing over the product life of the title. They don't stop when the first copy of the book is done.

  8. Re:Turnaround Time on Iran Reverse Engineers Cobra Attack Helicopter · · Score: 1

    Are you sure it wasn't Photoshop that got reverse engineered?

  9. Re:But this is what I'm not fine with... on Can You Buy Tech With a Clean Conscience? · · Score: 1

    Everyone has some bias. Yours is so far over the top it is ridiculous.

    Blaming an ex-President for legislation passed by the opposing party with a veto proof majority, and referring to a sitting president in third person pejorative terms every time he is referenced, and NOT recognizing that the current economy is largely the result of the sins of the country as a whole are signs that you my friend are off the deep end.

  10. Re:I'm fine with that on Can You Buy Tech With a Clean Conscience? · · Score: 1

    By modern standards, yes. By comparison to it's immediate past the industrial revolution was all about decreasing the labor content of a unit of manufactured product. What do you think the steam engine was for? By increasing the productivity of man the standard of living, FOR THE FIRST TIME began to increase.

    From Wikipedia

    Starting in the later part of the 18th century, there began a transition in parts of Great Britain's previously manual labour and draft-animalâ"based economy towards machine-based manufacturing. It started with the mechanisation of the textile industries, the development of iron-making techniques and the increased use of refined coal. Trade expansion was enabled by the introduction of canals, improved roads and railways. With the transition away from an agricultural-based economy and towards machine-based manufacturing came a great influx of population from the countryside and into the towns and cities, which swelled in population.

    The introduction of steam power fuelled primarily by coal, wider utilisation of water wheels and powered machinery (mainly in textile manufacturing) underpinned the dramatic increases in production capacity. The development of all-metal machine tools in the first two decades of the 19th century facilitated the manufacture of more production machines for manufacturing in other industries. The effects spread throughout Western Europe and North America during the 19th century, eventually affecting most of the world, a process that continues as industrialisation. The impact of this change on society was enormous.

    In the words of Nobel Prize winner Robert E. Lucas, Jr., "For the first time in history, the living standards of the masses of ordinary people have begun to undergo sustained growth ... Nothing remotely like this economic behavior has happened before"

  11. Re:I'm fine with that on Can You Buy Tech With a Clean Conscience? · · Score: 1

    Utter Rubbish. England used the colonies as a source of raw materials and shipped back manufactured goods. Why do you think Jefferson wrote about America as a rural agricultural nation? The few small cities that existed were ports for collection of farm products and distribution of manufactured products from England.

    From History.com

    "A few towns developed in the eighteenth century--Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston--but they served mostly to collect agricultural goods from the countryside and disperse English manufactured goods to farmers. Such commercial activity, bounded by rural needs, not only employed merchants but also such artisans as coopers and shipbuilders. As trade grew, town populations increased, and the internal life of towns (newspapers, government, petty shopkeepers) rose as well. But since most manufacturing and credit came from England, towns stayed small. Philadelphia, the largest town, and its suburbs counted less than forty thousand people on the eve of the Revolution."

    Why do you think one of Ghandi's big efforts to disrupt England's economy was to get his followers to spin their own thread from Indian grown cotton?

    Your version of history is total baloney. You REALLY need to take a good history course.

  12. Re:But this is what I'm not fine with... on Can You Buy Tech With a Clean Conscience? · · Score: 1

    Your political bias is showing.

    A Republican Congress repealed Glass Steagall with a veto proof majority. Clinton wasn't a legislator AFAIK.

    As far as Hope and Change, well do you expect somebody to come in and cure the ills building in the political system for the past 30 years in one term?

    Let's be realistic here.

  13. Re:But this is what I'm not fine with... on Can You Buy Tech With a Clean Conscience? · · Score: 1

    Is Paris Hilton is your worst case example?

    Yes she has an extravagant lifestyle. However she also has a significant number of active business ventures including publishing, fashion, her own hotel chain and mobile gaming.

    Far more of her money is going into productive investment than you seem to be assuming.

    http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-06-01/entertainment/30076238_1_piers-morgan-paris-hilton-product-lines

    http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-articles/paris-hilton-invades-asia/

  14. Re:But this is what I'm not fine with... on Can You Buy Tech With a Clean Conscience? · · Score: 1

    Nope.. taxes on America's wealthy (and everybody for that matter) were far lower in the past. There were effectively no taxes at all until the Civil war.

    Up until WWII and even just post WWII during the Truman administration the tax burden in the US was lower than it is today.

    And by the way there is no "trickle down theory of economics". Anyone referring to that has no knowledge of economics and is just parroting political commentators.

    As far as what the ultra rich do with their money - it's pretty obvious. They don't spend it, they invest it. Capital formation is the sine qua non of economic growth. Spending is not. This is why many economic studies have shown that a consumption tax is better policy than an income tax, because it encourages savings. The US system that focuses on income is broken.

    The US economy is in the crapper now because of exactly what I'm talking about. Too much consumption and not enough savings on the part of individuals and institutions. This in addition to poor government policies and ineffective regulation led to a classic debt bubble.

     

  15. Re:I don't understand how this is possible on Fire May Leave US Nuclear Sub Damaged Beyond Repair · · Score: 1

    Titanium is exceptionally UNSTABLE, and yes writ large.

    Paradoxically that instability can make it resistant to corrosion because under normal atmospheric conditions it reacts immediately with in the air to form a strong durable, impenetrable titanium oxide layer.

    Put it in an environment where the oxide layer can't form and watch out.

    I've seen titanium used in chemical processes where elemental chlorine with water vapor present - hellaciously corrosive to most things, and Ti just laughs it off. Take out the water and the Ti will burn in chlorine like crazy. Regular cast iron though is fine in dry chlorine because it just isn't that reactive - it needs water to set up a corrosion cell.

    Same thing with nitrogen - unlike everything else Ti is so reactive it will burn in dry N. A little water and it won't.

  16. Re:But this is what I'm not fine with... on Can You Buy Tech With a Clean Conscience? · · Score: 2

    >the common sentiment is that executives/owners/investors can afford to give up more of their profits to help ensure a more livable life for their workers.

    The problem with that statement is that it isn't necessarily true. Look at what Eton Musk is doing with his profits. Are you sure that letting him keep more of his profits wouldn't be better in the long run?

  17. Re:I'm fine with that on Can You Buy Tech With a Clean Conscience? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Oh bullcrap. The west built it's industry through the industrial revolution - machines increasing productivity.

    Yes the industrial revolution gave them the economic power to build empires, but if your society doesn't have a competitive economic system, well it's going to be a backwater.

    Japan got smart and bought into the new ways, and China is moving along that path now.

    It's a choice people have to make if they want it.

  18. Re:Everything on Can You Buy Tech With a Clean Conscience? · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yes, the only ethical thing to do is to die. As soon as possible.

  19. Re:nothing is ethical on Can You Buy Tech With a Clean Conscience? · · Score: 2

    So if I stop buying stuff the third world wage slaves are out of work and can't buy food.

    Read Paul Krugman's article, cited above. He's right. Being a wage slave sucks, but the alternative is much, much worse.

  20. Re:Here are a few reasons on Ask Slashdot: Why Not Linux For Security? · · Score: 1

    Having an application like Office is completely irrelevant to a security infrastructure.

    Security Space and W3Tech's's latest surveys came up with a > 60% market share for Linux servers. I imagine the people to support it are equally available.

    That of course doesn't mean squat when it comes to security. Great security means one thing - having great people managing and implementing security.

  21. Production != Availability on Higher Hard Drive Prices Are the New Normal · · Score: 1

    While WD production is more or less back to what it was, there is still a lot of pent up demand for drives because of the past 9 months of high prices. This demand is providing impetus to keep prices up.

    In addition contracts with vendors were signed at higher prices during the shortages. These contracts have not expired yet, keeping prices higher than they were when the floods occurred.

  22. Re:I don't understand how this is possible on Fire May Leave US Nuclear Sub Damaged Beyond Repair · · Score: 1

    Aren't these titanium? Titanium is a highly reactive combustible metal, which is the only thing to know to actually burn in pure nitrogen. Closing the hatches will only trap heat making it more dangerous.

    At normal temperature in air it quickly reacts with water to form a tough surface layer which makes it quite inert and resistant to corrosion. But get it hot enough it can start to burn, and there is only one fire extinguishing agent (FEM-12 SC) known to be effective against a titanium fire.

    The Russians had a disaster with a titanium sub, the K-278 Komsomolets. In this case the fire burned through internal bulkheads.

    I closing hatches in this case would have done nothing other than trap heat and people in the sub.

  23. Re:Name that Party! on New Jersey Mayor and Son Arrested For Nuking Recall Website · · Score: 1

    Well, except ALL men having power should not be trusted.

    Even Republicans.

  24. Re:As opposed to patents that cover algorithms? on Supreme Court Orders Do-Over On Key Software Patents · · Score: 1

    Like hell it is new law. The very first US patent issued in 1790 is for an improved process for the manufacture of potash.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FirstUSpatent.jpg

  25. Re:Isn't sponsored advertising prior art? on Supreme Court Orders Do-Over On Key Software Patents · · Score: 1

    That's horse manure. Patents have always covered non-physical inventions, such as improved chemical processes. In fact the very first US Patent issued was a improved process for the manufacture of potash. Which comes from horse manure.

    What has to be gotten rid of is software and business process patents. That's what is gumming up the works.