I did read the article. Perhaps you should read one on the subject of syngas.
Syngas is a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Syngas is not generally produced starting from coal, with is the topic of this story.
In other words the pilot facility they are describing would not be testing the coal process.
Went to Google and typed in Mumford. Guess what, no pirate sites appeared on the first page.
But there was a Wired article complaining about the "no unauthorized copying lending public performance etc. statement on the back of their latest album.
Maybe the RIAA doesn't want us noticing that the 'no unauthorized lending clause' has no legal basis.
I have worked in France also, and in the US for a French company as well.
I had no particular issues with the day to day productivity of my French colleagues. They were generally talented and well educated, and worked hard. You do have to be aware their culture is somewhat different, but when you understand the differences there isn't a problem. I will say the French can be pretty thick about the idea that Americans have a culture too, and they need to be sensitive about ours like we need to be sensitive about theirs.
There were some issues with working in a French environment though. The holiday and vacation benefits raised costs of doing anything in France terrifically, not to mention the impossibility of doing any sort of layoff. Forget trying to do anything in August in France. The the whole country closes down. And there were constant strikes. I remember sitting on the TGV in the middle of a farm field for an hour on a run between Paris and Lyons because the railroad workers were having a work outage. And one day there was even a strike of duck hunters (WTF?) causing a traffic tieup in Paris. Driving in France? Well if you are used to driving in Boston you are about halfway there.
For an American working in the US for a French company it was pretty bad. The employment situation that made it impossible to lay off in France meant any cuts fell very heavily indeed on US workers. The French also have no laws prohibiting age discrimination, and while I was with this company the CEO came out and publicly stated that they were 'going young'. This meant firing everyone over or near 50 in the US. They ended up losing some age discrimination lawsuits as a result.
So I have some sympathy for the idea of not owning a factory in France, and I certainly would not want to work for a French company in the US. That was a terrible experience.
This clown really expressed himself poorly though. Costs aren't due to problems with productivity when the workers are doing their job. It's about strikes, vacations, taxes, labor laws etc.
I still have some French friends though, and love to travel to France.
The summary is wrong. Folks, please stop reading the abstract, and read claim 1 instead.
This is what is patented:
1. A computer-implemented method comprising: selecting a file having a path name in a distributed file system, wherein the file is divided into a plurality of chunks that are distributed among a plurality of servers, wherein each chunk has a modification time indicating when the chunk was last modified, and wherein at least two of the modification times are different; identifying a user profile associated with the file; determining a memory space storage quota usage for the user profile; deriving a file time to live for the file from the path name; determining a weighted file time to live for the file by reducing the file time to live by an offset, where the offset is determined by multiplying the file time to live by a percentage of memory space storage quota used by the user profile; selecting a latest modification time from the modification times of the plurality of chunks; determining that an elapsed time based on the latest modification time is equal to or exceeds the weighted file time to live; and deleting all of the chunks of the file responsive to the determining.
Did you even read the MSDS? It isn't mentioned anywhere.
The purpose of the soap is to wet the surface of the leaf so the herbicide won't run off after being sprayed.
The tallow amine fatty acids are widely used in thousands of products besides Round Up. Including low irritation baby shampoo, liquid detergents etc etc. They are not considered hazardous except when fish or amphibians are exposed because they adsorb onto gills.Even then exposure is very unlikely because the soap adsorbs on soil and sediments very rapidly, generally before it adsorbs on gills.
You don't have any gills, right?
As I said before, the article and the study cited are flat out preposterous. The ignorance and lack of understanding of the science is appalling.
You do realize that the article you cited refers to an in-vitro test of isolated cells exposed to a wetting agent (common terminology: soap) used in conjunction with Round-Up. right? And that almost ANY soap would show similar toxicity?
It is one of the most PREPOSTEROUS attacks on a chemical I've ever seen.
> Second, the employee stock options did cost the company money--although there is no direct expense, that dilution of stockholder equity reduces the stock price. Not only today, but it was most certainly a factor when the IPO was priced.
Dilution of the stock price doesn't cost the company money unless they plan to issue more stock to raise capital or decide they need to repurchase stock to counter the effects of dilution.
The practice of compensation of employees with stock options is rightly criticized as a disincentive to purchasing stock because of the dilution.
While that may or may not be true, it seems to me to be utterly idiotic to expect any sort of privacy for anything that is tied to or posted on Facebook.
Well the problem with having just sales taxes is that the larger your income the lower the percentage of your income you generally spend on consumption. And for those in low income groups almost all of your consumption is non-discretionary.
On the other hand there are some studies that show a consumption tax does favor investment over consumption - something that is a positive.
As far as stock goes, it really doesn't matter. When you get a stock option it's still taxable income.
The nice thing about owning stock is that the long term appreciation and dividends that you may garner is taxed at preferential rates - again to encourage investment, and in recognition that dividends are taxed twice, once as corporate earnings and again as income.
Hope that people who own a lot of Apple stock have been cashing in on it. I've read too many stories about people concentrating their investments in Apple. Diversification is very important.
Slashdot Mirror
I did read the article. Perhaps you should read one on the subject of syngas.
Syngas is a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Syngas is not generally produced starting from coal, with is the topic of this story.
In other words the pilot facility they are describing would not be testing the coal process.
Anecdotal observation here.
Went to Google and typed in Mumford. Guess what, no pirate sites appeared on the first page.
But there was a Wired article complaining about the "no unauthorized copying lending public performance etc. statement on the back of their latest album.
Maybe the RIAA doesn't want us noticing that the 'no unauthorized lending clause' has no legal basis.
Not sure where this process generates syngas. I think you are confusing two different technologies.
Being off your meds is the first stop towards Score:5 on Slashdot.
I have worked in France also, and in the US for a French company as well.
I had no particular issues with the day to day productivity of my French colleagues. They were generally talented and well educated, and worked hard. You do have to be aware their culture is somewhat different, but when you understand the differences there isn't a problem. I will say the French can be pretty thick about the idea that Americans have a culture too, and they need to be sensitive about ours like we need to be sensitive about theirs.
There were some issues with working in a French environment though. The holiday and vacation benefits raised costs of doing anything in France terrifically, not to mention the impossibility of doing any sort of layoff. Forget trying to do anything in August in France. The the whole country closes down. And there were constant strikes. I remember sitting on the TGV in the middle of a farm field for an hour on a run between Paris and Lyons because the railroad workers were having a work outage. And one day there was even a strike of duck hunters (WTF?) causing a traffic tieup in Paris. Driving in France? Well if you are used to driving in Boston you are about halfway there.
For an American working in the US for a French company it was pretty bad. The employment situation that made it impossible to lay off in France meant any cuts fell very heavily indeed on US workers. The French also have no laws prohibiting age discrimination, and while I was with this company the CEO came out and publicly stated that they were 'going young'. This meant firing everyone over or near 50 in the US. They ended up losing some age discrimination lawsuits as a result.
So I have some sympathy for the idea of not owning a factory in France, and I certainly would not want to work for a French company in the US. That was a terrible experience.
This clown really expressed himself poorly though. Costs aren't due to problems with productivity when the workers are doing their job. It's about strikes, vacations, taxes, labor laws etc.
I still have some French friends though, and love to travel to France.
"Valve" is a generic term, slightly archaic for an electronic switch. Some vacuum tubes are called valves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_tube
Since a transistor is simply a crystal triode, the terminology is reasonable.
http://www.beatriceco.com/bti/porticus/bell/belllabs_transistor.html
Outsourcing contractor.
So next you get a letter from the RIAA ask you to pay $300,000 for distribution of copyrighted files.
Or the FBI comes SWAT team wanting to know about that kiddie porn....
Probably never had a test case to determine it's validity.
It's not unconstitutional. Or even illegal if there is an insurrection.
Posse Comitatus doesn't apply to the National Guard, Coast Guard or police forces.
It would only be illegal under PCA for Federal Armed Forces.
National Guard has it's own set of regulations, but surveillance is one of the things they are permitted to do in support of state and local police.
It's hard to take an article seriously when it quotes an expired patent as being a threat to technology development.
In fact the MIT patent is a boon because it outlines a technology that is now free for anyone to practice.
The summary is wrong. Folks, please stop reading the abstract, and read claim 1 instead.
This is what is patented:
1. A computer-implemented method comprising: selecting a file having a path name in a distributed file system, wherein the file is divided into a plurality of chunks that are distributed among a plurality of servers, wherein each chunk has a modification time indicating when the chunk was last modified, and wherein at least two of the modification times are different; identifying a user profile associated with the file; determining a memory space storage quota usage for the user profile; deriving a file time to live for the file from the path name; determining a weighted file time to live for the file by reducing the file time to live by an offset, where the offset is determined by multiplying the file time to live by a percentage of memory space storage quota used by the user profile; selecting a latest modification time from the modification times of the plurality of chunks; determining that an elapsed time based on the latest modification time is equal to or exceeds the weighted file time to live; and deleting all of the chunks of the file responsive to the determining.
Did you even read the MSDS? It isn't mentioned anywhere.
The purpose of the soap is to wet the surface of the leaf so the herbicide won't run off after being sprayed.
The tallow amine fatty acids are widely used in thousands of products besides Round Up. Including low irritation baby shampoo, liquid detergents etc etc. They are not considered hazardous except when fish or amphibians are exposed because they adsorb onto gills.Even then exposure is very unlikely because the soap adsorbs on soil and sediments very rapidly, generally before it adsorbs on gills.
You don't have any gills, right?
As I said before, the article and the study cited are flat out preposterous. The ignorance and lack of understanding of the science is appalling.
There is no evidence that Monsanto would resort to terminator genes when other techniques like careful hybridization would get the same results.
Not to mention it's pretty unlikely the Supreme Court is going to rule against Monsanto in the first place.
Really the article is pretty much a ridiculously transparent troll.
You do realize that the article you cited refers to an in-vitro test of isolated cells exposed to a wetting agent (common terminology: soap) used in conjunction with Round-Up. right? And that almost ANY soap would show similar toxicity?
It is one of the most PREPOSTEROUS attacks on a chemical I've ever seen.
Reverse engineering can be prevented through the use of contracts.
I've seen it done. Ah you want to use our magic item and or software? No problem $199.95 plus you sign this no reverse engineering agreement.
Yes, and then Microsoft bought them out to make games for the XBox.
On my list of things to hate Microsoft for this is #1. By a wide margin.
I really liked Marathon and Myth.
There is also the odd correlation with the institution of patent laws in England and the occurrence of the industrial revolution.
While correlation != causation, it is something that needs to be considered carefully when proposing changes to patent law.
The killer app for the interwebs is porn. Is there any significant collection of 3D porn? No.
Therefore there is no need for 3D on the web.
You do know that patent fees are on a sliding scale depending on the size of the patenting entity?
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/qs/ope/fee100512.htm#maintain
What kills the independents are the legal costs. They are generally 3 orders of magnitude larger.
> Second, the employee stock options did cost the company money--although there is no direct expense, that dilution of stockholder equity reduces the stock price. Not only today, but it was most certainly a factor when the IPO was priced.
Dilution of the stock price doesn't cost the company money unless they plan to issue more stock to raise capital or decide they need to repurchase stock to counter the effects of dilution.
The practice of compensation of employees with stock options is rightly criticized as a disincentive to purchasing stock because of the dilution.
Stock options are taxed when they are exercised, not when the underlying stock is liquidated.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL31458.pdf
While that may or may not be true, it seems to me to be utterly idiotic to expect any sort of privacy for anything that is tied to or posted on Facebook.
Well the problem with having just sales taxes is that the larger your income the lower the percentage of your income you generally spend on consumption. And for those in low income groups almost all of your consumption is non-discretionary.
On the other hand there are some studies that show a consumption tax does favor investment over consumption - something that is a positive.
As far as stock goes, it really doesn't matter. When you get a stock option it's still taxable income.
The nice thing about owning stock is that the long term appreciation and dividends that you may garner is taxed at preferential rates - again to encourage investment, and in recognition that dividends are taxed twice, once as corporate earnings and again as income.
Hope that people who own a lot of Apple stock have been cashing in on it. I've read too many stories about people concentrating their investments in Apple. Diversification is very important.
That may work in cases where the facts under debate are hard to discern by direct measurement.
All it is here is a delaying measure. For the facts will become obvious over time.