Also (See Innovator's Dilemma) different segments of the market will grow at different rates so one cannot extrapolate from one "failure" in a segmented marketplace to Moore's Law and especially to the variation of Moore's law which states that computing power (not necessarily transistors) will double every 18 months. Of course we then get into the problem of defining computing power.
Secondly, looking closely at Moore's Law on a logarithmic scale you'll see that it doesn't EXACTLY follow the "line," sometimes the plotted points fall below, other times above.
So, what you're saying is that the world would be better off if there was no R&D in crops. New crop types are bad (as you have to pay for them, and worse yet buy them from a big-bad-corporation).
Yeah. No wonder your faith in humanity is quickly diminishing.
What is so wrong about a yacht? If he was looking at the design for a garden would you still spew such venom? He was designing something he found beautiful. Maybe he was keeping hope alive that he might sail it around the world; imagining the sunrises and the ocean sky. Is that so much different than you and I?
Oh. I got it. He's got money. Therefore he's evil.
I'm not saying realpolitik is good. I don't think we should have propped up any dictator. I don't think we should be giving foreign aid. But to call the US the most "oppressive" nation on earth for doing what every other power does smacks of bias to me. Again this does not mean that I approve of realpolitik.
Dude!!! Falling behind in technology? And you're on slashdot!?!
The US is not the only country in the world. Europe and Japan had to rebuild after WWII. China went through it's horrors under Mao; rejected communism in deed, if not in name and is now rising to where it *should* be. Obviously the US share of world technological progress is becoming smaller. But, falling behind in technology. No.
We're leaders in biotech, at the forefront of nanotechnology and 3D printing. No. We're not falling behind.
Stalin murders 10s of millions of his own people.
Mao. Murders even more than Stalin.
US "invades" Vietnamese ostensibly (according to its detractors) to prevent Communism from spreading (the domino theory), and the inevitable massacre of civilians which would occur. The later argument was laughed at until the "Killing Fields" became known. (Yes the Khmer Rouge were Cambodian and were put down by the Vietnamese. Good for them!!)
The US props up dictators for all sort of Realpolitik reasons: the same as did/do the PRC (China), the USSR, France, England and all other political powers before (and those that will come). Some dictators (the Shah of Iran were far better than their successors).
And this makes the US the "most violent oppressive nation on earth." Iran, Turkey, Syria (even before the civil war), Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Myanmar are less oppressive than the US? What!?!
Fuck Bush, Fuck Obama. I say that without fear without the slightest concern that the US government will care in the slightest.
The US isn't perfect, but "the most oppressive?" Are you saying that because you disagree with the Iraq war? Yes, we should have acted differently but what about the mistakes of the UN, Saddam Hussein and Russia in the build up. (The UN by not giving a damn about it's sanctions and lines-in-the-sand being ignored , Saddam bluffing and acting like a blow-hard, and Russia giving Saddam aid and *apparently* moral support, indicating the US was bluffing and wouldn't invade.
OK. But that shows that there was bipartisan opposition to civilian trials. Therefore it wasn't due to Republican intransigence. Not that it matters but I'm not in favor of civilian trials but I do feel that the detainees should have their day in court.
True. But on this issue they didn't bring anything up to a vote. There was no proposal in the works. If there was a proposal and it passed the House and failed in the Senate (say 57-43) then... I would agree with you.
But they (Obama, Reid, Pelosi) didn't bring up anything that, AFAIK, even got of committee.
By all this I'm not saying that Republicans are all sunshine and flowers - only that, as far as GITMO is concerned, the blame, if it exists, rests on Obama, Reid and Pelosi.
Re Health Care: There were numerous proposals - ALL were rejected out of hand. There were proposals such as increasing Medical Savings Accounts and many more. All rejected.
Re GITMO: Obama had control of the Senate and House for 2 years, plus he can submit an Executive Order. Don't blame anybody but Obama and the Dems if you think GITMO should be closed. In addition to those 2 years of unchecked ability to make a change Obama and his advisors had 5+ years to come up with policies to replace GITMO before Obama was inaugurated. All they came up with was try them in Civil Courts. Guess what. NY is a deep-blue state and there isn't consensus here about that. Add to the fact that most those in GITMO are prisoners of war captured in battle and it becomes even more difficult.
Should there be trials? Yes. Should these people be kept indefinitely without trial? No. But don't blame Republican intransigence. Have the courage to put the blame on Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi the political leaders of the party in power for two years.
Re the use of the word pepper - it applied to foods that were peppery. He wasn't a botanist. He was an explorer. He used the commonly used vernacular of his time
Are you know going to call the pilgrims "crazy and genocidal" because they called maize "corn." To the 17th C English "corn" was any cereal crop.
PS. Please nobody say anything as dumb as "he was lost." He was a f**king explorer. And if you look at a globe you'll see that he got his latitude correct. He miscalculated the circumference of the earth.
I don't know if you consider me to be the original poster but even in places where business is driven by RFQ there is more involved than the quotes. Rarely do businesses solely make decisions based upon a simple quote. There are a lot of intangibles even when it comes to widgets (thread, button, zippers) for clothing companies or sand and gravel for construction companies.
I've been involved in numerous business and sales and marketing are everywhere even for interchangeable widgits (sand, gravel, thread, zippers).
I don't think people are sheep. Marketing isn't there to fleece the sheep. When I was in the market for a phone I looked at different options. Ads and corporate websites are important. When looking to refinance my mortgage I had people calling me trying to get my business. Clothing stores, restaurants market to us via their storefronts, ads, flyers, websites etc... I've worked for software companies and agencies. Someone, NOT ME, has to find the customer and land the sale. Without their work I would be out of work.
B2B marketers rely less on TV and magazine ads, that means their sales staff is even more important.
You guys don't understand business. A company doesn't make money if it doesn't sell. Everything is secondary to selling. If people don't want your product - having a better product that they don't know about doesn't necessarily help. HR is important but it doesn't bring in money. We (the IT staff) are important but we don't bring in the money - the marketing and sales staff do.
A customer knowing that your company exists is important. A customer thinking about your company when they are making a purchase is important. Hence having staff that can find and land customers is important.
Sales & Marketing isn't superfluous it is the heart of business.
1. The literacy rate and average educational attainment is going down.
Are you sure about that? The literacy rate in places like the US, Western Europe and Japan has reached pretty close to 100%. There are groups which have stagnated but in total literacy and average education is going up. There was an interesting TED presentation on world-wide educational rates from 1700 to the present and it has skyrocketed.
2. The only growth areas for jobs in the industrialized world are for literate well educated people. Every other sector needs fewer and fewer people.
True. Depending upon the definition of education and thankfully the nature of education is going to change as AI gives an alternative to current "factory" styled educational system.
3. lifestyle expectations have never been higher.
True and
lifespans will soon be MUCH longer than now (yes I'm a kurzweil, de grey, singularity type of futurist)
Will there be changes? Yes. Will there be some social issues? Yes. But, welcome to the world and the messy world of humans.
Assuming you're serious, the reason is simple: because it's a bitch for small stores. Mistakes will be made and the small businesses will get into big time hassles with the sales tax board of different states. Small businesses, especially mom-and-pop stores will have one more hurdle to clear and many will fail.
I think the purpose of the legislation is to force mom-and-pops out of the internet sales because it is so onerous. Now you may say that there a technological solution could easily be made. Yes it could. But it's not in the works. The result is going to be a blood-bath.
Why is it complicated? It's not simply because there are 50 different states with different tax rates it's that different states tax different items in different ways and change them frequently. For instance NYS taxes clothes when an individual item is 110.00 and above but doesn't when it is below. Now what is an item of clothes and what is an accessory (which is fully taxed.) A pocketsquare is an accessory as is a belt buckle but a belt (strap and buckle) is considered clothing and isn't taxed if under 110.00.
To further complicate things sometimes the tax rate changes: for a while the tax was $55.00. Did the state change this at the beginning of a tax quarter? No. They changed it in the middle of the tax quarter. Not only that but NYS and NYC are different tax jurisdictions and sometimes things don't coordinate well.
What happens when state A considers item X and accessory and state B doesn't; even more what happens when they change their definitions. We can easily see a technological solution. There is a central database which all transactions refer to (kept in cache via a google API) and which the STATES are responsible to keep updated. If that happens then tax collection is simple. Of course, now you need to file in 50 states and not one and two hours work becomes 100 hours work. OK. Less than that as you will probably have some states in which there were no sales. But still - you need to file them. Think about dealing with 50 IRSs every 3 months. How stressful would that be?
I don't think anyone interested in guns for self-defense imagines themselves in a war against the full-might of the US military. If that happens (and I pray that it doesn't) the US military will itself be split and we will be living (and dying) in the midst of a civil war.
The government cannot always protect its citizens and sometimes governments can be hostile or criminally negligent (see the KKK and "strange fruit". Ever wonder why black folks didn't protect themselves? It's because they were disarmed.)
Re 3D printing - it will take a while before we are able to make machine / industry usable parts for cars, building supplies, guns etc... But it will happen.
But most people who vote for politicians and who support such policies do not do so for that reason - at least not consciously. They want to be "kind" and "compassionate" and don't see another way that isn't "mean-spirited."
I'm at a loss for how to explain how counter-productive their policies are.
The term "right-wing" is meaningless. It just means "not-left." Left has a definition: govt controls means of production; individual subservient to the collective whole. What does right-wing mean? It can mean Milton Friedman and Adolf Hitler. It can mean Ayn Rand and Patrick Buchanan. The term right-wing, as is currently used, just means "not-left."
Slashdot Mirror
Also (See Innovator's Dilemma) different segments of the market will grow at different rates so one cannot extrapolate from one "failure" in a segmented marketplace to Moore's Law and especially to the variation of Moore's law which states that computing power (not necessarily transistors) will double every 18 months. Of course we then get into the problem of defining computing power.
Secondly, looking closely at Moore's Law on a logarithmic scale you'll see that it doesn't EXACTLY follow the "line," sometimes the plotted points fall below, other times above.
That wasn't a libertarian rant. Libertarians were not and are not against the existence of laws and regulations. Libertarians != Anarchists
Don't forget medicine and law.
Think of the 1000s of people who die every year from dihydrogen monoxide and nothing is done about it. The shame of it.
This is why simple tax codes are the best. The problem is not only how onerous the tax rate is but the complexity in complying with it.
So, what you're saying is that the world would be better off if there was no R&D in crops. New crop types are bad (as you have to pay for them, and worse yet buy them from a big-bad-corporation).
Yeah. No wonder your faith in humanity is quickly diminishing.
What is so wrong about a yacht? If he was looking at the design for a garden would you still spew such venom? He was designing something he found beautiful. Maybe he was keeping hope alive that he might sail it around the world; imagining the sunrises and the ocean sky. Is that so much different than you and I?
Oh. I got it. He's got money. Therefore he's evil.
I'm not saying realpolitik is good. I don't think we should have propped up any dictator. I don't think we should be giving foreign aid. But to call the US the most "oppressive" nation on earth for doing what every other power does smacks of bias to me. Again this does not mean that I approve of realpolitik.
Dude!!! Falling behind in technology? And you're on slashdot!?!
The US is not the only country in the world. Europe and Japan had to rebuild after WWII. China went through it's horrors under Mao; rejected communism in deed, if not in name and is now rising to where it *should* be. Obviously the US share of world technological progress is becoming smaller. But, falling behind in technology. No.
We're leaders in biotech, at the forefront of nanotechnology and 3D printing. No. We're not falling behind.
Stalin murders 10s of millions of his own people. Mao. Murders even more than Stalin.
US "invades" Vietnamese ostensibly (according to its detractors) to prevent Communism from spreading (the domino theory), and the inevitable massacre of civilians which would occur. The later argument was laughed at until the "Killing Fields" became known. (Yes the Khmer Rouge were Cambodian and were put down by the Vietnamese. Good for them!!)
The US props up dictators for all sort of Realpolitik reasons: the same as did/do the PRC (China), the USSR, France, England and all other political powers before (and those that will come). Some dictators (the Shah of Iran were far better than their successors).
And this makes the US the "most violent oppressive nation on earth." Iran, Turkey, Syria (even before the civil war), Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Myanmar are less oppressive than the US? What!?!
Fuck Bush, Fuck Obama. I say that without fear without the slightest concern that the US government will care in the slightest.
The US isn't perfect, but "the most oppressive?" Are you saying that because you disagree with the Iraq war? Yes, we should have acted differently but what about the mistakes of the UN, Saddam Hussein and Russia in the build up. (The UN by not giving a damn about it's sanctions and lines-in-the-sand being ignored , Saddam bluffing and acting like a blow-hard, and Russia giving Saddam aid and *apparently* moral support, indicating the US was bluffing and wouldn't invade.
OK. But that shows that there was bipartisan opposition to civilian trials. Therefore it wasn't due to Republican intransigence. Not that it matters but I'm not in favor of civilian trials but I do feel that the detainees should have their day in court.
True. But on this issue they didn't bring anything up to a vote. There was no proposal in the works. If there was a proposal and it passed the House and failed in the Senate (say 57-43) then ... I would agree with you.
But they (Obama, Reid, Pelosi) didn't bring up anything that, AFAIK, even got of committee.
By all this I'm not saying that Republicans are all sunshine and flowers - only that, as far as GITMO is concerned, the blame, if it exists, rests on Obama, Reid and Pelosi.
Re Health Care: There were numerous proposals - ALL were rejected out of hand. There were proposals such as increasing Medical Savings Accounts and many more. All rejected.
Re GITMO: Obama had control of the Senate and House for 2 years, plus he can submit an Executive Order. Don't blame anybody but Obama and the Dems if you think GITMO should be closed. In addition to those 2 years of unchecked ability to make a change Obama and his advisors had 5+ years to come up with policies to replace GITMO before Obama was inaugurated. All they came up with was try them in Civil Courts. Guess what. NY is a deep-blue state and there isn't consensus here about that. Add to the fact that most those in GITMO are prisoners of war captured in battle and it becomes even more difficult.
Should there be trials? Yes. Should these people be kept indefinitely without trial? No. But don't blame Republican intransigence. Have the courage to put the blame on Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi the political leaders of the party in power for two years.
"Crazy, genocidal brain." Come-on now.
Re the use of the word pepper - it applied to foods that were peppery. He wasn't a botanist. He was an explorer. He used the commonly used vernacular of his time
Are you know going to call the pilgrims "crazy and genocidal" because they called maize "corn." To the 17th C English "corn" was any cereal crop.
PS. Please nobody say anything as dumb as "he was lost." He was a f**king explorer. And if you look at a globe you'll see that he got his latitude correct. He miscalculated the circumference of the earth.
well, in that case you could add gym memberships. They would love to sell memberships to people who never come. (And that does happen.)
I think this is an excellent idea. I've been using versions of this for years and it's come in useful.
This is an early warning system in case things go wrong. And things do go wrong even when competent and paying attention to best practices.
I don't know if you consider me to be the original poster but even in places where business is driven by RFQ there is more involved than the quotes. Rarely do businesses solely make decisions based upon a simple quote. There are a lot of intangibles even when it comes to widgets (thread, button, zippers) for clothing companies or sand and gravel for construction companies.
I've been involved in numerous business and sales and marketing are everywhere even for interchangeable widgits (sand, gravel, thread, zippers).
I don't think people are sheep. Marketing isn't there to fleece the sheep. When I was in the market for a phone I looked at different options. Ads and corporate websites are important. When looking to refinance my mortgage I had people calling me trying to get my business. Clothing stores, restaurants market to us via their storefronts, ads, flyers, websites etc... I've worked for software companies and agencies. Someone, NOT ME, has to find the customer and land the sale. Without their work I would be out of work.
B2B marketers rely less on TV and magazine ads, that means their sales staff is even more important.
You guys don't understand business. A company doesn't make money if it doesn't sell. Everything is secondary to selling. If people don't want your product - having a better product that they don't know about doesn't necessarily help. HR is important but it doesn't bring in money. We (the IT staff) are important but we don't bring in the money - the marketing and sales staff do.
A customer knowing that your company exists is important. A customer thinking about your company when they are making a purchase is important. Hence having staff that can find and land customers is important.
Sales & Marketing isn't superfluous it is the heart of business.
1. The literacy rate and average educational attainment is going down.
Are you sure about that? The literacy rate in places like the US, Western Europe and Japan has reached pretty close to 100%. There are groups which have stagnated but in total literacy and average education is going up. There was an interesting TED presentation on world-wide educational rates from 1700 to the present and it has skyrocketed.
2. The only growth areas for jobs in the industrialized world are for literate well educated people. Every other sector needs fewer and fewer people.
True. Depending upon the definition of education and thankfully the nature of education is going to change as AI gives an alternative to current "factory" styled educational system.
3. lifestyle expectations have never been higher.
True and
lifespans will soon be MUCH longer than now (yes I'm a kurzweil, de grey, singularity type of futurist)
Will there be changes? Yes. Will there be some social issues? Yes. But, welcome to the world and the messy world of humans.
thx. will tax a look at this.
Assuming you're serious, the reason is simple: because it's a bitch for small stores. Mistakes will be made and the small businesses will get into big time hassles with the sales tax board of different states. Small businesses, especially mom-and-pop stores will have one more hurdle to clear and many will fail.
I think the purpose of the legislation is to force mom-and-pops out of the internet sales because it is so onerous. Now you may say that there a technological solution could easily be made. Yes it could. But it's not in the works. The result is going to be a blood-bath.
Why is it complicated? It's not simply because there are 50 different states with different tax rates it's that different states tax different items in different ways and change them frequently. For instance NYS taxes clothes when an individual item is 110.00 and above but doesn't when it is below. Now what is an item of clothes and what is an accessory (which is fully taxed.) A pocketsquare is an accessory as is a belt buckle but a belt (strap and buckle) is considered clothing and isn't taxed if under 110.00.
To further complicate things sometimes the tax rate changes: for a while the tax was $55.00. Did the state change this at the beginning of a tax quarter? No. They changed it in the middle of the tax quarter. Not only that but NYS and NYC are different tax jurisdictions and sometimes things don't coordinate well.
What happens when state A considers item X and accessory and state B doesn't; even more what happens when they change their definitions. We can easily see a technological solution. There is a central database which all transactions refer to (kept in cache via a google API) and which the STATES are responsible to keep updated. If that happens then tax collection is simple. Of course, now you need to file in 50 states and not one and two hours work becomes 100 hours work. OK. Less than that as you will probably have some states in which there were no sales. But still - you need to file them. Think about dealing with 50 IRSs every 3 months. How stressful would that be?
I don't think anyone interested in guns for self-defense imagines themselves in a war against the full-might of the US military. If that happens (and I pray that it doesn't) the US military will itself be split and we will be living (and dying) in the midst of a civil war.
The government cannot always protect its citizens and sometimes governments can be hostile or criminally negligent (see the KKK and "strange fruit". Ever wonder why black folks didn't protect themselves? It's because they were disarmed.)
Re 3D printing - it will take a while before we are able to make machine / industry usable parts for cars, building supplies, guns etc... But it will happen.
It's hard to argue with that. :- )
But most people who vote for politicians and who support such policies do not do so for that reason - at least not consciously. They want to be "kind" and "compassionate" and don't see another way that isn't "mean-spirited."
I'm at a loss for how to explain how counter-productive their policies are.
The term "right-wing" is meaningless. It just means "not-left." Left has a definition: govt controls means of production; individual subservient to the collective whole. What does right-wing mean? It can mean Milton Friedman and Adolf Hitler. It can mean Ayn Rand and Patrick Buchanan. The term right-wing, as is currently used, just means "not-left."