Well, capitalism is a good theory and does work well, but like all systems the flaws are found in the implementation.
First, it does not work well - long term - in industries with large barriers to market entry (national telecom, shipping and distribution, utilities). In these cases, governement regulation is required to either a) define a monopoly and limit pricing or b) prevent the merger of competing entities into a de facto monopoly. Once a monopoly exists, the barriers to entry (money, infrstructure, personnel) can rarely be overcome.
Second, the theory works great when everybody is above board and decisions are made logically - as in an efficient investment market. The late 90s were not an efficient market. The 90s were not a banner time for corporate financial honesty.
While I would generally agree with the "let 'em fail" attitude, the problem is there is no personal accountability. The CEO, CFO, etc. are not left penniless and destitute. The CFPs and investment councellors who recommended the corporations are not penniless and destitute. The losses are, one might say, born by the unwashed masses. Yes, perhaps the masses shouldn't have been investing when they didn't know any better, but everybody in finance and gov't has been harping on the need to invest for your retirement. I don't see them coughing up the dough and saying "oops, I was wrong."
The other problem with national/global capitalism is the size of the companies which fail, and the domino effect if left to take its own course. Prior to the modern era, it was not uncommon for a large, leveraged corporation's failure to cause the collapse of a bank, causing the loss of depositors (sometimes other corporations) savings, causing further collapses. This domino effect, extended to the multi-national firms we're talking about could cause a serious global collapse.
The only way out of this is personal liability. As a former co-worker used to say - you must have "one ass to kick." Meaning, simply, there must be a responsible person for each decision, and they must be liable for that decision. If anything goes wrong - you've got to have someone to pin it on. I'm for requiring the liquidation of officer's and, perhaps, board of director's assets to pay the creditors, and leans put against future earnings (less a stipend amount equal to, say 2087 hours at minimum wage) for the full amount of the debt, payable jointly and separably by the lot. I won't hold my breath for this legislation to pass, though.
It actually points out the problem with pure internet plays. There are no real people to contact when you have a problem. No phone numbers, no CS address, no way to contact them.
I had a problem with bidding using Opera. Each time I bid a non-integer amount (ex: $30.01) the decimal would be dropped and my bid would be entered as $3001 *after* I verified the $30.01 amount was my correct bid. Rather than holding the bid amount server-side, it was passed through the URL with two non-printable characters between the dollar and cent amounts. The "mal-formed" URL was then "corrected" by Opera before the final submission.
It took eight emails and four days to clear this up with ebay. A single phone call or human-response email would could have fixed it with one contact.
Yes, he could have avoided problems by simply removing CD-R from the description. The problem is that he got caught in the email version of touch-tone-menu-hell. No matter where you go, there's nobody on the other side to "fix" the problem when the automated system breaks.
Re:A picture is worth 1000 words...hint hint
on
Ebay vs. Musician
·
· Score: 2
That's the beauty of linking pictures of text into ebay ads. You can change the information and terms at your whim, regardelss of whether or not anyone has bid. Slimy, to be sure, but I'm sure it happens.
Pro/E has it's good and bad, but unless they've changed the seat license cost it will remain a nich product.
AutoCAD can be had for, what, $1000? Most Arch/Engr firms write their own extensions in *shudder* LISP.
Last I knew (which was, admittedly, 3 years ago when I was doing mech design instead of bldg enineering) Pro/E was commanding $20,000 a seat for a model/assembly/drafting license combo. Add thermal, structural, and kinematic packages and you could fork over $50 grand. That didn't even include the $500/day/person training that took a full week to approach minimal competence.
I am looking for an alternative for my consulting work. I just need a basic package, but I'll admit I'm spoiled by some of the features in Acad2k.
...we need to go back to the time when you were required to submit a scale model of your patentable "invention" which would fit in a 12" cube and have all the relavent identifiable parts.
Oh, come on. North Dakota only "sounds" cold 'cause it has the word "North" in it. Heck, I live in VA and I never go to North Carolina 'cause it just sounds too cold.
I'm sure it's a wonderful warm place, with beaches and bikini parties year 'round. I wish they'd just drop that stupid "North" thing and then everyone could see the truth.
1. an XGA projector - about $3k 2. a pull down screen, 119" HD should be in the $150 range 3. home-theater-in-a-box kit for $500 4. Spend a weekend putting it together...(we're all DIYers here, I'm sure)
Instant home theater for under $4 grand. Want to go cheap? Buy a SVGA projector and a slightly smaller screen and save $1500. $4k would cost about $28/month on a home equity loan. That's how I justified mine...and the Federal & State government chip in $8/month to help cover the cost (deduction). You just gotta love the US of A;-)
I've already purchased a license for the music on my CDs (since, according to the RIAA, I don't really "own" anything). Shouldn't I get to trade them in for the new format for the cost of the raw media plus, say, 15% for overhead and profit?
"getting a license for the Skycar should be easier than getting a driver's license."
Now that scares me. Getting a driver's license is too easy to do as it is. I'm not talking the law portion (thoug that could be a bit more comprehensive, too). I'm talking about the practical. In most states, the practical exam is a joke, and centers around whether or not you can use your turn signals and stop at a stop sign. My wife can't even parallel park 'cause she was never required to learn (Virginia).
I've kept up with the progress of Moller casually for a decade or so. It's terribly enticing...last stats I heard were 17mpg (airspeed*time, not linear miles; a thirty knot headwind will increase your fuel consumption for a given ground distance) which is no worse then most SUVs. They utilize Wankel ("von-kel") engines as they have extremely high power to weight ratios. A 350mph cruising speed is quite nice, too.
BUT...right now, the noise and pollution is concentrated around roads. If you don't like to live near that, you can move to the country. What happens when there are 200 million of these in service? The moller website claims that the density would be less than 1 car per cubic mile (or somthing like that). Well, on a clear day, I can look out my window and see for thirty miles or more in each direction, and at lease 5 to 7 miles vertically. That's over two thousand vehicles within sight of my house. Not a prospect I look forward to. Luckily, with a pricetag of $600k, there won't be too many folks buying them.
You can do this, and it's not terribly hard. Laser Satellite Ranging has been around for many years. see http://ranier.hq.nasa.gov/Sensors_page/Laser/SLR.h tml for info. Typical stations used Nd:YAG lasers with 200mJ energy pulses with pulse times in the tens-of-picoseconds range (IIRC - it's been a long time). We could track both low and mid earth orbit satellites from a few degrees above the horizon on a good pass. Of course, the satellites had retroreflectors which gave us a feedback loop to keep the laser on track.
Realize that at several hundred kilometers altitude, the 4" diameter laser beam would cover a fairly large area (>100m) due to the diffraction limit of the optics (10**-4 radians, give or take), so the areal power density at the satellite was quite low.
I doubt that any modern army has NOT considered such a method. Of course, any attempt at active photo-jamming would instantly send up a red flag for that location.
If I go around checking the doors of business which are on "public" property, and where I find one unlocked I put up a sign that says "this door is unlocked," is that illegal?
Net domains and real property have more in common than difference:
1. Both are fixed - only one entity may occupy a particular "parcel" at a time.
2. There is a fixed supply of each (excluding adding stupid TLDs, and Hawaii)
3. Whether you "own" either is really just a description of what you own, stored in a central database which can be verified by a third party.
4. In general, any changes you make or sites you build are just superficial - they may add or detract from the value, but the basis of the value is more dependent on the site (location, location, location). Once you relinquicsh your license/deed, the next owner may keep or remove your additions, but the space hasn't really changed.
Of course, there are exceptions, however...
Owning real estate is just ownership of a document which has the force of law allowing you limited use within a prescribed boundary. Nearly identical to a namespace.
What manual? I bought a retail copy of Windows XP, and there wasn't a manual anywhere in the box for any of these snazzy programs. I didn't notice a readme.txt file either. Fact is, they just snuck this one in.
You'd love the way the IS guy at my office installs new software on our machines (he has to do it himself, 'cause nobody else has local admin rights). He runs the installer, then hits enter as quickly as possible until the install completes. Never reads a single word. I'll give him this, though - it's the fastest install I've seen!
The downside of TV display is that current analog TVs just don't have the resolution for serious typing - even email - and most websites will be severely cramped by a 640x480 display (I'm giving NTSC the benefit of a 1/30s frame).
HOWEVER, as HD sets get more and more prolific I can see a real possibility using the 720p (1280x720) desktop as a realistic cross-over system display device. Now we only have to wait for the HD connections to sort themselves out...
(Man...I can remember drooling over an Atari 800...real keys and everything. And then to find an Ace1000 under the Christmas tree that year - it was like I'd died and gone to geek heaven:-)
Actually, it has less to do with politics and more to do with price. VHS players, though inferior in picture quality, were cheaper. We (mass-market, Joe SixPack Americans) generally don't give a flying **** about quality, as long as it's inexpensive.
That's where DVD-R shines. The drives may be compatable, but the media is priced in favor of -R by a factor of three. Unless there's a huge groundswell of +R drives, the media makers will never realize the quantity and competition required to bring the price down. DVD-R blanks are rapidly approaching the CD-R give-away prices we've all grown used to.
Unfortunately, I have a player which obeys the commands of my discs without fail. Pop in a Disney movie (the worst of the lot) and you can't even press "stop." The only way to stop a Disney ad is to "eject" the disc from the player.
Although I don't like the FBI warnings (why not put them at the end, like VHS?) the ads are awful. You _can_ get 10+ minues worth on Disney discs. Luckily, the movies are short and I do intend on re-burning them before my daughter is old enough to watch. No sense in making her sit through the extra ads.
Copyright IP was explained to me when I was a freshman in college, many years ago, like a book. You buy your original. You can make as many backups as you like. You can have them anywhere you like. You can loan them out. BUT - like your physical book, it may only be used in one place at a time.
If I had a book with 50 pages of ads in the front, I'm allowed to rip them out and throw them away. I can rip out the title page, or blacken the copyright notice. It doesn't change what I'm allowed to do, but I don't have to look at it.
Oh, lighten up. It's not a commentary on free speech - just a simple observation on the human condition.
If you're gonna raise swine, don't bitch about the smell. We don't want to hear about it. If you're gonna shout advertisements on a street corner, don't complain when everybody walking by is wearing headphones or hearing protectors. If you're gonna send spam, don't complain about people using blocking software.
This would be impossible. Why? Because the book you need to look at will already be electronically "checked out" by some other last-minute-composer. It will be like trying to get a file from a one-user FTP site. What a mess...
It's good to know that there's someone else out there thinking the same damned thing. I find it a bit odd that MP3 CD players are selling for less than $60, but you can't tack on an MP3 player to any of the existing USB/USB2/FW enclosures out there. Of course, I'd probably want a 3.5 incher so I could drop a spare 30G into it and take my whole collection with me.
Damnit...I checked the link in the other reply - Cool, but $200 too much:-(
They're called slip-rings, and they work quite well. you can transfer both power and data through them. I'm not familiar with current lifetimes on low cost components though...
Dude, turn off the set. If you spend 24/7 watching TV you should really consider spending any loose change you've got on a life;-)
Honestly though, I've got a digital projector I use to watch movies and TV and the rated lamp life is 1000 hours. I've owned it for 3 years and have about 600 hours on the lamp. Of course, the lamp is $500 so I don't leave it on just to keep me company while I do other things.
I almost got excited. I went to the page and thought "oh, yeah, this has been here before. But hey - maybe they're shipping now. Um, then again...maybe not."
I was just pointing out that nothing has changed but the snazzy graphics.
Mod this one down too, I'm just posting again to be annoying.
1) Transportation is a problem - there's no way to get it out of the atmosphere without the possibility of an accident releasing the spent fuel into the atmosphere. It's also damned expensive.
2) There is the possibility - however remote - that what we are storing may become useful in ten, or a hundred, or a thousand years. If, by some freak, somebody finds a wonderful use for these heavy elements it would be a shame to find out that we'd already stripped the planet of them .
Slashdot Mirror
Well, capitalism is a good theory and does work well, but like all systems the flaws are found in the implementation.
First, it does not work well - long term - in industries with large barriers to market entry (national telecom, shipping and distribution, utilities). In these cases, governement regulation is required to either a) define a monopoly and limit pricing or b) prevent the merger of competing entities into a de facto monopoly. Once a monopoly exists, the barriers to entry (money, infrstructure, personnel) can rarely be overcome.
Second, the theory works great when everybody is above board and decisions are made logically - as in an efficient investment market. The late 90s were not an efficient market. The 90s were not a banner time for corporate financial honesty.
While I would generally agree with the "let 'em fail" attitude, the problem is there is no personal accountability. The CEO, CFO, etc. are not left penniless and destitute. The CFPs and investment councellors who recommended the corporations are not penniless and destitute. The losses are, one might say, born by the unwashed masses. Yes, perhaps the masses shouldn't have been investing when they didn't know any better, but everybody in finance and gov't has been harping on the need to invest for your retirement. I don't see them coughing up the dough and saying "oops, I was wrong."
The other problem with national/global capitalism is the size of the companies which fail, and the domino effect if left to take its own course. Prior to the modern era, it was not uncommon for a large, leveraged corporation's failure to cause the collapse of a bank, causing the loss of depositors (sometimes other corporations) savings, causing further collapses. This domino effect, extended to the multi-national firms we're talking about could cause a serious global collapse.
The only way out of this is personal liability. As a former co-worker used to say - you must have "one ass to kick." Meaning, simply, there must be a responsible person for each decision, and they must be liable for that decision. If anything goes wrong - you've got to have someone to pin it on. I'm for requiring the liquidation of officer's and, perhaps, board of director's assets to pay the creditors, and leans put against future earnings (less a stipend amount equal to, say 2087 hours at minimum wage) for the full amount of the debt, payable jointly and separably by the lot. I won't hold my breath for this legislation to pass, though.
It actually points out the problem with pure internet plays. There are no real people to contact when you have a problem. No phone numbers, no CS address, no way to contact them.
I had a problem with bidding using Opera. Each time I bid a non-integer amount (ex: $30.01) the decimal would be dropped and my bid would be entered as $3001 *after* I verified the $30.01 amount was my correct bid. Rather than holding the bid amount server-side, it was passed through the URL with two non-printable characters between the dollar and cent amounts. The "mal-formed" URL was then "corrected" by Opera before the final submission.
It took eight emails and four days to clear this up with ebay. A single phone call or human-response email would could have fixed it with one contact.
Yes, he could have avoided problems by simply removing CD-R from the description. The problem is that he got caught in the email version of touch-tone-menu-hell. No matter where you go, there's nobody on the other side to "fix" the problem when the automated system breaks.
That's the beauty of linking pictures of text into ebay ads. You can change the information and terms at your whim, regardelss of whether or not anyone has bid. Slimy, to be sure, but I'm sure it happens.
Generally, contracts are written to be separable. In effect, if one clause is deemed invalid, the rest of the clauses remain in force.
Pro/E has it's good and bad, but unless they've changed the seat license cost it will remain a nich product.
AutoCAD can be had for, what, $1000? Most Arch/Engr firms write their own extensions in *shudder* LISP.
Last I knew (which was, admittedly, 3 years ago when I was doing mech design instead of bldg enineering) Pro/E was commanding $20,000 a seat for a model/assembly/drafting license combo. Add thermal, structural, and kinematic packages and you could fork over $50 grand. That didn't even include the $500/day/person training that took a full week to approach minimal competence.
I am looking for an alternative for my consulting work. I just need a basic package, but I'll admit I'm spoiled by some of the features in Acad2k.
...we need to go back to the time when you were required to submit a scale model of your patentable "invention" which would fit in a 12" cube and have all the relavent identifiable parts.
Oh, come on. North Dakota only "sounds" cold 'cause it has the word "North" in it. Heck, I live in VA and I never go to North Carolina 'cause it just sounds too cold.
I'm sure it's a wonderful warm place, with beaches and bikini parties year 'round. I wish they'd just drop that stupid "North" thing and then everyone could see the truth.
Bingo. Get
;-)
1. an XGA projector - about $3k
2. a pull down screen, 119" HD should be in the $150 range
3. home-theater-in-a-box kit for $500
4. Spend a weekend putting it together...(we're all DIYers here, I'm sure)
Instant home theater for under $4 grand. Want to go cheap? Buy a SVGA projector and a slightly smaller screen and save $1500. $4k would cost about $28/month on a home equity loan. That's how I justified mine...and the Federal & State government chip in $8/month to help cover the cost (deduction). You just gotta love the US of A
I've already purchased a license for the music on my CDs (since, according to the RIAA, I don't really "own" anything). Shouldn't I get to trade them in for the new format for the cost of the raw media plus, say, 15% for overhead and profit?
"getting a license for the Skycar should be easier than getting a driver's license."
Now that scares me. Getting a driver's license is too easy to do as it is. I'm not talking the law portion (thoug that could be a bit more comprehensive, too). I'm talking about the practical. In most states, the practical exam is a joke, and centers around whether or not you can use your turn signals and stop at a stop sign. My wife can't even parallel park 'cause she was never required to learn (Virginia).
I've kept up with the progress of Moller casually for a decade or so. It's terribly enticing...last stats I heard were 17mpg (airspeed*time, not linear miles; a thirty knot headwind will increase your fuel consumption for a given ground distance) which is no worse then most SUVs. They utilize Wankel ("von-kel") engines as they have extremely high power to weight ratios. A 350mph cruising speed is quite nice, too.
BUT...right now, the noise and pollution is concentrated around roads. If you don't like to live near that, you can move to the country. What happens when there are 200 million of these in service? The moller website claims that the density would be less than 1 car per cubic mile (or somthing like that). Well, on a clear day, I can look out my window and see for thirty miles or more in each direction, and at lease 5 to 7 miles vertically. That's over two thousand vehicles within sight of my house. Not a prospect I look forward to. Luckily, with a pricetag of $600k, there won't be too many folks buying them.
You can do this, and it's not terribly hard. Laser Satellite Ranging has been around for many years. see http://ranier.hq.nasa.gov/Sensors_page/Laser/SLR.h tml for info. Typical stations used Nd:YAG lasers with 200mJ energy pulses with pulse times in the tens-of-picoseconds range (IIRC - it's been a long time). We could track both low and mid earth orbit satellites from a few degrees above the horizon on a good pass. Of course, the satellites had retroreflectors which gave us a feedback loop to keep the laser on track.
Realize that at several hundred kilometers altitude, the 4" diameter laser beam would cover a fairly large area (>100m) due to the diffraction limit of the optics (10**-4 radians, give or take), so the areal power density at the satellite was quite low.
I doubt that any modern army has NOT considered such a method. Of course, any attempt at active photo-jamming would instantly send up a red flag for that location.
If I go around checking the doors of business which are on "public" property, and where I find one unlocked I put up a sign that says "this door is unlocked," is that illegal?
Net domains and real property have more in common than difference:
1. Both are fixed - only one entity may occupy a particular "parcel" at a time.
2. There is a fixed supply of each (excluding adding stupid TLDs, and Hawaii)
3. Whether you "own" either is really just a description of what you own, stored in a central database which can be verified by a third party.
4. In general, any changes you make or sites you build are just superficial - they may add or detract from the value, but the basis of the value is more dependent on the site (location, location, location). Once you relinquicsh your license/deed, the next owner may keep or remove your additions, but the space hasn't really changed.
Of course, there are exceptions, however...
Owning real estate is just ownership of a document which has the force of law allowing you limited use within a prescribed boundary. Nearly identical to a namespace.
What manual? I bought a retail copy of Windows XP, and there wasn't a manual anywhere in the box for any of these snazzy programs. I didn't notice a readme.txt file either. Fact is, they just snuck this one in.
You'd love the way the IS guy at my office installs new software on our machines (he has to do it himself, 'cause nobody else has local admin rights). He runs the installer, then hits enter as quickly as possible until the install completes. Never reads a single word. I'll give him this, though - it's the fastest install I've seen!
The downside of TV display is that current analog TVs just don't have the resolution for serious typing - even email - and most websites will be severely cramped by a 640x480 display (I'm giving NTSC the benefit of a 1/30s frame).
:-)
HOWEVER, as HD sets get more and more prolific I can see a real possibility using the 720p (1280x720) desktop as a realistic cross-over system display device. Now we only have to wait for the HD connections to sort themselves out...
(Man...I can remember drooling over an Atari 800...real keys and everything. And then to find an Ace1000 under the Christmas tree that year - it was like I'd died and gone to geek heaven
Actually, it has less to do with politics and more to do with price. VHS players, though inferior in picture quality, were cheaper. We (mass-market, Joe SixPack Americans) generally don't give a flying **** about quality, as long as it's inexpensive.
That's where DVD-R shines. The drives may be compatable, but the media is priced in favor of -R by a factor of three. Unless there's a huge groundswell of +R drives, the media makers will never realize the quantity and competition required to bring the price down. DVD-R blanks are rapidly approaching the CD-R give-away prices we've all grown used to.
Unfortunately, I have a player which obeys the commands of my discs without fail. Pop in a Disney movie (the worst of the lot) and you can't even press "stop." The only way to stop a Disney ad is to "eject" the disc from the player.
Although I don't like the FBI warnings (why not put them at the end, like VHS?) the ads are awful. You _can_ get 10+ minues worth on Disney discs. Luckily, the movies are short and I do intend on re-burning them before my daughter is old enough to watch. No sense in making her sit through the extra ads.
Copyright IP was explained to me when I was a freshman in college, many years ago, like a book. You buy your original. You can make as many backups as you like. You can have them anywhere you like. You can loan them out. BUT - like your physical book, it may only be used in one place at a time.
If I had a book with 50 pages of ads in the front, I'm allowed to rip them out and throw them away. I can rip out the title page, or blacken the copyright notice. It doesn't change what I'm allowed to do, but I don't have to look at it.
Oh, lighten up. It's not a commentary on free speech - just a simple observation on the human condition.
If you're gonna raise swine, don't bitch about the smell. We don't want to hear about it. If you're gonna shout advertisements on a street corner, don't complain when everybody walking by is wearing headphones or hearing protectors. If you're gonna send spam, don't complain about people using blocking software.
This would be impossible. Why? Because the book you need to look at will already be electronically "checked out" by some other last-minute-composer. It will be like trying to get a file from a one-user FTP site. What a mess...
It's good to know that there's someone else out there thinking the same damned thing. I find it a bit odd that MP3 CD players are selling for less than $60, but you can't tack on an MP3 player to any of the existing USB/USB2/FW enclosures out there. Of course, I'd probably want a 3.5 incher so I could drop a spare 30G into it and take my whole collection with me.
:-(
Damnit...I checked the link in the other reply - Cool, but $200 too much
They're called slip-rings, and they work quite well. you can transfer both power and data through them. I'm not familiar with current lifetimes on low cost components though...
Dude, turn off the set. If you spend 24/7 watching TV you should really consider spending any loose change you've got on a life ;-)
Honestly though, I've got a digital projector I use to watch movies and TV and the rated lamp life is 1000 hours. I've owned it for 3 years and have about 600 hours on the lamp. Of course, the lamp is $500 so I don't leave it on just to keep me company while I do other things.
10,000 hours is a lot of TV watching, IMHO.
Damn, the mods are pretty rabid today ;-)
I almost got excited. I went to the page and thought "oh, yeah, this has been here before. But hey - maybe they're shipping now. Um, then again...maybe not."
I was just pointing out that nothing has changed but the snazzy graphics.
Mod this one down too, I'm just posting again to be annoying.
How many times are we going to see this spiffy site touting vaporware posted to slashdot?
A troll, for certain, but I'll bite:
1) Transportation is a problem - there's no way to get it out of the atmosphere without the possibility of an accident releasing the spent fuel into the atmosphere. It's also damned expensive.
2) There is the possibility - however remote - that what we are storing may become useful in ten, or a hundred, or a thousand years. If, by some freak, somebody finds a wonderful use for these heavy elements it would be a shame to find out that we'd already stripped the planet of them .