Facebook [...] says it could make a billion dollars a year from advertising
Go on then.
I could say I can make eleventy dollars a furlong from my blog; that doesn't make it true. Only a dribbling moron would base a business decision (such as exchanging their website for stock) on such a claim.
Twitter doesn't know how to make money either. Twitter's best hope is to be bought by some other company so the owners can cash out. Of course, if they're bought by someone who only makes "theoretical" money like Facebook, and only paid in stock, they won't be any better off. However, if they never get bought out by anyone, their theoretical billions of dollars will never materialize into real money, because their service is very difficult to monetize.
Facebook is at least still mostly accessed via web browser, so there's the opportunity for ad revenue there. Twitter, on the other hand, is mostly accessed via small mobile phone apps, where it's much more difficult to advertise without causing the users so much pain that they end up dropping the service.
With one sentence, he managed to save the floral industry in his town... at the expense of all the other industries where that money would've instead been spent.
A bunch of geeks sent them. I'm sure the hand lotion and tissue industries will be able to survive to temporary hit. The market for Star Trek memorabilia may never recover, though.
I think the iPhone just became a positive ROI for many people in these areas.
Or any other phone that has a half-decent web browser. All this thing does is launch Safari to take you to their website. The only reason the press release mentions the iPhone is because that's a virtual guarantee that it will be spread all over creation via the news wires and sites that don't actually read the articles beyond a few keywords such as, say, Slashdot.
You have a bit of a chicken and egg problem when it comes to open source in K-12. The argument (and it's a good one) for using Windows in schools is so kids will be familiar with it, which is critical in the workplace since 99% of workplaces uses Windows extensively. At the same time, workplaces aren't going to switch to Linux because 99% of their potential employees know only Windows.
Of course, in theory more workplaces would eventually start to move to Open Source if more students came out of school knowing how to work in that sort of environment, but most schools don't want to take that gamble. If the schools did switch everyone to Linux, for example, but the vast majority of the workplace is still on Windows, you now have a bunch of people entering the workforce that are ill-equipped to work with the technology therein, and your school takes the hit for not properly preparing them. Likewise, if you're a business, you have a disincentive to switch to Linux because then you'd have to spend millions training people who grew up using Windows how to use it. That isn't even taking into account the old problem that all the software companies develop for Windows first and, usually, only.
Saving money is an argument that usually works very well in the cash-starved education system, but when it runs up against the need to make kids into well-qualified workers, things get messy.
The Nobel Prize has been inflated in the minds of some (with help from the media, no doubt) to be far more than it is. It is not designed to be awarded to people who just make mind-blowing life-changing discoveries. Nobel's will specifically stated that it be awarded annually:
The capital shall be invested by my executors in safe securities and shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind
It then goes on to stipulate what categories each award is for.
So, the Nobel Prize was originally intended to simply be sort of a "man of the year" competition in various fields, and was supposed to pertain to work that was done during the preceding year. In that spirit, Gore's prize was proper, since he was being awarded for stuff he had done during the previous year, while those prizes given to scientists for discoveries made years or decades earlier were technically in violation of Nobel's original intent, since it was supposed to reward only work done during the preceding year.
If the Nobel Prize was awarded as a "Man of the Year in x field" rather than "person who made earth-shattering discoveries in x field", you wouldn't have near the controversy it always seems to generate.
In this case, "us" can be read to include "our children". In any case, it's not necessarily the goal that's the issue, it's the incredible lengths that people are willing to tolerate the government going to to reach the goal that's the problem.
In my opinion, going after child porn consumers is a waste of resources, since catching a few (or even a few hundred) has no real impact on the overall demand for it. Going after the people who are actually abusing the kids to make the porn may be more difficult, but it's the only really effective way to get rid of the stuff, and the only real way to deal with why real child porn, as opposed to virtual porn like stories or drawings, is really such a problem: A child must be abused in order to produce it.
Nice. Hey, we have the backup part done, that's already 50% of the problem solved! We can worry about the restore part later, after we start bringing in the big bucks.
A simple periodic dump to an external hard drive would have at least been something. I know that small-time operations shouldn't be expected to have robust backup schemes, but if your primary purpose is to store other people's data, the FIRST thing on your mind should be how to back it up. Once you lose someone's data, they'll never use anything you put out again, and they'll tell all their friends not to either.
Well, since you're reading the news on an American website, and news of the digital TV switch has been all over American news for years, simple deductive reasoning would lead you to believe the country they're talking about is obviously Uzbekistan.
Checking the social networking sites for pictures and video you've posted showing yourself street racing and smoking crystal meth? Fair game.
It came in quite handy when I applied to be a crystal meth smuggler.
Man, you're lucky...I've been trying to get into the meth trade, but the first person to show up when you Google my name is a decorated police officer. It sucks.
That's not really the point. All of these kids should have their convictions vacated, and the DA's office should determine which of them, if any, they want to re-try.
The records may be sealed, but they still exist, and they can still be accessed in reality. Furthermore, the kids still have the feeling that they've been railroaded by the system. Doing the right thing here could at least give some of them the impression that the system is capable of doing more than unjustly imprisoning them. Carrying around a chip on their shoulder that the system is out to get them will greatly impact their direction in life.
Any reason why we (consumers) should be against this?
Well, since this is the government, they'll inevitably come up with a standard where the connector is 6 inches long and 3 inches wide, has 874 tiny easily breakable pins, and requires a power brick that weighs 20 pounds. Also, the chargers will cost $438,000.
Call customer support for assistance. Depending on your level of support, we may have a technician on site to deal with your ass fire in as little as 24 hours.
Please do not attempt to solicit help extinguishing your ass from any other source, as this would violate your terms of service. Also, you are reminded that comparing notes with other customers regarding the cost, support level, or any other aspect of your ass extinguishing service will likewise be in violation of the terms of your contract.
Thank you for choosing Enterprise Ass Extinguishing Services for all your ass fire extinguishing needs. A sales representative will contact you following the successful extinguishing of your ass fire for your feedback.
Next Slashdot article: Is Jah-Wren Ryel a child molester?
There's no evidence Jah-Wren Ryel has ever molested children, and no reason to suspect he would ever do so. Bandying about accusations like that would likely ruin his life forever.
However, since child molestation is such a big political issue these days, as a responsible news site I believe we need to have equal representation from both sides of the argument and let our viewers decide.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps you're just not fat, hairy, or sweaty enough to collect belly button lint. But then, you're a Slashdot reader, so that can't be it...
Go on then.
I could say I can make eleventy dollars a furlong from my blog; that doesn't make it true. Only a dribbling moron would base a business decision (such as exchanging their website for stock) on such a claim.
Twitter doesn't know how to make money either. Twitter's best hope is to be bought by some other company so the owners can cash out. Of course, if they're bought by someone who only makes "theoretical" money like Facebook, and only paid in stock, they won't be any better off. However, if they never get bought out by anyone, their theoretical billions of dollars will never materialize into real money, because their service is very difficult to monetize.
Facebook is at least still mostly accessed via web browser, so there's the opportunity for ad revenue there. Twitter, on the other hand, is mostly accessed via small mobile phone apps, where it's much more difficult to advertise without causing the users so much pain that they end up dropping the service.
With one sentence, he managed to save the floral industry in his town... at the expense of all the other industries where that money would've instead been spent.
A bunch of geeks sent them. I'm sure the hand lotion and tissue industries will be able to survive to temporary hit. The market for Star Trek memorabilia may never recover, though.
$4,446 worth of flowers might not seem like much, but don't forget, that was before the article got posted to Slashdot.
So what are you saying, that now she'll have $4,446 worth of flowers and 800,000 pictures of the goatse guy?
The argument for file sharing has never, ever been "I can't afford it."
I think the iPhone just became a positive ROI for many people in these areas.
Or any other phone that has a half-decent web browser. All this thing does is launch Safari to take you to their website. The only reason the press release mentions the iPhone is because that's a virtual guarantee that it will be spread all over creation via the news wires and sites that don't actually read the articles beyond a few keywords such as, say, Slashdot.
You have a bit of a chicken and egg problem when it comes to open source in K-12. The argument (and it's a good one) for using Windows in schools is so kids will be familiar with it, which is critical in the workplace since 99% of workplaces uses Windows extensively. At the same time, workplaces aren't going to switch to Linux because 99% of their potential employees know only Windows.
Of course, in theory more workplaces would eventually start to move to Open Source if more students came out of school knowing how to work in that sort of environment, but most schools don't want to take that gamble. If the schools did switch everyone to Linux, for example, but the vast majority of the workplace is still on Windows, you now have a bunch of people entering the workforce that are ill-equipped to work with the technology therein, and your school takes the hit for not properly preparing them. Likewise, if you're a business, you have a disincentive to switch to Linux because then you'd have to spend millions training people who grew up using Windows how to use it. That isn't even taking into account the old problem that all the software companies develop for Windows first and, usually, only.
Saving money is an argument that usually works very well in the cash-starved education system, but when it runs up against the need to make kids into well-qualified workers, things get messy.
The Nobel Prize has been inflated in the minds of some (with help from the media, no doubt) to be far more than it is. It is not designed to be awarded to people who just make mind-blowing life-changing discoveries. Nobel's will specifically stated that it be awarded annually:
The capital shall be invested by my executors in safe securities and shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind
It then goes on to stipulate what categories each award is for.
So, the Nobel Prize was originally intended to simply be sort of a "man of the year" competition in various fields, and was supposed to pertain to work that was done during the preceding year. In that spirit, Gore's prize was proper, since he was being awarded for stuff he had done during the previous year, while those prizes given to scientists for discoveries made years or decades earlier were technically in violation of Nobel's original intent, since it was supposed to reward only work done during the preceding year.
If the Nobel Prize was awarded as a "Man of the Year in x field" rather than "person who made earth-shattering discoveries in x field", you wouldn't have near the controversy it always seems to generate.
You know, composed of a lot of straight lines and sharp angles, both eyes on the same side of his head, lots of colors everywhere, that sort of thing.
In this case, "us" can be read to include "our children". In any case, it's not necessarily the goal that's the issue, it's the incredible lengths that people are willing to tolerate the government going to to reach the goal that's the problem.
In my opinion, going after child porn consumers is a waste of resources, since catching a few (or even a few hundred) has no real impact on the overall demand for it. Going after the people who are actually abusing the kids to make the porn may be more difficult, but it's the only really effective way to get rid of the stuff, and the only real way to deal with why real child porn, as opposed to virtual porn like stories or drawings, is really such a problem: A child must be abused in order to produce it.
Nice. Hey, we have the backup part done, that's already 50% of the problem solved! We can worry about the restore part later, after we start bringing in the big bucks.
Child porn is like terrorism: it's a free pass for the government to do just about anything they want to in the name of protecting us from it.
A simple periodic dump to an external hard drive would have at least been something. I know that small-time operations shouldn't be expected to have robust backup schemes, but if your primary purpose is to store other people's data, the FIRST thing on your mind should be how to back it up. Once you lose someone's data, they'll never use anything you put out again, and they'll tell all their friends not to either.
Not to mention the cost of changing the OS sticker on the laptop...
I told Dell it was a bad idea to switch to those new diamond-studded OS stickers, but nooooo, they wouldn't listen.
It's pretty clearly stated in the FAQ
Well, since you're reading the news on an American website, and news of the digital TV switch has been all over American news for years, simple deductive reasoning would lead you to believe the country they're talking about is obviously Uzbekistan.
Checking the social networking sites for pictures and video you've posted showing yourself street racing and smoking crystal meth? Fair game.
It came in quite handy when I applied to be a crystal meth smuggler.
Man, you're lucky...I've been trying to get into the meth trade, but the first person to show up when you Google my name is a decorated police officer. It sucks.
Moot point. If you play with your hands in your pocket you will get busted.
Good advice for any occasion, not just gambling!
That's not really the point. All of these kids should have their convictions vacated, and the DA's office should determine which of them, if any, they want to re-try.
The records may be sealed, but they still exist, and they can still be accessed in reality. Furthermore, the kids still have the feeling that they've been railroaded by the system. Doing the right thing here could at least give some of them the impression that the system is capable of doing more than unjustly imprisoning them. Carrying around a chip on their shoulder that the system is out to get them will greatly impact their direction in life.
Do you have any large, heavy doors that need to be propped open?
Any reason why we (consumers) should be against this?
Well, since this is the government, they'll inevitably come up with a standard where the connector is 6 inches long and 3 inches wide, has 874 tiny easily breakable pins, and requires a power brick that weighs 20 pounds. Also, the chargers will cost $438,000.
my ass is on fire you dick face
Call customer support for assistance. Depending on your level of support, we may have a technician on site to deal with your ass fire in as little as 24 hours.
Please do not attempt to solicit help extinguishing your ass from any other source, as this would violate your terms of service. Also, you are reminded that comparing notes with other customers regarding the cost, support level, or any other aspect of your ass extinguishing service will likewise be in violation of the terms of your contract.
Thank you for choosing Enterprise Ass Extinguishing Services for all your ass fire extinguishing needs. A sales representative will contact you following the successful extinguishing of your ass fire for your feedback.
unless someone finds a way to regulate the human birth rate.
That's easy, just give everyone a Slashdot account.
Really? I heard lots of gunshots. Come to think of it, I heard lots of gunshots last night too. Now I hear sirens.
Maybe I need to move to a better neighborhood.
Next Slashdot article: Is Jah-Wren Ryel a child molester?
There's no evidence Jah-Wren Ryel has ever molested children, and no reason to suspect he would ever do so. Bandying about accusations like that would likely ruin his life forever.
However, since child molestation is such a big political issue these days, as a responsible news site I believe we need to have equal representation from both sides of the argument and let our viewers decide.