Actually.. as a CEO.. you should know that 'assets' are bad for your bottom line. [Defining asset as an accountant would look at it.. not as a banker.]
Assets are taxable, depreciate, and are a permanant part of your business. In some states, assets [such as perminant display fixtures or furnature] are also taxed each quarter like earnings.
This explains to most folks, why most businesses lease property/sites instead of buying them. [totally forgetting about long term of being stuck with 50 acres of industrual land in a dying city 15 years later.] A lease is a major expense, and a good accountant can keep a business that is in the black - borderline red with a bunch of major expenses.
Licenced software is an expense. a one time fee, that actually help your bottom line by offsetting a capital gain. [unless of course, your business is in the red - but I am assuming your working for a company that has more than 3 computers - and can afford a site licence from the evil corporation.]
If you wan't to change the outlook on open source, have the EFF lobby congress to give tax breaks for anyone using open source software. [including the branches of the govt:P] and see how quickly the fourtune 500 scramble.
Its not Illegal.. four words.. 'Federal Trade-Law Commission' [well.. technically 3 words and a hyphen]
Any e-store that sells to a state where they have a physical retail presence, is already require to charge sales tax.
Less scroupulous (and smaller) stores were installing 'ordering kiosks' that contacted their 'web server' and took an order over the 'internet' regardless of the fact that you were standing in their store - so they wouldn't have to charge you sales-tax.
its not illegal in the context of the article. Companies that have regular Brick & Morter store locations in a state, are required by FEDERAL TRADE LAWS to charge income tax for any online sales made to said state.
[Trust me, I spent months reviewing this with our legal department before setting up our online store.]
This keeps folks from just doing all their sales 'ONLINE' by putting a kiosk in their store or whatever, and avoiding the taxes. Cheap, but if folks hadn't been doing it - no one would have had to make the law up.
What they are doing, is saying that 'We know you didn't collect taxes, However, if you promise that you will in the future (even in the states you DON'T have Brick & Morter in) we will overlook your entheusaum.
Basicaly its a call to amnesty to get leverage to PUSH for taxation on the web.
First off.. we all need to keep in mind that Internet sites that do e-commerce are REQUIRED to collect sales tax if they are selling to a state which they have a Brick & Morter store located.
So Sites like Walmart, Toys R Us, and my own Black & Decker have to pay taxes; Where sites like Crazy Aaron's Thinking Putty or Old Glory Games - do not.
That being said:
If I *DRIVE* to virginia (or deleware etc) and buy a car.. I don't have to pay sales tax on it. [although I do get taxed when I register it in my own state.]
If I order something over the phone, I don't have to pay tax in some states. Same if I order a magazine.
While internet stores are no replacement for a good Brick and Morter store.. they do sometimes fill a nitch. Example.. 3 weeks ago I was looking for 2 things : An Ospry Book for Eastern Front German Uniforms in WWII, and German winter gear figurines (25m) of the same timeframe.
I went to FIVE hobby shops local to me that carry minatures.. and none of them had what I wanted. [I called 6 more.. getting smarter after the 5th to get the same result.] *EVERY* single shop was willing to 'special order' said product for me.
Now, I tried to buy them in a REAL store first.. because I wanted to support my local stores. Granted - I was looking for some rather specalty items, but when a store CARRIES said items.. at least ONE out of 11 should have SOME representative in inventory.
All my real stores failed me.. so I ordered from an online store.
Internet shopping is only good if you know exactly what you want - its very hard to browse for something on the net.. because its forced marketing - you see only what a seller wants you to see about their product.
Three days later, product in hand.. I had what I was trying to find.
I guess my point is, Internet stores generally do business across state lines. [hence no income tax.. due to fluxing tax rates between states.] Trying to regulate income tax for a NON store fronted web-store is stupid. If they had a local store, most folks prefer to go to them first. The E-Commerce-replaces-real-stores that everyone was afraid of in retail sales.. never happened.. and honestly.. probally never will.
"Firstly, I truly fail to see how a weapon like this will make that much difference against an enemy that regards Kalashnikows and rocket-propelled grenades as high tech and has had it's most significant success using box-cutters."
The article talked about useing these against Iraq. Not to nitpick, but it was AlQueda.. not Iraq that had such 'success' with primive box-cutters.
"Thirdly, all this glory halleluyah for high-tech weapons is more than a little bit sick. In the real world, real people die in wars."
In the real world, people die of diease, car accidents, mal-nutrition and murder too. I don't think folks hate americans because they kill people.. people all over the world do that.. People hate Americans because they have this stereotype in their minds that we are all wealthy, and have more than they do. You can thank hollywood and American TV for this as well as popular media.
During my time in europe, most folks I met assumed that I was wealthy simply BECAUSE I was american, and were horrified to learn (for example) that the U.S. national average of unemployment was much higher than the U.K.'s (at the time)
While on average, many american families have a higher standard of living, that can be attributed to the fact that we have many personal freedoms and more importantly.. a (mostly) free-market economy.
Of course, states like Louisania or West Virginia or South Carolina are never glamourized. Habitat for Humanity ? why let other countries know that we can't even feed and house our own.
Whenever friends of mine from overseas come to visit. The see the squalor that exists here as well as their country, and *THEN* they really hate americans, not because we are better off than they. but because on a national level.. most of our citazens are too lazy to better their situations.. instead they cry for the government to help them.
In the UK (which is still very much a class based society) folks there would KILL to be given the chance to 'have a go' at it themselves. [in fact a frequent reward for the company I worked for was to transfer talented / motivated employees to the american office, to give them that chance.]
anyways. Folks don't hate us because we have bombs, there are pleanty of other reasons that come first.
My birthday present when I turned 18 was a 9mm Smith & Wesson Police Range weapon. I wasn't too thrilled.
My father, a once NYC Office turned Connecticut police officer, has - at times in the past, put a few rather nasty folks in bad spots. [Lets just say there is a reason he will not step FOOT in NYC to this day.]
So at the age of 18, when I was leagally able to carry a conceiled firearm in the state of CT, I was given one. along with a permit to carry. [Sometimes having a dad who is a cop can be a bad thing.. while doing the background check on me himself, he found the 2 speeding tickets i managed to hide from him the year prior *grin*.]
I carried one every day of my life until I moved to Maryland. (which is a class 9 state, where private citizens - law abiding ones at least - are not allowed to have concieled firearm permits. Ironic, considering Baltimore is always in the top 5 murder capitals of the U.S.A in gun crime.]
There was never a time i needed to use it. In the 7 years of carrying a (rather heavy) side arm, the only place I drew it was at the range. But it was there if I needed it. Upon moving to Maryland, that ability to defend myself is not there.
It bothers me.. yes.. but not enough to move. Everyone in this state is *TERRIFIED* of guns. My wife's whole family considers 'GUN' to be a 4 letter word. It took me 4 years to get my wife to come shooting with me. and another 6 months after that first time to go back. [Remember, I was trained to shoot on a Police range, with a dad who was on the army's marksmen team, she just got rattled because she was afraid.]
Everyone around here feels the same way. And I don't blame them. On an average weekend there are 2-3 shootings.. 2-3 !!! no joke. We get snipers, we get folks like Joeseph Palzinski [think back a year or two] folks are litterally getting shot to death on a daily basis.
Its ironic, that for 7 years I never needed a gun, but was allowed to carry it, and now I live in a state with statistics that predict my odds of being in a situation where a gun is involved at 'Reasonably High' and I can not pre-emptivly defend myself. Because the state has 'outlawed' handguns.
Isn't it funny, that Texas, a state where anyone can carry a gun as long as its *plainly visable* has the lowest amount of fatal gun violence in the U.S.A. But Maryland, where carrying a gun is illegal for private citizens, is one of the highest ?
If you constantly need to request funds from your company to finish your project, you didn't plan it well.
THAT is how most businesses go under. Horrible planning.
You can rest assured, that when a large org.. lets say the US army, grants a 3 billion contract for a new tank, that there will be no more money after that 3 billion.
its the same in any big business org. hell ..its the same in small business.
If you take a small business loan out through the SBA, you only get the first loan, they will NEVER let you take another out until the first one is paid off.
so lets say you think you can open a retail store on $5,000.. you somehow manage to get the store 1/2 set up, and suddenly you run out of $$ to buy inventory. You have been selling the inventory you had to pay the bills.. now you have an empty shop and nothing to sell.
[in the real world.. the SBA wouldnt even let you take out a loan for 5,000 they insist on a full 3 year business plan up front before they even consider you - as well as a 5-10 year break even plan before they grant a loan.]
So saying that having to report all your $$ requirements for the life of your project up FRONT is how the real world works. its not dishonest, it just means that if you get 1/2 through a project and run out of money - that you never should have gotten the job in the first place.
SOOOO.. by ralf saying 'this is what we can finantually do' [keeping in mind that he designed Ultima Online, and probally has the most experience of any MMORPG designer out there] thats probally a pretty dead on guess.
True about over-paying. I can't agree with the school vouchers though . thats the WORST system. rather than fix the problems in the local school system.. school vouchers try to bus kids from bad schools districts to well funded ones.. to 'balance' or 'average' out the test scores. Nothing to do with kids educations. They tried that Here in the next town over like 5 years ago. They bussed the WORST kids from the inner city schools to the local school, under the assumption that they just wern't getting an 'even playing field' in the city schools. The results were out of the 50 kids bussed in.. 44 of them were expelled in the first 2 weeks for acts of vandalism, violence, or truency. needsless to say.. the program was scrapped.
The real problem with todays education system is.. as you stated.. Teachers are expected to raise our kids for us.. but not dicipline them.
My wife's student's parents are (on average) 25-26.. and she teaches MIDDLE school. I'm not one to preach family values.. but its hard for 16 year old kids (making the assumption that the father and mother still talk) to raise a child. And school has become more of a babysitting service.
out of the 310 or so students my wife has this year. 12 parents returned signed grade notices for her class... TWELVE.
No wonder the kids don't learn, why should they ? its not like their folks even notice:(
Im not sure how it is in PC land California. But here is Baltimore the public school system is Horribly Corrupt. [as evidenced by my spelling *chuckle* thats a joke, not a slam on society]
My wife teaches in a middle school in baltimore county 'suburbs' and it is a nightmare. most of the classrooms in her school do not have windows. they have plywood. This year breaks the 3 year record her room did not have heat. [they just replaced the heater.. no air conditioning thought - its already in the heat/air unit, but they don't hook it up.. because kids learn fine in 100+ degree weather.]
Her school is part of whats called 'targeted' schools, which means.. up until a successful law suit this year.. teachers who work in 'targeted' schools [ie.. low -> no income schools] may only transfer to other targeted schools. My wife has been turned down on *two* occations for transfers to schools that are closer to our house (one was right across the street), and in both cases - new teachers with no experience were given the job.
Last year, the principal's aid, and 2 other secretarial staff were indited for embezzlement. They had been doing it for over 6 years, but no once noticed until payroll checks started to bounce.
This year her school was forced by the county to drop 4 positions due to budgets. Bringing the class sizes between 40 and 50 kids per class. meaning that in an average class period of 40 mins, my wife has approximatly 55 seconds per student. [meaning that in a 7 period day.. on average.. a student in her school gets 6mins and 41 seconds of education.]
Now lets talk about pay. Teachers get paid horribly, just like cops and firemen. My wife has been teaching for 7 years now. And just reached close to 39k a year. In order to reach that amount, she had to do two after school activities, and direct her entire department. (otherwise it would be more like 36k) Lets break that down a bit.. just for ha-ha's {these are all rough calculations mind you.}
39,000 a year and she works about 10.5 months of they year. [teachers work about a week after the students leave, and start about 2 weeks before the kids come back. - oh.. and don't forget she gets NO vaction/sick time during the year. If she has to take time off if she is sick - her pay is docked.](42 weeks) That means she brings home roughly $928 a week (before taxes) she works from 7:00-3:30 each day.. with a 15 min lunch, and no breaks. 4 days a week she has afterschool activities which brings her home at 5:00 (1.5 hours per day X 4) This doesnt count Parent Confrence nights (about once a month) or the production nights on the plays she does, etc. So she works roughly 9.75 hours a day (10 if a student asks her questions at lunch - ill use 10 just cause its rounder for now)
So.. she gets roughly $9.28 an hour (did i forget to mention that she only gets this much because she has her masters ?) Thats with a MASTERS DEGREE! In one hour she teaches (average again) 67 students.
meaning.. your kid's education from her is worth about 0.13 cents. [Again, this is flat math, obviously it would be slightly LOWER during the day, and much higher in the afterscool activities.]
Isn't that Kind of scarey ?
A professional (and she is actually a very good teacher) with a MASTERS degree.. makes less than a manager of a McDonalds. [Where 3/4 of the kids wind up anyways.. on both sides of the counter.] She also works longer hours, and takes her work home (both emotionally, and physically - tests have to get corrected some times.] Don't forget, that if there are addional needs for her classroom, that comes OUT of her salary - maybe it will get reimbursed at the end of the year - if its approved and the school isnt over budget.
The alternative of course, is to divide her $1200 a year budget for art supplies among about 300 students a day. [you can see where THIS is going]
So.. for #1 on the list.. I have to say he is dead on from my point of view. Bad schools = stupid kids = more crime & less progress.
The flaw in your logic is pretty easy. You don't run a business that is BASED off a database on retail quality IDE drives you buy at bestbuy.
Were talking high speed SCSI drives.. in a type 5 raid at LEAST ! if not redundant raids. On a professional development platform (the kind you have to pay for.. not MySql) Backups, system admin salaries, DBA salaries etc.
You don't run a game that is expected to get over a million subscribers in the first 3 months, on your brothers old 486 tripped out to run linux with a spare parts from your friends.
Not when every single MINUTE of downtime costs you money (just in Customer Service costs alone.. let alone lost revenue and PR to counteract the negative experience.)
48,000 customers won't even cover the number of copies shipping to california i bet:P
Of course.. Ralf's point about service size (which is only a SMALL part of this decision) is scaleability. They have to project over a 5-7 year period. and growth in that time.. So.. conservitaly , if they are expecting 1 million accounts in the first year.. they could concievably need space for 4 million accounts over a 7 year life.
If you have ever worked in a professional big business position.. you know how hard it is to get funding 1/2 way through a project - no matter HOW important or sucessful it has been.
(and have to tread softly around my NDA) What folks need to realize here.. is that this is a dead horse.
People, especially.. err.. not highly social people, are quite often afraid of change. [anyone remember when Taco announced the subscriber member plan HERE? - rest my case.]
There are only a few folks on the beta forums who have (from a year or two ago) been saying they want mcs only. Almost everyone else is just picking a bandwagon. (I myself am neutral.. maybe leaning towards SCS after reading some of the arguments NOT posted in that article.)
What a LOT of folks seem to forget.. is that this is SOE's game ! Here is an example that WONT break my NDA:P:
I used to work for games workshop - you know.. warhamemr.. warhammer 40k etc.
They make some 300 million Pounds Stirling selling toy soldiers (about 1/2 a billion US depending on exchange).
Every 3-5 years they changes the rules in their games. Fix bugs, make them easier to play etc.
EVERY TIME they do this.. they get tonnes of greif from their existing customers. Of course, this isn't suprising as their products are targeted at *13 YEAR OLD BOYS*.
As a general rule, the folks who complained the loudest were the 30 year old geeks who had been playing their product for YEARS.
after all.. 13 year old boys are pretty easy to win over - and 1/2 of them don't know the rules anyways:P [Anyone who has ever worked a Games-Day in the US or the UK know this:P]
Games-Workshop rightfully totally IGNORE all these complaints. After all.. they make like 1/2 a BILLION bucks a year.. they probally know more of what makes their product sell than a 13 year old kid does.
They make desicisions based on what is good for their sales, what is good for their games, and what will make them less confusing and more fun for the boys that just turned 13 this year, and have never seen it before. You see.. every year there are more and more 13 year old boys. THAT is who they target. Its called business growth people.
If you were an investor, would you give capital to a company like this ?:
Exec : "And each year we review our product to see if it falls into the expectitaions of our existing customer base, and if it doesnt, we take all their suggestions - and rewrite it at our expense. Just to make everyone happy."
Investor : "Oh.. so they buy your product again to get the new rules ? That sounds like you can resell it countless times then:) *greed*"
Exec : "well, no.. they already own the rules, we just make sure that they are happy."
Investor : "Oh, Well it sounds like these customers are very important to you.. what do your current customers contribute to your bottom line annually ?"
Exec : "Well, past the first six months, not that much really, since they have bought almost everything they need already. Actually most are complaining because they don't want to spend more money."
Investor : "So what your really saying, is that your letting your customer base affect your vision of your company. Hmm.. Still.. your a very specilized company, I can see how you might turn the educated outlook of your customers to your advantage. What was the average age of your customers again ?"
Exec : 'Ummm.. 13"
Investor : "oh... *NEXT!!!*"
I mean.. imagine a company betting their entire company future on the very malliable influence of 13 year olds. That would be like letting gamers design your online game for you... oh.. wait.
DiaKatana Anyone ?
Difference in Country Size
on
239 MPG Car
·
· Score: 2
For all the folks there who are griping about Americans saying ' its not practicacl' etc.
I take this oppurtunity to remind you about the difference in our country size. [Which, many europeans etc don't seem to understand until they come 'across the pond' so to speak.]
I lived in Nottingham U.K. for a year and a half or so when I worked for Games-Workshop. [technically I lived in Lenton for all you nit pickers:P] Nottingham central (the castle, the reston square hotel, etc) was approximatly 7 miles from my home. [which I shared with 3 flatmates, 1 english and 2 japanese guys.]
My english flatmate was VERY english (just, as I suppose, most americans are VERY american.. anyone who has ever lived abroad will appreciate the horror in which I say that.) and was constantly taking pot shots at how americans are spoiled.. driving their huge SUV's everywhere on cheap cheap gas (it was 1.65 per litre (pounds not dollars) when i was over there thats roughly 14 lbs a gallon . or about $20 a gallon with the exchange rate).
Before I go on with this next bit, I want to give the homefront Americans a bit of information about the U.K. so they can understand this part. The drive from Heathrow airport to Nottingham is about an 1.5 - 2 hours time. 5 hours if the m-6 is ANYWHERE in your route. Its probally about 100 miles between the two.. and Nottingham is roughly 1/2 way up the island. This is considered a Weekend Trip by most folks I associated with over there. Nottingham Castle is about 25 miles from Sherwood Forest (or whats left of it) I learned that on the day I proposed to my wife, and the gas station attendant was HORRIFIED that we were going to DRIVE there.. 'Are you sure you want to go there ? thats almost 20 miles away.' was what she said. Again. Distance. My grocery store ( a safeway mind you.. was.8 miles from my house.. my work was.6 miles ) Once when i flew in from the US.. and took a train to nottingham, I wanted to save the $$ on cab faire [and couldnt decipher the bus schedule] I walked from nottingham to Lenton carrying my luggage.. 7 miles.. i was declaired a health nut for months after that. Now back to the story.
I kept trying to explain to him how distance was a factor in daily American life, but he just didn't understand. When I explained my daily commute to work was just about the distance to London from our house.. he thought I was just 'taking the piss'. This argument continued on, until the company sent him to the US offices in Baltimore MD.
Totally ignoring my advice that he wouldnt be able to visit BOTH New York and Orlando in the same weekend, He hopped a plane to Baltimore. {and never got out of Maryland:P)
Coming back he was a changed man.
Before his trip to the US. He simply could not fathom the amount of land that our nation covers. [Something most Americans don't stop to realise either.] Just like I simply couldn't see how me walking 7 miles home from Nottingham was a big deal.
SO.. as these eruopean folks start saying how wasteful we are.. and all that. Take this into consideration:
You can drive from Nottingham England to Italy faster that you can drive from Connecticut to Florida.
And for you Euro folks, when the americans say '239 mpg ? thats not enough' or 'that looks so uncomfortable' please consider that the distance between Baltimore Maryland and New York City could require a fill-up of that car. And that many folks make commutes of that distance *daily* for work.
Slashdot Mirror
private schools get very little if no state funding.
[at least when I went to school]
Actually .. as a CEO .. you should know that 'assets' are bad for your bottom line. .. not as a banker.]
:P] and see how quickly the fourtune 500 scramble.
[Defining asset as an accountant would look at it
Assets are taxable, depreciate, and are a permanant part of your business. In some states, assets [such as perminant display fixtures or furnature] are also taxed each quarter like earnings.
This explains to most folks, why most businesses lease property/sites instead of buying them. [totally forgetting about long term of being stuck with 50 acres of industrual land in a dying city 15 years later.] A lease is a major expense, and a good accountant can keep a business that is in the black - borderline red with a bunch of major expenses.
Licenced software is an expense. a one time fee, that actually help your bottom line by offsetting a capital gain. [unless of course, your business is in the red - but I am assuming your working for a company that has more than 3 computers - and can afford a site licence from the evil corporation.]
If you wan't to change the outlook on open source, have the EFF lobby congress to give tax breaks for anyone using open source software. [including the branches of the govt
kind of along the lines of 'make it illegal to buy/carry guns'
.. err .. breaking the law.
Its not like criminals (the definition of which is 'one who breaks the law') are going to be concerned about
Depends on how much E they did first.
.. with a bad heart .. .. in the same place smacks of chemical influence.
Unless you can think of another reason four children died of strokes at a locked back door.
Fear might do that to one
but four at once
I'm thinking that something illegal might have been going on in that club.
Only takes one person to say 'cops!' in a room full of junkies to create a riot.
I hit my back button to return to ./ less than 2 paragraphs into that .pdf about using the back button.
I hit my back button in order to get back to slashdot less than 2 paragraphs into that .pdf file.
i did not .. but i will certainly look at that site :) especially if they have 1:48 scale armour
Its not Illegal .. four words .. 'Federal Trade-Law Commission' [well .. technically 3 words and a hyphen]
Any e-store that sells to a state where they have a physical retail presence, is already require to charge sales tax.
Less scroupulous (and smaller) stores were installing 'ordering kiosks' that contacted their 'web server' and took an order over the 'internet' regardless of the fact that you were standing in their store - so they wouldn't have to charge you sales-tax.
Hence, why the original law came about.
its not illegal in the context of the article.
Companies that have regular Brick & Morter store locations in a state, are required by FEDERAL TRADE LAWS to charge income tax for any online sales made to said state.
[Trust me, I spent months reviewing this with our legal department before setting up our online store.]
This keeps folks from just doing all their sales 'ONLINE' by putting a kiosk in their store or whatever, and avoiding the taxes. Cheap, but if folks hadn't been doing it - no one would have had to make the law up.
What they are doing, is saying that 'We know you didn't collect taxes, However, if you promise that you will in the future (even in the states you DON'T have Brick & Morter in) we will overlook your entheusaum.
Basicaly its a call to amnesty to get leverage to PUSH for taxation on the web.
First off .. we all need to keep in mind that Internet sites that do e-commerce are REQUIRED to collect sales tax if they are selling to a state which they have a Brick & Morter store located.
.. I don't have to pay sales tax on it. [although I do get taxed when I register it in my own state.]
.. they do sometimes fill a nitch. Example .. 3 weeks ago I was looking for 2 things : An Ospry Book for Eastern Front German Uniforms in WWII, and German winter gear figurines (25m) of the same timeframe.
.. and none of them had what I wanted. [I called 6 more .. getting smarter after the 5th to get the same result.] *EVERY* single shop was willing to 'special order' said product for me.
.. because I wanted to support my local stores. .. at least ONE out of 11 should have SOME representative in inventory.
.. so I ordered from an online store.
.. because its forced marketing - you see only what a seller wants you to see about their product.
.. I had what I was trying to find.
.. due to fluxing tax rates between states.] .. never happened .. and honestly .. probally never will.
So Sites like Walmart, Toys R Us, and my own Black & Decker have to pay taxes; Where sites like Crazy Aaron's Thinking Putty or Old Glory Games - do not.
That being said:
If I *DRIVE* to virginia (or deleware etc) and buy a car
If I order something over the phone, I don't have to pay tax in some states. Same if I order a magazine.
While internet stores are no replacement for a good Brick and Morter store
I went to FIVE hobby shops local to me that carry minatures
Now, I tried to buy them in a REAL store first
Granted - I was looking for some rather specalty items, but when a store CARRIES said items
All my real stores failed me
Internet shopping is only good if you know exactly what you want - its very hard to browse for something on the net
Three days later, product in hand
I guess my point is, Internet stores generally do business across state lines. [hence no income tax
Trying to regulate income tax for a NON store fronted web-store is stupid. If they had a local store, most folks prefer to go to them first. The E-Commerce-replaces-real-stores that everyone was afraid of in retail sales
How do walking and cutting something into small pieces relate ?
Sounds familiar :P .. they generally can cut to the heart of the matter rather quickly.
Nothing like have a former NYC cop as a dad
"What do you want to do With Your LIFE ??!"
"I WANNA ROCK!"
*boom*
Yeah .. this country wasn't so cool to Japanese Americans either .. Internment camps and all. :(
"Firstly, I truly fail to see how a weapon like this will make that much difference against an enemy that regards Kalashnikows and rocket-propelled grenades as high tech and has had it's most significant success using box-cutters."
.. not Iraq that had such 'success' with primive box-cutters.
.. people all over the world do that .. People hate Americans because they have this stereotype in their minds that we are all wealthy, and have more than they do. You can thank hollywood and American TV for this as well as popular media.
.. a (mostly) free-market economy.
.. most of our citazens are too lazy to better their situations .. instead they cry for the government to help them.
The article talked about useing these against Iraq. Not to nitpick, but it was AlQueda
"Thirdly, all this glory halleluyah for high-tech weapons is more than a little bit sick. In the real world, real people die in wars."
In the real world, people die of diease, car accidents, mal-nutrition and murder too.
I don't think folks hate americans because they kill people
During my time in europe, most folks I met assumed that I was wealthy simply BECAUSE I was american, and were horrified to learn (for example) that the U.S. national average of unemployment was much higher than the U.K.'s (at the time)
While on average, many american families have a higher standard of living, that can be attributed to the fact that we have many personal freedoms and more importantly
Of course, states like Louisania or West Virginia or South Carolina are never glamourized. Habitat for Humanity ? why let other countries know that we can't even feed and house our own.
Whenever friends of mine from overseas come to visit. The see the squalor that exists here as well as their country, and *THEN* they really hate americans, not because we are better off than they. but because on a national level
In the UK (which is still very much a class based society) folks there would KILL to be given the chance to 'have a go' at it themselves. [in fact a frequent reward for the company I worked for was to transfer talented / motivated employees to the american office, to give them that chance.]
anyways. Folks don't hate us because we have bombs, there are pleanty of other reasons that come first.
well .. i can read a 600 page book in about 300-400 mins .. 5-6 hours or so .. depending on how tired I am ..
.. I don't have the TIME to do that ..
.. [sometimes more .. sometimes less]
of course, as I get older
but I still manage to do 4-5 books a month myself
I just finished a sieries by Carol Bergman. .. err . one other)
.. and record my meager findings at :
(Transformation, Redemption, and
And was pleasantly surprized by an author i picked off the shelf at random.
I generally read about 4-5 SF/Fantasy books a month
http://www.remsbox.com/showBooks.php
Agreed.
.. while doing the background check on me himself, he found the 2 speeding tickets i managed to hide from him the year prior *grin*.]
.. yes .. but not enough to move. Everyone in this state is *TERRIFIED* of guns. My wife's whole family considers 'GUN' to be a 4 letter word. It took me 4 years to get my wife to come shooting with me. and another 6 months after that first time to go back. [Remember, I was trained to shoot on a Police range, with a dad who was on the army's marksmen team, she just got rattled because she was afraid.]
.. 2-3 !!! no joke. We get snipers, we get folks like Joeseph Palzinski [think back a year or two] folks are litterally getting shot to death on a daily basis.
My birthday present when I turned 18 was a 9mm Smith & Wesson Police Range weapon.
I wasn't too thrilled.
My father, a once NYC Office turned Connecticut police officer, has - at times in the past, put a few rather nasty folks in bad spots. [Lets just say there is a reason he will not step FOOT in NYC to this day.]
So at the age of 18, when I was leagally able to carry a conceiled firearm in the state of CT, I was given one. along with a permit to carry. [Sometimes having a dad who is a cop can be a bad thing
I carried one every day of my life until I moved to Maryland. (which is a class 9 state, where private citizens - law abiding ones at least - are not allowed to have concieled firearm permits. Ironic, considering Baltimore is always in the top 5 murder capitals of the U.S.A in gun crime.]
There was never a time i needed to use it. In the 7 years of carrying a (rather heavy) side arm, the only place I drew it was at the range. But it was there if I needed it. Upon moving to Maryland, that ability to defend myself is not there.
It bothers me
Everyone around here feels the same way. And I don't blame them. On an average weekend there are 2-3 shootings
Its ironic, that for 7 years I never needed a gun, but was allowed to carry it, and now I live in a state with statistics that predict my odds of being in a situation where a gun is involved at 'Reasonably High' and I can not pre-emptivly defend myself. Because the state has 'outlawed' handguns.
Isn't it funny, that Texas, a state where anyone can carry a gun as long as its *plainly visable* has the lowest amount of fatal gun violence in the U.S.A. But Maryland, where carrying a gun is illegal for private citizens, is one of the highest ?
What about folks who have bullet forms in their basement :(
:(
I target shoot as a hobby [something my dad, a retired police officer started me doing at 14]
and I press my own ammo, more due to cost than anything.
you can't put the genie back into the bottle
Dishonest way of planning projects ?
.. lets say the US army, grants a 3 billion contract for a new tank, that there will be no more money after that 3 billion.
.its the same in small business.
.. you somehow manage to get the store 1/2 set up, and suddenly you run out of $$ to buy inventory. You have been selling the inventory you had to pay the bills .. now you have an empty shop and nothing to sell.
.. the SBA wouldnt even let you take out a loan for 5,000 they insist on a full 3 year business plan up front before they even consider you - as well as a 5-10 year break even plan before they grant a loan.]
.. by ralf saying 'this is what we can finantually do' [keeping in mind that he designed Ultima Online, and probally has the most experience of any MMORPG designer out there] thats probally a pretty dead on guess.
I think you have that backwards.
If you constantly need to request funds from your company to finish your project, you didn't plan it well.
THAT is how most businesses go under. Horrible planning.
You can rest assured, that when a large org
its the same in any big business org. hell .
If you take a small business loan out through the SBA, you only get the first loan, they will NEVER let you take another out until the first one is paid off.
so lets say you think you can open a retail store on $5,000
[in the real world
So saying that having to report all your $$ requirements for the life of your project up FRONT is how the real world works. its not dishonest, it just means that if you get 1/2 through a project and run out of money - that you never should have gotten the job in the first place.
SOOOO
True about over-paying. .. school vouchers try to bus kids from bad schools districts to well funded ones .. to 'balance' or 'average' out the test scores. Nothing to do with kids educations. They tried that Here in the next town over like 5 years ago. They bussed the WORST kids from the inner city schools to the local school, under the assumption that they just wern't getting an 'even playing field' in the city schools. The results were out of the 50 kids bussed in .. 44 of them were expelled in the first 2 weeks for acts of vandalism, violence, or truency. needsless to say .. the program was scrapped.
.. as you stated .. Teachers are expected to raise our kids for us .. but not dicipline them.
.. and she teaches MIDDLE school. I'm not one to preach family values .. but its hard for 16 year old kids (making the assumption that the father and mother still talk) to raise a child. And school has become more of a babysitting service.
.. TWELVE.
:(
I can't agree with the school vouchers though . thats the WORST system. rather than fix the problems in the local school system
The real problem with todays education system is
My wife's student's parents are (on average) 25-26
out of the 310 or so students my wife has this year. 12 parents returned signed grade notices for her class.
No wonder the kids don't learn, why should they ? its not like their folks even notice
Im not sure how it is in PC land California.
.. no air conditioning thought - its already in the heat/air unit, but they don't hook it up .. because kids learn fine in 100+ degree weather.]
.. up until a successful law suit this year .. teachers who work in 'targeted' schools [ie .. low -> no income schools] may only transfer to other targeted schools. My wife has been turned down on *two* occations for transfers to schools that are closer to our house (one was right across the street), and in both cases - new teachers with no experience were given the job.
.. on average .. a student in her school gets 6mins and 41 seconds of education.]
.. just for ha-ha's
.. and don't forget she gets NO vaction/sick time during the year. If she has to take time off if she is sick - her pay is docked.](42 weeks) .. with a 15 min lunch, and no breaks. 4 days a week she has afterschool activities which brings her home at 5:00 (1.5 hours per day X 4) This doesnt count Parent Confrence nights (about once a month) or the production nights on the plays she does, etc.
.. she gets roughly $9.28 an hour (did i forget to mention that she only gets this much because she has her masters ?) Thats with a MASTERS DEGREE! In one hour she teaches (average again) 67 students.
.. your kid's education from her is worth about 0.13 cents. [Again, this is flat math, obviously it would be slightly LOWER during the day, and much higher in the afterscool activities.]
.. makes less than a manager of a McDonalds. [Where 3/4 of the kids wind up anyways .. on both sides of the counter.]
.. for #1 on the list .. I have to say he is dead on from my point of view. Bad schools = stupid kids = more crime & less progress .
But here is Baltimore the public school system is Horribly Corrupt. [as evidenced by my spelling *chuckle* thats a joke, not a slam on society]
My wife teaches in a middle school in baltimore county 'suburbs' and it is a nightmare. most of the classrooms in her school do not have windows. they have plywood. This year breaks the 3 year record her room did not have heat. [they just replaced the heater
Her school is part of whats called 'targeted' schools, which means
Last year, the principal's aid, and 2 other secretarial staff were indited for embezzlement. They had been doing it for over 6 years, but no once noticed until payroll checks started to bounce.
This year her school was forced by the county to drop 4 positions due to budgets. Bringing the class sizes between 40 and 50 kids per class. meaning that in an average class period of 40 mins, my wife has approximatly 55 seconds per student. [meaning that in a 7 period day
Now lets talk about pay. Teachers get paid horribly, just like cops and firemen. My wife has been teaching for 7 years now. And just reached close to 39k a year. In order to reach that amount, she had to do two after school activities, and direct her entire department. (otherwise it would be more like 36k)
Lets break that down a bit
{these are all rough calculations mind you.}
39,000 a year
and she works about 10.5 months of they year.
[teachers work about a week after the students leave, and start about 2 weeks before the kids come back. - oh
That means she brings home roughly $928 a week (before taxes)
she works from 7:00-3:30 each day
So she works roughly 9.75 hours a day (10 if a student asks her questions at lunch - ill use 10 just cause its rounder for now)
So
meaning
Isn't that Kind of scarey ?
A professional (and she is actually a very good teacher) with a MASTERS degree
She also works longer hours, and takes her work home (both emotionally, and physically - tests have to get corrected some times.] Don't forget, that if there are addional needs for her classroom, that comes OUT of her salary - maybe it will get reimbursed at the end of the year - if its approved and the school isnt over budget.
The alternative of course, is to divide her $1200 a year budget for art supplies among about 300 students a day. [you can see where THIS is going]
So
The flaw in your logic is pretty easy.
.. in a type 5 raid at LEAST ! if not redundant raids. .. not MySql) Backups, system admin salaries, DBA salaries etc.
.. let alone lost revenue and PR to counteract the negative experience.)
:P
.. Ralf's point about service size (which is only a SMALL part of this decision) is scaleability. They have to project over a 5-7 year period. and growth in that time .. So .. conservitaly , if they are expecting 1 million accounts in the first year .. they could concievably need space for 4 million accounts over a 7 year life.
.. you know how hard it is to get funding 1/2 way through a project - no matter HOW important or sucessful it has been.
You don't run a business that is BASED off a database on retail quality IDE drives you buy at bestbuy.
Were talking high speed SCSI drives
On a professional development platform (the kind you have to pay for
You don't run a game that is expected to get over a million subscribers in the first 3 months, on your brothers old 486 tripped out to run linux with a spare parts from your friends.
Not when every single MINUTE of downtime costs you money (just in Customer Service costs alone
48,000 customers won't even cover the number of copies shipping to california i bet
Of course
If you have ever worked in a professional big business position
(and have to tread softly around my NDA) .. is that this is a dead horse.
.. err .. not highly social people, are quite often afraid of change.
.. maybe leaning towards SCS after reading some of the arguments NOT posted in that article.)
.. is that this is SOE's game ! Here is an example that WONT break my NDA :P :
.. warhamemr .. warhammer 40k etc.
.. they get tonnes of greif from their existing customers. Of course, this isn't suprising as their products are targeted at *13 YEAR OLD BOYS*.
.. 13 year old boys are pretty easy to win over - and 1/2 of them don't know the rules anyways :P [Anyone who has ever worked a Games-Day in the US or the UK know this :P]
.. they make like 1/2 a BILLION bucks a year .. they probally know more of what makes their product sell than a 13 year old kid does.
.. every year there are more and more 13 year old boys. THAT is who they target. Its called business growth people.
:
.. so they buy your product again to get the new rules ? That sounds like you can resell it countless times then :) *greed*"
.. they already own the rules, we just make sure that they are happy."
.. what do your current customers contribute to your bottom line annually ?"
.. Still .. your a very specilized company, I can see how you might turn the educated outlook of your customers to your advantage. What was the average age of your customers again ?"
.. 13"
... *NEXT!!!*"
.. imagine a company betting their entire company future on the very malliable influence of 13 year olds. That would be like letting gamers design your online game for you ... oh .. wait.
What folks need to realize here
People, especially
[anyone remember when Taco announced the subscriber member plan HERE? - rest my case.]
There are only a few folks on the beta forums who have (from a year or two ago) been saying they want mcs only. Almost everyone else is just picking a bandwagon. (I myself am neutral
What a LOT of folks seem to forget
I used to work for games workshop - you know
They make some 300 million Pounds Stirling selling toy soldiers (about 1/2 a billion US depending on exchange).
Every 3-5 years they changes the rules in their games. Fix bugs, make them easier to play etc.
EVERY TIME they do this
As a general rule, the folks who complained the loudest were the 30 year old geeks who had been playing their product for YEARS.
after all
Games-Workshop rightfully totally IGNORE all these complaints. After all
They make desicisions based on what is good for their sales, what is good for their games, and what will make them less confusing and more fun for the boys that just turned 13 this year, and have never seen it before. You see
If you were an investor, would you give capital to a company like this ?
Exec : "And each year we review our product to see if it falls into the expectitaions of our existing customer base, and if it doesnt, we take all their suggestions - and rewrite it at our expense. Just to make everyone happy."
Investor : "Oh
Exec : "well, no
Investor : "Oh, Well it sounds like these customers are very important to you
Exec : "Well, past the first six months, not that much really, since they have bought almost everything they need already. Actually most are complaining because they don't want to spend more money."
Investor : "So what your really saying, is that your letting your customer base affect your vision of your company. Hmm
Exec : 'Ummm
Investor : "oh
I mean
DiaKatana Anyone ?
For all the folks there who are griping about Americans saying ' its not practicacl' etc.
:P] Nottingham central (the castle, the reston square hotel, etc) was approximatly 7 miles from my home. [which I shared with 3 flatmates, 1 english and 2 japanese guys.]
.. anyone who has ever lived abroad will appreciate the horror in which I say that.) and was constantly taking pot shots at how americans are spoiled .. driving their huge SUV's everywhere on cheap cheap gas (it was 1.65 per litre (pounds not dollars) when i was over there thats roughly 14 lbs a gallon . or about $20 a gallon with the exchange rate).
.. and Nottingham is roughly 1/2 way up the island. This is considered a Weekend Trip by most folks I associated with over there. .. 'Are you sure you want to go there ? thats almost 20 miles away.' was what she said. Again. Distance. My grocery store ( a safeway mind you .. was .8 miles from my house .. my work was .6 miles ) Once when i flew in from the US .. and took a train to nottingham, I wanted to save the $$ on cab faire [and couldnt decipher the bus schedule] I walked from nottingham to Lenton carrying my luggage .. 7 miles .. i was declaired a health nut for months after that. Now back to the story.
.. he thought I was just 'taking the piss'. This argument continued on, until the company sent him to the US offices in Baltimore MD.
:P)
.. as these eruopean folks start saying how wasteful we are .. and all that. Take this into consideration:
I take this oppurtunity to remind you about the difference in our country size. [Which, many europeans etc don't seem to understand until they come 'across the pond' so to speak.]
I lived in Nottingham U.K. for a year and a half or so when I worked for Games-Workshop. [technically I lived in Lenton for all you nit pickers
My english flatmate was VERY english (just, as I suppose, most americans are VERY american
Before I go on with this next bit, I want to give the homefront Americans a bit of information about the U.K. so they can understand this part. The drive from Heathrow airport to Nottingham is about an 1.5 - 2 hours time. 5 hours if the m-6 is ANYWHERE in your route. Its probally about 100 miles between the two
Nottingham Castle is about 25 miles from Sherwood Forest (or whats left of it) I learned that on the day I proposed to my wife, and the gas station attendant was HORRIFIED that we were going to DRIVE there
I kept trying to explain to him how distance was a factor in daily American life, but he just didn't understand. When I explained my daily commute to work was just about the distance to London from our house
Totally ignoring my advice that he wouldnt be able to visit BOTH New York and Orlando in the same weekend, He hopped a plane to Baltimore. {and never got out of Maryland
Coming back he was a changed man.
Before his trip to the US. He simply could not fathom the amount of land that our nation covers. [Something most Americans don't stop to realise either.] Just like I simply couldn't see how me walking 7 miles home from Nottingham was a big deal.
SO
You can drive from Nottingham England to Italy faster that you can drive from Connecticut to Florida.
And for you Euro folks, when the americans say '239 mpg ? thats not enough' or 'that looks so uncomfortable' please consider that the distance between Baltimore Maryland and New York City could require a fill-up of that car. And that many folks make commutes of that distance *daily* for work.