Just one thing... FLAC does not compress to 40-50%. More like 60(rare)-70-80%.
I disagree. I have about 12 classical recordings here that are compressed to between 300 and 400MB per CD, and these are full-length CDs (700MB uncompressed). On average 50% compression is a reasonable figure for FLAC. The encoder however does not default to best compression, because that is a bit on the slow side. Try setting the -9 (or --best) flag in your ripping/encoding software.
Mart
Re:I can't feel any responsiveness improvements.
on
Gnome 2.18 Released
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· Score: 1
Instead of whining, you could do something more constructive, as Havoc pointed out many times in that bug report. A report that was closed for the right reason, as the discussion had long veered from how to fix the behaviour into a "flame-Havoc" flamefest.
And for the record, on Debian unstable (Gnome 2.16), Metacity behaves as desired: no raise-on-click when sloppy focus is set. I should know, because I use it that way.
Try the BMW801 aircraft engine, as used by the Luftwaffe in WWII in the Focke Wulf FW190. That had fuel injection, supercharger and the MW50 ethanol injection system.
There was also no program to do Gantt charts. Whenever I asked about one, Linux users told me I didn't actually need to make Gantt charts and people who do are idiots, etc.
You're lying.
mvdwege@carrot:~$ apt-cache search gantt libjfreechart-java - Chart library for Java libkgantt0 - KDE gantt charting library libkgantt0-dev - KDE gantt charting library [development] opensched - Tool for project management paje.app - generic visualization tool (Gantt chart and more) planner - project management application
And at least one of those packages is a very well know project management application, which is part of the standard gnome office tools.
So, either you hang out with Linux users too stupid to use google or their package management tools, or you're lying. Ockham's razor says you're lying.
Counterexample: eyewitnesses have reported that there was quite a bit of freedom in Catalonia before the Communists decided to purge the Republic from all non-Communist elements.
Communists eventually have to do that. People will want to strive, to succeed as individuals. It's human nature. Communism is contrary to that nature, and requires force to stop it.
Oh, I quite agree, but I was talking about the CNT/FAI. Those were not Communist. You really don't know a damn thing about the Spanish Civil War, do you?
Freedom to succeed means freedom to fail.
Ah, the sweet sound of privilege. Here's a hint, boy: when you're dead, you're no longer free. And when the choice is subsistence existence or death, what freedom? You can keep throwing out singular examples, but they were exceptions. The vast majority of the 19th-century proletariat had not even freedom to fail, they were doomed to fail.
Unfortunately, history has shown us that you can't really have [freedom] without [capitalism].
Counterexample: eyewitnesses have reported that there was quite a bit of freedom in Catalonia before the Communists decided to purge the Republic from all non-Communist elements. But to call the reign of the CNT/FAI Anarchists capitalist?
And quite frankly, to call the 19th-century proletariat free, at the height of laissez-faire capitalism, is stretching the definition. Freedom to starve is hardly worthy of the name.
Novell bought GPL developed projects. To turn around later and blame the GPL for Novell's PR nightmare is stupid. There exists something called 'due diligence'.
[...] all the talk on whether or not Novell is violating GPL (perhaps by simply partnering with another vendor - Microsoft) [...]
Stop spreading FUD. Novell was doing more than simply partnering with Microsoft. They took out what amounted to a patent license in all but words, which would call into question their ability to distribute GPL code. The patent clause in the GPL is quite clear: if you have a patent license to code under the GPL, you must be able to transfer that license along with the code, or you can't distribute under the GPL.
Novell's problem is caused by the fact that they are hemming and hawing around whether or not they actually do have a patent license agreement with Microsoft and what its exact terms are.
That theory fits when the enemy is throwing concussion grenades. Those just make a godawful loud bang and displace a lot of air (hence the loud bang of course). The purpose is that the shockwaves will force the enemy down, either by the force of the blast, or by laying down like you heard.
The other type of grenade, the fragmentation grenade, produces a smaller bang, but if you're in the blast radius, you're screwed, because it showers hot, sharp fragments of casing everywhere. If you're in the blast, you'll be hit, lying down won't save you.
Of course, lying down to avoid the blast effects of a concussion grenade won't help much, as you'll be prone against the inevitable close assault that follows a concussion grenade attack.
Side note: this assumes explosions in more or less open spaces. In enclosed spaces the lethality is reversed, the larger blast making the concussion grenade more lethal.
Wow, it must take alot of brainwashing to believe that stuff.
Two things:
Why do you assume I believe those things? It is not necessary to actually believe in something to correct others' misapprehensions.
Great way to start a discussion, bud. Your very starting sentence shows you as the brainwashed one. Do you really think I am going to try and refute your strawmen if you start out with a sentence that says your flat out going to dismiss all I say because you consider me 'brainwashed'?
I mean, if you're going to teach the Bible, at least teach what was actually in it, but I can't help but wonder...
The original sin was eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. So, actually learning -- particularly learning about ethics -- is what damned us all. Curiosity is a bad thing.
You would do well to follow your own advice, and to take this additional advice: read up some basic theology. It was not curiosity that was the reason for the Fall. Knowledge of Good and Evil implies the capability to act on either of them. Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise because they had gained the capability to do Evil, which is something that does not belong in Paradise, which is a realm of absolute Good.
God forbade the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge because it would disturb the balance of Paradise by introducing the knowledge of Evil. The reason for the prohibition was promptly validated by the fact that Adam and Eve started by lying about their act, denying that they had taken from the Tree and trying to place blame on others.
Apart from whether or not you believe this, only a deliberate misreading of the text and the exegesis done on it over the centuries could lead someone to state that mere curiosity led to the Fall. It didn't. Neither did mere disobience.
As for the resolution of this, this is why Christians believe Jesus' death leads to forgiveness for Original Sin: Jesus shows the ultimate Good, sacrificing yourself for others. The core tenet of Christianity is that by following his teachings and if need be his sacrifice, we renounce Evil and commit to Good. I see no refutation of the validity of independent thought in this. In fact, the demand that we consciously choose to do Good over Evil is in fact a validation of the worth of independent thought. One does not get saved by rote regurgitation of dogma; Jesus' attacks on the Farisees and the Judeans make this abundantly clear.
ODF does not support a good chunk of features in Office 2007 (Excel etc.)
Like what? I keep hearing this from the MS shills, but I haven't seen many examples yet. Anyone care to post any? And actual shortcomings in the format mind you, merely touting features that MSOffice supports and OpenOffice doesn't, doesn't count unless you can prove that no implementation would be able to support the feature because of shortcomings in the document format.
And then you swap out the network card and get the surprise of your life as Windows installs the driver and silently re-enables the network.
What idiot thought it a good idea to tie the network settings to the physical interface instead of the logical interface? Oh yes, Microsoft. Every time I finally get used to Windows enough to extend Microsoft some credit, they go and do something stupid like this.
At least in Linux, eth0 is eth0, no matter what hardware it is driving. And the same goes for every Unix and derivative out there. Considering how long *nix systems have had networking, I can't imagine why MS thought any other way was more logical, except for a terminal case of NIH.
Hasn't anyone noticed that people said the EXACT SAME THINGS about Windows XP? Antivirus and CD burning programs were incompatible. Hardware support was sketchy. Games didn't run as fast. Everyone was going to stick with Windows 98, because it was "good enough".
People have noticed that. The howls of hardware not being supported persisted well into 2002, with XP being released in October 2001.
Do you have any numbers showing significant market penetration of XP within one year? Take a look at the back of the box on published games, and see how long it was before game companies finally dropped Win98 support. I know plenty of people who seriously didn't consider XP until 2003 rolled around, so I would be very interested to know whether or not these were exceptions to the rule.
Do you have any numbers to prove that WinXP adoption wasn't slowed down due to compatibility hassles, or are you just shilling?
Instead of snarkily attacking a strawman, you could actually try addressing his point: namely that keyboard shortcuts are being sacrificed to the almighty WIMP.
Parent was in no way disclaiming the usefulness of the WIMP interface, in fact he specifically addressed that issue by saying explicitly that there is a use for the mouse pointer, he was complaining about the keyboard being phased out entirely except for data entry.
I've been eyeing second-hand Toughbooks for some time, as they make ideal laptops to throw into my motorcycle hardcases without worrying about padding around them.
As far as I can tell, and the reports on linux-laptop.net seem to bear this out, Panasonic aka Matshushita uses fairly standard chipsets in these things, the kind they also sell to other manufacturers, so they run Linux with a little fiddling at most. Which is of course logical: a well-known, well-tested, and well-integrated hardware design is also much more stable driver-wise, and what use is a rugged laptop if it keeps crashing? The upside is that these are usually the kind of chipsets that also run well under Linux.
I wonder if there is a difference between US sites and European sites?
I know that our local nuclear power plant isn't smudged out. Go to google maps, and input 'borssele, nl'; the nuclear power plant is the structure just to the north-east of the village of Borssele. The large white round structure is the reactor dome, with the turbines in the rectangular annex. The smokestack to the northeast of that is for the coal-fired plant on the same grounds. Zooming in gives plenty of detail, no smudging at all
Both under European style "author's rights" and the U.S. style utilitarian copyright, the doctrine of First Sale applies: you legally acquire a copy of the content, you own it, and you are free to use it as you see fit.
What you don't own is the rights that are exclusive to the copyright holder. These rights usually cover distribution of copies and public performance, although the DMCA and EUCD add the power to put additional technical constraints on access to the material.
So, as a rule of thumb, absent technological constraints on access, you are free to do whatever you bloody well want with your copy of a copyrighted work, including making zillions of copies for personal use, as long as you don't distribute the copies.
Pick out the average Christian [...] they just know they love "Jebus" and they have to because otherwise they go to Hell.
Maybe the ignoramuses that call themselves 'Christians' in the United States may believe as you say, but as said, they are not representative of Christians world-wide. And your generalisation paints you as just as stupid as they are.
And who are you to say that Mormons aren't Christians? Even that debate is not settled among the various denominations, with the exception of the nuts in the United States who want to keep God, Jesus and the Bible to their precious selves.
Start reading up on theology, because stating that these are all beliefs held by 'average' Christians is nonsense.
A man was born to a virgin
The matter of the literal virginity of Mary is a hotly debated issue, and one of the dividers between the Roman Catholics and other denominations.
that man was the "son" of a (THE) god, but is simultaneously part of the god
Whether or not the Son, the Father and the Holy Spirit are three seperate entities or merely three expressions of the same entity is also not settled among Christian denominations.
that man had god-like powers
That man performed miracles, according the the Gospels. That same man however expressed that anyone could do so, given enough faith. The performance of miracles is not seen as proof of his divinity.
that man died in order that, through his own mutilation and murder, others might have the potential to extirpate their own ancestral shamefulness associated with disobedience to his father
Apart from certain Calvinist and Puritanical sects of Christianity (those that strongly believe in Original Sin), sin is a whole lot more than the mere disobedience of Adam and Eve. And even the fact whether or not they were cast out from paradise for mere disobedience is not a settled dogma among 'average' Christians. The fact that they had acquired knowledge of Good and Evil and the freedom to act Evil is a more common view of what sin is.
And as to how Jesus' sacrifice relates to the forgiveness of sin, that also varies among denominations.
that man's corpse came back to life
About the only thing you get right. Only a few fringe denominations do not believe in a corporeal resurrection.
that man moved to another dimension where he was reunited with his god father
Without the flamebait formulation, yes, this appears to be a generally held belief about the Ascension.
that man will visit us again, initiating the end of the world
The only thing all denominations accept is that Jesus will be present at the Apocalyps. Whether he initiates it is something there is no general agreement on.
the most important thing you can do is to believe in this man and his father
Aside from the fact that there are several instances in the Gospels where those without belief in the Son and/or the Father are said to be saved by their works. Again, the division between the importance of faith vs. the importance of good works is by no means settled.
if you believe in this man and his father, and ask for help from him, he will hear you and change the world around you to assist you with your problems.
Aside from the fact that most Protestant denominations think that the Catholic belief in the granting of miracles on prayer verges on idolatry of course.
It appears that you base your view of Christianity on fringe Puritanical and Apocalyptical thinking mostly contained to the United States, and then generalise this to apply to the whole of Christianity world-wide.
I'll be the last to denigrate social sciences, but you must admit upon reading this paper that it is just plain shoddy worksmanship, and even a social sciences student can shoot holes in the conclusions drawn from it.
It is junk science, made worse by the tacit stamp of approval it carries because the participants were from (from what I know at least) two of the more prestigious universities of the United States.
Dear God, if this is what passes for research at prestigious places like Berkeley these days, I am not surprised that immigrants outperform U.S.-born citizens
Their sample was not random(they called up companies and asked for cooperation).
They define 'innovation' by the number of patents filed, and the categories they mention where the most patents are filed in, are precisely those categories where we'd find such innovations as 'one-click-shopping'.
And that's just two examples. I am at a loss for words to see such stupidity even get past a professor's review.
Democratic governments make decisions based on consensus of the country, decison by consensus is very inefficient.
I have a particular hate for this libertarian bullshit.
Define efficiency. Is it monetary? Then an efficient solution is to kill your parents once they reach retirement, because otherwise they would only cost society money without producing. If consensus is detrimental to efficiency, then ipso facto its converse is better for efficiency. Oops. The opposite of decision by consensus is autocratic fiat.
If cooperation exists, then Pareto Optimality is no longer guaranteed.
Demonstrate please.
I'll help you out: you can't, because you're grossly misstating what Pareto optimality is. Pareto optimality is the distribution of resources in such a way that no participant is worse off after the exchange, no more, no less. Some economists have shown that in a highly idealised market (perfect information, 100% price inelasticity, complete equality of all actors and no externalities) a free exchange of goods leads to a Pareto optimal solution. This, however, is by no means the only way, and if it is, I'd like to see how you get that. You might even get yourself a Nobel if you can prove so.
Now, in a case of cooperating individuals, are there situations thinkable where they can take cooperative action and all end up better? Well, actually there is: a Nash equilibrium (funnily enough that works both ways though).
See? You're not the only one who knows what name-dropping is.
OK, I'm assuming your ignorance was not malicious. Yes, SPEWS does use multiple levels of blocking, for sources that are positively identified as either being spam sources or belonging to a provider that does not appear to have decent abuse handling they publish a list that can be used for blocking, and for other sources they use a list that is merely 'watched' (and expressly advised not to be used as an RBL).
Although the fact that they haven't been updated since August worries me a little. Possibly the SPEWS admins suffer from burn-out? Or they have concluded that others do the same work much better (like e.g. Spamhaus)?
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I disagree. I have about 12 classical recordings here that are compressed to between 300 and 400MB per CD, and these are full-length CDs (700MB uncompressed). On average 50% compression is a reasonable figure for FLAC. The encoder however does not default to best compression, because that is a bit on the slow side. Try setting the -9 (or --best) flag in your ripping/encoding software.
MartInstead of whining, you could do something more constructive, as Havoc pointed out many times in that bug report. A report that was closed for the right reason, as the discussion had long veered from how to fix the behaviour into a "flame-Havoc" flamefest.
And for the record, on Debian unstable (Gnome 2.16), Metacity behaves as desired: no raise-on-click when sloppy focus is set. I should know, because I use it that way.
MartTry the BMW801 aircraft engine, as used by the Luftwaffe in WWII in the Focke Wulf FW190. That had fuel injection, supercharger and the MW50 ethanol injection system.
MartYou're lying.
And at least one of those packages is a very well know project management application, which is part of the standard gnome office tools.
So, either you hang out with Linux users too stupid to use google or their package management tools, or you're lying. Ockham's razor says you're lying.
MartOh, I quite agree, but I was talking about the CNT/FAI. Those were not Communist. You really don't know a damn thing about the Spanish Civil War, do you?
Ah, the sweet sound of privilege. Here's a hint, boy: when you're dead, you're no longer free. And when the choice is subsistence existence or death, what freedom? You can keep throwing out singular examples, but they were exceptions. The vast majority of the 19th-century proletariat had not even freedom to fail, they were doomed to fail.
Go read some history.
MartCounterexample: eyewitnesses have reported that there was quite a bit of freedom in Catalonia before the Communists decided to purge the Republic from all non-Communist elements. But to call the reign of the CNT/FAI Anarchists capitalist?
And quite frankly, to call the 19th-century proletariat free, at the height of laissez-faire capitalism, is stretching the definition. Freedom to starve is hardly worthy of the name.
MartNovell bought GPL developed projects. To turn around later and blame the GPL for Novell's PR nightmare is stupid. There exists something called 'due diligence'.
MartStop spreading FUD. Novell was doing more than simply partnering with Microsoft. They took out what amounted to a patent license in all but words, which would call into question their ability to distribute GPL code. The patent clause in the GPL is quite clear: if you have a patent license to code under the GPL, you must be able to transfer that license along with the code, or you can't distribute under the GPL.
Novell's problem is caused by the fact that they are hemming and hawing around whether or not they actually do have a patent license agreement with Microsoft and what its exact terms are.
MartThat theory fits when the enemy is throwing concussion grenades. Those just make a godawful loud bang and displace a lot of air (hence the loud bang of course). The purpose is that the shockwaves will force the enemy down, either by the force of the blast, or by laying down like you heard.
The other type of grenade, the fragmentation grenade, produces a smaller bang, but if you're in the blast radius, you're screwed, because it showers hot, sharp fragments of casing everywhere. If you're in the blast, you'll be hit, lying down won't save you.
Of course, lying down to avoid the blast effects of a concussion grenade won't help much, as you'll be prone against the inevitable close assault that follows a concussion grenade attack.
Side note: this assumes explosions in more or less open spaces. In enclosed spaces the lethality is reversed, the larger blast making the concussion grenade more lethal.
MartTwo things:
Fuck off, troll.
MartYou would do well to follow your own advice, and to take this additional advice: read up some basic theology. It was not curiosity that was the reason for the Fall. Knowledge of Good and Evil implies the capability to act on either of them. Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise because they had gained the capability to do Evil, which is something that does not belong in Paradise, which is a realm of absolute Good.
God forbade the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge because it would disturb the balance of Paradise by introducing the knowledge of Evil. The reason for the prohibition was promptly validated by the fact that Adam and Eve started by lying about their act, denying that they had taken from the Tree and trying to place blame on others.
Apart from whether or not you believe this, only a deliberate misreading of the text and the exegesis done on it over the centuries could lead someone to state that mere curiosity led to the Fall. It didn't. Neither did mere disobience.
As for the resolution of this, this is why Christians believe Jesus' death leads to forgiveness for Original Sin: Jesus shows the ultimate Good, sacrificing yourself for others. The core tenet of Christianity is that by following his teachings and if need be his sacrifice, we renounce Evil and commit to Good. I see no refutation of the validity of independent thought in this. In fact, the demand that we consciously choose to do Good over Evil is in fact a validation of the worth of independent thought. One does not get saved by rote regurgitation of dogma; Jesus' attacks on the Farisees and the Judeans make this abundantly clear.
MartLike what? I keep hearing this from the MS shills, but I haven't seen many examples yet. Anyone care to post any? And actual shortcomings in the format mind you, merely touting features that MSOffice supports and OpenOffice doesn't, doesn't count unless you can prove that no implementation would be able to support the feature because of shortcomings in the document format.
MartAnd then you swap out the network card and get the surprise of your life as Windows installs the driver and silently re-enables the network.
What idiot thought it a good idea to tie the network settings to the physical interface instead of the logical interface? Oh yes, Microsoft. Every time I finally get used to Windows enough to extend Microsoft some credit, they go and do something stupid like this.
At least in Linux, eth0 is eth0, no matter what hardware it is driving. And the same goes for every Unix and derivative out there. Considering how long *nix systems have had networking, I can't imagine why MS thought any other way was more logical, except for a terminal case of NIH.
MartPeople have noticed that. The howls of hardware not being supported persisted well into 2002, with XP being released in October 2001.
Do you have any numbers showing significant market penetration of XP within one year? Take a look at the back of the box on published games, and see how long it was before game companies finally dropped Win98 support. I know plenty of people who seriously didn't consider XP until 2003 rolled around, so I would be very interested to know whether or not these were exceptions to the rule.
Do you have any numbers to prove that WinXP adoption wasn't slowed down due to compatibility hassles, or are you just shilling?
MartInstead of snarkily attacking a strawman, you could actually try addressing his point: namely that keyboard shortcuts are being sacrificed to the almighty WIMP.
Parent was in no way disclaiming the usefulness of the WIMP interface, in fact he specifically addressed that issue by saying explicitly that there is a use for the mouse pointer, he was complaining about the keyboard being phased out entirely except for data entry.
MartI've been eyeing second-hand Toughbooks for some time, as they make ideal laptops to throw into my motorcycle hardcases without worrying about padding around them.
As far as I can tell, and the reports on linux-laptop.net seem to bear this out, Panasonic aka Matshushita uses fairly standard chipsets in these things, the kind they also sell to other manufacturers, so they run Linux with a little fiddling at most. Which is of course logical: a well-known, well-tested, and well-integrated hardware design is also much more stable driver-wise, and what use is a rugged laptop if it keeps crashing? The upside is that these are usually the kind of chipsets that also run well under Linux.
MartI wonder if there is a difference between US sites and European sites?
I know that our local nuclear power plant isn't smudged out. Go to google maps, and input 'borssele, nl'; the nuclear power plant is the structure just to the north-east of the village of Borssele. The large white round structure is the reactor dome, with the turbines in the rectangular annex. The smokestack to the northeast of that is for the coal-fired plant on the same grounds. Zooming in gives plenty of detail, no smudging at all
The next closest plant in Doel, Belgium (just outside Antwerp), on the other side of the Scheldt estuary is also visible in full detail. As is the research reactor of the Delft Technical University.
MartNo.
Both under European style "author's rights" and the U.S. style utilitarian copyright, the doctrine of First Sale applies: you legally acquire a copy of the content, you own it, and you are free to use it as you see fit.
What you don't own is the rights that are exclusive to the copyright holder. These rights usually cover distribution of copies and public performance, although the DMCA and EUCD add the power to put additional technical constraints on access to the material.
So, as a rule of thumb, absent technological constraints on access, you are free to do whatever you bloody well want with your copy of a copyrighted work, including making zillions of copies for personal use, as long as you don't distribute the copies.
MartMaybe the ignoramuses that call themselves 'Christians' in the United States may believe as you say, but as said, they are not representative of Christians world-wide. And your generalisation paints you as just as stupid as they are.
And who are you to say that Mormons aren't Christians? Even that debate is not settled among the various denominations, with the exception of the nuts in the United States who want to keep God, Jesus and the Bible to their precious selves.
MartStart reading up on theology, because stating that these are all beliefs held by 'average' Christians is nonsense.
The matter of the literal virginity of Mary is a hotly debated issue, and one of the dividers between the Roman Catholics and other denominations. Whether or not the Son, the Father and the Holy Spirit are three seperate entities or merely three expressions of the same entity is also not settled among Christian denominations. That man performed miracles, according the the Gospels. That same man however expressed that anyone could do so, given enough faith. The performance of miracles is not seen as proof of his divinity. Apart from certain Calvinist and Puritanical sects of Christianity (those that strongly believe in Original Sin), sin is a whole lot more than the mere disobedience of Adam and Eve. And even the fact whether or not they were cast out from paradise for mere disobedience is not a settled dogma among 'average' Christians. The fact that they had acquired knowledge of Good and Evil and the freedom to act Evil is a more common view of what sin is.And as to how Jesus' sacrifice relates to the forgiveness of sin, that also varies among denominations.
About the only thing you get right. Only a few fringe denominations do not believe in a corporeal resurrection. Without the flamebait formulation, yes, this appears to be a generally held belief about the Ascension. The only thing all denominations accept is that Jesus will be present at the Apocalyps. Whether he initiates it is something there is no general agreement on. Aside from the fact that there are several instances in the Gospels where those without belief in the Son and/or the Father are said to be saved by their works. Again, the division between the importance of faith vs. the importance of good works is by no means settled. Aside from the fact that most Protestant denominations think that the Catholic belief in the granting of miracles on prayer verges on idolatry of course.It appears that you base your view of Christianity on fringe Puritanical and Apocalyptical thinking mostly contained to the United States, and then generalise this to apply to the whole of Christianity world-wide.
MartI'll be the last to denigrate social sciences, but you must admit upon reading this paper that it is just plain shoddy worksmanship, and even a social sciences student can shoot holes in the conclusions drawn from it.
It is junk science, made worse by the tacit stamp of approval it carries because the participants were from (from what I know at least) two of the more prestigious universities of the United States.
MartI have read TFA, and the linked study.
Dear God, if this is what passes for research at prestigious places like Berkeley these days, I am not surprised that immigrants outperform U.S.-born citizens
And that's just two examples. I am at a loss for words to see such stupidity even get past a professor's review.
MartI have a particular hate for this libertarian bullshit.
Define efficiency. Is it monetary? Then an efficient solution is to kill your parents once they reach retirement, because otherwise they would only cost society money without producing. If consensus is detrimental to efficiency, then ipso facto its converse is better for efficiency. Oops. The opposite of decision by consensus is autocratic fiat.
Demonstrate please.
I'll help you out: you can't, because you're grossly misstating what Pareto optimality is. Pareto optimality is the distribution of resources in such a way that no participant is worse off after the exchange, no more, no less. Some economists have shown that in a highly idealised market (perfect information, 100% price inelasticity, complete equality of all actors and no externalities) a free exchange of goods leads to a Pareto optimal solution. This, however, is by no means the only way, and if it is, I'd like to see how you get that. You might even get yourself a Nobel if you can prove so.
Now, in a case of cooperating individuals, are there situations thinkable where they can take cooperative action and all end up better? Well, actually there is: a Nash equilibrium (funnily enough that works both ways though).
See? You're not the only one who knows what name-dropping is.
MartOK, I'm assuming your ignorance was not malicious. Yes, SPEWS does use multiple levels of blocking, for sources that are positively identified as either being spam sources or belonging to a provider that does not appear to have decent abuse handling they publish a list that can be used for blocking, and for other sources they use a list that is merely 'watched' (and expressly advised not to be used as an RBL).
Although the fact that they haven't been updated since August worries me a little. Possibly the SPEWS admins suffer from burn-out? Or they have concluded that others do the same work much better (like e.g. Spamhaus)?
MartThat is not a verifiable example. That is hearsay.
What was the name of that provider? What was the netblock being 'blocked'?
Mart