I'd take this with a grain of salt (or bucket maybe), but $3 billion is a fraction of our welfare spending - here it is estimated at $190 billion annually in a few years time. The current welfare cost of $140-150B is ~35% of the federal budget. For last financial year it is estimated between $140 to 150 billion at the federal budget website.
DSP recipients can claim up to $782.20 a fortnight, while the Newstart allowance rate is up to $561.80 a fortnight for singles with children. From this I would gather a UBI would be around $400/week per adult = $20,800 per year.
~82% of the ~23M population is >14 years old, and could therefore be construed as recipients of a UBI. The annual requirement therefore is some ~$392B, so we're looking at a little more than doubling the welfare bill..
Our current government focuses on "shifting from entitlement to enterprise; from hand-out to hand-up" so a UBI is ideologically opposed to them.
Ultimately I feel that people that don't want to work shouldn't be having children. The big problem now is that only the most uneducated and poorest are doing most of the breeding.
Perhaps because the incentive now for working potential mothers is to prioritise your career before having children? UBI potentially solves this. It does not solve housing affordability - though if you don't need to work, then you don't have that requirement to be housed near(ish) to your work location.
Exactly what I used to have (before I accidentally put an elbow through it) - the biggest, dumbest TV I could get. Turned out to be a 55" Samsung. Minimal post processing, no 3D, no USB inputs.
The summary does not provide enough details, though as you say, why would he care what they are going to do with the bitcoins? Unlike your hitman analogy, he did not provide goods for a solicted - and illegal - service, he provided an IMO a perfectly legal service of converting between bitcoins and cash. There must be more to the story as I cannot see anyone being convicted for doing that.
I've used touchscreens for a number of venues, including non-fast food such as Japanese restaurants - they love them. No communication breakdowns, itemised bill ready at the checkout when you press the button to leave. I'm there to interact with my companions, not a waiter. If I *need* advice on what wine to drink from their selection, I'll head to a restaurant that has waiters.
This method is commonly used where you can procure after deployment, which allows your business to be productive whilst the licences are bought as per the agreement. Many of the bigger companies use this true-up after deployment method.
For managing compliance (literally my job) I would prefer that excess usage is not allowed, but that stops productivity. You can guess what type of licensing is typically available and used...
I'm curious what you replaced the various Adobe products with. I have about 12 months to either fully commit to Adobe subscriptions or find suitable alternatives....TIA
I see you have not been exposed to a margin call. In the USA your margin seems to be limited to 50% of the value of a share; this is not the same the world over, and can vary based on the company and its risk profile.
Light does that further out from the center of the black hole - it is bent by the gentle curvature, but still comes out the other side - just like a marble might on a trampoline with someone standing on it. Gravitational Lensing. The 'black' part of black hole is from where the 'slope' is so great that light gets stuck circling the singularity at the center, and therefore cannot escape. (That might be an elephant making your trampoline into basically a pit).
For most serious work, you'll need a proper keyboard. Once you add a keyboard, you might as well just grab an ultraportable laptop (e.g. MB Air or Thinkpad X-series).
I have a ThinkPad x230T series (tablet convertible ultra portable) and it's a fine desktop replacement & nice as a laptop, but comes nowhere near close to the usability of an actual tablet convertible such as the Lenovo Helix (or I'm guessing the Surface Pro 2).
The weight of both devices with keyboard is comparable, but with the Helix you can ditch half the weight if the keyboard isn't required. Pretty handy for certain use cases, and cost effective if you can reduce your device count of an x86 device plus a separate tablet iDevice or similar.
The Helix is physically smaller and thus easier to carry around, however has enough grunt to cover most day to day use of an i386 compatible device.
The Helix looks impressive, especially when you slot/unslot it with the keyboard. The x230T looks ungainly. (unfortunately yes this needs to be factored in).
I suspect Microsoft will have a bit of a sleeper, especially if performance is sufficient.
Get a bicycle or a horse, and enjoy the freedom of mobility that can take from one side of your country to the other. Heck, you can even walk if you want - here's a random link: http://www.natedamm.com/how-to-walk-across-america/ You seem to be confusing your freedom of mobility - which you obviously have - vs. your desire to complete your trip in a certain elapsed time - for which you may need to pay for a faster mode of transport, or acquire a means (vehicle) and right of passage (licence) to do so yourself.
Self-nullifying your right to mobility by defining the timeframe taken is your problem.
Undoing mod points to ask: Does the screen permanently display the time - as a normal watch does - or do you need to 'wake' the watch up?
I've only seen one phone that boasted an 'always on' time display, and that was my old Nokia N8 with an AMOLED screen (very low power). This thing needs to work as a watch first and foremost!
TIA
In practice, this is unworkable - how can someone be sacked for holding a political view that does not impact the exercise of their duties? that screams discrimination, it screams an unworkable scenario for the exercise of government. It stinks.
It's very disappointing, and if I wasn't an Australian public servant I might have an opinion about this story and your comment. Carry on.
The massive (and only) drawcard for Microsoft is the ability to be 100% Windows compatible. Without that the RT is a misleadingly labeled tablet with few apps and poor integration with other big-name services. The RT should never have been released.
The ALP NBN forces removal of competing technologies, so internet over HFC will eventually die off. The provisioning costs are worrisome, however you are supposed to be able to change your ISP quite easily on the ALP NBN.
The LNP NBN seems to be happy to use whatever mishmash of infrastructure sticks on the wall be used, so long as the cap-ex cost is lower than the ALP plan. Long term management, maintenance, interoperability, ISP portability be damned.
If the Liberals really wanted to win this election, they'd sack Abbott and put Malcolm Turnbull in charge, but the "faceless men" of the Liberal party wont do this because 1) Turnbull is too much of a centrist for their liking, 2) Turnbull will not blindly follow their agenda.
They cannot replace Abbot as they have been heavily spruiking their 'stable government' platform based around the "Keven overthrow -> Julia -> leadership challenge" events in ALP. Too bad for them he is a muppet compared to Rudd with the silver tongue. Will be interesting to see how the country votes.
Exactly - the current speeds talked about are far less relevant than the shift of the underlying infrastructure to stable, passive, water resistance fibre from the current power sucking degraded copper with high maintenance overheads that requires cabinets closer and closer to the end consumer.
I'd also wonder if anyone is going to bother stealing fibre cables to sell the raw material for $$$. Oh that only happens with copper?
Depends on whether you are rooting for individual taxpayers or corporate taxpayers.
If the ALP win the election:
The ALP will do it right by creating an almost ubiquitous FTTHome network that will last several decades. It will cost more than it should but it won't be disastrous - currently private enterprise are causing hold-ups for what looks like political advantage.
Down the road the LNP will obtain a majority and privatise it for their corporate buddies - using a mantra of 'paying off Labor's debt'- with not enough oversight or regulation. Costs to consumers will increase, but at least almost every one will be on fibre, so that helps immensely when it comes to development of new tech.
If the LNP win the election:
They will scratch a lot of the FTTHome and replace it with FTTNode, with last couple hundred metres served by copper xDSL. Other technologies such as HFC will be kept. 60,000 + DSL cabinets and consequently 2+ additional power plants will be needed. The cost *may* be several % cheaper than the ALP FTTHome plan, though it is doubtful it could be completed earlier.
There will be cherry picking and over-servicing.
Obtainable speeds will be variable and a mish mash of technologies and infrastructure owned by different companies.
The copper will require $1B annually to maintain, which - with the extra power plants - will increase the costs to the taxpayers.
The entire FTTNode system will be shown to be inadequate, possibly before it is completed. All those DSL cabinets will need dismantling, and the FTTHome runs will cost the taxpayer more $Billions.
IF you are a corporate that is interested in this venture, you will want the LNP to get in so you can get your snouts in the trough twice in quick succession.
We use to only upgrade Adobe suites every 2-3 years, at $375 a pop.
Why is no one bringing this up?
Because Adobe recently changed their upgrade policy such that you can only upgrade 1 version back. With a version released every year that means no more 2-3 years between upgrades - you were either going to pay for that upgrade every year or buy an entire new licence after you ran your old one dry.
I suspect that once the subscription model has been bedded down and accepted that their release cycle will slow down. You will still have new products every year, but I doubt each and every product will have a full blown release every year as is pretty much the case with current creative suites.
I think there will be a transition period where the self-driving car will work acceptably for most usual conditions (predetermined behavior) and emergency/panic situations (superior reaction time and 360 view), but will provide a warning that the driver is required to take control when conditions such as adverse weather, unrecoverable sensor failure, or a complicated location is encountered.
Perhaps learning algorithms will be used to record how humans reacted to specific situations and determine an optimum reaction.
I can't think of a more universally hated company than AT&T except maybe Monsanto.
Ha! You must've missed that Electronic Arts was named the most hated company in America for the second year in a row. Both AT&T and Monsanto were included in that poll, though I cannot find the graphic right now that gave us the showdown.
As an Australian, I'm just hoping that enough people vote for the political party at our federal election that is currently deploying fiber to the home for 93% of our premises . One highly regulated provider wholesaling to any number of retailers using a new ubiquitous all fiber network (well, plus 4% wireless and 3% satellite).
Working for someone else is about solving someone else's problems. If you've never done that, or if you don't even want to do that, then you have nothing to offer.
Fixed that for me; this is a good reminder.
I looked at my last resume (2 years old) and it really needs some work. Time to update and consolidate the old experience. I'm not looking for a new job, but it's a good idea to review and document your achievements against your objectives every once in a while.
I'm slowly moving my family to Linux and OpenOffice, however my gaming box is still Windows, and with the Home Use Program for Office I was able to get Office 2013 for $15AU.
If I upgrade my PC often enough it might cost be $1 a month for a genuine licensed Office install. It's worth that even for the few times I use it. I sure wouldn't be sinking in three figures for it though, even if I could move it to another device.
Apple hardware is becoming price comparative, it's iTunes under the hammer there. That could easily be long term contracts so im less worried about it than the other two campanies.
For the other two companies we are getting reamed for products that are obtained online and supported by a reseller - NOT the manufacturer - with an acceptable margin on their cost price.
I'd also point out that when you look at the purchasing power of the US $ vs Au $ (eg how many minutes of work is required to buy certain items), in many case we Aussies need to work more than twice as long as a resident of the USA to purchase the same item. The argument that 'Aussies earn more' doesn't hold water when you look at our purchasing power.
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The current welfare cost of $140-150B is ~35% of the federal budget.
For last financial year it is estimated between $140 to 150 billion at the federal budget website.
DSP recipients can claim up to $782.20 a fortnight, while the Newstart allowance rate is up to $561.80 a fortnight for singles with children.
From this I would gather a UBI would be around $400/week per adult = $20,800 per year.
~82% of the ~23M population is >14 years old, and could therefore be construed as recipients of a UBI.
The annual requirement therefore is some ~$392B, so we're looking at a little more than doubling the welfare bill..
Our current government focuses on "shifting from entitlement to enterprise; from hand-out to hand-up" so a UBI is ideologically opposed to them.
Ultimately I feel that people that don't want to work shouldn't be having children. The big problem now is that only the most uneducated and poorest are doing most of the breeding.
Perhaps because the incentive now for working potential mothers is to prioritise your career before having children?
UBI potentially solves this.
It does not solve housing affordability - though if you don't need to work, then you don't have that requirement to be housed near(ish) to your work location.
Exactly what I used to have (before I accidentally put an elbow through it) - the biggest, dumbest TV I could get. Turned out to be a 55" Samsung. Minimal post processing, no 3D, no USB inputs.
The summary does not provide enough details, though as you say, why would he care what they are going to do with the bitcoins? Unlike your hitman analogy, he did not provide goods for a solicted - and illegal - service, he provided an IMO a perfectly legal service of converting between bitcoins and cash. There must be more to the story as I cannot see anyone being convicted for doing that.
I've used touchscreens for a number of venues, including non-fast food such as Japanese restaurants - they love them. No communication breakdowns, itemised bill ready at the checkout when you press the button to leave. I'm there to interact with my companions, not a waiter.
If I *need* advice on what wine to drink from their selection, I'll head to a restaurant that has waiters.
For managing compliance (literally my job) I would prefer that excess usage is not allowed, but that stops productivity. You can guess what type of licensing is typically available and used...
We kicked Adobe to the curb for the same reasons.
I'm curious what you replaced the various Adobe products with. I have about 12 months to either fully commit to Adobe subscriptions or find suitable alternatives....TIA
I see you have not been exposed to a margin call. In the USA your margin seems to be limited to 50% of the value of a share; this is not the same the world over, and can vary based on the company and its risk profile.
Light does that further out from the center of the black hole - it is bent by the gentle curvature, but still comes out the other side - just like a marble might on a trampoline with someone standing on it. Gravitational Lensing. The 'black' part of black hole is from where the 'slope' is so great that light gets stuck circling the singularity at the center, and therefore cannot escape. (That might be an elephant making your trampoline into basically a pit).
For most serious work, you'll need a proper keyboard. Once you add a keyboard, you might as well just grab an ultraportable laptop (e.g. MB Air or Thinkpad X-series).
I have a ThinkPad x230T series (tablet convertible ultra portable) and it's a fine desktop replacement & nice as a laptop, but comes nowhere near close to the usability of an actual tablet convertible such as the Lenovo Helix (or I'm guessing the Surface Pro 2).
The weight of both devices with keyboard is comparable, but with the Helix you can ditch half the weight if the keyboard isn't required. Pretty handy for certain use cases, and cost effective if you can reduce your device count of an x86 device plus a separate tablet iDevice or similar.
The Helix is physically smaller and thus easier to carry around, however has enough grunt to cover most day to day use of an i386 compatible device.
The Helix looks impressive, especially when you slot/unslot it with the keyboard. The x230T looks ungainly. (unfortunately yes this needs to be factored in).
I suspect Microsoft will have a bit of a sleeper, especially if performance is sufficient.
You seem to be confusing your freedom of mobility - which you obviously have - vs. your desire to complete your trip in a certain elapsed time - for which you may need to pay for a faster mode of transport, or acquire a means (vehicle) and right of passage (licence) to do so yourself.
Self-nullifying your right to mobility by defining the timeframe taken is your problem.
Does the screen permanently display the time - as a normal watch does - or do you need to 'wake' the watch up?
I've only seen one phone that boasted an 'always on' time display, and that was my old Nokia N8 with an AMOLED screen (very low power). This thing needs to work as a watch first and foremost! TIA
In practice, this is unworkable - how can someone be sacked for holding a political view that does not impact the exercise of their duties? that screams discrimination, it screams an unworkable scenario for the exercise of government. It stinks .
It's very disappointing, and if I wasn't an Australian public servant I might have an opinion about this story and your comment.
Carry on.
The massive (and only) drawcard for Microsoft is the ability to be 100% Windows compatible. Without that the RT is a misleadingly labeled tablet with few apps and poor integration with other big-name services.
The RT should never have been released.
The ALP NBN forces removal of competing technologies, so internet over HFC will eventually die off. The provisioning costs are worrisome, however you are supposed to be able to change your ISP quite easily on the ALP NBN.
The LNP NBN seems to be happy to use whatever mishmash of infrastructure sticks on the wall be used, so long as the cap-ex cost is lower than the ALP plan. Long term management, maintenance, interoperability, ISP portability be damned.
If the Liberals really wanted to win this election, they'd sack Abbott and put Malcolm Turnbull in charge, but the "faceless men" of the Liberal party wont do this because 1) Turnbull is too much of a centrist for their liking, 2) Turnbull will not blindly follow their agenda.
They cannot replace Abbot as they have been heavily spruiking their 'stable government' platform based around the "Keven overthrow -> Julia -> leadership challenge" events in ALP. Too bad for them he is a muppet compared to Rudd with the silver tongue. Will be interesting to see how the country votes.
Exactly - the current speeds talked about are far less relevant than the shift of the underlying infrastructure to stable, passive, water resistance fibre from the current power sucking degraded copper with high maintenance overheads that requires cabinets closer and closer to the end consumer.
I'd also wonder if anyone is going to bother stealing fibre cables to sell the raw material for $$$. Oh that only happens with copper?
If the ALP win the election:
The ALP will do it right by creating an almost ubiquitous FTTHome network that will last several decades. It will cost more than it should but it won't be disastrous - currently private enterprise are causing hold-ups for what looks like political advantage. Down the road the LNP will obtain a majority and privatise it for their corporate buddies - using a mantra of 'paying off Labor's debt'- with not enough oversight or regulation. Costs to consumers will increase, but at least almost every one will be on fibre, so that helps immensely when it comes to development of new tech.
If the LNP win the election: They will scratch a lot of the FTTHome and replace it with FTTNode, with last couple hundred metres served by copper xDSL. Other technologies such as HFC will be kept. 60,000 + DSL cabinets and consequently 2+ additional power plants will be needed. The cost *may* be several % cheaper than the ALP FTTHome plan, though it is doubtful it could be completed earlier.
There will be cherry picking and over-servicing.
Obtainable speeds will be variable and a mish mash of technologies and infrastructure owned by different companies.
The copper will require $1B annually to maintain, which - with the extra power plants - will increase the costs to the taxpayers.
The entire FTTNode system will be shown to be inadequate, possibly before it is completed. All those DSL cabinets will need dismantling, and the FTTHome runs will cost the taxpayer more $Billions.
IF you are a corporate that is interested in this venture, you will want the LNP to get in so you can get your snouts in the trough twice in quick succession.
We use to only upgrade Adobe suites every 2-3 years, at $375 a pop.
Why is no one bringing this up?
Because Adobe recently changed their upgrade policy such that you can only upgrade 1 version back. With a version released every year that means no more 2-3 years between upgrades - you were either going to pay for that upgrade every year or buy an entire new licence after you ran your old one dry.
I suspect that once the subscription model has been bedded down and accepted that their release cycle will slow down. You will still have new products every year, but I doubt each and every product will have a full blown release every year as is pretty much the case with current creative suites.
Windows 8 is not a consideration for any device class.
Perhaps learning algorithms will be used to record how humans reacted to specific situations and determine an optimum reaction.
I can't think of a more universally hated company than AT&T except maybe Monsanto.
Ha! You must've missed that Electronic Arts was named the most hated company in America for the second year in a row. Both AT&T and Monsanto were included in that poll, though I cannot find the graphic right now that gave us the showdown.
As an Australian, I'm just hoping that enough people vote for the political party at our federal election that is currently deploying fiber to the home for 93% of our premises . One highly regulated provider wholesaling to any number of retailers using a new ubiquitous all fiber network (well, plus 4% wireless and 3% satellite).
Working for someone else is about solving someone else's problems. If you've never done that, or if you don't even want to do that, then you have nothing to offer.
Fixed that for me; this is a good reminder.
I looked at my last resume (2 years old) and it really needs some work. Time to update and consolidate the old experience. I'm not looking for a new job, but it's a good idea to review and document your achievements against your objectives every once in a while.
If I upgrade my PC often enough it might cost be $1 a month for a genuine licensed Office install. It's worth that even for the few times I use it. I sure wouldn't be sinking in three figures for it though, even if I could move it to another device.
For the other two companies we are getting reamed for products that are obtained online and supported by a reseller - NOT the manufacturer - with an acceptable margin on their cost price.
I'd also point out that when you look at the purchasing power of the US $ vs Au $ (eg how many minutes of work is required to buy certain items), in many case we Aussies need to work more than twice as long as a resident of the USA to purchase the same item. The argument that 'Aussies earn more' doesn't hold water when you look at our purchasing power.