Yes, but Ricochet isn't just a dot-com. It was never a pyramid scheme or a useless pet portal: it developed a genuinely new technology, and provides a genuinely useful service to people. Like Iridium...
The European states have already got their money. They knww that a lot of these wireless companies probably WILL go bankrupt, so demanded payment up-front.
It isn't just that Microsoft wants to make Windows harder to pirate. They want to make all Windows software require a hardware-specific licence from the clearinghouse. What does Microsoft gain? It acts as the clearinghouse, allowing it to charge fees to other software companies and to compile a database of exactly who is using what software. It can then target users of (for example) Lotus Notes with special promotions on Exchange, Outlook, etc.
TV has hypnotic qualities: people don't have to think, just sit back and watch. The Internet doesn't: people are free to ignore corporate sites and read personal homepages, Slashdot, whatever. That's why I think it is a good thing, compared to existing media.
There are two things the government ought to do, without actually censoring the Internet or other media:
Improve the education system, so that people are better able to think critically. This will cost money, which would have to be taken away from pork-barrel projects.
Vigorously prosecute advertisers who make blatantly untrue claims, whether on TV, print or the Internet.
There are some more date-related problems set to start in the next few days/years. It's because of the way that days are written using two digits for each field, such as "01/03/01" (this Wednesday, to most Americans). As from 2001, the year can be confused with the day and/or month.
It's easier to predict the weather next century than tomorrow, because of the laws of averaging. It's like roulette: I can't predict where the ball will land on the next spin, but I can say with absolute certainty that if I stay in the casino for long enough I will eventually lose all my money.
Also, Gore did get more votes than Bush before any recount. It's just that Bush's majority of one supreme court judge counts for more than Gore's majority of half a million ordinary voters.
Yes, but Ricochet isn't just a dot-com. It was never a pyramid scheme or a useless pet portal: it developed a genuinely new technology, and provides a genuinely useful service to people. Like Iridium...
No, he was killed in BOSNIA. But the Black Hands who assassinated him were Serbian.
And it's why Americans have a reputation in the rest of the world as lazy, stupid, overweight slobs.
The European states have already got their money. They knww that a lot of these wireless companies probably WILL go bankrupt, so demanded payment up-front.
It isn't just that Microsoft wants to make Windows harder to pirate. They want to make all Windows software require a hardware-specific licence from the clearinghouse. What does Microsoft gain? It acts as the clearinghouse, allowing it to charge fees to other software companies and to compile a database of exactly who is using what software. It can then target users of (for example) Lotus Notes with special promotions on Exchange, Outlook, etc.
TV has hypnotic qualities: people don't have to think, just sit back and watch. The Internet doesn't: people are free to ignore corporate sites and read personal homepages, Slashdot, whatever. That's why I think it is a good thing, compared to existing media.
There are two things the government ought to do, without actually censoring the Internet or other media:
There are some more date-related problems set to start in the next few days/years. It's because of the way that days are written using two digits for each field, such as "01/03/01" (this Wednesday, to most Americans). As from 2001, the year can be confused with the day and/or month.
This article from Network Magazine has more info.
Also, Gore did get more votes than Bush before any recount. It's just that Bush's majority of one supreme court judge counts for more than Gore's majority of half a million ordinary voters.