1) Sharepoint works in FireFox. Quite well in fact.
2) If you want to use some of the IE-only features, just install this extension, and add Sharepoint to your IE-only whitelist, and you can use the "IE-only" features from within Firefox.
3) Microsoft's official recommendation for Web UIs is now to use JQuery (and they're also contributing code to the project!). Assuming they eat their own dog food, Microsoft webapps should start being a lot more friendly toward non-IE browsers.
I mean NASA is seriously fucked up at this point in time. Every time they try and do something the rug is pulled out from under them.
To be fair, the constellation project wasn't going well when it got pulled. Private industry aren't immune to budget cuts themselves, and it was probably a good idea to scrap it instead of having it turn into another Shuttle-like debacle, in which the final product was an order of magnitude over budget, and failed to achieve any of its original design goals.
Don't forget the opportunity costs of not bailing out GM or AIG. Although I found the behavior of the two companies reprehensible, the failure of a mammoth company like AIG would have been devastating to the economy.
We may never know the true extent of what the damage could have been -- it's certainly possible that a GM liquidation could have spurred the creation of several new companies out of the former parent's assets, although for the time being, it looks like it was the right thing to do, even though the expense certainly was painful.
(PS. Don't forget that the first bailout came from the GOP under Bush. If you're going to play partisan politics with the AIG/GM bailout, try to keep that fact in mind.)
Also, don't forget that part of it is our own damn fault.
I find it incredibly hard to blame a 20-30 year old for deciding not to go into the sciences, simply because of the horrible conditions that graduate students are forced to endure. Graduate students are paid poverty-level wages, and do the vast majority of the work for which their mentors take credit. The actual "studying" is usually done within the first two or three years, while PhD students usually work for 7-8 years on their degree.
After the PhD's done? A modest wage increase, and the even further humiliation of being a PostDoc.
Actually, Microsoft does benefit indirectly from Mono (even if nobody gets sued), because it's bringing more C# developers into the world at a time when Java is arguably the most common language.
The "standards and interoperability" thing is bullshit too. Any claim you could make against Microsoft with regard to C# could just as easily be made against Sun and Java a few years ago. They've come a long way too, in terms of supporting open standards in good faith -- targeting IE is essentially no longer an issue for web developers; Interix (Windows' little-known Unix subsystem) is surprisingly good; Microsoft are contributing code to JQuery; and PHP on top of IIS is officially supported (while Microsoft also contributed an open-source SQL Server driver for PHP)
All of these are technologies that originated elsewhere, and compliance with the standards is generally pretty good. OOXML was a debacle to be certain, and Microsoft faced a pretty hard backlash from their customers for it and Vista. A major course-correction seems to have taken place from within the company at some point during 2008 or 2009. They know they're losing the desktop market to Apple, and the server market to Linux, and are doing an admirable job of "catching up."
Oh, for Christ's sake. Mono is safe. Microsoft made a legally-binding promise not to sue. No judge would even hear the case if they attempted to bring a suit against <I honestly have no idea who they'd sue> unless the GNOME people managed to infringe upon something else in Microsoft's portfolio.
We have much bigger fish to fry. Squabbling about Theora and Mono isn't a productive use of your time, no matter how valid your arguments might be. The standards have been set.
What's with this current batch of activist DAs anyway? Are they being set up as scapegoats for all of the batshit-crazy schemes hatched by the majority party?
Virginia's DA has ruffled more than a few feathers during his short term in office. His first major action as DA was to send letters to the presidents of each of the state's universities, informing them that they were not allowed to not discriminate against their employees with regard to sexual orientation.
Although it was completely ambiguous as to how the universities were supposed to interpret this double-negative, most of their presidents were not amused.
New Jersey's former DA is now governor, and is (extensively) using his gubernatorial powers to exact some sort of vendetta he formed against the teacher's union during his time as DA. Although I'll give him credit for being one of the few conservatives to actually cut spending, his cuts will have virtually no effect on the wealthy (actually, they're getting a huge tax break), but will be devastating to the poor.
My money's on the old title sequence and/or music being back for the next episode. They've made minor tweaks to it in the past, so I wouldn't be surprised if they respond to the criticism.
The sets/makeup/costumes all finally look like they were designed to be filmed in HD (and I don't even watch it in HD -- the 2005-era sets must have been made on an incredibly low-budget)
The CG/compositing work is also definitely improved (there's one shot toward the beginning that shows the Tardis zooming through London that I thought was particularly well-done). The Atraxi did look a bit low-budget, but not embarrassingly so -- I liked them, and wouldn't mind seeing them (or their awesome booming voices) recur in future episodes.
The direction and camerawork seem to have been improved -- most of the lingering "soap opera" feel is gone, and everything feels a whole lot more "mature."
That all said, I'd like to see more Mickey and Jack in the current series (especially since Torchwood seems to be on indefinite hiatus). Paradoxically for a sci-fi series, DW has very few few strong male characters apart from the Doctor himself.
Weird. Anecdotally, I noticed far more smokers in Virginia compared to when I lived in Jersey, despite the fact that the percentages seem to be about the same on that map.
Hanlon's Razor. You're giving the government far too much credit here.
Part of the problem was that Toyota assumed it had done something wrong, and started trying to institute a series of cover-ups.
Toyota simply should have demanded lab-reproducible proof that their cars were unsafe before resorting to the duck-and-cover strategy that made them look like a criminal conspiracy.
The more things that are drive by wire, the more complexity there is on paths where you really don't want more complexity.
True, but complexity doesn't necessarily lead to unreliability. Electronic components are generally much more reliable than their mechanical counterparts, and can also very easily have redundancy built-in.
All modern aircraft use fly-by-wire (despite the reluctance of the cowboys over at Boeing). When using fly-by-wire, it's trivial to add several communication paths from the control surfaces to the cockpit. Doing that with hydraulics is impossible due to weight and complexity. The survivability of an aircraft malfunction has increased dramatically since the introduction of fly-by-wire.
Is that a Model M in your pocket, or you happy to see me?
Yes, typing on a Model M is better. Also, driving a manual can offer more control. However, I can't exactly fit a Model M in my pocket, and operating a manual transmission distracts from the main task of driving the car, particularly in scenarios like you describe.
Plus, the old advantages of the manual gearbox are slowly fading away, thanks to things like CVTs, computer-controlled ATs, and (my favorite), the dual-clutch gearbox, which can change gears faster than a F1 driver. They pretty much offer the best of both worlds to drivers, and are even gaining market traction in Europe.
I drive a tiptronic, and there's no reason in hell why you'd operate it in manual mode. However, I've also driven a DSG, and had a blast driving it as a manual when the situation called for it, and later as an automatic in frequent stop-and-go traffic. Fantastic bit of technology -- can't wait until the rich folk have had them for a few years, and they start trickling into the used market.
I know tons of "smart" people who smoke. Most of them do it to cope with stress and anxiety.
Despite the fact that it kills you, it's apparently a surprisingly effective antidepressant with very few neurological side-effects. Don't forget the cultural aspect too -- everyone smokes down South.
Although I imagine that we'll eventually see C/C++ disappear for user-facing applications, I'd place money on Go become the "de-facto" systems language at some point in the future, simply by virtue of the fact that nobody has pushed the envelope in this area in many years, and Google have some of the best minds in CS working on Go.
The "java everywhere" mentality also hasn't worked out all that well for some companies -- ask any poor soul who's been forced to develop for the Blackberry.
- 5000 is apparently the limit for the number of results a query can provide at monster.com (weak) so there are most likely far more that 5000 java jobs in their database
Yeah. Apparently their java-based search engine runs out of memory at around 5000 results....
Yeah, the n900 is great, although the real beauty of the iPhone/iPad at the moment is the fantastic selection of apps available for the two devices. Honestly, if the OS alone were the only factor, I'd have bought an Android phone ages ago. Apple provided a great array of APIs and libraries for developers to build upon, and set the bar quite high in terms of usability and aesthetics. Apple's "closed" ecosystem has managed to breed more/better apps than Nokia's open model -- clearly there's a lot more at play here. (Same goes for Android. Developing for that platform is a truly bizarre experience.)
As the mantra goes, 99% of everything is crap, which I can attest is true of the App Store. However, there's some really fantastic stuff in that top 1%.
These days, I only use my laptop to surf the web when traveling (or sitting on the couch). I very well might buy an iPad later this year to replace it. (That said, money's tight at the moment, and I have a feeling that the 2nd-gen product will be a lot better. It's a shame that Apple didn't include a built-in webcam, SD slot, and USB port on the first iteration)
Just because you don't know how to read demographic data and forecast trends, doesn't mean other people can't. If what you're complaining about had any semblance to reality then we'd never see any new private schools built. And yet there's a new one being constructed not two miles from where I'm sitting. Explain that one, smart guy.
Ask any economist. Reliable demographic data and forecast trends take years to develop -- how do you differentiate between a momentary spike, and an actual long-term trend? Hedging a bet on anything sooner is exactly that -- a gamble. Precious few people can accurately develop or read long-term forecast trends -- there are very few Warren Buffets in the world.
Odds are that the demand has existed for a private school in your area for many years.
There's been demand for a good grocery store in my neighborhood for ages. Unfortunately, I live in a city where land is expensive, and the availability of parking/transit greatly limits the number of viable sites for a grocery store. Currently, the world's worst grocer occupies one of the only viable sites, and the residents seem content to tolerate the mediocrity enough to keep it in business.
Now that the demographics of the area are beginning to stabilize, a few developers are considering proposals for a ground-level supermarket in the area, although it's been almost a full 10 years since the demand has existed.
There are plenty of cases where private industry is unable to fulfill consumer demand, even where the demand is fairly basic and sufficiently large to be profitable.
You can always make roads safer by slowing things down - until you try to make them safer by causing congestion.. and the congestion causes frustrated and aggressive driving. The study basically says to throw more shit in the way of drivers to slow things down.. That's because it's creating an unsafe environment.. and drivers naturally try to compensate for it.
You can slow things down without causing congestion.
Here in DC, we have lots of roads that are wider than they need to be (or at least, are wider than they need to be during non-peak hours). As a result, people fly down these roads during non-peak hours, creating incredibly dangerous conditions for pedestrians and cyclists -- we have the 3rd highest percentage of cyclist commuters in the US, and will likely become #1 within the next decade.
By narrowing lanes, introducing landscaping, adding street parking, etc. the maximum speed of the road is greatly reduced, while having little effect on the rush-hour traffic that rarely exceeds 25mph anyway. I personally notice that landscaping can have a huge effect -- for whatever reason, I tend to drive a lot faster on roads without trees.
That said, I'm certainly not going to gush about the experience of driving through DC -- it's usually a terrifying experience (even compared to NYC). The roads are a perplexing labyrinth of poorly-marked one-way streets and traffic lights hidden behind trees.
All the other versions of you in all the other branches of spacetime are toast. The only branch of spacetime where you can still reach Slashdot's server is this one where you got really lucky.
in the history of mankind. this may be the real deal. its possible that we may find the first 'entity' as described as the base of existence in Dewey B Larson's physics approach.
+4, Insightful?
If we find the Higgs (or not), there are zero implications for the existence of a higher power. We call it the "God particle" primarily because it's proven damned near impossible to prove or disprove the existence of.
There are plenty of phenomena observed in quantum mechanics that exhibit "otherworldly" behavior. The Higgs is not one of them -- our interest in it is almost purely mathematical -- if we find it, it will simply help to confirm a set of assumptions we've been using about particle physics that have (thus far) conformed to existing experimental data. The LHC is intended to either provide additional data to back up the standard model, or observe some new phenomenon that forces us to rethink our understanding of particle physics.
I've been noticing a lot of +1 Funnys being used in place of -1 Overrated on "controversial" posts, presumably as a public humiliation of sorts.
Honestly, the trolls seem to be creeping into the moderation system. The quality of discussion on/. has taken a nosedive over the past two years. If I want insightful conversation these days, I go to MetaFilter. Occasionally, there are great discussions here, but the trolls are definitely more visible than they used to be, and seem to have lots of mod points.
There are plenty of services/industries that are not, and never can be simultaneously competitive and efficient.
The government is the best entity to regulate or directly run these services in order to prevent abuses from occurring in these industries (examples: transportation, healthcare, "last-mile" telecoms, and other utilities).
Governments have a poor track record of anticipating demand and controlling means of production -- this was the chief failure of communism. On the other hand, governments have an excellent track record of providing essential services and utilities. Take a look at Thatcher's domestic legacy in the UK for a nice comparison of private vs. government-managed services.
Politicians have a fire lit under their ass to make sure that taxes are spent efficiently. The Republicans got their asses handed to them in 2006 and 2008 because of it, and the Democrats will likely see the same thing happen to them this year.
Slashdot Mirror
1) Sharepoint works in FireFox. Quite well in fact.
2) If you want to use some of the IE-only features, just install this extension, and add Sharepoint to your IE-only whitelist, and you can use the "IE-only" features from within Firefox.
3) Microsoft's official recommendation for Web UIs is now to use JQuery (and they're also contributing code to the project!). Assuming they eat their own dog food, Microsoft webapps should start being a lot more friendly toward non-IE browsers.
I mean NASA is seriously fucked up at this point in time. Every time they try and do something the rug is pulled out from under them.
To be fair, the constellation project wasn't going well when it got pulled. Private industry aren't immune to budget cuts themselves, and it was probably a good idea to scrap it instead of having it turn into another Shuttle-like debacle, in which the final product was an order of magnitude over budget, and failed to achieve any of its original design goals.
Don't forget the opportunity costs of not bailing out GM or AIG. Although I found the behavior of the two companies reprehensible, the failure of a mammoth company like AIG would have been devastating to the economy.
We may never know the true extent of what the damage could have been -- it's certainly possible that a GM liquidation could have spurred the creation of several new companies out of the former parent's assets, although for the time being, it looks like it was the right thing to do, even though the expense certainly was painful.
(PS. Don't forget that the first bailout came from the GOP under Bush. If you're going to play partisan politics with the AIG/GM bailout, try to keep that fact in mind.)
Also, don't forget that part of it is our own damn fault.
I find it incredibly hard to blame a 20-30 year old for deciding not to go into the sciences, simply because of the horrible conditions that graduate students are forced to endure. Graduate students are paid poverty-level wages, and do the vast majority of the work for which their mentors take credit. The actual "studying" is usually done within the first two or three years, while PhD students usually work for 7-8 years on their degree.
After the PhD's done? A modest wage increase, and the even further humiliation of being a PostDoc.
Actually, Microsoft does benefit indirectly from Mono (even if nobody gets sued), because it's bringing more C# developers into the world at a time when Java is arguably the most common language.
The "standards and interoperability" thing is bullshit too. Any claim you could make against Microsoft with regard to C# could just as easily be made against Sun and Java a few years ago. They've come a long way too, in terms of supporting open standards in good faith -- targeting IE is essentially no longer an issue for web developers; Interix (Windows' little-known Unix subsystem) is surprisingly good; Microsoft are contributing code to JQuery; and PHP on top of IIS is officially supported (while Microsoft also contributed an open-source SQL Server driver for PHP)
All of these are technologies that originated elsewhere, and compliance with the standards is generally pretty good. OOXML was a debacle to be certain, and Microsoft faced a pretty hard backlash from their customers for it and Vista. A major course-correction seems to have taken place from within the company at some point during 2008 or 2009. They know they're losing the desktop market to Apple, and the server market to Linux, and are doing an admirable job of "catching up."
Oh, for Christ's sake. Mono is safe. Microsoft made a legally-binding promise not to sue. No judge would even hear the case if they attempted to bring a suit against <I honestly have no idea who they'd sue> unless the GNOME people managed to infringe upon something else in Microsoft's portfolio.
We have much bigger fish to fry. Squabbling about Theora and Mono isn't a productive use of your time, no matter how valid your arguments might be. The standards have been set.
What's with this current batch of activist DAs anyway? Are they being set up as scapegoats for all of the batshit-crazy schemes hatched by the majority party?
Virginia's DA has ruffled more than a few feathers during his short term in office. His first major action as DA was to send letters to the presidents of each of the state's universities, informing them that they were not allowed to not discriminate against their employees with regard to sexual orientation.
Although it was completely ambiguous as to how the universities were supposed to interpret this double-negative, most of their presidents were not amused.
New Jersey's former DA is now governor, and is (extensively) using his gubernatorial powers to exact some sort of vendetta he formed against the teacher's union during his time as DA. Although I'll give him credit for being one of the few conservatives to actually cut spending, his cuts will have virtually no effect on the wealthy (actually, they're getting a huge tax break), but will be devastating to the poor.
Net Neutrality didn't just suffer a "major setback." It's effectively dead.
My money's on the old title sequence and/or music being back for the next episode. They've made minor tweaks to it in the past, so I wouldn't be surprised if they respond to the criticism.
Actually, I thought the exact opposite.
The sets/makeup/costumes all finally look like they were designed to be filmed in HD (and I don't even watch it in HD -- the 2005-era sets must have been made on an incredibly low-budget)
The CG/compositing work is also definitely improved (there's one shot toward the beginning that shows the Tardis zooming through London that I thought was particularly well-done). The Atraxi did look a bit low-budget, but not embarrassingly so -- I liked them, and wouldn't mind seeing them (or their awesome booming voices) recur in future episodes.
The direction and camerawork seem to have been improved -- most of the lingering "soap opera" feel is gone, and everything feels a whole lot more "mature."
That all said, I'd like to see more Mickey and Jack in the current series (especially since Torchwood seems to be on indefinite hiatus). Paradoxically for a sci-fi series, DW has very few few strong male characters apart from the Doctor himself.
Weird. Anecdotally, I noticed far more smokers in Virginia compared to when I lived in Jersey, despite the fact that the percentages seem to be about the same on that map.
Hanlon's Razor. You're giving the government far too much credit here.
Part of the problem was that Toyota assumed it had done something wrong, and started trying to institute a series of cover-ups.
Toyota simply should have demanded lab-reproducible proof that their cars were unsafe before resorting to the duck-and-cover strategy that made them look like a criminal conspiracy.
The more things that are drive by wire, the more complexity there is on paths where you really don't want more complexity.
True, but complexity doesn't necessarily lead to unreliability. Electronic components are generally much more reliable than their mechanical counterparts, and can also very easily have redundancy built-in.
All modern aircraft use fly-by-wire (despite the reluctance of the cowboys over at Boeing). When using fly-by-wire, it's trivial to add several communication paths from the control surfaces to the cockpit. Doing that with hydraulics is impossible due to weight and complexity. The survivability of an aircraft malfunction has increased dramatically since the introduction of fly-by-wire.
Is that a Model M in your pocket, or you happy to see me?
Yes, typing on a Model M is better. Also, driving a manual can offer more control. However, I can't exactly fit a Model M in my pocket, and operating a manual transmission distracts from the main task of driving the car, particularly in scenarios like you describe.
Plus, the old advantages of the manual gearbox are slowly fading away, thanks to things like CVTs, computer-controlled ATs, and (my favorite), the dual-clutch gearbox, which can change gears faster than a F1 driver. They pretty much offer the best of both worlds to drivers, and are even gaining market traction in Europe.
I drive a tiptronic, and there's no reason in hell why you'd operate it in manual mode. However, I've also driven a DSG, and had a blast driving it as a manual when the situation called for it, and later as an automatic in frequent stop-and-go traffic. Fantastic bit of technology -- can't wait until the rich folk have had them for a few years, and they start trickling into the used market.
I know tons of "smart" people who smoke. Most of them do it to cope with stress and anxiety.
Despite the fact that it kills you, it's apparently a surprisingly effective antidepressant with very few neurological side-effects. Don't forget the cultural aspect too -- everyone smokes down South.
Don't forget go.
Although I imagine that we'll eventually see C/C++ disappear for user-facing applications, I'd place money on Go become the "de-facto" systems language at some point in the future, simply by virtue of the fact that nobody has pushed the envelope in this area in many years, and Google have some of the best minds in CS working on Go.
The "java everywhere" mentality also hasn't worked out all that well for some companies -- ask any poor soul who's been forced to develop for the Blackberry.
- 5000 is apparently the limit for the number of results a query can provide at monster.com (weak) so there are most likely far more that 5000 java jobs in their database
Yeah. Apparently their java-based search engine runs out of memory at around 5000 results....
Yeah, the n900 is great, although the real beauty of the iPhone/iPad at the moment is the fantastic selection of apps available for the two devices. Honestly, if the OS alone were the only factor, I'd have bought an Android phone ages ago. Apple provided a great array of APIs and libraries for developers to build upon, and set the bar quite high in terms of usability and aesthetics. Apple's "closed" ecosystem has managed to breed more/better apps than Nokia's open model -- clearly there's a lot more at play here. (Same goes for Android. Developing for that platform is a truly bizarre experience.)
As the mantra goes, 99% of everything is crap, which I can attest is true of the App Store. However, there's some really fantastic stuff in that top 1%.
These days, I only use my laptop to surf the web when traveling (or sitting on the couch). I very well might buy an iPad later this year to replace it. (That said, money's tight at the moment, and I have a feeling that the 2nd-gen product will be a lot better. It's a shame that Apple didn't include a built-in webcam, SD slot, and USB port on the first iteration)
Just because you don't know how to read demographic data and forecast trends, doesn't mean other people can't. If what you're complaining about had any semblance to reality then we'd never see any new private schools built. And yet there's a new one being constructed not two miles from where I'm sitting. Explain that one, smart guy.
Ask any economist. Reliable demographic data and forecast trends take years to develop -- how do you differentiate between a momentary spike, and an actual long-term trend? Hedging a bet on anything sooner is exactly that -- a gamble. Precious few people can accurately develop or read long-term forecast trends -- there are very few Warren Buffets in the world.
Odds are that the demand has existed for a private school in your area for many years.
There's been demand for a good grocery store in my neighborhood for ages. Unfortunately, I live in a city where land is expensive, and the availability of parking/transit greatly limits the number of viable sites for a grocery store. Currently, the world's worst grocer occupies one of the only viable sites, and the residents seem content to tolerate the mediocrity enough to keep it in business.
Now that the demographics of the area are beginning to stabilize, a few developers are considering proposals for a ground-level supermarket in the area, although it's been almost a full 10 years since the demand has existed.
There are plenty of cases where private industry is unable to fulfill consumer demand, even where the demand is fairly basic and sufficiently large to be profitable.
You can always make roads safer by slowing things down - until you try to make them safer by causing congestion.. and the congestion causes frustrated and aggressive driving. The study basically says to throw more shit in the way of drivers to slow things down.. That's because it's creating an unsafe environment.. and drivers naturally try to compensate for it.
You can slow things down without causing congestion.
Here in DC, we have lots of roads that are wider than they need to be (or at least, are wider than they need to be during non-peak hours). As a result, people fly down these roads during non-peak hours, creating incredibly dangerous conditions for pedestrians and cyclists -- we have the 3rd highest percentage of cyclist commuters in the US, and will likely become #1 within the next decade.
By narrowing lanes, introducing landscaping, adding street parking, etc. the maximum speed of the road is greatly reduced, while having little effect on the rush-hour traffic that rarely exceeds 25mph anyway. I personally notice that landscaping can have a huge effect -- for whatever reason, I tend to drive a lot faster on roads without trees.
That said, I'm certainly not going to gush about the experience of driving through DC -- it's usually a terrifying experience (even compared to NYC). The roads are a perplexing labyrinth of poorly-marked one-way streets and traffic lights hidden behind trees.
All the other versions of you in all the other branches of spacetime are toast. The only branch of spacetime where you can still reach Slashdot's server is this one where you got really lucky.
Ah. The many-trolls hypothesis.
in the history of mankind. this may be the real deal. its possible that we may find the first 'entity' as described as the base of existence in Dewey B Larson's physics approach.
+4, Insightful?
If we find the Higgs (or not), there are zero implications for the existence of a higher power. We call it the "God particle" primarily because it's proven damned near impossible to prove or disprove the existence of.
There are plenty of phenomena observed in quantum mechanics that exhibit "otherworldly" behavior. The Higgs is not one of them -- our interest in it is almost purely mathematical -- if we find it, it will simply help to confirm a set of assumptions we've been using about particle physics that have (thus far) conformed to existing experimental data. The LHC is intended to either provide additional data to back up the standard model, or observe some new phenomenon that forces us to rethink our understanding of particle physics.
I've been noticing a lot of +1 Funnys being used in place of -1 Overrated on "controversial" posts, presumably as a public humiliation of sorts.
Honestly, the trolls seem to be creeping into the moderation system. The quality of discussion on /. has taken a nosedive over the past two years. If I want insightful conversation these days, I go to MetaFilter. Occasionally, there are great discussions here, but the trolls are definitely more visible than they used to be, and seem to have lots of mod points.
[citation-needed]
There are plenty of services/industries that are not, and never can be simultaneously competitive and efficient.
The government is the best entity to regulate or directly run these services in order to prevent abuses from occurring in these industries (examples: transportation, healthcare, "last-mile" telecoms, and other utilities).
Governments have a poor track record of anticipating demand and controlling means of production -- this was the chief failure of communism. On the other hand, governments have an excellent track record of providing essential services and utilities. Take a look at Thatcher's domestic legacy in the UK for a nice comparison of private vs. government-managed services.
Politicians have a fire lit under their ass to make sure that taxes are spent efficiently. The Republicans got their asses handed to them in 2006 and 2008 because of it, and the Democrats will likely see the same thing happen to them this year.