They should just let the electoral votes split within a state down to 1 or 2 decimal places. Or perhaps even easier just switch to a pure popular vote. Hey, then they'd have to convince the entire US that they're a good candidate instead of a few key swing states, what a novel idea!
I love that we have mountains of piled up cash sitting around everywhere to do all these great things. Don't get me wrong, I'm actually not against deficit spending, I'm just against the levels of deficit spending we're doing right now. Our current annual deficit spending is $901B. Yes, so if we eliminated the entire military defense budget. YES, all of it! Every single penny, not a single uniform or weapon in existence. This would still *NOT* cover the deficit gap. We'd still be over $200B short.
If we contracted deficit spending now we'd undoubtedly make the economy implode. Let me rephrase that, if we reasonably spent within our means we'd be shambles. That reality should scare the heebeegeebees out of everyone. Yes we can continue spending in hopes it spurs economic development and all sorts of revival goodies. What if it doesn't work? When do we stop? We have some major concerns here, and we're taking some pretty damn big risks. More like a game of chicken with the country.
At this point we should be throwing away things that don't directly spur economic development. $40B for school breakfast programs, the hell? Did we forget how to feed our children breakfast? Garbage like that has no place in our house right now.
Cloud technology has its place and it's here to stay without a doubt. The benefits it brings in a more connected world is undeniable. Just how much or how little to leverage it is debatable. But from what I see the greater population within "Citizenville" is just simply not technical enough to make needed technical decisions. They're savvy yes, they use the tools creatively yes, but everyone is still just not as technical as I they'd need to be to in order to be self sufficient.
His attacks on IT likely reflect his real world experience working with his own IT departments that are slow to adapt and "behind the times" which is true for many IT departments, especially in the political arena. The problem is many people that work for government office have cushy jobs and stay there as "lifers". That sort of mentality breeds apathy across the board. And that's a shame because they make the rest of us look terrible. So in some ways I can't blame him for his own ignorance. The only exception to this is the defense and national security arenas.
But again, if he were more technical he'd see the problems in his IT staff in plain sight. What he's saying is akin to saying we no longer needing mechanical and computer engineers because all of our manufacturing is automated these days anyway, the ignorance is obvious to those that know better.
$0.55, really? Who here is willing to take my letter and deliver it across town for $0.55. Let's extrapolate that even further. Who here is willing to take my letter and deliver it to Alaska for the same price?
I know establishing zone regions for regular first class mail would be a pain but there has to be marry better with the real world. But if we're not willing to do that, then at least double the cost of postage to $1.10 and it will be more realistic average cost. It will also reduce the crap spam I get too, I see this as a win-win no brainer.
What jerks. I don't think I've ever seen such a large company do such a phenomenal job at shunning its existing developer base. Looks like pretty much everything they've introduced over the past decade and a half is getting dropped like it's hot. I guess I should be getting ready to get back into Java or just straight up C++ again? hah
I guess it shows that Balmer was never a developer. I miss Billy, blood of my blood!
Oh stop your whining, if you kept your money in the market since the GWB years you'd already be ahead again. If you continued investing new monies you'd have made 100's of % on it. This isn't the first time markets have crashed, and it *certainly* won't be the last!
If you want nothing but a steady % investment with minimal risk then invest in bonds instead. Buy them straight if you want your principal back, buying in bond funds will subject your to interest/credit risk price changes otherwise. Just don't cry about the meager returns on bonds, especially these days.
If you want to speak "technically" then the whole thing was never a fiscal cliff to begin with. It was more like a budgetary hill.
Funny thing is, even if we we went over the cliff, the deficit gap wouldn't have been closed. Goes to show what dreamland we're currently living in with our current level deficit spending. It's fine for now to continue borrowing... but a may day will come when folks no longer want our debt. It might be 5, 50, or a 100 years from now.
Long story short, if the economy doesn't pick up the US is completely screwed.
Slashdot Mirror
They should just let the electoral votes split within a state down to 1 or 2 decimal places. Or perhaps even easier just switch to a pure popular vote. Hey, then they'd have to convince the entire US that they're a good candidate instead of a few key swing states, what a novel idea!
I love that we have mountains of piled up cash sitting around everywhere to do all these great things. Don't get me wrong, I'm actually not against deficit spending, I'm just against the levels of deficit spending we're doing right now. Our current annual deficit spending is $901B. Yes, so if we eliminated the entire military defense budget. YES, all of it! Every single penny, not a single uniform or weapon in existence. This would still *NOT* cover the deficit gap. We'd still be over $200B short. If we contracted deficit spending now we'd undoubtedly make the economy implode. Let me rephrase that, if we reasonably spent within our means we'd be shambles. That reality should scare the heebeegeebees out of everyone. Yes we can continue spending in hopes it spurs economic development and all sorts of revival goodies. What if it doesn't work? When do we stop? We have some major concerns here, and we're taking some pretty damn big risks. More like a game of chicken with the country. At this point we should be throwing away things that don't directly spur economic development. $40B for school breakfast programs, the hell? Did we forget how to feed our children breakfast? Garbage like that has no place in our house right now.
Give me a crystal ball and I will give you an accurate progress bar
Cloud technology has its place and it's here to stay without a doubt. The benefits it brings in a more connected world is undeniable. Just how much or how little to leverage it is debatable. But from what I see the greater population within "Citizenville" is just simply not technical enough to make needed technical decisions. They're savvy yes, they use the tools creatively yes, but everyone is still just not as technical as I they'd need to be to in order to be self sufficient. His attacks on IT likely reflect his real world experience working with his own IT departments that are slow to adapt and "behind the times" which is true for many IT departments, especially in the political arena. The problem is many people that work for government office have cushy jobs and stay there as "lifers". That sort of mentality breeds apathy across the board. And that's a shame because they make the rest of us look terrible. So in some ways I can't blame him for his own ignorance. The only exception to this is the defense and national security arenas. But again, if he were more technical he'd see the problems in his IT staff in plain sight. What he's saying is akin to saying we no longer needing mechanical and computer engineers because all of our manufacturing is automated these days anyway, the ignorance is obvious to those that know better.
$0.55, really? Who here is willing to take my letter and deliver it across town for $0.55. Let's extrapolate that even further. Who here is willing to take my letter and deliver it to Alaska for the same price? I know establishing zone regions for regular first class mail would be a pain but there has to be marry better with the real world. But if we're not willing to do that, then at least double the cost of postage to $1.10 and it will be more realistic average cost. It will also reduce the crap spam I get too, I see this as a win-win no brainer.
What jerks. I don't think I've ever seen such a large company do such a phenomenal job at shunning its existing developer base. Looks like pretty much everything they've introduced over the past decade and a half is getting dropped like it's hot. I guess I should be getting ready to get back into Java or just straight up C++ again? hah I guess it shows that Balmer was never a developer. I miss Billy, blood of my blood!
Yes, yes, and yes. Especially since the "injured" party asked to drop the case. When in fact, there was really never any injury at all to begin with.
Oh stop your whining, if you kept your money in the market since the GWB years you'd already be ahead again. If you continued investing new monies you'd have made 100's of % on it. This isn't the first time markets have crashed, and it *certainly* won't be the last! If you want nothing but a steady % investment with minimal risk then invest in bonds instead. Buy them straight if you want your principal back, buying in bond funds will subject your to interest/credit risk price changes otherwise. Just don't cry about the meager returns on bonds, especially these days.
If you want to speak "technically" then the whole thing was never a fiscal cliff to begin with. It was more like a budgetary hill. Funny thing is, even if we we went over the cliff, the deficit gap wouldn't have been closed. Goes to show what dreamland we're currently living in with our current level deficit spending. It's fine for now to continue borrowing... but a may day will come when folks no longer want our debt. It might be 5, 50, or a 100 years from now. Long story short, if the economy doesn't pick up the US is completely screwed.