USians, this is the solution: make proper free trade agreements with other countries.
Look at the experience in Europe: as long as the job markets are let alone to do their own thing people come and go freely and compete in equal terms with the local populations. This certainly has an impact downwards in wages, but gives an incentive to people to be better prepared and more flexible.
Although there was an original influx from poorer countries to richer ones eventually this stabilized and in some cases the flow started in the other way (rich countries were not flooded by Spanish, Portuguese and Greeks who helped to keep strong other economies like Germany and the UK, at the same time wealthy people in Germany and the UK can move to invest in cheaper places elsewhere. Win win for everybody).
Where there are no agreements to this regard people continued to migrate but became part of the black or grey economy. And those people really came in big numbers: North Africans to Spain, Balkan people to Germany, West Africans and Indian subcontinent people to the UK.
It is an attempt to find an unambiguous term instead of keep using the one hijacked by English speaking countries (this has a very political objective, it is not casual that USians chose to call themselves, incorrectly, Americans, it has to do with imperial spheres of influence and exactly how big the US hoped to be in the long term).
If you want a derogatory term Yankee or gringo would be better suited.
I see no problem with making a law unambiguous, it is patently obvious that far too many people are completely irresponsible with their music players and mobile phones.
Even if you can pay for things that does not mean you are not affecting others.
In places with a socialized health care system (civilized countries mostly) it is to state the obvious that the state will protect innocent bystanders of the carelessness of others as well as promote socially responsible conducts in order to maximize health care resources.
In places where the law of the jungle prevails, even if you can afford to pay for care, the health resources are still a finite resource, and by people carelessness demand (by making sick themselves) they increase the cost for everybody of having medical care.
So in as much as you would like to think you are completely free to do whatever you damn please, your actions will have social consequences no matter what but smokers are legendary for their lack of manners and their sens of entitlement, so it is hardly unsurprising to read their rants parading as defense of freedom their perceived entitlement to be socially irresponsible.
The irony to mention the free markets as the solution to social irresponsibility is very poignant today, but I will not labor the point, such attitude nowadays is frankly preposterous.
Society has conditioned you to hear music loud for a variety of reasons, music is based in rhythm, harmony, melody and certainly volume, but is the combination of all those what makes music enjoyable.
Don't believe me? Stand in a busy traffic intersection for 15 minutes and please do tell us that you enjoy the noise.
I also exercise a lot, so as a fellow exerciser I can tell you that if you are feeling pain you don't know what you are doing, I could go at lenght to explain this, but the "no pain no gain" fallacy was dropped at the very least in the 90s, so I am surprised there are people out there still subscribing to this nonsense; second if you are numbing the pain with even more painful noise I fail to see how you can possible rationalize that such situation is desirable at any level, unless you have a self destructive personality, in which case you still may benefit to pause and think; finally, whatever exercise you are doing, to know that you crank up the volume to avoid road noises tells us that you are an accident waiting to happen, unfortunately more often than not people distracted by their "music" are not the only ones injured during an accident.
You may know this situation is bad for you, what you should not forget is that it may be bad for others.
Are you seriously telling us that MS could not develop a protocol to validate drivers?
It would be as simple as asking a copy of a given driver in order for your product to obtain MS seal of approval, then MS would keep a database of all drivers and compare that against whatevere it is in your own computer.
With companies like Intel, Nvidia, HP, Asus and other big manufacturers this should be an smooth, automatic process.
As all politicians are fond to say nowadays, lets be very clear: emailing from your business email address (or the governor office on Mrs Palin's case) does not make your email any more secure: it still goes in clear text, its delivery is not guaranteed, and it can be intercepted by any email relay along the way.
Yahoo may not be secure, but that is hardly a fault of Yahoo, the full specification of the smtp protocol does not include security features or reliability from the start.
HTML is the worst, it is a formatting standard, not a programming language, all the scripting languages for web development are the abomination of the devil from a programming point of view. Leave those for the poor sods that need to make a living using them, for normal people use some language that are simple and consistent (basic, pascal, perhaps python).
No wonder we get the politicians we do. All talk, no history.
You have to be a dreadful person to make the life of people like Allan Turing boring. Heck, such lives are so interesting that movies have been done about them.
It helped me greatly to talk about Chomsky's life and achievements while learning grammar theory, of course it helped that my teacher worked with him, but still, any mediocre teacher should be able to make any life or historic period juicy and relevant.
History gives context to science and technology, it is good time that geeks and nerds were more fond of it.
1.- You don't need a laptop to travel. Honest. You don't, don't become an Apple posseur. The world is not going to end if one reads a good book, watches the on flight movie or sleeps instead of continuing plugged to a damn computer.
2.- There are mobile devices that exist specifically for:
a) Watching movies. b) Backing up memory cards (gosh, how many pictures can you take? In my last holiday I needed 2x4GB cards, which is enough for 8 hundred pictures at best quality, so the need of even this device is questionable)
3.- The world is littered with internet cafes. Use them.
4.- If your hotel does not provide internet access why are you staying there?
Honestly, the best solutions are normally the easiest ones.
That Apple's core (OSX) is based on taking advantage of an open license, but here you are, embarrassing yourself in public claiming that we all are unthinking FOSS apologists. Apple recognized open is better with that move, but as soon as they reached some success they went back to their old ways. It may be their downfall.
As for Linux not having replaced all other OSes, well, you are not paying attention. Linux is the most deployed OS in the world, of course it is not deployed in most desktop PCs yet, that to the uninformed gives the impression that the little penguin is not achieving all the success it should, but this will change.
Just yesterday I went to one of the most important computer shops in the UK and there were several Linux laptops in show, side by side with their Windows counterparts, the Linux machines £50 cheaper in average.
There are 2 points to make: companies are no longer afraid to err out of Microsoft's influence and the people are seeing the price differential and will start to ask questions about why this is so.
And all the above is in the consumer market only, add embedded and mobile devices and servers, and frankly there is no world domination yet, but the bandwagon is rolling quite nicely.
Back in the 80s you had many different kinds of PC (IBM and compatible, Apple's Mcintosh, Amiga and several others depending on the country).
Apple's one was the best, no question about it. Neat graphical interface (against MSDOS or Windows 1.x, ugh!) responsive, fast (Motorola RISC processor against Intel 8086) networked from the start (Appletalk was really user friendly compared to the abominations that existed for IBM compatibles).
But the IBM platform was open (in the sense that everybody copied it), unlike Apple's, and this created a boom which we are still enjoying (or suffering, if you consider the poor sods that continue to use Windows).
Fast Forward to today. Apple has the best platform (at least from the point of view of the market share, technically I am not so sure) but they are doing their damn best to lock it (again).
Google is creating an open architecture for mobile devices that all carriers are ready to support. This will increase the synergies (horrible but necessary word) between carriers, phone manufacturers and application developers, creating many new, exciting business possibilities.
Open (Internet, IBM PC, TCP/IP) beats closed (AOL, Mcintosh, Netware). Apple is not paying attention and clearly did not learn the lesson.
In socialized health systems the immense majority of the money goes to the people that needs it (even in corrupt countries like Mexico).
All the things that you mention do happen, but that is a small price to pay (and this has been quantified as very small en several countries) in order to do what is undoubtedly the right thing.
Slashdot Mirror
"When was the last time that you needed to upgrade, configure or recompile something to watch a show on a consumer television set?"
I don't remember. I installed Mythbuntu on a new machine, plugged the aerial and started using my new shiny PVR.
Saying lies about Linux will not makes them true.
USians, this is the solution: make proper free trade agreements with other countries.
Look at the experience in Europe: as long as the job markets are let alone to do their own thing people come and go freely and compete in equal terms with the local populations. This certainly has an impact downwards in wages, but gives an incentive to people to be better prepared and more flexible.
Although there was an original influx from poorer countries to richer ones eventually this stabilized and in some cases the flow started in the other way (rich countries were not flooded by Spanish, Portuguese and Greeks who helped to keep strong other economies like Germany and the UK, at the same time wealthy people in Germany and the UK can move to invest in cheaper places elsewhere. Win win for everybody).
Where there are no agreements to this regard people continued to migrate but became part of the black or grey economy. And those people really came in big numbers: North Africans to Spain, Balkan people to Germany, West Africans and Indian subcontinent people to the UK.
Open your borders and the problem will be gone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USian
It is an attempt to find an unambiguous term instead of keep using the one hijacked by English speaking countries (this has a very political objective, it is not casual that USians chose to call themselves, incorrectly, Americans, it has to do with imperial spheres of influence and exactly how big the US hoped to be in the long term).
If you want a derogatory term Yankee or gringo would be better suited.
Oh wait, no, rumours and unsubstantiated second hand accounts of something said should be enough for anybody to take your comment at face value....
Oh yeah, and to be moderated Insightful.
Jeeeez....
Block the noise with more noise, may the poor ears be damned.
The solution is to use headphones that block the noise properly when working in noisy environments.
Have you ever seen anybody working in really noisy conditions to use an ipod at full volume instead of security sound mufflers?
It is that simple.
And you put the safety of others at risk as well.
I see no problem with making a law unambiguous, it is patently obvious that far too many people are completely irresponsible with their music players and mobile phones.
Even if you can pay for things that does not mean you are not affecting others.
In places with a socialized health care system (civilized countries mostly) it is to state the obvious that the state will protect innocent bystanders of the carelessness of others as well as promote socially responsible conducts in order to maximize health care resources.
In places where the law of the jungle prevails, even if you can afford to pay for care, the health resources are still a finite resource, and by people carelessness demand (by making sick themselves) they increase the cost for everybody of having medical care.
So in as much as you would like to think you are completely free to do whatever you damn please, your actions will have social consequences no matter what but smokers are legendary for their lack of manners and their sens of entitlement, so it is hardly unsurprising to read their rants parading as defense of freedom their perceived entitlement to be socially irresponsible.
The irony to mention the free markets as the solution to social irresponsibility is very poignant today, but I will not labor the point, such attitude nowadays is frankly preposterous.
Slashdoter: DR I AM GOING DEAF!
Dr.: stop using headphones, they will make it worse.
Slashdoter: WHAT???
Dr: STOP USING HEADPHONES!
Slashdoter: YOU FUCKING IGNORANT BASTARD! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME OR NOT!?
You don't enjoy music because it is loud.
Society has conditioned you to hear music loud for a variety of reasons, music is based in rhythm, harmony, melody and certainly volume, but is the combination of all those what makes music enjoyable.
Don't believe me? Stand in a busy traffic intersection for 15 minutes and please do tell us that you enjoy the noise.
I also exercise a lot, so as a fellow exerciser I can tell you that if you are feeling pain you don't know what you are doing, I could go at lenght to explain this, but the "no pain no gain" fallacy was dropped at the very least in the 90s, so I am surprised there are people out there still subscribing to this nonsense; second if you are numbing the pain with even more painful noise I fail to see how you can possible rationalize that such situation is desirable at any level, unless you have a self destructive personality, in which case you still may benefit to pause and think; finally, whatever exercise you are doing, to know that you crank up the volume to avoid road noises tells us that you are an accident waiting to happen, unfortunately more often than not people distracted by their "music" are not the only ones injured during an accident.
You may know this situation is bad for you, what you should not forget is that it may be bad for others.
Are you seriously telling us that MS could not develop a protocol to validate drivers?
It would be as simple as asking a copy of a given driver in order for your product to obtain MS seal of approval, then MS would keep a database of all drivers and compare that against whatevere it is in your own computer.
With companies like Intel, Nvidia, HP, Asus and other big manufacturers this should be an smooth, automatic process.
Please GPL your OS, then people will fashion fully functional tools.
You would still be able to charge tons in support (who will people prefer to support Windows?...)
As all politicians are fond to say nowadays, lets be very clear: emailing from your business email address (or the governor office on Mrs Palin's case) does not make your email any more secure: it still goes in clear text, its delivery is not guaranteed, and it can be intercepted by any email relay along the way.
Yahoo may not be secure, but that is hardly a fault of Yahoo, the full specification of the smtp protocol does not include security features or reliability from the start.
HTML is the worst, it is a formatting standard, not a programming language, all the scripting languages for web development are the abomination of the devil from a programming point of view. Leave those for the poor sods that need to make a living using them, for normal people use some language that are simple and consistent (basic, pascal, perhaps python).
No wonder we get the politicians we do. All talk, no history.
You have to be a dreadful person to make the life of people like Allan Turing boring. Heck, such lives are so interesting that movies have been done about them.
It helped me greatly to talk about Chomsky's life and achievements while learning grammar theory, of course it helped that my teacher worked with him, but still, any mediocre teacher should be able to make any life or historic period juicy and relevant.
History gives context to science and technology, it is good time that geeks and nerds were more fond of it.
If you try to measure something at quantum level then you mess up with the state of that something.
Or something like that.
There is no way that can be lost or not tracked.
Even in Mexico that can be done ....
"'I can't afford a laptop' market, and this is growing steadily smaller."
I think you may need to reevaluate that, in view of the, hum, notable news of the last few days...
The problem is lack of regulation of complex financial instruments and how political campaigns are financed in the US.
The corrupt lobbying of US politicians ensures that regulation is as light as possible.
China invading to stop the dollar losing value.
The Canadian pot is obviously top drawer quality.
1.- You don't need a laptop to travel. Honest. You don't, don't become an Apple posseur. The world is not going to end if one reads a good book, watches the on flight movie or sleeps instead of continuing plugged to a damn computer.
2.- There are mobile devices that exist specifically for:
a) Watching movies.
b) Backing up memory cards (gosh, how many pictures can you take? In my last holiday I needed 2x4GB cards, which is enough for 8 hundred pictures at best quality, so the need of even this device is questionable)
3.- The world is littered with internet cafes. Use them.
4.- If your hotel does not provide internet access why are you staying there?
Honestly, the best solutions are normally the easiest ones.
That Apple's core (OSX) is based on taking advantage of an open license, but here you are, embarrassing yourself in public claiming that we all are unthinking FOSS apologists. Apple recognized open is better with that move, but as soon as they reached some success they went back to their old ways. It may be their downfall.
As for Linux not having replaced all other OSes, well, you are not paying attention. Linux is the most deployed OS in the world, of course it is not deployed in most desktop PCs yet, that to the uninformed gives the impression that the little penguin is not achieving all the success it should, but this will change.
Just yesterday I went to one of the most important computer shops in the UK and there were several Linux laptops in show, side by side with their Windows counterparts, the Linux machines £50 cheaper in average.
There are 2 points to make: companies are no longer afraid to err out of Microsoft's influence and the people are seeing the price differential and will start to ask questions about why this is so.
And all the above is in the consumer market only, add embedded and mobile devices and servers, and frankly there is no world domination yet, but the bandwagon is rolling quite nicely.
What a surprise.
The history of Personal Computing is a stern reminder of this.
Back in the 80s you had many different kinds of PC (IBM and compatible, Apple's Mcintosh, Amiga and several others depending on the country).
Apple's one was the best, no question about it. Neat graphical interface (against MSDOS or Windows 1.x, ugh!) responsive, fast (Motorola RISC processor against Intel 8086) networked from the start (Appletalk was really user friendly compared to the abominations that existed for IBM compatibles).
But the IBM platform was open (in the sense that everybody copied it), unlike Apple's, and this created a boom which we are still enjoying (or suffering, if you consider the poor sods that continue to use Windows).
Fast Forward to today. Apple has the best platform (at least from the point of view of the market share, technically I am not so sure) but they are doing their damn best to lock it (again).
Google is creating an open architecture for mobile devices that all carriers are ready to support. This will increase the synergies (horrible but necessary word) between carriers, phone manufacturers and application developers, creating many new, exciting business possibilities.
Open (Internet, IBM PC, TCP/IP) beats closed (AOL, Mcintosh, Netware). Apple is not paying attention and clearly did not learn the lesson.
In socialized health systems the immense majority of the money goes to the people that needs it (even in corrupt countries like Mexico).
All the things that you mention do happen, but that is a small price to pay (and this has been quantified as very small en several countries) in order to do what is undoubtedly the right thing.