Sorry to poke holes your theory, but here's my take:
1) How do you define "important and not simply an add on to a previous invention"? Would you qualify a cure for cancer as such, since it would be based on thousands of years of biological/chemical knowledge?
2) Revolutionary ideas only come once in a long time. 50 years is not enough of a sampling time period to be statistically significant. Also, most of these ideas have already been invented, which means the pool of remaining grand ideas shrink.
3) Exactly why are inventions based on previous inventions less important than brand new novel ideas? And how exactly does this therefore mean "innovation is dead"? If someone were to invent a flying automobile that was affordable for most people and creates an evolution of travel (in terms of speed/efficiency and less traffic), this wouldn't be novel in your book because it'd be an addon to flight and automobile. However it'd be quite a revolutionary invention wouldn't you say?
Innovation is not dead. In fact one can argue that in no other periods in time (50 year span) has innovation been as great as it is today.
At work or anywhere you're not supposed to be downloading porn or other illegal stuff, just install a fake trojan of your own and secure it so it's not actually accessible to hackers. When you ever get caught just blame it on the hackers.:)
First, let's get one thing straight. Businesses are online to MAKE MONEY, not act out political/social grudges against people of other countries. The almighty dollar is supreme, trust me.
So why do some of these eCommerce sites block certain countries? Simple: FRAUD.
Let me give you an example. A friend of mine has been running a successful web hosting company for a few years. In that time not ONCE has he gotten a legitimate order form Malaysia nor Vietnam. Each and every single time it's a case of fraud, which ultimately results in chargebacks. In case you didn't know, the merchant eats the chargeback + fine from their merchant account providers. Visa/Mastercard/American Express/Discover would like to have you believe they're the generous people granting you (the consumer) easy refunds with no hassles, when in reality it's the merchant that gets rammed up the a$$.
So, with the high risk of fraud, my friend has been forced to ban everyone from those 2 countries. Does he want business from people from these countries? Of course. But at the rate of the fraud vs. legitimate order ratio, it's just not feasible to allow orders from these countries.
So, if you really want to point your finger at someone, don't point them at these eCommerce sites. Instead point them at the criminals who operate out of these countries. Point them at the lazy/unaccountable administrators from these countries that leave their servers vulnerable enmasse to be hacked and used to commit fraud. Point your fingers at these governments that refuse to take any responsible actions to curb fraud when it is revealed and reported.
/.ers have been tricked into helping to promote this guy's site to the top of his niche. After all, when it's linked to from such a huge site as/., google's pagerank system will automatically promote its listing in the search engine.
CNuts is reporting that 'janitors and plumbers continue to search for the cause of an increasing amount of old condoms that have been left on public toilets.' While this has been going on now for a few days and some experts have already declared victory against the 'Trojans', others aren't so sure that the real culprit has been identified yet.
I have a few domains registered at Godaddy.com. I've received quite a few "domain renewal notices" from Network Solutions, trying to trick me into paying Netsol and transferring my domain name over.
Please M$ add Network Solutions in your list to sue. Those frickin bastards tell users their whois database is not to be used for commercial spam, and yet they turn around and do the same anyways.
What's up with the mass paranoia going on here on/.? If they wanted to put in listening/monitoring devices in your walls, they already could have done so long ago using age-old technology.
Stop it with the tin foil hats and start appreciating this new innovation. I for one think this is a great invention. Now we'll know if a building is at risk for collapse. Firefighters will know whether to enter a burning building or not. The positives go on and on.
Ok since/. is filled with geeks who THINK on their own rather than believe in stupid superstitions and other crap we've all seen our relatives and friends succumb to, let me just give one simple advice.
If you truly want maximize your chance of winning in Vegas (and just can't leave without at least gambling), just calculate the MAXIMUM you're willing to lose, and BET IT ALL in one hand. Not 100 hands, but ONE.
Mathematically this makes sense. In all casino games you have a disadvantage (if you think otherwise you're a fool). Each time you play, that advantage creeps up on you. The longer you play, the closer you'll get to that number (law of averages). So by minimizing the number of hands you're actually increasing the likelihood of variation.
Tried explaining this concept I don't know how many times to non-tech people, and damn it, most just don't get it. Sad...
Note: been a few years since my statistics class so forgive me if I'm using incorrect vocab.
When you see those billboards that advertise "the loosest slots" what they mean is that the software at that particular casino has been configured to pay out, say, 95% instead of only 94%.
Also, note that they don't specify HOW MANY machines on their floor will pay out that much. In other words, only ONE will pay out that much, out of the thousands of machines on the floor.
You should be able to guess how "loose" all the other machines are.:)
With another bird-brained idea. Aren't you guys sick and tired of the government sticking their hands farther and farther down your wallet? Do you actually believe Uncle Sam really puts your money into good efficient use? $600 toilets by the DoD. Hello?
Besides, getting taxed on gasoline usage is as fair as it gets. Why would anyone then want to change that up for something that's gonna cost us dearly in terms of dollars and privacy?
This plan is akin to promoting ship travel when there are cheaper, faster ways such as airplanes.
Again the would-be socialists have come up with a bird-brained idea based on "good" intentions. Has it ever occurred to these guys where this money would go to? Out of a month, I have to work a whole damn week for free just for the government, and now this? If anything, we should all have learned that government is one of the world's most inefficient entities, what with their pork-barrel spending, the $600 toilets, lack of competition and accountability, etc.
I hope these guys also realize that the big corporations will have no trouble paying this fee. The true victims are the little guys doing hard work. You think Disney will even flinch when paying to keep the rights of Steamboat Willie in perpetuity?
Again I stress, out here in the REAL world, intentions don't matter. It's all about the end result that counts.
Another reason credit card companies don't care? They are not the ones to foot the bills when a chargeback is initiated. It's the merchant who is out of the entire purchase, some insane chargeback fee, and the lost product.
Credit card companies will never care as long as the monetary loss due to fraud is LESS than the actual cost of pursuing the criminals.
Unlike medicine, which many have brought up, the CS job market isn't controlled by some governing body, restricting who can practice and what areas they can practice in. With medicine, an artificial restriction on the supply of doctors keeps their salaries high. It's still tough as hell to get into, but once you're in, there IS no competition.
With CS, anyone can jump into it and go into the job market. There is no restriction on supply, hence the cut-throat competition and the decline of salary as supply increases.
I'd rather put up with spam ANY day of the week than to have uncle greedy sam's hand up my wallet when I'm on the internet. Why in the world does the government need to be in my mailbox, charging me for sending mail to my friends? They didn't provide the service, so they don't have the right to charge me either.
Besides, do you realize the consequences of this assinine proposal? Once you let them tax us for emails, you have already given up any/all online privacy.
You know, spam is a big problem. One that we want to get rid of. By putting the burden onto the consumer's back, all they've accomplished is to move the profits from the pockets of the spammers to the pockets of the government. All it is is a transformation of an inconvenience, from your inbox, into your wallet.
What idiot came up with this plan? He should be given a one-way ticket to the north pole.
Another thing I don't see people addressing is the topic of tax.
When you buy an item for $1,000 (which includes a $100 rebate), you're actually paying the tax on the $1,000, not on $900.
So, make sure you factor in the tax factor before committing to a rebate sale. Actually better yet, everyone should just boycott any and ALL items with rebates. It's all just a scam. If they wanted to give you the money they would've discounted it at the counter.
Most of the stories I've heard are largely due to the incompetence of the home workers (many of whom do not speak english as a first language) that basically open the envelopes and enter all the relevant data. Their pay? US$0.08 an entry. Not the highest pay around--working dilligently and competently this comes out to about $10/hour.
And why do you think that's so? Why don't they employ the same type of people to do their accounting? To me this appears to be a deliberate attempt to make the process as messy and inefficient as possible. What they get in return is a hard-to-prove case of intentional fraud. After all, it's the fault of these work-at-home employees right?
In the meantime, the parent companies are laughing their way to the bank.
I know we all like to bash Aohell, but at least they're one ISP that seems to be doing something right these days... fighting spam to its death... unlike 99% of all other ISPs.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry to poke holes your theory, but here's my take:
1) How do you define "important and not simply an add on to a previous invention"? Would you qualify a cure for cancer as such, since it would be based on thousands of years of biological/chemical knowledge?
2) Revolutionary ideas only come once in a long time. 50 years is not enough of a sampling time period to be statistically significant. Also, most of these ideas have already been invented, which means the pool of remaining grand ideas shrink.
3) Exactly why are inventions based on previous inventions less important than brand new novel ideas? And how exactly does this therefore mean "innovation is dead"? If someone were to invent a flying automobile that was affordable for most people and creates an evolution of travel (in terms of speed/efficiency and less traffic), this wouldn't be novel in your book because it'd be an addon to flight and automobile. However it'd be quite a revolutionary invention wouldn't you say?
Innovation is not dead. In fact one can argue that in no other periods in time (50 year span) has innovation been as great as it is today.
With this new excuse comes a new plan...
:)
At work or anywhere you're not supposed to be downloading porn or other illegal stuff, just install a fake trojan of your own and secure it so it's not actually accessible to hackers. When you ever get caught just blame it on the hackers.
Well he does accept money orders and checks from everyone. It's the credit card area that's blocked from some countries with high rate of fraud.
First, let's get one thing straight. Businesses are online to MAKE MONEY, not act out political/social grudges against people of other countries. The almighty dollar is supreme, trust me.
So why do some of these eCommerce sites block certain countries? Simple: FRAUD.
Let me give you an example. A friend of mine has been running a successful web hosting company for a few years. In that time not ONCE has he gotten a legitimate order form Malaysia nor Vietnam. Each and every single time it's a case of fraud, which ultimately results in chargebacks. In case you didn't know, the merchant eats the chargeback + fine from their merchant account providers. Visa/Mastercard/American Express/Discover would like to have you believe they're the generous people granting you (the consumer) easy refunds with no hassles, when in reality it's the merchant that gets rammed up the a$$.
So, with the high risk of fraud, my friend has been forced to ban everyone from those 2 countries. Does he want business from people from these countries? Of course. But at the rate of the fraud vs. legitimate order ratio, it's just not feasible to allow orders from these countries.
So, if you really want to point your finger at someone, don't point them at these eCommerce sites. Instead point them at the criminals who operate out of these countries. Point them at the lazy/unaccountable administrators from these countries that leave their servers vulnerable enmasse to be hacked and used to commit fraud. Point your fingers at these governments that refuse to take any responsible actions to curb fraud when it is revealed and reported.
Dyke Straw !
You know what'd be a total crackup? M$ comes up with a bootloader, and the group STILL release their exploit.
/.ers have been tricked into helping to promote this guy's site to the top of his niche. After all, when it's linked to from such a huge site as /., google's pagerank system will automatically promote its listing in the search engine.
Twicked!
CNuts is reporting that 'janitors and plumbers continue to search for the cause of an increasing amount of old condoms that have been left on public toilets.' While this has been going on now for a few days and some experts have already declared victory against the 'Trojans', others aren't so sure that the real culprit has been identified yet.
I have a few domains registered at Godaddy.com. I've received quite a few "domain renewal notices" from Network Solutions, trying to trick me into paying Netsol and transferring my domain name over.
Please M$ add Network Solutions in your list to sue. Those frickin bastards tell users their whois database is not to be used for commercial spam, and yet they turn around and do the same anyways.
What's up with the mass paranoia going on here on /.? If they wanted to put in listening/monitoring devices in your walls, they already could have done so long ago using age-old technology.
Stop it with the tin foil hats and start appreciating this new innovation. I for one think this is a great invention. Now we'll know if a building is at risk for collapse. Firefighters will know whether to enter a burning building or not. The positives go on and on.
Ok since /. is filled with geeks who THINK on their own rather than believe in stupid superstitions and other crap we've all seen our relatives and friends succumb to, let me just give one simple advice.
If you truly want maximize your chance of winning in Vegas (and just can't leave without at least gambling), just calculate the MAXIMUM you're willing to lose, and BET IT ALL in one hand. Not 100 hands, but ONE.
Mathematically this makes sense. In all casino games you have a disadvantage (if you think otherwise you're a fool). Each time you play, that advantage creeps up on you. The longer you play, the closer you'll get to that number (law of averages). So by minimizing the number of hands you're actually increasing the likelihood of variation.
Tried explaining this concept I don't know how many times to non-tech people, and damn it, most just don't get it. Sad...
Note: been a few years since my statistics class so forgive me if I'm using incorrect vocab.
When you see those billboards that advertise "the loosest slots" what they mean is that the software at that particular casino has been configured to pay out, say, 95% instead of only 94%.
:)
Also, note that they don't specify HOW MANY machines on their floor will pay out that much. In other words, only ONE will pay out that much, out of the thousands of machines on the floor.
You should be able to guess how "loose" all the other machines are.
With another bird-brained idea. Aren't you guys sick and tired of the government sticking their hands farther and farther down your wallet? Do you actually believe Uncle Sam really puts your money into good efficient use? $600 toilets by the DoD. Hello?
Besides, getting taxed on gasoline usage is as fair as it gets. Why would anyone then want to change that up for something that's gonna cost us dearly in terms of dollars and privacy?
This plan is akin to promoting ship travel when there are cheaper, faster ways such as airplanes.
Again the would-be socialists have come up with a bird-brained idea based on "good" intentions. Has it ever occurred to these guys where this money would go to? Out of a month, I have to work a whole damn week for free just for the government, and now this? If anything, we should all have learned that government is one of the world's most inefficient entities, what with their pork-barrel spending, the $600 toilets, lack of competition and accountability, etc.
I hope these guys also realize that the big corporations will have no trouble paying this fee. The true victims are the little guys doing hard work. You think Disney will even flinch when paying to keep the rights of Steamboat Willie in perpetuity?
Again I stress, out here in the REAL world, intentions don't matter. It's all about the end result that counts.
One thing to add...
Another reason credit card companies don't care? They are not the ones to foot the bills when a chargeback is initiated. It's the merchant who is out of the entire purchase, some insane chargeback fee, and the lost product.
Credit card companies will never care as long as the monetary loss due to fraud is LESS than the actual cost of pursuing the criminals.
Unlike medicine, which many have brought up, the CS job market isn't controlled by some governing body, restricting who can practice and what areas they can practice in. With medicine, an artificial restriction on the supply of doctors keeps their salaries high. It's still tough as hell to get into, but once you're in, there IS no competition.
With CS, anyone can jump into it and go into the job market. There is no restriction on supply, hence the cut-throat competition and the decline of salary as supply increases.
I'd rather put up with spam ANY day of the week than to have uncle greedy sam's hand up my wallet when I'm on the internet. Why in the world does the government need to be in my mailbox, charging me for sending mail to my friends? They didn't provide the service, so they don't have the right to charge me either.
Besides, do you realize the consequences of this assinine proposal? Once you let them tax us for emails, you have already given up any/all online privacy.
You know, spam is a big problem. One that we want to get rid of. By putting the burden onto the consumer's back, all they've accomplished is to move the profits from the pockets of the spammers to the pockets of the government. All it is is a transformation of an inconvenience, from your inbox, into your wallet.
What idiot came up with this plan? He should be given a one-way ticket to the north pole.
Thanks for clearing up your position! :)
So you're basically advocating the abuse and bastardization of the race card just to bully someone into doing something totally unrelated?
It's people like this that give minorities and real-life discrimination a bad rap.
Someone help me. How many years of goatse is that?
Another thing I don't see people addressing is the topic of tax.
When you buy an item for $1,000 (which includes a $100 rebate), you're actually paying the tax on the $1,000, not on $900.
So, make sure you factor in the tax factor before committing to a rebate sale. Actually better yet, everyone should just boycott any and ALL items with rebates. It's all just a scam. If they wanted to give you the money they would've discounted it at the counter.
Most of the stories I've heard are largely due to the incompetence of the home workers (many of whom do not speak english as a first language) that basically open the envelopes and enter all the relevant data. Their pay? US$0.08 an entry. Not the highest pay around--working dilligently and competently this comes out to about $10/hour.
And why do you think that's so? Why don't they employ the same type of people to do their accounting? To me this appears to be a deliberate attempt to make the process as messy and inefficient as possible. What they get in return is a hard-to-prove case of intentional fraud. After all, it's the fault of these work-at-home employees right?
In the meantime, the parent companies are laughing their way to the bank.
this page...
/ 21 39257&mode=nested&tid=95&tid=146
;)
http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/15
Hundreds of links to browse through... Just be careful of the goatse links.
I know we all like to bash Aohell, but at least they're one ISP that seems to be doing something right these days... fighting spam to its death... unlike 99% of all other ISPs.
So where is Sanford Wallace these days?