Reading the supporting material !?!?!? What are you, some kinda scienceguy? How are we to make irrational arguments when you keep bringing up the facts?
Bingo - dead on. People should realize that finance isn't about changing the functionality of things, it's about changing how they are paid for and distributing cost risk. You can set up a lease (or whatever) to spread out the cost but that is not making how it works or how long it lasts any different. About the time we said goodbye to manufacturing in the US we seemed to begin to forget about how real physical products work and started believing Moore's law applies to everything and that fiddling the numbers can change the world.
AT&T made 10% of its revenue in profit last year. If they were to spontaneously give their customers back 10% of their payments the company would be non-profit. I'll buy that they'll charge more wherever possible and that their executives make more than they should, but there is no way a government agency could enter the market, build up the expertise and operate the infrastructure under current government mandated operational policies (including billing and oversight) for any less. You would either have to steal the infrastructure from the current owners and give it away or extort subsidies through excessive licensing pricing. You would be awarded by a host of non-profits (headquartered most likely wherever senator xyz received campaign contributions) that 'ran' the infrastructure by soliciting bids from for-profit contractors and outsourcing firms. Even better, they would be dedicated to making sure every nut-job living in a cave in the middle of nowhere had 5MB/s service available before they upgraded heavy use areas to 6MB/s.
As for cell data being the same as cell voice, the ability to dial 911 for emergency assistance is and always will be more important and morally justifiable than watching a movie on your phone. As I recall, many phones can reach emergency services even when not on a paid billing plan. People choose to buy illegal drugs instead of a roof all the time and that does not prove heroin is an essential part of human society.
I suspect this issue will be self resolved within three years. If infrastructure carriers start demanding ridiculous pricing for data then alternate methods of providing service will start to pop up and it will not go well for those carriers. Their infrastructure is a blessing and a curse - it's quite valuable but subject to becoming obsolete. If they price things high enough they will find they hold the in-house copper wiring of the 21st century.
The bigger issue is that it takes power to refine the zinc and copper into nice pure little strips - probably more than you get back out from using it as a battery. You could probably recycle the materials, but again there's a cost.
Which has already been done in this 500 potato array: http://latteier.com/potato/
Apparently the only real value of the potato is generating the acid necessary to serve as electrolyte, salt water can serve too so technically under this guy's definition the ocean is a battery.
I think the issue is that the numbers are a bit wrong. If BP were charged the same markup on actual damages as this guy is saying is fair to charge Limewire they would owe literally quadrillions of dollars or basically more money than exists or is expected to exist for a long time.
If the guys at the factory actually believe this they're going to be the first against the wall the next time Dear Leader gets a cold. I think this claim is not good for their long term health.
To be blunt, most IT departments act like cost centers and don't provide any strategic value. Business units help by shorting the budgets and whining about band-aid technology instead of seeing how IT can build the business. It takes an exceptional move by IT or amazing insight from a business unit to raise IT above the slog and allow it to provide a competitive advantage to the business units. Projects that do this get firehosed with funding.
Consultants take advantage of this catch 22 situation when they sell new projects. It lets them get the new implementations and cutting edge development. This situation also causes application oriented mini-IT organizations to pop up in the business units from time to time. That, in turn, causes more headaches for central IT.
Oh you're still innocent. It's just being innocent of a crime is not a defense any more. See the article about the little girl shot in the neck by the police, the lap dog gunned down as a threat, the spread of taserings, the shootings of disarmed unresisting suspects caught on Youtube, the rise in cost of legal defense to the point where even a charge will bankrupt a person, the imprisoning and waterboarding of anyone of the wrong skin color in the wrong place at the wrong time, etc.
On the other hand being guilty is no longer a reason for being punished if you have enough pull or cash (at least until you run out).
When someone stole my car I was told to file a report, never heard another word and was told not to expect to. This is despite VIN numbers being indelibly etched in four different places, removal of those numbers being illegal, operation of the vehicle requiring registration with those numbers, state inspections required once a year again referencing those numbers and ownership of the vehicle being registered with the state.
Without political power or great wealth it seems you should expect justice and real protection for property every bit as often as you win the lottery.
Shareholders don't care a whit about piracy. They care about profits. CEOs don't care a whit about shareholders as such but they care about looking good to shareholders, their own fame, reputation and the compensation committee. The connection between piracy and lost income might be an executive ploy to blame losses on something besides their own lack of innovative development and their tendency to drive off real talent but it is NOT because the some pension fund is pushing the concept that piracy is impacting the quarterly reports.
f. Release mod tools with the premium/collector version but license it so you own all content developed. Charge for downloading any mod. g. Secret online cheats in multiplayer for micropayments (one use each pmt) h. Never allow any local hosting
If you're trying to talk to another star use a laser, not a radio. Sequentially target each star within a selected radius and you get way more energy on target. Shoot each target repeatedly over time to make sure the transmission gets there when someone is watching.
I wonder what the math on that would look like. It does seem a bit trickier and have more variables.
Since net neutrality isn't an issue I expect the ISP can provide that page to everyone via connection running at about 2 baud. You'll have the names in about twenty years.
...ANY publicly traded company will do ANYTHING to ensure the continued success of the company because the management is entirely beholden to the stock holders.
Ha. You actually believe this? Sorry, senior managers can obscure financial results until well after they have collected their paycheck and left the company. Each level of a corporation is 'beholden' to the level above them that has hire/fire authority or who has influence with someone who does. At the top the Board of Directors cannot be fired by the stockholders (except under very extreme conditions) but who may be up for reelection at a general meeting once a year. In practice it is extremely unlikely that a board member will be removed unless a single very large stockholder (usually a corporate takeover type) or a group of large stockholders (pension funds or hedge funds) prepare and campaign with their own money before the meeting.
Board members and senior management choose the direction of companies with non-huge shareholders simply along for the ride until they decide to jump off. They can sell their shares, but they can't really change the company. If the corporation is blatantly steered toward the rocks then someone might interfere, but it is clear most business managers of recently failed companies (AIG, Lehman) were not being operated for the benefit of any shareholders.
so incorporate your work in such a way that it can't hit your personal finances
This is not going to happen. Incorporate away, but when push comes to shove they'll be able to 'pierce the corporate veil' make the guy personally liable and take everything he owns especially if one side has expensive lawyers and the other side has few or none. You have to have a legitimate business in the eyes of the court plus fulfill other requirements to have that protection work.
Why $250K? Multiple highly sensitive very durable microphones, sound analysis software, wireless communications technology and infrastructure support. Solar power or wiring into city power systems. Installation and test for acoustic variation around each microphone system to avoid sound bounce artifacts. Very fast analysis and response all secured to avoid hacking or sabotage. Most of the sophistication is required to avoid false positives, some of it required to survive Chicago winters, some of it armored against people who don't like the concept and will be shooting/pulling down the sensors.
>Another hugely expensive technology to not look into the real problem of firearms ubiquity in US ?
Chicago has some of the toughest anti-firearms laws in the US. I believe the problem is that people are shooting other people anyway. Studies disagree about how effective gun control is, but both sides are already pouring money into the subject as fast as they can.
Charge $300,000 per sq mile and kick $50k back to the police department for 'overtime related to training and special classes.' Don't monitor if the classes are performed or even necessary. Don't check if the system is used after implementation.
The police get funding - they win. The company gets cash - they win. The politicians get to look like they're doing something using cutting edge technology against crime which they can feature in their next election - they win.
It's the perfect solution! No one who matters (in the mind of our leaders) gets hurt.
IANAL, but aren't all the salespeople guilty of conspiracy? I think it might prevent this type of behavior in the future if the Pfizer sales force was gutted as a result. It would also be interesting to watch if the Pfizer legal department decides to help any one of those salespeople.
Slashdot Mirror
Reading the supporting material !?!?!? What are you, some kinda scienceguy? How are we to make irrational arguments when you keep bringing up the facts?
- - good find
Bingo - dead on. People should realize that finance isn't about changing the functionality of things, it's about changing how they are paid for and distributing cost risk. You can set up a lease (or whatever) to spread out the cost but that is not making how it works or how long it lasts any different. About the time we said goodbye to manufacturing in the US we seemed to begin to forget about how real physical products work and started believing Moore's law applies to everything and that fiddling the numbers can change the world.
AT&T made 10% of its revenue in profit last year. If they were to spontaneously give their customers back 10% of their payments the company would be non-profit. I'll buy that they'll charge more wherever possible and that their executives make more than they should, but there is no way a government agency could enter the market, build up the expertise and operate the infrastructure under current government mandated operational policies (including billing and oversight) for any less. You would either have to steal the infrastructure from the current owners and give it away or extort subsidies through excessive licensing pricing. You would be awarded by a host of non-profits (headquartered most likely wherever senator xyz received campaign contributions) that 'ran' the infrastructure by soliciting bids from for-profit contractors and outsourcing firms. Even better, they would be dedicated to making sure every nut-job living in a cave in the middle of nowhere had 5MB/s service available before they upgraded heavy use areas to 6MB/s.
As for cell data being the same as cell voice, the ability to dial 911 for emergency assistance is and always will be more important and morally justifiable than watching a movie on your phone. As I recall, many phones can reach emergency services even when not on a paid billing plan. People choose to buy illegal drugs instead of a roof all the time and that does not prove heroin is an essential part of human society.
I suspect this issue will be self resolved within three years. If infrastructure carriers start demanding ridiculous pricing for data then alternate methods of providing service will start to pop up and it will not go well for those carriers. Their infrastructure is a blessing and a curse - it's quite valuable but subject to becoming obsolete. If they price things high enough they will find they hold the in-house copper wiring of the 21st century.
The bigger issue is that it takes power to refine the zinc and copper into nice pure little strips - probably more than you get back out from using it as a battery. You could probably recycle the materials, but again there's a cost.
Which has already been done in this 500 potato array: http://latteier.com/potato/
Apparently the only real value of the potato is generating the acid necessary to serve as electrolyte, salt water can serve too so technically under this guy's definition the ocean is a battery.
On average people are below average
I think the issue is that the numbers are a bit wrong. If BP were charged the same markup on actual damages as this guy is saying is fair to charge Limewire they would owe literally quadrillions of dollars or basically more money than exists or is expected to exist for a long time.
If the guys at the factory actually believe this they're going to be the first against the wall the next time Dear Leader gets a cold. I think this claim is not good for their long term health.
"Teachers might say this is a teachable moment," McKee said.
And the lesson is hide and deny. Honestly, how long will it take kids to convert to anonymous attacks or posting under some other person's name?
To be blunt, most IT departments act like cost centers and don't provide any strategic value. Business units help by shorting the budgets and whining about band-aid technology instead of seeing how IT can build the business. It takes an exceptional move by IT or amazing insight from a business unit to raise IT above the slog and allow it to provide a competitive advantage to the business units. Projects that do this get firehosed with funding.
Consultants take advantage of this catch 22 situation when they sell new projects. It lets them get the new implementations and cutting edge development. This situation also causes application oriented mini-IT organizations to pop up in the business units from time to time. That, in turn, causes more headaches for central IT.
Oh you're still innocent. It's just being innocent of a crime is not a defense any more. See the article about the little girl shot in the neck by the police, the lap dog gunned down as a threat, the spread of taserings, the shootings of disarmed unresisting suspects caught on Youtube, the rise in cost of legal defense to the point where even a charge will bankrupt a person, the imprisoning and waterboarding of anyone of the wrong skin color in the wrong place at the wrong time, etc.
On the other hand being guilty is no longer a reason for being punished if you have enough pull or cash (at least until you run out).
Yep, about 6%, coincidentally about the same percentage that suffer from serious mental illness
http://www.autoblog.com/2004/09/13/manual-transmission-may-become-extinct/
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-numbers-count-mental-disorders-in-america/index.shtml#1
When someone stole my car I was told to file a report, never heard another word and was told not to expect to. This is despite VIN numbers being indelibly etched in four different places, removal of those numbers being illegal, operation of the vehicle requiring registration with those numbers, state inspections required once a year again referencing those numbers and ownership of the vehicle being registered with the state.
Without political power or great wealth it seems you should expect justice and real protection for property every bit as often as you win the lottery.
Shareholders don't care a whit about piracy. They care about profits. CEOs don't care a whit about shareholders as such but they care about looking good to shareholders, their own fame, reputation and the compensation committee. The connection between piracy and lost income might be an executive ploy to blame losses on something besides their own lack of innovative development and their tendency to drive off real talent but it is NOT because the some pension fund is pushing the concept that piracy is impacting the quarterly reports.
I am patenting this business practice right away. Anyone who uses it without my permission will get sued.
f. Release mod tools with the premium/collector version but license it so you own all content developed. Charge for downloading any mod.
g. Secret online cheats in multiplayer for micropayments (one use each pmt)
h. Never allow any local hosting
If you're trying to talk to another star use a laser, not a radio. Sequentially target each star within a selected radius and you get way more energy on target. Shoot each target repeatedly over time to make sure the transmission gets there when someone is watching.
I wonder what the math on that would look like. It does seem a bit trickier and have more variables.
Does anyone else have an advertisement for DDO looming large in the upper right corner of Slashdot? Targeted advertising is creepy....
Since net neutrality isn't an issue I expect the ISP can provide that page to everyone via connection running at about 2 baud. You'll have the names in about twenty years.
Being castrated and fed to the pigs is in pretty much every American contract now. Look under 'dispute resolution' on page 4.
...ANY publicly traded company will do ANYTHING to ensure the continued success of the company because the management is entirely beholden to the stock holders.
Ha. You actually believe this? Sorry, senior managers can obscure financial results until well after they have collected their paycheck and left the company. Each level of a corporation is 'beholden' to the level above them that has hire/fire authority or who has influence with someone who does. At the top the Board of Directors cannot be fired by the stockholders (except under very extreme conditions) but who may be up for reelection at a general meeting once a year. In practice it is extremely unlikely that a board member will be removed unless a single very large stockholder (usually a corporate takeover type) or a group of large stockholders (pension funds or hedge funds) prepare and campaign with their own money before the meeting.
Board members and senior management choose the direction of companies with non-huge shareholders simply along for the ride until they decide to jump off. They can sell their shares, but they can't really change the company. If the corporation is blatantly steered toward the rocks then someone might interfere, but it is clear most business managers of recently failed companies (AIG, Lehman) were not being operated for the benefit of any shareholders.
so incorporate your work in such a way that it can't hit your personal finances
This is not going to happen. Incorporate away, but when push comes to shove they'll be able to 'pierce the corporate veil' make the guy personally liable and take everything he owns especially if one side has expensive lawyers and the other side has few or none. You have to have a legitimate business in the eyes of the court plus fulfill other requirements to have that protection work.
Why $250K? Multiple highly sensitive very durable microphones, sound analysis software, wireless communications technology and infrastructure support. Solar power or wiring into city power systems. Installation and test for acoustic variation around each microphone system to avoid sound bounce artifacts. Very fast analysis and response all secured to avoid hacking or sabotage. Most of the sophistication is required to avoid false positives, some of it required to survive Chicago winters, some of it armored against people who don't like the concept and will be shooting/pulling down the sensors.
>Another hugely expensive technology to not look into the real problem of firearms ubiquity in US ?
Chicago has some of the toughest anti-firearms laws in the US. I believe the problem is that people are shooting other people anyway. Studies disagree about how effective gun control is, but both sides are already pouring money into the subject as fast as they can.
Charge $300,000 per sq mile and kick $50k back to the police department for 'overtime related to training and special classes.' Don't monitor if the classes are performed or even necessary. Don't check if the system is used after implementation.
The police get funding - they win. The company gets cash - they win. The politicians get to look like they're doing something using cutting edge technology against crime which they can feature in their next election - they win.
It's the perfect solution! No one who matters (in the mind of our leaders) gets hurt.
IANAL, but aren't all the salespeople guilty of conspiracy? I think it might prevent this type of behavior in the future if the Pfizer sales force was gutted as a result. It would also be interesting to watch if the Pfizer legal department decides to help any one of those salespeople.