Only by your standards, because you artificially make others' statements into a boolean of 'government interference' OR '! government interference' which would also make the following (hypothetical) person appear to be a hypocrite
Personally, I'm a Centrist. Both the Left and the Right are crazy. Left --> central planning --> government runs everything --> socialism. Right --> corporate power --> mega-mergers --> central planning --> one corporation runs everything --> fascism. Selective government intervention is the only sensible choice.
The only reason that these companies get away with this is that there's some kickback somewhere.
While this is possible, Canada is significantly less politically corrupt than America, for example. It's possible that this is some government body's idea of 'fairness'.
Canada is supposed to be a socialist government
Sorry to inform you that it isn't. The economy is not centrally planned. In fact, if my figures are correct, about 1/3 of the work force might be labelled as 'entrepreneurs'. (For example, I am an partner in the small company that I work for.)
If the Campbell administration doesn't like the way a arbitration turned out (doctors) or that a labor union is striking (the teachers) they just legislate the problem away.
The BC government has significant fiscal problems. They could have dealt with them a decade ago when other provinces did (such as Ontario), but BC held on to its leftist government too long. Ugly reform is the only way to address structural financial problems. Admittedly, I'm not up-to-date with the specifics of the labour disputes.
The Canadian government, like it's Big Brother to the south, has traded consumer piracy for corporate larceny.
Perhaps. Social trends tend to lag Big Brother by a couple of years in the populous provinces and by another year and a half in the other provinces.
If you really want to do something "meaningful" go donate blood or some of your time to help charities. Go visit a senior's center and spend time with old people who have no family to visit. Write a letter to one of our troops in Afghanistan.
In addition, there's the value that the new technology can bring to the problem of starvation.
I see little reason to believe that there is any shortage of food right now. It's just that there is no will, and frankly no particular reason, to hand it out to all of the poor people in the world. Feeding them today pretty much guarantees that you'll need to feed them tomorrow. The only way forward for these people is economic integration with the rest of the world. But, of course, their bullshit-regime governments are too corrupt for that to happen, and the Western leaders don't see point in lining the pockets of corrupt third-world dictators. This merely funds wars which mean more suffering, not less.
Also, the looney left doesn't want to inflict the problems of corrupt corportations on people in the third world. They'd rather watch them starve to death while complaining that the western world in more interested in space exploration.
Deploy is a good word for it, but "use" would have been even better.
"Deploy" is not a good word for it. It means to put weapons into position for possible future use. For example, the Soviet Union _deployed_ nuclear weapons in Cuba during the Cuban-missile crisis, which contradicts the original claim. Get a dictionary.
Or he's taking his lead from the Enron leadership and deliberately lying because he figures that jail time for perjury and contempt doesn't apply to the likes of him.
If perjury and comtempt did apply to the likes of him, the entire management team of Microsoft would be in jail right now.
Why some backwater state in the USA would need their own special laws on this is totally beyond me...
People seem to think that if Canada were to join the United States that it would be a single state. Because of geo-socio-economic, I think that it would need to be at least six states (Atlantic (North Maine), Quebec (North Louisana), Ontario (North New York w/New New York North City), Prarie (North North Dakota), BC (North Washington, not D.C.), and Territories (Great White North North North Dakota). Some might argue that Alberta should be North Texas.
Anyway, if Canada were a single state, it would be very close in population to California and would weald way too much political power for the comfort of the rest of the Union.
Or perhaps he means that businesses that formerly used Microsoft software would have higher profits and would hence pay more in taxes (rather than being deposited in Microsoft's bank account tax-free because of their stock-option shenanigans).
The less taxes part is laughable. What about the billions in licensing fees that would be saved if open source (especially something truly competitive with Microsoft Office) truly flourished? This would result in greater profits and thus more tax revenue.
It's not clear exactly from what you said how saving money translates into greater profits and more tax revenue. Perhaps you mean that if people didn't need to spend their money on Microsoft software that they would spend it on something else and the government would still collect its usual taxes. In this scenario, the people get more stuff for the same amount of money, and hence enjoy a higher standard of living.
the unemployment rate in Toronto was a "low" 7.5 percent, whereas it peaked at an "outrageous" 6 percent in Silicon Valley.
I have no specific knowledge about why the unemployment rate is structurally higher in Canada, but I would tend to suspect that it has more to do with Canada being more generous with welfare.
American techs might be less quick to condemn their northern counterparts if they knew how horribly the economy was managed up here....
My information is that Canada has probably the best-managed economy in the world. Not that I would expect a Canadian to believe that!
When I was at Waterloo five years ago... the department was massively Unix.
Actually, this must be why Microsoft hires so many Waterloo graduates -- because they already know what Microsoft will be working toward over the next decade.
"Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly." -- Henry Spencer
When I was at Waterloo five years ago, pretty much everything in the CS department was Sun (not sure if it was SunOS or Solaris). Some Alphas had snuck in too. On the plus side, the department was massively Unix.
Do you mean Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)? They're government workers; you wouldn't expect them to be competitive and they don't make any commercial goods or services.
GST is also deductable for all corporations. (The theory is that it is only to be paid by the end consumers of a good or service; if you're in the middle of the chain, you deduct it.)
Slashdot Mirror
So why don't they just raise the price of the CD/DVD's to cover the money they are losing?
Because they would sell less product. Presumably they already price CDs at the level which maximizes profits.
Only by your standards, because you artificially make others' statements into a boolean of 'government interference' OR '! government interference' which would also make the following (hypothetical) person appear to be a hypocrite
Personally, I'm a Centrist. Both the Left and the Right are crazy. Left --> central planning --> government runs everything --> socialism. Right --> corporate power --> mega-mergers --> central planning --> one corporation runs everything --> fascism. Selective government intervention is the only sensible choice.
"Any extreme point of view is naive."
The only reason that these companies get away with this is that there's some kickback somewhere.
While this is possible, Canada is significantly less politically corrupt than America, for example. It's possible that this is some government body's idea of 'fairness'.
Canada is supposed to be a socialist government
Sorry to inform you that it isn't. The economy is not centrally planned. In fact, if my figures are correct, about 1/3 of the work force might be labelled as 'entrepreneurs'. (For example, I am an partner in the small company that I work for.)
If the Campbell administration doesn't like the way a arbitration turned out (doctors) or that a labor union is striking (the teachers) they just legislate the problem away.
The BC government has significant fiscal problems. They could have dealt with them a decade ago when other provinces did (such as Ontario), but BC held on to its leftist government too long. Ugly reform is the only way to address structural financial problems. Admittedly, I'm not up-to-date with the specifics of the labour disputes.
The Canadian government, like it's Big Brother to the south, has traded consumer piracy for corporate larceny.
Perhaps. Social trends tend to lag Big Brother by a couple of years in the populous provinces and by another year and a half in the other provinces.
If you really want to do something "meaningful" go donate blood or some of your time to help charities. Go visit a senior's center and spend time with old people who have no family to visit. Write a letter to one of our troops in Afghanistan.
Or pay your taxes.
If you're referring to the fictitious town of Sunnydale, it was the theme of an entire episode, interestingly, one of the best episodes of the series.
In addition, there's the value that the new technology can bring to the problem of starvation.
I see little reason to believe that there is any shortage of food right now. It's just that there is no will, and frankly no particular reason, to hand it out to all of the poor people in the world. Feeding them today pretty much guarantees that you'll need to feed them tomorrow. The only way forward for these people is economic integration with the rest of the world. But, of course, their bullshit-regime governments are too corrupt for that to happen, and the Western leaders don't see point in lining the pockets of corrupt third-world dictators. This merely funds wars which mean more suffering, not less.
Also, the looney left doesn't want to inflict the problems of corrupt corportations on people in the third world. They'd rather watch them starve to death while complaining that the western world in more interested in space exploration.
I know it's trendy in these circles to bash microsoft for no reason, but can you back up any of what you say with facts?
Rigged demonstrations given in court under oath? Bill Gates testimony?
Deploy is a good word for it, but "use" would have been even better.
"Deploy" is not a good word for it. It means to put weapons into position for possible future use. For example, the Soviet Union _deployed_ nuclear weapons in Cuba during the Cuban-missile crisis, which contradicts the original claim. Get a dictionary.
Welcome the United States. The only nation to ever deploy a nuclear weapon on another.
I think you mean "detonate".
Or he's taking his lead from the Enron leadership and deliberately lying because he figures that jail time for perjury and contempt doesn't apply to the likes of him.
If perjury and comtempt did apply to the likes of him, the entire management team of Microsoft would be in jail right now.
5700K is about the temperature at the center of a ... lightbulb.
If you don't get a lot of those pesky neturons, it'd be fun to tinker with one of these in the garage. What's deuterium go for these days?
There was an Outer Limits episode about cold fusion once. And you thought that fertilizer bombs were nasty.
"Q1. Prove that Cold Fusion doesn't work."
Why some backwater state in the USA would need their own special laws on this is totally beyond me...
People seem to think that if Canada were to join the United States that it would be a single state. Because of geo-socio-economic, I think that it would need to be at least six states (Atlantic (North Maine), Quebec (North Louisana), Ontario (North New York w/New New York North City), Prarie (North North Dakota), BC (North Washington, not D.C.), and Territories (Great White North North North Dakota). Some might argue that Alberta should be North Texas.
Anyway, if Canada were a single state, it would be very close in population to California and would weald way too much political power for the comfort of the rest of the Union.
That and calling it "security" really confuses the issue, so that the average person doesn't understand the true implications.
Is that like copy "protection" (prevention) or region-coding "enhancement" (disabling)?
if the MPAA built their own movie-playing hardware and only released titles that played on that machine, they'd likely be ruled a vertical monopoly
You mean like if a software company released an operating system and then only released application titles that run on that operating system?
Or perhaps he means that businesses that formerly used Microsoft software would have higher profits and would hence pay more in taxes (rather than being deposited in Microsoft's bank account tax-free because of their stock-option shenanigans).
The less taxes part is laughable. What about the billions in licensing fees that would be saved if open source (especially something truly competitive with Microsoft Office) truly flourished? This would result in greater profits and thus more tax revenue.
It's not clear exactly from what you said how saving money translates into greater profits and more tax revenue. Perhaps you mean that if people didn't need to spend their money on Microsoft software that they would spend it on something else and the government would still collect its usual taxes. In this scenario, the people get more stuff for the same amount of money, and hence enjoy a higher standard of living.
the unemployment rate in Toronto was a "low" 7.5 percent, whereas it peaked at an "outrageous" 6 percent in Silicon Valley.
I have no specific knowledge about why the unemployment rate is structurally higher in Canada, but I would tend to suspect that it has more to do with Canada being more generous with welfare.
American techs might be less quick to condemn their northern counterparts if they knew how horribly the economy was managed up here....
My information is that Canada has probably the best-managed economy in the world. Not that I would expect a Canadian to believe that!
When I was at Waterloo five years ago... the department was massively Unix.
Actually, this must be why Microsoft hires so many Waterloo graduates -- because they already know what Microsoft will be working toward over the next decade.
"Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly." -- Henry Spencer
Lemme guess.. Waterloo?
When I was at Waterloo five years ago, pretty much everything in the CS department was Sun (not sure if it was SunOS or Solaris). Some Alphas had snuck in too. On the plus side, the department was massively Unix.
No, it's commercial software that's no good before version 3. Open-source software is usually serviceable by version 0.0.3.
As opposed to overpaid Canadian Union Employees?
Do you mean Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)? They're government workers; you wouldn't expect them to be competitive and they don't make any commercial goods or services.
and good riddance to the cheap companies and high rent of Ottawa!!
Good luck to you if you think that Toronto has cheaper housing than Ottawa.
GST is also deductable for all corporations. (The theory is that it is only to be paid by the end consumers of a good or service; if you're in the middle of the chain, you deduct it.)
So, your C$80K is worth US$63
Er, US$63*K*.