> Unfortunately a lot of retailers do this, this is one of many very good > reasons not to use a retailer.
No, it's just a reason to assume that everything on a retailer's site is there to sell product. You go there to get price and delivery information and to place an order. You go elsewhere to get disinterested opinions.
Ok, but when you do get it stay home, ok? Don't try to prove how "tough" you are by going around coughing on people. Just stay home in bed until all the symptoms are gone. Or you are dead.
It must, because no liberal has ever told a lie in the entire history of the world (and, of course, everyone everywhere is either a liberal or a (spit) conservative. There are no other possibilities).
You consider cheaper, more efficient power transmission, smaller, cheaper, more efficient motors, lighter, cheaper cars, etc. "unintelligent"? Ok, how about more efficient antennas for your cellphones leading to longer battery life? Surely you would consider that a Nobel-grade breakthrough!
The government should not have the right to publish private information that they have seized just because it does not pertain to a natural person. What if they seize your customer records in the course of an investigation of one of your customers? Should your competitors be able to see those records just because you took the sensible precaution of incorporating your business?
>...a plurality (possibly even a majority) of filings were contract cases > (i.e., companies suing companies).
A large majority, probably, with most being settled out of court. The court's participation in such cases typically consists of accepting some routine filings and perhaps a hearing or two before a magistrate.
> In the UK the courts can declare somebody a vexatious litigant which requires > them to apply to the court for leave to make an application to the court. Is > there something similar in the US?
Yes. He is already in that state under Florida law. He has filed this in Federal court (a different jurisdiction though the court is in Florida). If he is not extremely careful (something he is not known for) the judge may slap him upside the head with Rule 11.
> If Government contracting has so little profit, then why are so many > companies scrambling to do it?
It has about the same profit as the alternatives or no one would bid on the jobs. They just figure the extra costs into their bid (they must employ experts to do that figuring) and so the government pays more for the same thing as would anyone else. Of course, there are many companies that won't bid on government jobs not because they are not qualified to supply the goods and/or services but because they choose not to make the necessary investment in government procurement expertise. In general, government contracting is a large part of your business or you don't do it at all. There are many middlemen whose sole business is buying stuff (or subcontracting), jumping through procurement hoops, and selling to the government. Companies hire former government procurement officers to handle their government contracts because no one else knows the system well enough to navigate it.
Actually, I don't mind advertising as long as I don't see it (and I don't). And no, I am not "ripping off" the advertisers by not seeing their ads because I would never buy the products anyway. Yes, if I were typical the economy would collapse. I'm not. If you think it unfair of me to block your ads figure out a way to block me from your site. You put it up on the public Web and I am going to look at it if I see fit. Arranging for it to be accessible only to those you want is your problem.
> If the Feds paid nearly 10 million bucks for that I am obviously in the wrong > line of work. It looks like something I could knock off in a few weeks with > Django and MySQL.
Yes, but it would have take several months and several hundred thousand dollars for specialized lawyers to put together a qualified bid for the job. Much of the work involved in bidding on and completing a Federal contract has to do with complying with loony procurement regulations rather than performing any actual productive work. That is part of the reason Federal contracting is a specialized business and why it is not as profitable as it appears to be.
I mean, the web and computers are inherently 'visual' mediums.
Bullshit. There is nothing inherently 'visual' about data. The function of the site is to make lists and numbers relevant to the operation of the government available to the public. All of the public. That task does not require the use of "Web 2.0" crap. If you think that the data can be better presented in the form of swarms of crawling colored beetles set up your own site, copy over the data (or just link to it) and have at it. It's all in the public domain.
Slashdot Mirror
> Unfortunately a lot of retailers do this, this is one of many very good
> reasons not to use a retailer.
No, it's just a reason to assume that everything on a retailer's site is there to sell product. You go there to get price and delivery information and to place an order. You go elsewhere to get disinterested opinions.
> All the reviews on the site from users seemed very good.
A retailer who has only good things to say about his own product. Amazing.
Ok, but when you do get it stay home, ok? Don't try to prove how "tough" you are by going around coughing on people. Just stay home in bed until all the symptoms are gone. Or you are dead.
Any competent physicist who can get the tools and materials (that's the hard part) can do it.
> Canada has a conservative government after all.
It must, because no liberal has ever told a lie in the entire history of the world (and, of course, everyone everywhere is either a liberal or a (spit) conservative. There are no other possibilities).
I don't think that the Federal Correctional Institution near Littleton, Colorado has a beach (hint: he is in prison, as is Fastow).
I have done likewise, and I agree.
> Please tell me they've not been left out of the story in the comic.
They've not been. Just their husbands and boyfriends.
You consider cheaper, more efficient power transmission, smaller, cheaper, more efficient motors, lighter, cheaper cars, etc. "unintelligent"? Ok, how about more efficient antennas for your cellphones leading to longer battery life? Surely you would consider that a Nobel-grade breakthrough!
I hate to have to tell you this, but there were patents 50 years ago.
The government should not have the right to publish private information that they have seized just because it does not pertain to a natural person. What if they seize your customer records in the course of an investigation of one of your customers? Should your competitors be able to see those records just because you took the sensible precaution of incorporating your business?
Except that it appears that they don't actually have brain control. They just poke the beetle to make it move.
> It is very sad that we are not seeing stories like "US preparing to dispatch
> robotic bees to all evil parts of the world".
I'm sure they're out there. You just aren't reading the right blogs. Don't you know that night vision goggles allow you to see through clothing?
Your "berry" or your employer's "berry"?
> Living in a country where you can't sue people for amounts like forty million
> dollars...
So if someone owes you forty million dollars there you can do nothing to collect it?
> ...a plurality (possibly even a majority) of filings were contract cases
> (i.e., companies suing companies).
A large majority, probably, with most being settled out of court. The court's participation in such cases typically consists of accepting some routine filings and perhaps a hearing or two before a magistrate.
> In the UK the courts can declare somebody a vexatious litigant which requires
> them to apply to the court for leave to make an application to the court. Is
> there something similar in the US?
Yes. He is already in that state under Florida law. He has filed this in Federal court (a different jurisdiction though the court is in Florida). If he is not extremely careful (something he is not known for) the judge may slap him upside the head with Rule 11.
So boot from a CD.
> The type of infection in question is very superficial.
I don't doubt that the one you see is, but how can you know that it isn't there just to convince you that the infection is only superficial?
> If Government contracting has so little profit, then why are so many
> companies scrambling to do it?
It has about the same profit as the alternatives or no one would bid on the jobs. They just figure the extra costs into their bid (they must employ experts to do that figuring) and so the government pays more for the same thing as would anyone else. Of course, there are many companies that won't bid on government jobs not because they are not qualified to supply the goods and/or services but because they choose not to make the necessary investment in government procurement expertise. In general, government contracting is a large part of your business or you don't do it at all. There are many middlemen whose sole business is buying stuff (or subcontracting), jumping through procurement hoops, and selling to the government. Companies hire former government procurement officers to handle their government contracts because no one else knows the system well enough to navigate it.
> And as long as targeted ads make them money, that is what we are going see.
Only so long as you choose to look.
> I don't want any advertising at all.
Actually, I don't mind advertising as long as I don't see it (and I don't). And no, I am not "ripping off" the advertisers by not seeing their ads because I would never buy the products anyway. Yes, if I were typical the economy would collapse. I'm not. If you think it unfair of me to block your ads figure out a way to block me from your site. You put it up on the public Web and I am going to look at it if I see fit. Arranging for it to be accessible only to those you want is your problem.
> If the Feds paid nearly 10 million bucks for that I am obviously in the wrong
> line of work. It looks like something I could knock off in a few weeks with
> Django and MySQL.
Yes, but it would have take several months and several hundred thousand dollars for specialized lawyers to put together a qualified bid for the job. Much of the work involved in bidding on and completing a Federal contract has to do with complying with loony procurement regulations rather than performing any actual productive work. That is part of the reason Federal contracting is a specialized business and why it is not as profitable as it appears to be.
In fact it is easier to make a site that blind people can use because the task mostly consists of leaving off superfluous crap.
Bullshit. There is nothing inherently 'visual' about data. The function of the site is to make lists and numbers relevant to the operation of the government available to the public. All of the public. That task does not require the use of "Web 2.0" crap. If you think that the data can be better presented in the form of swarms of crawling colored beetles set up your own site, copy over the data (or just link to it) and have at it. It's all in the public domain.