Agreed. Most big corporations always say how they need open global markets, but only when it fits their profit targets. Let's demand the same "freedom" for big movie corporations also...
Oh, wait. Who has the millions to use for buying the politicians?
I like the idea. If somebody can hack my ReplayTV to record eight hours of porn from these "can't say the f-word, can't show the finger" TV channels in USA I would really appreciate it:-)
More seriously, for example if I'm at work and see on/. that there is an interesting TV program today but I can't leave early enough to see it live I could remotely set the unit to record it. I would have needed that feature a long time back.
Of course the whole idea of having to record something at home is lame, I want more like video-on-demand service, something like my.mp3.com for TV, but I guess that's not going to happen for another 5 years at least.
Yes, this US way of paying bills felt funny in the beginning when I was used to how it is done in Finland. Last time I saw checks before coming to the US was maybe 15 years ago in my parents' checkbook...
For those who don't know how it is done in the USA, here's how it works: Someone sends you a bill by mail, you write a check and send it (traditionally by mail) to the company who sent the bill. Then they need to deal with their bank to get the money on their account.
As a comparison, the Finnish (probably the same applies to other advanced countries;) way to do it: Someone sends you a bill by mail (or to your cell phone...), you tell your bank to transfer money from your account to the account of the company who sent you the bill and that's it. You can pay the bill using an ATM, Internet, phone or traditionally by going to a bank.
I'm not necessarily saying that the US way of playing with checks and mailing them back and forth is not good, but the Finnish way is simpler, cheaper and faster. It's all electronic, and it works. On the other hand I find it kind of relaxing to sit down for a while to open letters, write checks, put them in the envelopes, attach the stamps etc, just to stay a couple of minutes away from the computer:)
What makes it even greater is that there is still no JDK 1.2.2 production release for Solaris, only a 'reference implementation'. Production release for windows has been there for a year, now we have it for Linux but where's the Solaris version?
Although I agree that if there was not such a computer industry boom the people there (here) would be doing something else, I don't consider it as a bad thing in the long run.
The advancements achieved in both hardware and software technologies make it faster and easier to develop the "more efficient Diesel fuel injection systems", "vehicles powered by fuel cells" and other things Roblimo mentioned. I'm pretty sure that modern fuel injection systems are totally dependent on embedded computers, to mention just one example.
And what comes to the growth of the Internet and improving the life in third world, they are certainly not mutually exclusive. When the underdeveloped countries get more Internet connections it becomes easier to people there to get information on how to improve their lives: produce more food per acre, organize a revolution against the tyrannic government etc. Of course this is naively optimistic statement considering the amount of people who can't even read, but maybe those who can are able to distribute the knowledge to those who can't.
When the computer industry growth slows down and stabilizes on the level of older industries those people who would today be internet entreprenours, software developers or hackers will choose something more interesting, build colonies in the moon or whatever, with the help of the technology developed by the computer/internet generation.
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Agreed. Most big corporations always say how they need open global markets, but only when it fits their profit targets. Let's demand the same "freedom" for big movie corporations also...
Oh, wait. Who has the millions to use for buying the politicians?
I like the idea. If somebody can hack my ReplayTV to record eight hours of porn from these "can't say the f-word, can't show the finger" TV channels in USA I would really appreciate it :-)
/. that there is an interesting TV program today but I can't leave early enough to see it live I could remotely set the unit to record it. I would have needed that feature a long time back.
More seriously, for example if I'm at work and see on
Of course the whole idea of having to record something at home is lame, I want more like video-on-demand service, something like my.mp3.com for TV, but I guess that's not going to happen for another 5 years at least.
-z.
Yes, this US way of paying bills felt funny in the beginning when I was used to how it is done in Finland. Last time I saw checks before coming to the US was maybe 15 years ago in my parents' checkbook...
;) way to do it: Someone sends you a bill by mail (or to your cell phone...), you tell your bank to transfer money from your account to the account of the company who sent you the bill and that's it. You can pay the bill using an ATM, Internet, phone or traditionally by going to a bank.
:)
For those who don't know how it is done in the USA, here's how it works: Someone sends you a bill by mail, you write a check and send it (traditionally by mail) to the company who sent the bill. Then they need to deal with their bank to get the money on their account.
As a comparison, the Finnish (probably the same applies to other advanced countries
I'm not necessarily saying that the US way of playing with checks and mailing them back and forth is not good, but the Finnish way is simpler, cheaper and faster. It's all electronic, and it works. On the other hand I find it kind of relaxing to sit down for a while to open letters, write checks, put them in the envelopes, attach the stamps etc, just to stay a couple of minutes away from the computer
-jarno
What makes it even greater is that there is still no JDK 1.2.2 production release for Solaris, only a 'reference implementation'. Production release for windows has been there for a year, now we have it for Linux but where's the Solaris version?
-jarno
Although I agree that if there was not such a computer industry boom the people there (here) would be doing something else, I don't consider it as a bad thing in the long run.
The advancements achieved in both hardware and software technologies make it faster and easier to develop the "more efficient Diesel fuel injection systems", "vehicles powered by fuel cells" and other things Roblimo mentioned. I'm pretty sure that modern fuel injection systems are totally dependent on embedded computers, to mention just one example.
And what comes to the growth of the Internet and improving the life in third world, they are certainly not mutually exclusive. When the underdeveloped countries get more Internet connections it becomes easier to people there to get information on how to improve their lives: produce more food per acre, organize a revolution against the tyrannic government etc. Of course this is naively optimistic statement considering the amount of people who can't even read, but maybe those who can are able to distribute the knowledge to those who can't.
When the computer industry growth slows down and stabilizes on the level of older industries those people who would today be internet entreprenours, software developers or hackers will choose something more interesting, build colonies in the moon or whatever, with the help of the technology developed by the computer/internet generation.