I realise the Gilette etal business model is sell the shaving mechanism at cost, make the packet look like it holds 10 blades but only include 2, and charge a small fortune for replacements that don't last much longer than cheap nobrand disposables. With all the great industrial cutting technologies out there, one wonders why there isn't a $20 'lifetime blade' made from ceramic, or DLC coated stainless. But the point is moot for me now, as I moved to an electric shaver a couple of years ago. It has lasted a couple of years now with only a $12 foil change.
So what religion are the claimed 'Muslims' who in North Africa, Indonesia, Sothern Philipines, many of the 'stan countries, specifically seek out to main, murder, rape Christians on a regular basis?
I'm interested. How do extradition laws work in the USA? Would it have to be a criminal rather civil prosecution before the USA could extradite someone over a court finding?
In my experience CFL's 1- Don't have the nice broad spectrum of incandesecants 2- Don't seem to last very long (they often don't die but their light output within a few months seems to decrease)
(Doen't mean you shouldn't use them, but it seems dichrohmatic lights have become a lot more popular than CFL)
I still think most people here are confusing Natural Selection with Evolution.
Natural Selection is (or should be in this context) less optimal biological copies that eventually die out or become insignificant. Evolution is the addition of (genetic) information to create new function.
Take a biological cell. It's DNA is like self replicating object code. Evolution proposes that during a copy process (like cell division), an error occurs and if it turns out to be beneficial it could cause a branching (a different kind) or an overall improvement (where the change eventually dominates)
But lets start a bit of critical thinking. What is the ratio beneficial mutations to non-beneficial(benign or destructive). Maybe this is not a good example, but lets take something complex like the linux kernal. If I copy it with say one or two randomly added, removed or changed bytes, what will the beneficial mutation ratio be? Emperically, I think it would be very low. Even if I did it on a 100 line program, it would still be very low. So with this example, I see I'm leaving behind me a huge(many orders of magnitude) debri of lower functioning forms (some of which die, but most of which just don't perform as well) than higher forms. So I'm thinking... ID perhaps makes more sense, that we started with perfect, and are gradually getting more imperfect.(eg. why are we getting more genetic diesease rather than higher functioning.. even within our lifetime) To say ID refutes science is rubbish. So what if God created life. That is in know way is against science. It doesn't stop anybody trying to reverse engineer how life and the universe works.
The problem with this (in my experience) is that "smart" people a) are only marginally less likely to make foolish mistakes than "stupid" people... e.g. not plugging things in, plugging things in incorrectly, using the software incorrectly/failing to actually read what the dialog box said, etc. b) are much more likely to be overconfident in their troubleshooting skills, and are more likely to be rude and argumentative when corrected.
So... you rate the customer like ebay. Customer knew his stuff +1.. customer thought he knew it but was a dick or abusive.. -1. Customer was a benign noob. 0
What the Dells of the world need is to rate their customers technical competence level. So if they realise you have the smarts, you can be elevated to a similarly rated tech. Imagine the efficiencies it would create for both sides!
You make it sound much more complicated and expensive than it is.
We run the following. 42" Teac plasma ($2500) (prices AUD/2 for usd (I exch rate is.75 but you guys also have higher volume)) Shuttle SB86i SBC with 512MB Ram, 2.8MHz Celeron!, GEForce 6200 (DVI out) (http://www.digitalnow.com.au/dntvlive/index.html ($200) A logitec wireless mouse/keyboard (?? $60) Win XP Home but not running media centre. We run DNTV live which seems very stable.
So we use it for: free to air digital TV, music, recording, basic net browsing, photos. The digital tv is stunning (probablly because its a totally digital path). We can record and watch tv at the same time.. or record two shows at the same time.
Even my wife is able to use it! So in our experience, it is a winner.
Viewing from Australias perspective, the whole USA healthcare system seems screwed. It will be interesting to see Michael Moores new movie (as spin doctored as it will be).
I'll briefly describe Australias health care system. A. There is a basic public system that is free and my experience of a very high standard. Have an accident and you get a free (in Qld at least) ride to the neareast public or public/private hospital by chopper or road, and then 100% free treatment to make sure you don't die. It also includes rehab.
B. If you have a category 1 type illness (life threataning) you get FREE medical/surgical treatment promptly (ie before you die)
C. If you want something non urgent done you can wait anywhere from 2 weeks to 20 years (ie 20 years for breast reduction, 3-6 months for a knee replacement).
D. Then if you pay about $700 - $1200 per annum, you can have private health cover. This will usually cover the hospital bed fee but not quite the doctors fees (known as the GAP). It also covers lots of other stuff like fitness, well being services etc. In the private system you can choose your own doctor and hospital. In the public system you who you get.
E. For general day to day health you normally go see a private doctor which costs $50 of which the govt will normally refund 2/3 of.
F. Need medicine. The govt has the PBS (Pharmacutical Benefits Scheme). If you drug is expensive and the govt deems its payback to society is good, it negotiates hard with a drug supplier then supplies to the community at a subsidised rate. (The USA big pharmas don't like this) Also if you spend more than about $500 on drungs in a year the govt will kick in and support you.
Its not perfect and you will always find whingers, but in my and my extended friends experience, it has been a fantastic system.
Well here are a few reasons I need XP
Altium Designer (CAD Package)
Microsoft Outlook
HEW (Hitachi/Renesas Embedded Workshop) IDE/Toolchain for microcontrollers
Several Hardware Emulators that run Win only
Microsoft Office... and yes I have tried Open Office, but I got too many complaints from people who still use office and complain about OO screwing up doc conversions... plus OO is resource hog and takes ages to load.
Microsoft Project
I'm afraid if you work in the electronics field... you have no choice but windows... (ok perhaps not no choice.. but a life of uneeded misery).. and then I'd probably use mac before linux
Interesting observation. I've noticed the splitting but not the branding being full screen.
One thing business types are taught; if you don't have a distribution network, you are dead in the water. Distribution networks take a lot of effort to put together and maintain, thus cost of entry is high.
Some artists get very well funded, like think friends or sienfeld.
As for the 'checkout chicks'.. one reason we have prosperity, is gains in efficiency. People displaced from one job end up somewhere else in the system. The system becomes more efficient, cheaper to run, costs less to the user.
Interesting Point, but I never said free market, because it's not a free market. Part of those market forces are Government imposed rules such as copyright. As much as you don't like them (and I think a lot of slashdotters sound like post modern hippies), business making profit is the cornerstone of a capitalist system. The reason is, is it provides a measure of reward for effort expended, unlike pure socialist systems. People need to eat, and feel valued by the amount of value they add to society. Money may be a poor measure of this (ie caring for an invalid adds value with little monetary reward), but it is an easily tradeable and exchangeable commodity. If society really doesn't like the rules, then the democratic system of govt. should allow them to change the rules... but hey thats a whole 'nother argument!!! If you don't like the rules, your free speech allows you to lobby, protest, or heavan forbid not consume.
You ask a very interesting question. How does one award the content creators.
Remember, in a capitalist society, 'market forces' are meant to regulate the efficiency of the market. If you restrict or charge too much for your product, the less people buy, and if you give it a away, your volumes are high but you make no money. Its the profit bell curve.
Previously, cost of duplication/distribution has been one of the main regultators in the content creation market. There is now a disruptive technology (the internet) that is taking away this previous 'stabiliser'. What we are seeing now is the free market, trying to recorrect its inefficiency (loss of profits). This will always cause pain. What suprises me, is the internet is huge opportunity to make squillions more money out of consumers (can you say back catalouges peoples!) though much increased volume and less cost per unit item.
This I think is where the RIAA etc have got it wrong. 99% of people want to do the right thing. 99% of western consumers do not steal from their local store. Even in Australia now, we have 'self checkouts'. If the RIAA were run Kmart/Walmart, all the product would be behind glass locked cabinets. Treat the consumer with respect, offer the product at a much more reasonable price, and people will generally do the right thing. The problem I see, is that the RIAA etc, have played hardball for so long, the consumer has got quite adept at (and cultured themselves) to using P2P, AllofMP3 etc, making the battle to change that culture much harder than it needed to be.
Compliance with ROHS is costing the electronics industry Billions of dollars to comply with. Every Bill Of Materials mut be reviewed for ROHS compliance of every part. You can't tell the difference by looking at parts, and often suppliers don't change their part number to indicate ROHS compliance. The replacements for traditional 60/40 solder contain mostly tin with small amounts of silver & copper (more expensive...). Although lead is poisonous to the human body, silver is much more poisonous to the environment. Thus the EU is replacing one problem with another. Tin plated copper is known to grow tin whiskers, which can grow long enough to short circuit connections on IC packages. This problem is only just starting to be understood. PCB's require higher processing temperatures becuase to the higher melting point of new solders, cause other potential reliability problems, including board warp, delamination etc etc.
Have you ever read a moderm biography of Rockerfeller? One of the advantages of the capatialst system, is that is does allow extreem wealth to be concentrated into the hands of those who know how to intelligently use it. Governments are notoriously poor at using capital. Rockerfeller philanthropies have created research that never would have existed, research that has saved and improved countless lives, research that never would have happened unless he used his business acumen to create the weatlh in the first place.
My experience is about the same. I've had an inspiron 8200 for 3 years now, running XP. I reinstalled the OS ONCE when SP2 came out. I have loaded hunderds and removed hundreds of apps from my PC, including lots of development stuff. I haven't run a virus scanner in over a year (but I do run a spyware check), and except for a lousy boot time, the thing runs great. Plud I love the auto replication/offline stuff, so I can log onto my disonnected domain from home. In fact we once had a proliant 1850R server runing linux, that if you unplugged the keyboard, the server would stop! No panic no nothing, it just stopped!
I still think most people here are confusing Natural Selection with Evolution.
Natural Selection is simply faulty biological copies that die out. Evolution is the addition of information to create new function.
Take a biological cell. It's DNA is like self replicating object code. Evolution proposes that during a copy process (or in a more complex process such as cell division), a mistake happens and if it turns out to be beneficial it could cause a branching (a different kind) or an overall improvement (where the change eventually dominates)
But lets start a bit of critical thinking. What is the ratio beneficial mutations to non-beneficial(benign or destructive). Maybe this is not a good example, but lets take something complex like the linux kernal. So if I copy it with say one or two added, removed or changed bytes, what will the beneficial mutation ratio be? Emperically, I think it would be very low. Even if I did it on a 100 line program, it would be very low. So with this example, I see I'm leaving behind me a huge(many orders of magnitude) debri of lower functioning forms (some of which die, but most of which just don't perform as well) than higher forms. So I'm thinking... ID perhaps makes more sense, that we started with perfect, and are gradually getting more imperfect.(ie why are we getting more genetic diesease rather than higher functioning.. even within our lifetime)
Sure, the boys club exists to a certain extent, but its much less prevalent (at least in Australia) My wife was a lawyer, as is her sister. My wife left law because She didn't like it.. in fact She said it was in part because She was a woman.. but not for the reasons you might initially think. It was the emotional pressure coming from her clients not the male lawyers. She said the male lawyers in the firm can generally emotionally isolate themselves. (That said there was another fem lawyer in Her firm that thrived on the emotional pressure, so its a generalisation). Also her Sister has recently been made a junior partner (30)... but her sister often works 30 hour days... Also... many women leave law to go have kids and raise a family!!
So in summary, I think workplaces are becoming less stereo gender typed, and more performace based. Women are generally more intutive/sensitive, and perhaps don't have as much longevity in emotionally combative environments. Don't flame me.. I think its a great thing that women are the more nurturing.. the world needs it, and that doesn't in anyway reduce value or worth, nor does it apply to all.
Slashdot Mirror
So not being from America, please clarify for me.
You as a public citizen, can't go to a public hospital and get free treatment??
I realise the Gilette etal business model is sell the shaving mechanism at cost, make the packet look like it holds 10 blades but only include 2, and charge a small fortune for replacements that don't last much longer than cheap nobrand disposables.
With all the great industrial cutting technologies out there, one wonders why there isn't a $20 'lifetime blade' made from ceramic, or DLC coated stainless.
But the point is moot for me now, as I moved to an electric shaver a couple of years ago. It has lasted a couple of years now with only a $12 foil change.
I for one with respect your low user ID 9693, if you make to Australia.
(Lots of Jobs going for skilled people at the moment)
So what religion are the claimed 'Muslims' who in North Africa, Indonesia, Sothern Philipines, many of the 'stan countries, specifically seek out to main, murder, rape Christians on a regular basis?
Damn you AKAlmBatman.. infusing my brain with catchy 80's jingle... Arrrggh
I'm interested.
How do extradition laws work in the USA?
Would it have to be a criminal rather civil prosecution before the USA could extradite someone over a court finding?
In my experience CFL's
1- Don't have the nice broad spectrum of incandesecants
2- Don't seem to last very long (they often don't die but their light output within a few months seems to decrease)
(Doen't mean you shouldn't use them, but it seems dichrohmatic lights have become a lot more popular than CFL)
How about common sense!
I still think most people here are confusing Natural Selection with Evolution.
Natural Selection is (or should be in this context) less optimal biological copies that eventually die out or become insignificant.
Evolution is the addition of (genetic) information to create new function.
Take a biological cell. It's DNA is like self replicating object code. Evolution proposes that during a copy process (like cell division), an error occurs and if it turns out to be beneficial it could cause a branching (a different kind) or an overall improvement (where the change eventually dominates)
But lets start a bit of critical thinking.
What is the ratio beneficial mutations to non-beneficial(benign or destructive).
Maybe this is not a good example, but lets take something complex like the linux kernal. If I copy it with say one or two randomly added, removed or changed bytes, what will the beneficial mutation ratio be? Emperically, I think it would be very low. Even if I did it on a 100 line program, it would still be very low.
So with this example, I see I'm leaving behind me a huge(many orders of magnitude) debri of lower functioning forms (some of which die, but most of which just don't perform as well) than higher forms.
So I'm thinking... ID perhaps makes more sense, that we started with perfect, and are gradually getting more imperfect.(eg. why are we getting more genetic diesease rather than higher functioning.. even within our lifetime)
To say ID refutes science is rubbish. So what if God created life. That is in know way is against science. It doesn't stop anybody trying to reverse engineer how life and the universe works.
So... you rate the customer like ebay.
Customer knew his stuff +1.. customer thought he knew it but was a dick or abusive.. -1. Customer was a benign noob. 0
What the Dells of the world need is to rate their customers technical competence level.
So if they realise you have the smarts, you can be elevated to a similarly rated tech.
Imagine the efficiencies it would create for both sides!
You make it sound much more complicated and expensive than it is.
/2 for usd (I exch rate is .75 but you guys also have higher volume))
We run the following.
42" Teac plasma ($2500) (prices AUD
Shuttle SB86i SBC with 512MB Ram, 2.8MHz Celeron!, GEForce 6200 (DVI out) (http://www.digitalnow.com.au/dntvlive/index.html ($200)
A logitec wireless mouse/keyboard (?? $60)
Win XP Home but not running media centre. We run DNTV live which seems very stable.
So we use it for: free to air digital TV, music, recording, basic net browsing, photos.
The digital tv is stunning (probablly because its a totally digital path).
We can record and watch tv at the same time.. or record two shows at the same time.
Even my wife is able to use it!
So in our experience, it is a winner.
I have no mod points, so I'll just say you made me crack up :-) thanks..
(btw I'm from Oz.. and in our house the wiggles are banned (but Hi-5 is ok!)
How about 305MB and counting...
Viewing from Australias perspective, the whole USA healthcare system seems screwed. It will be interesting to see Michael Moores new movie (as spin doctored as it will be).
I'll briefly describe Australias health care system.
A. There is a basic public system that is free and my experience of a very high standard. Have an accident and you get a free (in Qld at least) ride to the neareast public or public/private hospital by chopper or road, and then 100% free treatment to make sure you don't die. It also includes rehab.
B. If you have a category 1 type illness (life threataning) you get FREE medical/surgical treatment promptly (ie before you die)
C. If you want something non urgent done you can wait anywhere from 2 weeks to 20 years (ie 20 years for breast reduction, 3-6 months for a knee replacement).
D. Then if you pay about $700 - $1200 per annum, you can have private health cover. This will usually cover the hospital bed fee but not quite the doctors fees (known as the GAP). It also covers lots of other stuff like fitness, well being services etc. In the private system you can choose your own doctor and hospital. In the public system you who you get.
E. For general day to day health you normally go see a private doctor which costs $50 of which the govt will normally refund 2/3 of.
F. Need medicine. The govt has the PBS (Pharmacutical Benefits Scheme). If you drug is expensive and the govt deems its payback to society is good, it negotiates hard with a drug supplier then supplies to the community at a subsidised rate. (The USA big pharmas don't like this)
Also if you spend more than about $500 on drungs in a year the govt will kick in and support you.
Its not perfect and you will always find whingers, but in my and my extended friends experience, it has been a fantastic system.
My appologies.. I should have re read my own post.
I was wrong saying 'free market', perhaps.. 'capitalist market' would have been better...
Well here are a few reasons I need XP
Altium Designer (CAD Package)
Microsoft Outlook
HEW (Hitachi/Renesas Embedded Workshop) IDE/Toolchain for microcontrollers
Several Hardware Emulators that run Win only
Microsoft Office... and yes I have tried Open Office, but I got too many complaints from people who still use office and complain about OO screwing up doc conversions... plus OO is resource hog and takes ages to load.
Microsoft Project
I'm afraid if you work in the electronics field... you have no choice but windows... (ok perhaps not no choice.. but a life of uneeded misery).. and then I'd probably use mac before linux
Interesting observation. I've noticed the splitting but not the branding being full screen.
One thing business types are taught; if you don't have a distribution network, you are dead in the water.
Distribution networks take a lot of effort to put together and maintain, thus cost of entry is high.
Some artists get very well funded, like think friends or sienfeld.
As for the 'checkout chicks'.. one reason we have prosperity, is gains in efficiency. People displaced from one job end up somewhere else in the system. The system becomes more efficient, cheaper to run, costs less to the user.
Interesting Point, but I never said free market, because it's not a free market.
Part of those market forces are Government imposed rules such as copyright.
As much as you don't like them (and I think a lot of slashdotters sound like post modern hippies), business making profit is the cornerstone of a capitalist system. The reason is, is it provides a measure of reward for effort expended, unlike pure socialist systems.
People need to eat, and feel valued by the amount of value they add to society. Money may be a poor measure of this (ie caring for an invalid adds value with little monetary reward), but it is an easily tradeable and exchangeable commodity.
If society really doesn't like the rules, then the democratic system of govt. should allow them to change the rules... but hey thats a whole 'nother argument!!!
If you don't like the rules, your free speech allows you to lobby, protest, or heavan forbid not consume.
You ask a very interesting question.
How does one award the content creators.
Remember, in a capitalist society, 'market forces' are meant to regulate the efficiency of the market.
If you restrict or charge too much for your product, the less people buy, and if you give it a away, your volumes are high but you make no money. Its the profit bell curve.
Previously, cost of duplication/distribution has been one of the main regultators in the content creation market. There is now a disruptive technology (the internet) that is taking away this previous 'stabiliser'. What we are seeing now is the free market, trying to recorrect its inefficiency (loss of profits). This will always cause pain. What suprises me, is the internet is huge opportunity to make squillions more money out of consumers (can you say back catalouges peoples!) though much increased volume and less cost per unit item.
This I think is where the RIAA etc have got it wrong. 99% of people want to do the right thing. 99% of western consumers do not steal from their local store. Even in Australia now, we have 'self checkouts'.
If the RIAA were run Kmart/Walmart, all the product would be behind glass locked cabinets.
Treat the consumer with respect, offer the product at a much more reasonable price, and people will generally do the right thing.
The problem I see, is that the RIAA etc, have played hardball for so long, the consumer has got quite adept at (and cultured themselves) to using P2P, AllofMP3 etc, making the battle to change that culture much harder than it needed to be.
Compliance with ROHS is costing the electronics industry Billions of dollars to comply with.
Every Bill Of Materials mut be reviewed for ROHS compliance of every part. You can't tell the difference by looking at parts, and often suppliers don't change their part number to indicate ROHS compliance.
The replacements for traditional 60/40 solder contain mostly tin with small amounts of silver & copper (more expensive...). Although lead is poisonous to the human body, silver is much more poisonous to the environment. Thus the EU is replacing one problem with another.
Tin plated copper is known to grow tin whiskers, which can grow long enough to short circuit connections on IC packages. This problem is only just starting to be understood.
PCB's require higher processing temperatures becuase to the higher melting point of new solders, cause other potential reliability problems, including board warp, delamination etc etc.
Have you ever read a moderm biography of Rockerfeller?
One of the advantages of the capatialst system, is that is does allow extreem wealth to be concentrated into the hands of those who know how to intelligently use it. Governments are notoriously poor at using capital. Rockerfeller philanthropies have created research that never would have existed, research that has saved and improved countless lives, research that never would have happened unless he used his business acumen to create the weatlh in the first place.
My experience is about the same.
I've had an inspiron 8200 for 3 years now, running XP. I reinstalled the OS ONCE when SP2 came out. I have loaded hunderds and removed hundreds of apps from my PC, including lots of development stuff. I haven't run a virus scanner in over a year (but I do run a spyware check), and except for a lousy boot time, the thing runs great. Plud I love the auto replication/offline stuff, so I can log onto my disonnected domain from home.
In fact we once had a proliant 1850R server runing linux, that if you unplugged the keyboard, the server would stop! No panic no nothing, it just stopped!
I still think most people here are confusing Natural Selection with Evolution.
Natural Selection is simply faulty biological copies that die out.
Evolution is the addition of information to create new function.
Take a biological cell. It's DNA is like self replicating object code. Evolution proposes that during a copy process (or in a more complex process such as cell division), a mistake happens and if it turns out to be beneficial it could cause a branching (a different kind) or an overall improvement (where the change eventually dominates)
But lets start a bit of critical thinking.
What is the ratio beneficial mutations to non-beneficial(benign or destructive).
Maybe this is not a good example, but lets take something complex like the linux kernal. So if I copy it with say one or two added, removed or changed bytes, what will the beneficial mutation ratio be? Emperically, I think it would be very low. Even if I did it on a 100 line program, it would be very low.
So with this example, I see I'm leaving behind me a huge(many orders of magnitude) debri of lower functioning forms (some of which die, but most of which just don't perform as well) than higher forms.
So I'm thinking... ID perhaps makes more sense, that we started with perfect, and are gradually getting more imperfect.(ie why are we getting more genetic diesease rather than higher functioning.. even within our lifetime)
Sure, the boys club exists to a certain extent, but its much less prevalent (at least in Australia)
My wife was a lawyer, as is her sister.
My wife left law because She didn't like it.. in fact She said it was in part because She was a woman.. but not for the reasons you might initially think. It was the emotional pressure coming from her clients not the male lawyers. She said the male lawyers in the firm can generally emotionally isolate themselves. (That said there was another fem lawyer in Her firm that thrived on the emotional pressure, so its a generalisation). Also her Sister has recently been made a junior partner (30)... but her sister often works 30 hour days... Also... many women leave law to go have kids and raise a family!!
So in summary, I think workplaces are becoming less stereo gender typed, and more performace based.
Women are generally more intutive/sensitive, and perhaps don't have as much longevity in emotionally combative environments. Don't flame me.. I think its a great thing that women are the more nurturing.. the world needs it, and that doesn't in anyway reduce value or worth, nor does it apply to all.
Marfa Lights have been known in the Australian Outback for a long time as minmin lights.3 .htm
See this link http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s81819
Or google it http://www.google.com.au/search?q=minmin%20lights