Any time a company sues, they claim user costs will go up. Oh really. Did they bother to make a spreadsheet on this. Exactly what are Microsoft's costs compared to their annual revenue????
Furthermore, don't forget that the lawsuit concerns allegedly "ill-gotten" gains. So the fine would be against money the company had already collected illegaly.
The bottom line for why Microsoft raises prices... THEY CAN. It's the truest of corporate economic policies. Charge whatever the market can bear. No matter how agregious the fees.
The bottom line is that Microsoft is one of the most profitable corporations on the planet. They make money hand over fist. As I recall they just made a 4 billion dollar dividend recently.
For a monopolist price gouger, the money spent on defending it's monopoly truly is "The cost of doing business". If MS wasn't a monopoly, Windows would cost $50 per copy instead of $180.
Stained glass windows typically aren't used for information technology. But I'll do you one better. OVERHEAD TRANSPERANCIES.
Plastic transparencies have been used for many many years for presentation and the animation industry.
I doubt that Apple's patent will hold up in court. But you have to remember the rules of the patent game. The idea is to have as many patents as possible so you can counter-sue on 10 patents for every patent someone sues YOU for.
The capture of Saddam Hussein has not stopped suicide bombing in Israel.
Regarding the condition of the country, it's become a global fire zone. Saddam killed lots of people, but we have killed tens of thousands since the beginning of the war.
Saddam Hussein justified that he tortured prisoners because "they were criminals". Donald Rumsfeld justifies the abuse of Iraqi prisoners because "they are criminals".
Don't be surprised if many Iraqis can't tell the difference between US occupation and Bath Party rule. The big difference is that the electricity was always on. The water was always running. There was plenty of gasoline. Neighborhoods weren't battlezone.
It is hubris to believe that we can waltz into any location in the world and "improve" it. Ultimately, there is a cost in American $$$ and American lives. The question is whether the effort is cost justified????
We could have bought a LOT of solar panels and wind turbines for $200 billion (the current price tag). We could have built a LOT of schools, employed a LOT of teachers and a LOT of cops. Hell, we could easily an air marshall on every single US plane.
Iraq is not a battle against terrorism. It's a family feud combined with a financial transaction. Our serviceman are dying for Exxon, Shell, BP and the Bush Family, not the United States.
It's not a Straw Man. Timothy McVeigh was a real terrorist from New York.
The argument is that we should go after terrorists where they are. Well, McVeigh was associated with some pretty shady characters who are still at large. If we find their locations, should we bomb them????
Yes, I'm sure there were a few terrorists in Iraq (ironically, now there are a LOT there). But other countries have even more including Germany and the United States. Of course, the #1 hotbed of terrorist funding is SAUDI ARABIA!!!!!!
Saddam Hussein was not involved in terrorist activities. He did launch a pre-emptive war against Kuwait 13 years ago. Yes, I agree that launching pre-emptive wars are BAD.
But Saddam Hussein was not involved in Al-Queda. In fact, the two groups really hate each other. Saddam Hussein was NOT a team player.
The argument stands. A few terrorists being located in a country is NOT justification for invading.
The world told him to show proof that he had disarmed. He didn't. The only safe assumption a Commander in Chief could make based on that evidence is that he still has the weapons. Anthrax just does not dissappear, after all.
So, if I ask Cuba to show me proof that it has no military capability to attack the US, and they don't comply, my only option is to invade the country?
Good point, how could anyone prove that they don't have WMD. Hell, I could have WMD hidden somewhere. How could I prove otherwise?????
Yeah, Saddam Hussein was living high on the hog off his people. But he was effectively contained. He wasn't getting parts for munitions to reconstitute his pre-Gulf War military.
We would have done better by arming the Kurds to the teeth and letting them take care of business.
I am glad that the man in charge of protecting our national security DOES have the balls to act when necessary.
Yeah, hindsight is 20/20. But memos titled "Bin Ladin determined to strike in the US" tend to elicit some activity. It could generate a question like, "Hey Ashcroft, is this the reason you only fly private charter now????"
Ascroft's response of course would be... "No, It's because I de-prioritized counter-terrorism efforts. Bin Ladin has nothing to do with it. In fact I'm in the process of dismantling existing intelligence gathering efforts. For example, I cancelled the investigation on the USS Cole and forced that nosy FBI agent to come home. We booted his ass and he works at the World Trade Center now."
The President's Response: "I thought I told you to shut down all those investigations against my old Bin Ladin buddies. You know them and my daddy go way back. They're really ticked that some of our agents are trying to shut down their charities. Make sure that money keeps flowing. It's how they fund their little brother Osama."
Condaleeza Rice: "Mr President, would you like me to read the report to you again????"
President: "No. 11 pages is way too long. Make sure you redact it so if I have to remember it again, it will only be two pages. Just cut out the nine in the middle. Yeah, and get Dick on the phone. I have to figure out how the Iraq war plan is going. Did we end up giving most the oil to Exxon or Shell????"
Of course, the morning of 9/11 your beloved hero was very vigilant in protecting our nation. He knew about the diverted planes BEFORE he left the hotel. He knew about the first strike BEFORE he went into the classroom. A reporter asked him if he knew what was going on in New York, he responded "Yeah, I saw that on TV, that was a pretty bad pilot".
Tick, tock, tick, tock, buzzzz. You can see the engine creaking inside the presidents mind. But he doesn't put two and two together. In fact, along the line he must have issued an order for the Air Force to STAND DOWN. Otherwise, all the jets would have been INTERCEPTED as per standard operating procedure (Google Payne Stewart Plane Crash).
Big ball, no brain Bush goes into a classroom and sits on his ass reading to 2nd graders while our nation it under attack. Than, he is informed that a SECOND plane hits the World Trade Center. Big dummy still hasn't figured it out.... WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!!!!! Either that, or big balled dummy knew and was VERY PLEASED.
Nevertheless, big balled dummey sits in a classroom for another 15 minutes and finishes the goat story. It's so rare that the President is among his intellectual peers. I'm sure he relishes those precious moments.
OK big balled dummy, what do we do. Do you rescind your stand down order that prevented planes from scrambling. Nope, not yet. Plane #3 hasn't struck yet. Don't believe the lies. Do you seriously believe that planes capable of travelling 1500 miles an hour stationed just outside the capital would be unable to intercept the Pentagon airliner????????
Are we stupid??? Is the military this utterly inept???? I don't believe so. If they were, the Soviets would have leveled our nation a LONG time ago.
After all the stupidity on the morning of 9/11, the President makes a brave call to "authorize" shooting down the Pennsylvania plane. How brave he is since he could have prevented the fall of WTC 1, as well as saving the lives of people in the Pentagon. Had he not issued a stand down warning, he could have saved WTC 1 as well.
Who knows, he might have even prevented WTC 7 from mysteriously imploding for no apparent reason.
On to Afghanistan. Does Bush have the Balls to see the Afghan campaign through???? Does he have the balls to put large numbers of boots on the ground to catch his old family friend Osama Bin Ladin??????
Nope. Bush is more concerned with Saddam Hussein. He was obsessed from day one.
This isn't the first time the White House has released completely fabricated lies in an effort to confuse people. Remember the stories about the Clinton staffers "trashing" the White House, it never happened.
This story is intended to convince us that the FBI and CIA is stupid. They've done a lot of these smear jobs recently to make our intelligence services look "stupid". That's the whole angle. The White House was never warned about anything. It was an "intelligence failure".
So here we have another example of an "intelligence failure". The White House staffer sweeps in to the rescue with a Google search. The added benefit is to show that the FBI is hyper-sensitive and issues threat level increases based on video game characters (imaginary).
If anyone truly thinks we have field agents dumb enough to issue a warning on non-vetted information, well they're pretty naive. I dare say they would be completely unable to survive the extensive training program that every FBI agent has to pass. If the FBI is that stupid, our country is truly in danger.
If you combine "1984" and "The Prince" you will get the operating manual for the Bush White House. They're all LIARS!!!!!!!
First, if you know how to fit coaxial together, you can get all the TVs you want without paying extra. When they hooked up my apartment, they disabled all but one hookup. I promptly reconnected them after they left.
Second, supporting a large network can put a drain on the cable network. After talking to a cable guy recently (HD-TV connection) I realized that coax is thick, but it needs to be amplified every 300 ft.
The cable network is an intracite network of cable and amplifiers that must be properly tuned and harmonized to work properly. To much signal and TVs are banded. Too little, and they're fuzzy. If you bump up power at one point, you may have to attenuate or tilt at another. This is the joy of analog.
When they hooked up my HDTV, they had to bring a large truck out and tweak the local network to get my signal strength high enough. It took them about three hours in all to get stuff working.
So if you draw 10 connections you'll drop your signal about 13dB. That might require adjustments up the line.
So if you want them to carefully tune the network for YOU, it might cost extra. If you're willing to look at at 10 shitty, fuzzy picture that costs nothing;-)
Cable companies are rapidly pushing On-Demand boxes with digital capability. They really want TV to go pay-per-view so they can get you for each program you watch. If programs were.10 apiece, I wouldn't care. The ratings system is all messed up right now. Too many good shows go off the air because Nielson's sample groups aren't diverse enough (they're too dumb).
The voting companies say it would be overly expensive to add printed ballots to their machines.
But I guarantee you, if their software was made open source today, tommorow their would be three or four patches to connect printers to these stupid machines.
Selecting on a machine is fine. But we need to print the ballot in HUMAN READABLE format. In addition, ballots should not contain any machine encoding formats (like bar codes) that people cannot read.
This is the only way to gaurantee that the machines aren't being rigged to record something other than what the voter expects.
Honestly, I'm starting to think that the Canadian low-tech approach works best. Put an X next to the candidate you like. Canvassers count the ballots by hand. For all the money we spend on machines, we could afford to pay them well.
So your saying that an effort by independent producers to thwart a semi-monopoly is collusion????
The fact is that JEDEC had been meeting well before Rambus came into being. They had been developing memory standards for a very long time. In fact, Rambus joined JEDEC and attempted to monopolize the memory market via seeding JEDEC processes with patented technologies.
JEDEC is not a cartel. They aren't trying to squeeze or force anyone in or out of a market. They are an open association of companies that work to their common benefit. Anyone can join provided they have the capital. Anyone can license the technology.
Better watch out. If the logic behind this suit is successfull, Microsoft will sue Linus Torvalds for a conspiracy to make Microsoft Windows IP worthless by artificially driving down prices with "givaway" products. Every Linux contributor would be a co-defendant.
Rambus memory ultimately failed because it was ill-tailored for most of the PC market. The vast majority of PC applications rely on massive numbers of low bandwidth memory operations. Rambus memory carried significant penalties for latency. It's only appropriate for high volume web servers and video processing applications.
... The bandwidth came at a price. Rambus had high latencies that made it perform poorly for the vast majority of computer applications.
DDR came close in bandwidth and smoked Rambus on latency. That's why DDR won. Owning a car that goes 200mph is only effective if you drive the autobahn. Likewise, 3.4GB/sec is only important high volume web servers and video processing applications.
Effectively, Rambus only had advantages for a very small portion of the market.
Excuse me mother fucker. Exactly WHAT is America bad at besides working for slave wages (or being slaves outright).
Sorry, but virtually ALL of the relative advantages of overseas production is 100% LABOR COST related.
No I'm sorry, but it is fundamentally debasing to force a liberated, empowered worker to "compete" on a wage basis with the politically destitute overseas. Our wages going overseas won't help ONE BIT in improving the political wealth of any nation unless we DEMAND political reform as part of trade.
We did this before. We called it the COLD WAR. Forget all the ICBMs. They only served to prevent a general military conflagration. The cold war was about two POLITICAL systems duking it out. One system had a voting popolous, the other a population of slaves. The liberated workers one.
Now we are no longer "competing". Thats right, what you call "competition" is really just SELLING OUT.
We've sold out on the notion that American's should not have to compete on a wage basis against indentured, politically subjugated pulls of labor.
You people blow your theories around but it's all a bunch of slick, well-funded bunk.
The plain truth is that their is NOTHING that we cannot do in the United States. We have the MOST TALENT, the BEST NATURAL RESOURCES and the most heritage in innovation and creativity. We are also willing to lay our lives down for freedom.
Sorry Mr Benedict Arnold, you aren't advocating competition, you're advocating giving in to the notion that serf-hood is an inevitable conclusion that we must "go with". Americans aren't going to just "go with it".
For the umpteenth time... you're a brainwashed idiot spouting talking points from corporate sponsored think tanks whose purpose is to wring the wealth out of the American middle class. Little SE Asian girls were better off in their villages where they lived a traditional life of integrity and self-determination, not chained to sewing machines make slaving wages without bathroom breaks.
Call center workers in Bangalore are working on borrowed time. There are even MORE desparate people around the world who will work for EVEN LESS. There work isn't being funded by their fellow Indians. Once the foreign capital withdraws, he'll be out in the rice lines. India's economy is NOT self-sustaing. It depends on a lifeline of sucking wealth from the American middle class. It has not developed on it's own feet. Once the American crutch is removed, it will collapse.
You know what. Why don't all you free traders just skip all the bullshit nonsense and just cut to the chase. Just start putting everybody in shakles and beating them with whips. House them in shacks and feed them left over pig parts from their corporate masters' tables. I'm fucking sick of all the flirting.
Trade in people IS NOT TRADE. It's migration. In many cases, it's indentured servitude.
The solution was for America to create more scholarships for re-training manufacturing workers and training new IT workers. Instead, the ITAA rigged the game. They went around posting fake job ads and create an artificial scarcity that justified Congress adding WAY more H-1Bs than we actually needed.
I got news for you. Corporate America really doesn't give a fuck about the relative quality of an Indian programmer vs an American programmer. They realize that H-1Bs and LZ-1s can be exploited and have far less options for leaving the country and relocating. In some cases, they even get tax breaks (including the ZERO TAXES they pay for L-Z1s (Tata is the DEVIL!!!!)).
The whole notion of "competition" in globalization is a stupid buzzword. We are not "competing" as a nation. We are selling out.
Remember the cold war. THAT was economic competition. We didn't trade with the communists. We were showing the world that a Democratic way was better.
The hammer and sickle are now gone. The same evil assholes who underwrote Stalin and Hitler (the Bush family (Prescot Bush (Dubyas Connecticut Grandpappy (Skull & Bones)) financed both Hitler and Lenin, look it up)) are underwriting globablization.
What I expect is the same type of economic policies that drove the US into civil war. A fundamental disagreemant as to the rights of labor to bargain, negotiate and ultimately dictate their fair share of economic spoils. WTO, GATT, and NAFTA ignores both labor and environmental concerns.
The civil war was fought over these priciples. It was a fundamental battle of an economy based on subjugated labor vs free farmers and laborers with rights. The slaves were not the enemy, the slavemasters were.
To force a free laborer to compete with a subjugated laborer is fundamentally unfair. It demeans both parties. Enriching the slavemaster does not enrich the slave. He does not share in the spoils of his labors.
America has drifted far from the heyday of labor in the 40s, 50s and 60s. The prosperity of liberal America has been eroded by the raveshes of Republicans bent upon returning America to outrageous schism of wealth in the 1930s that almost doomed are Democracy (thanks FDR for saving us all).
A REAL robust middle class the size of America's will NEVER develop in India or Mexico under current conditions. By middle, I mean a country where the VAST MAJORITY of people are middle class.
Don't give me any bullshit about the industrial development of the US. The US was settled largely as a MIDDLE CLASS affairs. We were a country of land-owning farmers and shop keepers. The middle class and world democracy were born in the farmlands of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska, Missouri, etc... Those lands developed a people whose economic fortunes were dictated by self-determination.
This is the real origin of the dominant middle class. Yes I'm sure the middle class is growing in India and Mexico. But do they dominate??? The US middle class is being decimated. Once we've run out of money (and political power) their analogues in India, Mexico and China will collapse.
I'm sorry, but I'm not willing to finance the creation of temporary pools of prosperity overseas by sacrificing the gift of our forbears who sweated toiled and died for the notions of liberty, prosperity and self determination.
Millions died on battlefields to pass on this legacy. It does not belong to this generation. It belongs to our children. To give up our prosperity to overseas tyrants dishoners the martyrs of freedom and democracy. I dare say that even Ghandi would dissaprove to see his country developing in a way that depended on preying on the poor in foreign countries rather than demanding that the aristocracy of India share the wealth of the nation.
If the poor of India, China and Mexico want to help themselves, they should manufature rifles in
You drank the communist kool-ade and believed it. Communism was NEVER about equality except in rhetoric. It's simply another system of aristocracy. It's sole merit is that it did away with the royal concept of bloodlines.
The idea that EVERYBODY in either system was equal is hogwash. Ask these questions to the poor peasents in Siberea and the grunt in the military. They might have different answers. Those with high political appointments enjoy lots of luxury.
The same thing goes for China. the idea that everyone is equal in stature was a joke in the days of Mao and a joke now. The "equalization" merely served the purpose of tearing down some and elevating others. One set of tyrants was exchanged for the other under a pretext of "equality".
The old Soviet Union were command economies with command political systems. They rule with might, the people have no real say in the affairs of state. All the persons who can make decisions are appointed by the "strong man" who keeps the whole thing together.
The new China has abandoned the command economy and replaced it with lazzei-fair capitalism. As in Russia, the state industries are being looted by the politically connected (aristocracy). But in China, there is still no Democracy (as Tienamenn Square demonstrated). China has effectively become a facist state. Those who control the government also control industry.
Do high taxes create a government elite aristocracy????? You'll forgive me if I'm jaded by the term "elite" lately. It's been bandied about by conservatives attacking poor hippy liberals as being "elitist".
Those in US government are elected by the people. They aren't selected by the "Central Commitee" or the monarch in older systems of government. The notion of the people vs the government in democracy is nonsense. The government IS the people. Though the government does often stray from it's purpose (with every Republican vote).
When tax money is spent of chronies, it creates an elite of the politically connected. When it's spent on "average folk" its good government. Pardon Democrats if they buy votes by providing services. Some people consider this the role of a socially responsible, progressive government.
As far as the US not being a democracy... it is. We are a Democratic Federal Republic. We have multiple levels of government. Our federal government is balanced between DIRECT representation and state representation.
I certainly support more representation in the United States. I believe we need at least twice as many Congressman. This will subdivide media markets and make advertising less effective. The candidates will be "closer" to their constituents. We need more campaign finance reform. We need pluralistic voting (especially when it comes to presidential electors).
Enriching the slavemaster does not enrich the slave. Enriching the slavemaster reinforces and supports the institution.
Nope, outsourcing is exploitation of two parties. Number one is the American worker who both loses his job and no longer helps his neighbor with his purchases. Plus, it exploits the foreign worker whos standard of living isn't really increased that much. All the profit goes to the outsourcers.
Economic development should be driven INTERNALLY rather than externally. Yep, it's the good old prime directive. We should engage in NATURAL trade. That is, trade for things we cannot get. And we should make sure workers are well compensated for our labor.
We should help those in the 3rd world develop DOMESTIC industries for DOMESTIC consumption. If no such domestic consumers are available, it's a sign that the country does not have sufficient political structures to allow for the creation of a middle class.
Once these nations evolve internally with a properous and numerous middle class, than we can engage in trade equally with them. The middle class in the 3rd world should drive development of industries in those nations. The rich must pay to develop these classes.
Otherwise, we only impoverish ourselves AND poor foreigners while enriching those in the upper classes in both worlds. Those of you who are still for world trade haven't lost your chair yet. Don't worry, your turn is coming. Even those turn coats who have become "outsourcing consultants" will eventually lose their seats by bigger providers and multi-nationals who no longer need their services.
The result of globablization, NAFTA, GATT, WTO is a system of world feudalism. A system of multi-national corporations who are above and beyond ANY jurisdiction. Democracy will be irrelevant because the multi-nationals will be capable of crushing ANY nation that opposes them by cutting off supplies of vital goods and services.
Our nation is slowly losing it's autonomy. We are losing our ability to sustain ourselves with manufacturing, especially in the military sector. All of the "smart" technologies are now manufactured near China. If we keep outsourcing are key technologies to these regions, we can expect that China may eventually be able to put the US under it's thumb.
Stop outsourcing, H-1B, L-Z1, NAFTA and WTO ASAP!!!!!!
So your underlying thesis is that US tax policies make it too expensive for Americans to do any work????
We have policies that have basically sold out the American worker. This isn't a trade war. A war is when one team fights the other. Globalization represents a complete surrender.
Why American's want to "compete" against 3rd world nations on their merits is idiotic. Lower wages, lower standards of living, poor infrastructure, extremely high stratifications in income and power, no rights for labor, low levels of democracy, no minimum wage.
Shit, progress is expensive. I have my own little theory. High levels of democracy and equality and education produces enlightened, properous societies. The more out of balance we become, the more like the 3rd world become, the poorer we become as a nation. Basically, all the conditions that led to the great depression. A system of mega-rich individuals who control EVERYTHING and a serf class that must beg at their door for the right to work for food.
Nope sorry, high taxes on rich fuckers is what helped to bring us back from the brink. The war helped us pry open those fuckers wallets even more. 90% taxation rates on the wealthy created the "miracle" period of the 50s that conservatives are so fond of alluding to.
Indians and Chinese will never be as prosporous as the US until their systems create more equality and more democracy. Seriously, the Indian class system (outlawed but still in existence) would make a Jim Crowe Klansman blush. China has cast off any pretention to the helping the "proletariate". They have gone capitalist. Actually, China is really more of a facist nation now.
The wealth of America was produced almost 100% from the resources ingenuity, freedom and democracy of the United States. I'd agree that US companies have steam-rolled foreign nations at times. But those benefits only went to the super-rich, not the middle class.
I am not helped by cheaper goods if they produce lower wages. It does not help my neighbor and he is my customer. The super-rich are currently ringing the middle class as they did in the 20s. With each twist, they consume the wealth of those who previously though they were immune from such economic displacement.
Yes, Democrats have indeed lost their way. They gave in to the pressure of corporate monies that were funding their Republican opponents. In doing so, they lost their biggest tie to their constituencies. The disenfranchised who cannot afford the big campaign contributions that keep politicians in office.
The ultimate irony is that Americans REALLY hate outsourcing and globalization in the big way. Unfortunately, both parties have their hands in it. The opposition is bipartisan. If the Democrats would rally against WTO and NAFTA, they would win the 2004 elections in landslides.
10 years ago, you might have claimed that carpenters can't be outsourced either. Yet we find that former carpenter jobs are now going to illegal immigrants.
Is the plumbing trade THAT much more difficult that an illegal cannot do the work like most other trades (bricklayer, electrician, gardener , etc...)
You can certainly fit a LOT of plumbers and mechanics on an airplane. You can fit just about as many as all those programmers they've shipped over to the US.
Finally, the latest tech is ALWAYS more expensive. Once you produce stuff in volume, it gets WAY cheaper. The auto industries BIGGEST cost is the lack of standardized and parts and mechanisms. They've started picking up with "platform technologies". That is, they produce a chassis and engine package and then slap different shells on top of it.
The Boyd Coddington effort to make standard part interconnection could cut a LOT of cost out of the auto industry. The use of MORE standardized parts like air filters, oil filters, transmissions etc... could help as well.
The auto industry will naturally resist. They've had standardization in their power for a VERY long time. They play the same game as the multiple vendors of different memory card formats. They want to make money sell parts.
Re:Maybe it is because we are skeptical...
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A New Ice Age?
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· Score: 3, Insightful
And wouldn't increased CO2 increase plant life (hence the term "greenhouse effect") and then in turn lower the CO2 in the
It depends on whether there is sufficient unpaved acerage on which to grow those plants.
People should take all these topics seriously. Paradoxically, global warming could turn Northern Europe and NE America into an iceball. Conversely, the Atlantic tropics wouldn't get cool water from the gulf stream making them MUCH, MUCH hotter.
Better science is still needed to get very detailed temperature data all across the planet. We need the capability to meaure temperature in deep oceans and within the earth itself. We have to find out where all the heat is to be sure that observed temperature changes represent a net increase instead of redistribution.
Finally, this isn't the first time this theory has been presented in movies. AI depicted a future inhabited solely by robots who excavated the ice incrusted ruins of manhatten where they found David, their only reliable link to their human creators.
It's great to know that people respond by modding down some fairly obvious facts regarding the merits of colonizing Mars/Luna vs colonizing Antarctica.
The fact that Antarctica has NOT been colonized shows that neither Mars nor Luna have any economic value or prospects for self-sustainability.
Slashdot Mirror
Any time a company sues, they claim user costs will go up. Oh really. Did they bother to make a spreadsheet on this. Exactly what are Microsoft's costs compared to their annual revenue????
Furthermore, don't forget that the lawsuit concerns allegedly "ill-gotten" gains. So the fine would be against money the company had already collected illegaly.
The bottom line for why Microsoft raises prices
The bottom line is that Microsoft is one of the most profitable corporations on the planet. They make money hand over fist. As I recall they just made a 4 billion dollar dividend recently.
For a monopolist price gouger, the money spent on defending it's monopoly truly is "The cost of doing business". If MS wasn't a monopoly, Windows would cost $50 per copy instead of $180.
Stained glass windows typically aren't used for information technology. But I'll do you one better. OVERHEAD TRANSPERANCIES.
Plastic transparencies have been used for many many years for presentation and the animation industry.
I doubt that Apple's patent will hold up in court. But you have to remember the rules of the patent game. The idea is to have as many patents as possible so you can counter-sue on 10 patents for every patent someone sues YOU for.
The capture of Saddam Hussein has not stopped suicide bombing in Israel.
Regarding the condition of the country, it's become a global fire zone. Saddam killed lots of people, but we have killed tens of thousands since the beginning of the war.
Saddam Hussein justified that he tortured prisoners because "they were criminals". Donald Rumsfeld justifies the abuse of Iraqi prisoners because "they are criminals".
Don't be surprised if many Iraqis can't tell the difference between US occupation and Bath Party rule. The big difference is that the electricity was always on. The water was always running. There was plenty of gasoline. Neighborhoods weren't battlezone.
It is hubris to believe that we can waltz into any location in the world and "improve" it. Ultimately, there is a cost in American $$$ and American lives. The question is whether the effort is cost justified????
We could have bought a LOT of solar panels and wind turbines for $200 billion (the current price tag). We could have built a LOT of schools, employed a LOT of teachers and a LOT of cops. Hell, we could easily an air marshall on every single US plane.
Iraq is not a battle against terrorism. It's a family feud combined with a financial transaction. Our serviceman are dying for Exxon, Shell, BP and the Bush Family, not the United States.
It's not a Straw Man. Timothy McVeigh was a real terrorist from New York.
The argument is that we should go after terrorists where they are. Well, McVeigh was associated with some pretty shady characters who are still at large. If we find their locations, should we bomb them????
Yes, I'm sure there were a few terrorists in Iraq (ironically, now there are a LOT there). But other countries have even more including Germany and the United States. Of course, the #1 hotbed of terrorist funding is SAUDI ARABIA!!!!!!
Saddam Hussein was not involved in terrorist activities. He did launch a pre-emptive war against Kuwait 13 years ago. Yes, I agree that launching pre-emptive wars are BAD.
But Saddam Hussein was not involved in Al-Queda. In fact, the two groups really hate each other. Saddam Hussein was NOT a team player.
The argument stands. A few terrorists being located in a country is NOT justification for invading.
The world told him to show proof that he had disarmed. He didn't. The only safe assumption a Commander in Chief could make based on that evidence is that he still has the weapons. Anthrax just does not dissappear, after all.
So, if I ask Cuba to show me proof that it has no military capability to attack the US, and they don't comply, my only option is to invade the country?
Good point, how could anyone prove that they don't have WMD. Hell, I could have WMD hidden somewhere. How could I prove otherwise?????
Yeah, Saddam Hussein was living high on the hog off his people. But he was effectively contained. He wasn't getting parts for munitions to reconstitute his pre-Gulf War military.
We would have done better by arming the Kurds to the teeth and letting them take care of business.
I am glad that the man in charge of protecting our national security DOES have the balls to act when necessary.
... "No, It's because I de-prioritized counter-terrorism efforts. Bin Ladin has nothing to do with it. In fact I'm in the process of dismantling existing intelligence gathering efforts. For example, I cancelled the investigation on the USS Cole and forced that nosy FBI agent to come home. We booted his ass and he works at the World Trade Center now."
.... WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!!!!! Either that, or big balled dummy knew and was VERY PLEASED.
Yeah, hindsight is 20/20. But memos titled "Bin Ladin determined to strike in the US" tend to elicit some activity. It could generate a question like, "Hey Ashcroft, is this the reason you only fly private charter now????"
Ascroft's response of course would be
The President's Response: "I thought I told you to shut down all those investigations against my old Bin Ladin buddies. You know them and my daddy go way back. They're really ticked that some of our agents are trying to shut down their charities. Make sure that money keeps flowing. It's how they fund their little brother Osama."
Condaleeza Rice: "Mr President, would you like me to read the report to you again????"
President: "No. 11 pages is way too long. Make sure you redact it so if I have to remember it again, it will only be two pages. Just cut out the nine in the middle. Yeah, and get Dick on the phone. I have to figure out how the Iraq war plan is going. Did we end up giving most the oil to Exxon or Shell????"
Of course, the morning of 9/11 your beloved hero was very vigilant in protecting our nation. He knew about the diverted planes BEFORE he left the hotel. He knew about the first strike BEFORE he went into the classroom. A reporter asked him if he knew what was going on in New York, he responded "Yeah, I saw that on TV, that was a pretty bad pilot".
Tick, tock, tick, tock, buzzzz. You can see the engine creaking inside the presidents mind. But he doesn't put two and two together. In fact, along the line he must have issued an order for the Air Force to STAND DOWN. Otherwise, all the jets would have been INTERCEPTED as per standard operating procedure (Google Payne Stewart Plane Crash).
Big ball, no brain Bush goes into a classroom and sits on his ass reading to 2nd graders while our nation it under attack. Than, he is informed that a SECOND plane hits the World Trade Center. Big dummy still hasn't figured it out
Nevertheless, big balled dummey sits in a classroom for another 15 minutes and finishes the goat story. It's so rare that the President is among his intellectual peers. I'm sure he relishes those precious moments.
OK big balled dummy, what do we do. Do you rescind your stand down order that prevented planes from scrambling. Nope, not yet. Plane #3 hasn't struck yet. Don't believe the lies. Do you seriously believe that planes capable of travelling 1500 miles an hour stationed just outside the capital would be unable to intercept the Pentagon airliner????????
Are we stupid??? Is the military this utterly inept???? I don't believe so. If they were, the Soviets would have leveled our nation a LONG time ago.
After all the stupidity on the morning of 9/11, the President makes a brave call to "authorize" shooting down the Pennsylvania plane. How brave he is since he could have prevented the fall of WTC 1, as well as saving the lives of people in the Pentagon. Had he not issued a stand down warning, he could have saved WTC 1 as well.
Who knows, he might have even prevented WTC 7 from mysteriously imploding for no apparent reason.
On to Afghanistan. Does Bush have the Balls to see the Afghan campaign through???? Does he have the balls to put large numbers of boots on the ground to catch his old family friend Osama Bin Ladin??????
Nope. Bush is more concerned with Saddam Hussein. He was obsessed from day one.
This isn't the first time the White House has released completely fabricated lies in an effort to confuse people. Remember the stories about the Clinton staffers "trashing" the White House, it never happened.
This story is intended to convince us that the FBI and CIA is stupid. They've done a lot of these smear jobs recently to make our intelligence services look "stupid". That's the whole angle. The White House was never warned about anything. It was an "intelligence failure".
So here we have another example of an "intelligence failure". The White House staffer sweeps in to the rescue with a Google search. The added benefit is to show that the FBI is hyper-sensitive and issues threat level increases based on video game characters (imaginary).
If anyone truly thinks we have field agents dumb enough to issue a warning on non-vetted information, well they're pretty naive. I dare say they would be completely unable to survive the extensive training program that every FBI agent has to pass. If the FBI is that stupid, our country is truly in danger.
If you combine "1984" and "The Prince" you will get the operating manual for the Bush White House. They're all LIARS!!!!!!!
Since SETI is effectively junk-science, I find it funny that she complains about UFO phenomenon.
At least UFO researchers are effectively dealing with a real sociological phenomenon (regardless of whether we're being visited).
A couple points.
;-)
.10 apiece, I wouldn't care. The ratings system is all messed up right now. Too many good shows go off the air because Nielson's sample groups aren't diverse enough (they're too dumb).
First, if you know how to fit coaxial together, you can get all the TVs you want without paying extra. When they hooked up my apartment, they disabled all but one hookup. I promptly reconnected them after they left.
Second, supporting a large network can put a drain on the cable network. After talking to a cable guy recently (HD-TV connection) I realized that coax is thick, but it needs to be amplified every 300 ft.
The cable network is an intracite network of cable and amplifiers that must be properly tuned and harmonized to work properly. To much signal and TVs are banded. Too little, and they're fuzzy. If you bump up power at one point, you may have to attenuate or tilt at another. This is the joy of analog.
When they hooked up my HDTV, they had to bring a large truck out and tweak the local network to get my signal strength high enough. It took them about three hours in all to get stuff working.
So if you draw 10 connections you'll drop your signal about 13dB. That might require adjustments up the line.
So if you want them to carefully tune the network for YOU, it might cost extra. If you're willing to look at at 10 shitty, fuzzy picture that costs nothing
Cable companies are rapidly pushing On-Demand boxes with digital capability. They really want TV to go pay-per-view so they can get you for each program you watch. If programs were
As long as they "give" away the box, it's fine. In a way, they're trying to help beginners "manage" their network.
It will also help Comcast to shut down trojan infected machines at the point of attack. This costs MANY users mondo bandwidth.
If they don't force it on me, I'm fine with it. If they give it to me for free, I might even take it.
The voting companies say it would be overly expensive to add printed ballots to their machines.
But I guarantee you, if their software was made open source today, tommorow their would be three or four patches to connect printers to these stupid machines.
Selecting on a machine is fine. But we need to print the ballot in HUMAN READABLE format. In addition, ballots should not contain any machine encoding formats (like bar codes) that people cannot read.
This is the only way to gaurantee that the machines aren't being rigged to record something other than what the voter expects.
Honestly, I'm starting to think that the Canadian low-tech approach works best. Put an X next to the candidate you like. Canvassers count the ballots by hand. For all the money we spend on machines, we could afford to pay them well.
So your saying that an effort by independent producers to thwart a semi-monopoly is collusion????
The fact is that JEDEC had been meeting well before Rambus came into being. They had been developing memory standards for a very long time. In fact, Rambus joined JEDEC and attempted to monopolize the memory market via seeding JEDEC processes with patented technologies.
JEDEC is not a cartel. They aren't trying to squeeze or force anyone in or out of a market. They are an open association of companies that work to their common benefit. Anyone can join provided they have the capital. Anyone can license the technology.
Better watch out. If the logic behind this suit is successfull, Microsoft will sue Linus Torvalds for a conspiracy to make Microsoft Windows IP worthless by artificially driving down prices with "givaway" products. Every Linux contributor would be a co-defendant.
Rambus memory ultimately failed because it was ill-tailored for most of the PC market. The vast majority of PC applications rely on massive numbers of low bandwidth memory operations. Rambus memory carried significant penalties for latency. It's only appropriate for high volume web servers and video processing applications.
DDR came close in bandwidth and smoked Rambus on latency. That's why DDR won. Owning a car that goes 200mph is only effective if you drive the autobahn. Likewise, 3.4GB/sec is only important high volume web servers and video processing applications.
Effectively, Rambus only had advantages for a very small portion of the market.
Excuse me mother fucker. Exactly WHAT is America bad at besides working for slave wages (or being slaves outright).
Sorry, but virtually ALL of the relative advantages of overseas production is 100% LABOR COST related.
No I'm sorry, but it is fundamentally debasing to force a liberated, empowered worker to "compete" on a wage basis with the politically destitute overseas. Our wages going overseas won't help ONE BIT in improving the political wealth of any nation unless we DEMAND political reform as part of trade.
We did this before. We called it the COLD WAR. Forget all the ICBMs. They only served to prevent a general military conflagration. The cold war was about two POLITICAL systems duking it out. One system had a voting popolous, the other a population of slaves. The liberated workers one.
Now we are no longer "competing". Thats right, what you call "competition" is really just SELLING OUT.
We've sold out on the notion that American's should not have to compete on a wage basis against indentured, politically subjugated pulls of labor.
You people blow your theories around but it's all a bunch of slick, well-funded bunk.
The plain truth is that their is NOTHING that we cannot do in the United States. We have the MOST TALENT, the BEST NATURAL RESOURCES and the most heritage in innovation and creativity. We are also willing to lay our lives down for freedom.
Sorry Mr Benedict Arnold, you aren't advocating competition, you're advocating giving in to the notion that serf-hood is an inevitable conclusion that we must "go with". Americans aren't going to just "go with it".
For the umpteenth time
Call center workers in Bangalore are working on borrowed time. There are even MORE desparate people around the world who will work for EVEN LESS. There work isn't being funded by their fellow Indians. Once the foreign capital withdraws, he'll be out in the rice lines. India's economy is NOT self-sustaing. It depends on a lifeline of sucking wealth from the American middle class. It has not developed on it's own feet. Once the American crutch is removed, it will collapse.
You know what. Why don't all you free traders just skip all the bullshit nonsense and just cut to the chase. Just start putting everybody in shakles and beating them with whips. House them in shacks and feed them left over pig parts from their corporate masters' tables. I'm fucking sick of all the flirting.
Trade in people IS NOT TRADE. It's migration. In many cases, it's indentured servitude.
The solution was for America to create more scholarships for re-training manufacturing workers and training new IT workers. Instead, the ITAA rigged the game. They went around posting fake job ads and create an artificial scarcity that justified Congress adding WAY more H-1Bs than we actually needed.
I got news for you. Corporate America really doesn't give a fuck about the relative quality of an Indian programmer vs an American programmer. They realize that H-1Bs and LZ-1s can be exploited and have far less options for leaving the country and relocating. In some cases, they even get tax breaks (including the ZERO TAXES they pay for L-Z1s (Tata is the DEVIL!!!!)).
The whole notion of "competition" in globalization is a stupid buzzword. We are not "competing" as a nation. We are selling out.
Remember the cold war. THAT was economic competition. We didn't trade with the communists. We were showing the world that a Democratic way was better.
The hammer and sickle are now gone. The same evil assholes who underwrote Stalin and Hitler (the Bush family (Prescot Bush (Dubyas Connecticut Grandpappy (Skull & Bones)) financed both Hitler and Lenin, look it up)) are underwriting globablization.
What I expect is the same type of economic policies that drove the US into civil war. A fundamental disagreemant as to the rights of labor to bargain, negotiate and ultimately dictate their fair share of economic spoils. WTO, GATT, and NAFTA ignores both labor and environmental concerns.
The civil war was fought over these priciples. It was a fundamental battle of an economy based on subjugated labor vs free farmers and laborers with rights. The slaves were not the enemy, the slavemasters were.
To force a free laborer to compete with a subjugated laborer is fundamentally unfair. It demeans both parties. Enriching the slavemaster does not enrich the slave. He does not share in the spoils of his labors.
America has drifted far from the heyday of labor in the 40s, 50s and 60s. The prosperity of liberal America has been eroded by the raveshes of Republicans bent upon returning America to outrageous schism of wealth in the 1930s that almost doomed are Democracy (thanks FDR for saving us all).
A REAL robust middle class the size of America's will NEVER develop in India or Mexico under current conditions. By middle, I mean a country where the VAST MAJORITY of people are middle class.
Don't give me any bullshit about the industrial development of the US. The US was settled largely as a MIDDLE CLASS affairs. We were a country of land-owning farmers and shop keepers. The middle class and world democracy were born in the farmlands of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska, Missouri, etc... Those lands developed a people whose economic fortunes were dictated by self-determination.
This is the real origin of the dominant middle class. Yes I'm sure the middle class is growing in India and Mexico. But do they dominate??? The US middle class is being decimated. Once we've run out of money (and political power) their analogues in India, Mexico and China will collapse.
I'm sorry, but I'm not willing to finance the creation of temporary pools of prosperity overseas by sacrificing the gift of our forbears who sweated toiled and died for the notions of liberty, prosperity and self determination.
Millions died on battlefields to pass on this legacy. It does not belong to this generation. It belongs to our children. To give up our prosperity to overseas tyrants dishoners the martyrs of freedom and democracy. I dare say that even Ghandi would dissaprove to see his country developing in a way that depended on preying on the poor in foreign countries rather than demanding that the aristocracy of India share the wealth of the nation.
If the poor of India, China and Mexico want to help themselves, they should manufature rifles in
... about the quality of India's democracy. Now it's official.
With universal e-voting, India no longer has a democracy. Those who control the machines (the counting) will always win.
We can officially scratch India off the list as the worlds most populous democracy. They are just like China now.
What's worse is when employees look at your resume and say
"You're overqualified. Why do you want to work here."
My answer
"I would like to make my car payment. Where else am I going to live???
Yeah, the buggy whip market really picked up after all the buggy whip manufacturers left the market.
So your theory is "lack of supply creates it's own demand?????"
Seriously, economics is a little bit sociology, a little bit statistics and a LOT of voodoo ideology!!!!!
Boy your really funny aren't you.
You drank the communist kool-ade and believed it. Communism was NEVER about equality except in rhetoric. It's simply another system of aristocracy. It's sole merit is that it did away with the royal concept of bloodlines.
The idea that EVERYBODY in either system was equal is hogwash. Ask these questions to the poor peasents in Siberea and the grunt in the military. They might have different answers. Those with high political appointments enjoy lots of luxury.
The same thing goes for China. the idea that everyone is equal in stature was a joke in the days of Mao and a joke now. The "equalization" merely served the purpose of tearing down some and elevating others. One set of tyrants was exchanged for the other under a pretext of "equality".
The old Soviet Union were command economies with command political systems. They rule with might, the people have no real say in the affairs of state. All the persons who can make decisions are appointed by the "strong man" who keeps the whole thing together.
The new China has abandoned the command economy and replaced it with lazzei-fair capitalism. As in Russia, the state industries are being looted by the politically connected (aristocracy). But in China, there is still no Democracy (as Tienamenn Square demonstrated). China has effectively become a facist state. Those who control the government also control industry.
Do high taxes create a government elite aristocracy????? You'll forgive me if I'm jaded by the term "elite" lately. It's been bandied about by conservatives attacking poor hippy liberals as being "elitist".
Those in US government are elected by the people. They aren't selected by the "Central Commitee" or the monarch in older systems of government. The notion of the people vs the government in democracy is nonsense. The government IS the people. Though the government does often stray from it's purpose (with every Republican vote).
When tax money is spent of chronies, it creates an elite of the politically connected. When it's spent on "average folk" its good government. Pardon Democrats if they buy votes by providing services. Some people consider this the role of a socially responsible, progressive government.
As far as the US not being a democracy
I certainly support more representation in the United States. I believe we need at least twice as many Congressman. This will subdivide media markets and make advertising less effective. The candidates will be "closer" to their constituents. We need more campaign finance reform. We need pluralistic voting (especially when it comes to presidential electors).
Enriching the slavemaster does not enrich the slave. Enriching the slavemaster reinforces and supports the institution.
Nope, outsourcing is exploitation of two parties. Number one is the American worker who both loses his job and no longer helps his neighbor with his purchases. Plus, it exploits the foreign worker whos standard of living isn't really increased that much. All the profit goes to the outsourcers.
Economic development should be driven INTERNALLY rather than externally. Yep, it's the good old prime directive. We should engage in NATURAL trade. That is, trade for things we cannot get. And we should make sure workers are well compensated for our labor.
We should help those in the 3rd world develop DOMESTIC industries for DOMESTIC consumption. If no such domestic consumers are available, it's a sign that the country does not have sufficient political structures to allow for the creation of a middle class.
Once these nations evolve internally with a properous and numerous middle class, than we can engage in trade equally with them. The middle class in the 3rd world should drive development of industries in those nations. The rich must pay to develop these classes.
Otherwise, we only impoverish ourselves AND poor foreigners while enriching those in the upper classes in both worlds. Those of you who are still for world trade haven't lost your chair yet. Don't worry, your turn is coming. Even those turn coats who have become "outsourcing consultants" will eventually lose their seats by bigger providers and multi-nationals who no longer need their services.
The result of globablization, NAFTA, GATT, WTO is a system of world feudalism. A system of multi-national corporations who are above and beyond ANY jurisdiction. Democracy will be irrelevant because the multi-nationals will be capable of crushing ANY nation that opposes them by cutting off supplies of vital goods and services.
Our nation is slowly losing it's autonomy. We are losing our ability to sustain ourselves with manufacturing, especially in the military sector. All of the "smart" technologies are now manufactured near China. If we keep outsourcing are key technologies to these regions, we can expect that China may eventually be able to put the US under it's thumb.
Stop outsourcing, H-1B, L-Z1, NAFTA and WTO ASAP!!!!!!
So your underlying thesis is that US tax policies make it too expensive for Americans to do any work????
We have policies that have basically sold out the American worker. This isn't a trade war. A war is when one team fights the other. Globalization represents a complete surrender.
Why American's want to "compete" against 3rd world nations on their merits is idiotic. Lower wages, lower standards of living, poor infrastructure, extremely high stratifications in income and power, no rights for labor, low levels of democracy, no minimum wage.
Shit, progress is expensive. I have my own little theory. High levels of democracy and equality and education produces enlightened, properous societies. The more out of balance we become, the more like the 3rd world become, the poorer we become as a nation. Basically, all the conditions that led to the great depression. A system of mega-rich individuals who control EVERYTHING and a serf class that must beg at their door for the right to work for food.
Nope sorry, high taxes on rich fuckers is what helped to bring us back from the brink. The war helped us pry open those fuckers wallets even more. 90% taxation rates on the wealthy created the "miracle" period of the 50s that conservatives are so fond of alluding to.
Indians and Chinese will never be as prosporous as the US until their systems create more equality and more democracy. Seriously, the Indian class system (outlawed but still in existence) would make a Jim Crowe Klansman blush. China has cast off any pretention to the helping the "proletariate". They have gone capitalist. Actually, China is really more of a facist nation now.
The wealth of America was produced almost 100% from the resources ingenuity, freedom and democracy of the United States. I'd agree that US companies have steam-rolled foreign nations at times. But those benefits only went to the super-rich, not the middle class.
I am not helped by cheaper goods if they produce lower wages. It does not help my neighbor and he is my customer. The super-rich are currently ringing the middle class as they did in the 20s. With each twist, they consume the wealth of those who previously though they were immune from such economic displacement.
Yes, Democrats have indeed lost their way. They gave in to the pressure of corporate monies that were funding their Republican opponents. In doing so, they lost their biggest tie to their constituencies. The disenfranchised who cannot afford the big campaign contributions that keep politicians in office.
The ultimate irony is that Americans REALLY hate outsourcing and globalization in the big way. Unfortunately, both parties have their hands in it. The opposition is bipartisan. If the Democrats would rally against WTO and NAFTA, they would win the 2004 elections in landslides.
10 years ago, you might have claimed that carpenters can't be outsourced either. Yet we find that former carpenter jobs are now going to illegal immigrants.
Is the plumbing trade THAT much more difficult that an illegal cannot do the work like most other trades (bricklayer, electrician, gardener , etc...)
You can certainly fit a LOT of plumbers and mechanics on an airplane. You can fit just about as many as all those programmers they've shipped over to the US.
Finally, the latest tech is ALWAYS more expensive. Once you produce stuff in volume, it gets WAY cheaper. The auto industries BIGGEST cost is the lack of standardized and parts and mechanisms. They've started picking up with "platform technologies". That is, they produce a chassis and engine package and then slap different shells on top of it.
The Boyd Coddington effort to make standard part interconnection could cut a LOT of cost out of the auto industry. The use of MORE standardized parts like air filters, oil filters, transmissions etc... could help as well.
The auto industry will naturally resist. They've had standardization in their power for a VERY long time. They play the same game as the multiple vendors of different memory card formats. They want to make money sell parts.
And wouldn't increased CO2 increase plant life (hence the term "greenhouse effect") and then in turn lower the CO2 in the
It depends on whether there is sufficient unpaved acerage on which to grow those plants.
People should take all these topics seriously. Paradoxically, global warming could turn Northern Europe and NE America into an iceball. Conversely, the Atlantic tropics wouldn't get cool water from the gulf stream making them MUCH, MUCH hotter.
Better science is still needed to get very detailed temperature data all across the planet. We need the capability to meaure temperature in deep oceans and within the earth itself. We have to find out where all the heat is to be sure that observed temperature changes represent a net increase instead of redistribution.
Finally, this isn't the first time this theory has been presented in movies. AI depicted a future inhabited solely by robots who excavated the ice incrusted ruins of manhatten where they found David, their only reliable link to their human creators.
It's great to know that people respond by modding down some fairly obvious facts regarding the merits of colonizing Mars/Luna vs colonizing Antarctica.
The fact that Antarctica has NOT been colonized shows that neither Mars nor Luna have any economic value or prospects for self-sustainability.