I was under the impression that the Windows Operating System business was always the most profitable division in the company, followed in distant second place by MS Office (which was still quite profitable, but not as much as the Windows business). In fact, for many years (and probably continuing until today) those two divisions were the only substantially profitable divisions in the company. The other products either lost money (90%+) to varying degrees or else broke even or had some combination of years where they eked out small profits but mostly just broke even or lost money. Although, it could be argued that even products which lost money on their own merits contributed to and strengthened the monopoly profits enjoyed by the Windows and Office divisions (as the EU report points out).
While I cannot speak for other members of my generation (I was a tail end Gen-X baby with substantial crossover into the early Gen-Y period so I am less disillusioned than some of my younger Gen-Y peers), I do not believe that instant power and wealth are my birthrights. I was merely trying to offer an explanation as to why the parent was making a "dig against old people" and while it is true that every new generation says that their parents are "out of touch", but it is difficult to find precedent for the break between the pre-Internet and post-Internet generations, it really is quite remarkable. Finally, I stand by my earlier assertion that in spite of possibly exaggerated differences, there are many legitimate grievances between the old and the young in the United States; for example, generational theft or "passing the buck" to our children and their grandchildren, as our parents have done with us, in the form of tremendous and expanding national debts and continued environmental degradation and destruction to name just a few.
Not sure why you felt the need to make a dig against "old people" but whatever.
Its quite simple really if one considers the matter for just a moment. The government is full of old people and old people own the majority of stocks, bonds, and other forms of accumulated wealth in this country (no suprise there, they have been around accumulating longer than younger people have). Thus, the "old people" control most of the political power and money here in the United States (the situation is probably similar elsewhere) which is one of the main reasons why younger generations, who are further apart from their parents and grandparents than perhaps any other generation in recorded history, are frustrated and angry about inept government handling of a wide range of issues from affordable housing to the war on drugs. The old people have almost all of the power and money and they almost universally "don't get it" like the generation who grew up with the Internet, mobile phones, and (more recently) online social networking does.
That is an excellent point. In fact, rather than make large acquisitions of the type like Yahoo and Sun, Microsoft would be better served by consolidating their divisions to concentrate their research efforts and eliminate unprofitable also-rans like the Zune. Their continued investment in Windows 7 probably is a wise long term move, provided that they can price it competitively. The $300 price point is just too expensive for an non-server OS these days. Microsoft really needs to hit the $100 or less price point with Windows 7 if they want to remain competitive going forward. They should also do more to encourage open source efforts like nAnt, nUnit, nDoc, and nHibernate on their.NET platform and address the niggling issues with Visual Studio (it is already a good product, but it could really be great if they included the sort of features that one now has to buy ReSharper to get). This will be especially important if a combined Oracle + Sun step up the competition with the Java platform (personally I would like to see BOTH succeed going forward because competition has always delivered better platforms and products in computing).
But until then, we'll always be a flea, biting the back of the Mammoth that is Industrialized politics at work.
Perhaps, but even the bite of a flea may deliver the horrible wasting disease that fells the mighty mammoth. The RIAA is not beyond our reach and their vain attempts to discredit Mr. Beckerman and defame their opponents, which are reminiscent of the Scientology theory of "lawsuits to harass and annoy, not to win" and policies of "fair game", prove that well reasoned counter-arguments from informed informed groups and individuals can be brutally effective in exposing the malicious nature of the RIAA spamigation campaigns, the flaws in their legal arguments, and the specious nature of their "evidence" for all to see. In fact, we should take it as hopeful a sign when they single us out for special attacks because it proves that we are being effective. The RIAA has lost the initiative as the shock of their initial lawsuit charge has petered out and now they are stuck in a melee which they cannot win against a new generation of music consumers whom they have now lost forever as customers due to their own ineptness and incompetence which they have also repeatedly demonstrated during their lawsuits (contradicting even their own statements and arguments in different cases over the same issues).
The people at turnitin should realize this and not present percentages out of context on their results page. It would be better, for example, if they used a simple "green, yellow, red" scheme where anything in the green range is good, yellow is possibly plagiarism, and red is more probably than not plagiarism. Frankly I do not see the use for these types of services in 90%+ of university courses, with the possible exception of undergraduate writing courses which typically do NOT feature exams, because 75%+ of the final grade is usually based upon the midterm and final exams (I have even seen 100% final exams in some cases). You are right about this type of service being "a gift of fire" (ala Prometheus) for those whose understanding of mathematics and in particular discrete math, probability, and statistics is lacking (which probably correlates well with those writing teachers who themselves failed math or at least actively avoided it when they were students).
Did you actually play Fallout 3 and do the side quests? The side quests were actually pretty well thought out, interesting, and fit well with the themed areas, NPC character motivations, and the game world in general. Could they have been better? Well, almost any part of any game *could* be made better, but they do have to release the game eventually in order to make a profit. I don't remember who said it first, but I have often heard the adage, "games are never finished, they just get shipped". Now, not ALL of the optional quests were worthwhile (i.e. there were get X and I will give you powerful item type quests of they type that you described), but there were also large optional quests that really did alter the game world and the future areas and quests available. If you didn't get everything out of Fallout 3 the first time then perhaps it is worth a re-play, there really is a lot of content to be discovered in that game.
He was a coxwain or the one who calls the stroke and steers the boat so he didn't actually do the rowing in the strictest sense. However, a good coxwain, who can set the right pace and adroitly steer the boat to avoid being "bumped" (in specific types of rowing races, bumping an opposing team's boat ahead of you allows both boats to pull over and exchange places for the next heat without having to actually row the entire course), is an import team member in coxed rowing so even though he didn't row he still contributed much to his school rowing team.
While my own knowledge of thermodynamics is minimal to say the least (never really studied physics at university, got stuck deep in comp sci instead), I seem to remember something about heat tapping generators reducing the thermodynamic efficiency of an internal combustion engine. If an additional load is introduced on an internal combustion engine, whether that be a direct load such as an extra belt on the output shaft to run the alternator or an indirect one such as a "waste" heat conversion alternator, then wouldn't that also reduce the output power of the engine (necessary in the case of the alternator since gasoline engines will not run without one)? Perhaps I am missing something that a physics geek could easily explain or is there really a "free lunch" here with regard to waste heat?
Make all public transit fare-free and ban toll roads. It'd actually be a very good idea.
No, that would be a terrible idea actually. If you want an example of a country were most private economic activities are banned, everything is socialized, and nobody has to "pay" (although a long wait in line, paying bribes on the side, or risking arrest by going through the black market are all simply alternative methods of paying) then look no further than Cuba. I wouldn't want to live there and I think that if you are honest with yourself, you really wouldn't want to live there either.
Meanwhile, $75,000 would build a school, supply it, and provide money for staff for five years in Afghanistan.
Which nobody would be able to attend without armed protection because the Taliban shut down any non-religuous schools that they come across (only Madrassas that teach koran + jihad are allowed to continue operating) and kill people who send their daughters to any school. Nobody will attend school if they believe that they will be shot and killed for doing so.
So when you're trying to prevent a young muslim from becoming a radical, what's the better option - allowing him the chance to have an education, or blowing up his brother's wedding party and then air dropping him some pudding cups with little American flags on them?
Your'e being naive, its not that simple. As long as the Taliban and the tribesmen are running around the countryside blowing up schools, shooting people who cooperate with us, and then escaping back across the border into Pakistan (the border is a line drawn by long dead white men really, it has little or no meaning to the Pashtun tribesmen who inhabit the region) nothing much is going to change and progress will be extremely slow if it comes at all. The Taliban are not reasonable people; they will never negotiate in good faith with the United States or anyone else from the west (they even stab their fellow Pakistani muslims in the back when they think the tables have turned and peace no longer suits them) not now and not ever and it is a waste of time to try and negotiate with them.
As a commercial software developer who works very hard and doesn't want to see my work made available for free, why would I approve of what TPB are doing?
I too work in the commercial software development industry and, to tell you the truth, the support for TBP founders doesn't bother me in the least. Unless you are self-employed, all of the copyrights, patents, and other rights to the design work and code that you write belong to your employer anyway (i.e. it was effectively work for hire). I don't know about you, but I like sharing my code, seeing the contributions made by others, and then improving again on the contributions of others. As steel sharpens steel so the work of one developer sharpens many others and no programmer is an island. The money is not in the code, but rather in your ongoing professional labors to adapt, setup, configure, and modify as necessary existing code and libraries into solutions that your patrons are willing to pay for, be they your employer or your business clients. Finally, realize that any work that you do "in secret" has probably already been done before (and done better) by other developers so why re-invent a poorer version of the wheel? We all benefit much more from openness and sharing than we do from selfishness and hoarding of knowledge and code.
that's a necessary thing because it's a public good.
You might believe that it is a "public good" in that it is "good" for the public at large, but transportation is NOT, in the strictest economic terms, a public good according to the definition which states:
A Public Good is one that is non-rivaled and non-excludable. This means, respectively, that consumption of the good by one individual does not reduce availability of the good for consumption by others; and that no one can be effectively excluded from using the good.
People can be excluded (prevented) from riding the subway, train, bus, or getting onto the turnpike in their private vehicle if they don't pay the fare. These transportation methods are all subject to both rivalry and exclusion. Real examples of public goods include the air we all breath and the national defense, neither of which are subject to either rivalry or exclusion.
One: The existing rail infrastructure in the united states is ill-suited to speeds above 100 miles per hour (i.e. no banked curves, street level crossings, not enough straight stretches of track, etc).
Two: The existing rail infrastructure is owned by the freight companies who don't care about passenger service. Here in California I once took the Amtrak from San Diego to San Luis Obispo, a distance of ~325 miles, and I must say that the experience was a test of patience. There were three hours of delays, making for an eight hour total trip. We had to pull over and stop for half an hour on side switch tracks so that freight trains loaded with sugar beats, a higher priority than making 1000+ people wait in the eyes of the freight company, could pass us by going south...twice. If high speed rail is to happen here in the United States then it will need dedicated and exclusive tracks like shinkansen in Japan or TGV in France...period.
Three: The United States is the land of lawsuits and we are a nation of NIMBYs who will not want to see their neighborhoods "degraded" or their property values reduced by a noisy high speed train passing nearby. If a train is traveling at 200+ mph with steel wheels on steel rails then it is going to make a fairly large amount of noise when it passes. In Europe they make it more difficult for individual special interests to stand in the way of progress on such issues, but here in the United States just getting the right-of-ways established for the tracks would be a nightmare and just about every community along the proposed route will sue to prevent the train from exceeding 80 miles per hour along the stretch passing through their neck of the woods. So, what you will end up having is the high speed train that can do 200+ mph, but in practice is limited to no more than 100 along much of the route due to NIMBYs and their lawsuits, which mostly defeats the purpose of high speed rail.
It astounds me how many companies get trapped thinking that copyright is somehow different for free and open source software.
The association appears to have been started or gained currency after Steve Ballmer referred to Linux in an 2001 interview as a "cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches."
It seems to me that open source software has LESS of a change of a license violation
Not necessarily, a particular company might discover that some of their copyrighted code has made it into an open source project, but then wait until some large company with deep pockets starts using it in their product. The copyright holder could then conveniently "discover" the infringing code and proceed to sue the large company for infringement (this is a similar scenario to the "submarine patent" which surfaces and attacks when there are good targets available).
This problem is not unique to the state government of Georgia, but is present at some level, greater or lesser, in all government finance at all levels in the United States. That is why I scoff every time I hear some starry-eyed liberal wax poetic over how Obama and his administration are going to save the planet through increased government spending when every small business owner and government employee (at least those who are honest about it) knows that it simply will not be so. In case the Slashdot liberals missed the point, government spending will NOT be the salvation of the American economy. The government caused the problems which lead to the financial meltdown, both directly and also indirectly (by enabling and encouraging the creation of bad money) and massively increasing government spending (which will largely be spent wastefully, no matter how many czars or layers of bureaucracy are piled on to watch over it, in the manner described by the parent), and particularly direct spending (which is even worse than the government paying the private sector to do things), will not solve them. The economy may recover eventually in spite of the efforts of the Obama administration, but their continued "help" will not be as useful as the liberals suppose.
I will concede that this probably true for Manhattan, which being a ~23 square mile area with at least 1.5 million residents, is a special case. However, in Los Angeles, for example, where everything is much more spread out and gas stations are everywhere the advantages of the gas cab come more into play. Why not a hybrid you ask? Well, there are specialized cab companies which field the Toyota Prius for cab duty out here in California, but they cost more to hire, don't carry as much luggage, and generally do not hold as many people. People tend to expect a large, late-model American full-sized sedan (or saloon to you Europeans) car when traveling by cab (i.e. the Ford Crown Victoria, the Chevrolet Caprice, or for higher end service the Lincoln Town Car). The hybrid cab market is a niche. As other posters have noted, the most common (and only really feasible) alternative choice to gasoline is Natural Gas which, following a surge of interest with the high gas prices preceding the meltdown, has returned once more to its niche status.
So if the cab company has to outfit all of their cars with the necessary equipment will it pay off? Perhaps, but it is a substantial risk. How many of their customers have smartphones and would use the service? Also a $3 non-refundable charge isn't enough to cover the risk of a no-show, this is NY after all. The charge would have to be more like $20 non-refundable if you are a no-show for the pickup.
There are already many services that schedule pickups via phone, web, and probably smart phone too (isn't there an iPhone app for that?). The driver doesn't need a smart phone, he just needs a way to receive updates and pickup assignments from base regardless of how the requests arrived at the dispatch server (i.e. the cab computer/meter w/wireless in his cab). This is probably already happening/already been done many times in many different cities by many different cab companies. Also, consider this: what if you schedule a pickup and then you are a no show? There is no difference (in most consumer's minds) between one cab or another so if the cab driver blows off your pickup and takes a fare straight of the street (aka: cash in hand) he experiences no downside (unless the cab company punishes him for doing it and making them look bad). Why should he risk a pickup fare, which may not materialize, when he can get one immediately off the street without having to drive anywhere else to start the trip?
Even if they could get 20% participation from the NY cabbies the gas cabs would still have an advantage because they would not have to return to base to refuel which means more time on the prowl for additional fares while the competition is driving back and forth to base several times per day to get the battery pack changed. The gas powered cab can stop at the nearest gas station, fill up the tank, and be right back out there. The cab driver is a practical creature and will only switch to "green alternatives" if the law forces everyone, including the competition to do it, or it offers a competitive advantage over gas.
That's the issue: More and more stuff is being criminalized.
"Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."
Slashdot Mirror
I was under the impression that the Windows Operating System business was always the most profitable division in the company, followed in distant second place by MS Office (which was still quite profitable, but not as much as the Windows business). In fact, for many years (and probably continuing until today) those two divisions were the only substantially profitable divisions in the company. The other products either lost money (90%+) to varying degrees or else broke even or had some combination of years where they eked out small profits but mostly just broke even or lost money. Although, it could be argued that even products which lost money on their own merits contributed to and strengthened the monopoly profits enjoyed by the Windows and Office divisions (as the EU report points out).
While I cannot speak for other members of my generation (I was a tail end Gen-X baby with substantial crossover into the early Gen-Y period so I am less disillusioned than some of my younger Gen-Y peers), I do not believe that instant power and wealth are my birthrights. I was merely trying to offer an explanation as to why the parent was making a "dig against old people" and while it is true that every new generation says that their parents are "out of touch", but it is difficult to find precedent for the break between the pre-Internet and post-Internet generations, it really is quite remarkable. Finally, I stand by my earlier assertion that in spite of possibly exaggerated differences, there are many legitimate grievances between the old and the young in the United States; for example, generational theft or "passing the buck" to our children and their grandchildren, as our parents have done with us, in the form of tremendous and expanding national debts and continued environmental degradation and destruction to name just a few.
Not sure why you felt the need to make a dig against "old people" but whatever.
Its quite simple really if one considers the matter for just a moment. The government is full of old people and old people own the majority of stocks, bonds, and other forms of accumulated wealth in this country (no suprise there, they have been around accumulating longer than younger people have). Thus, the "old people" control most of the political power and money here in the United States (the situation is probably similar elsewhere) which is one of the main reasons why younger generations, who are further apart from their parents and grandparents than perhaps any other generation in recorded history, are frustrated and angry about inept government handling of a wide range of issues from affordable housing to the war on drugs. The old people have almost all of the power and money and they almost universally "don't get it" like the generation who grew up with the Internet, mobile phones, and (more recently) online social networking does.
That is an excellent point. In fact, rather than make large acquisitions of the type like Yahoo and Sun, Microsoft would be better served by consolidating their divisions to concentrate their research efforts and eliminate unprofitable also-rans like the Zune. Their continued investment in Windows 7 probably is a wise long term move, provided that they can price it competitively. The $300 price point is just too expensive for an non-server OS these days. Microsoft really needs to hit the $100 or less price point with Windows 7 if they want to remain competitive going forward. They should also do more to encourage open source efforts like nAnt, nUnit, nDoc, and nHibernate on their .NET platform and address the niggling issues with Visual Studio (it is already a good product, but it could really be great if they included the sort of features that one now has to buy ReSharper to get). This will be especially important if a combined Oracle + Sun step up the competition with the Java platform (personally I would like to see BOTH succeed going forward because competition has always delivered better platforms and products in computing).
But until then, we'll always be a flea, biting the back of the Mammoth that is Industrialized politics at work.
Perhaps, but even the bite of a flea may deliver the horrible wasting disease that fells the mighty mammoth. The RIAA is not beyond our reach and their vain attempts to discredit Mr. Beckerman and defame their opponents, which are reminiscent of the Scientology theory of "lawsuits to harass and annoy, not to win" and policies of "fair game", prove that well reasoned counter-arguments from informed informed groups and individuals can be brutally effective in exposing the malicious nature of the RIAA spamigation campaigns, the flaws in their legal arguments, and the specious nature of their "evidence" for all to see. In fact, we should take it as hopeful a sign when they single us out for special attacks because it proves that we are being effective. The RIAA has lost the initiative as the shock of their initial lawsuit charge has petered out and now they are stuck in a melee which they cannot win against a new generation of music consumers whom they have now lost forever as customers due to their own ineptness and incompetence which they have also repeatedly demonstrated during their lawsuits (contradicting even their own statements and arguments in different cases over the same issues).
The people at turnitin should realize this and not present percentages out of context on their results page. It would be better, for example, if they used a simple "green, yellow, red" scheme where anything in the green range is good, yellow is possibly plagiarism, and red is more probably than not plagiarism. Frankly I do not see the use for these types of services in 90%+ of university courses, with the possible exception of undergraduate writing courses which typically do NOT feature exams, because 75%+ of the final grade is usually based upon the midterm and final exams (I have even seen 100% final exams in some cases). You are right about this type of service being "a gift of fire" (ala Prometheus) for those whose understanding of mathematics and in particular discrete math, probability, and statistics is lacking (which probably correlates well with those writing teachers who themselves failed math or at least actively avoided it when they were students).
Did you actually play Fallout 3 and do the side quests? The side quests were actually pretty well thought out, interesting, and fit well with the themed areas, NPC character motivations, and the game world in general. Could they have been better? Well, almost any part of any game *could* be made better, but they do have to release the game eventually in order to make a profit. I don't remember who said it first, but I have often heard the adage, "games are never finished, they just get shipped". Now, not ALL of the optional quests were worthwhile (i.e. there were get X and I will give you powerful item type quests of they type that you described), but there were also large optional quests that really did alter the game world and the future areas and quests available. If you didn't get everything out of Fallout 3 the first time then perhaps it is worth a re-play, there really is a lot of content to be discovered in that game.
He was even on the rowing team IIRC.
He was a coxwain or the one who calls the stroke and steers the boat so he didn't actually do the rowing in the strictest sense. However, a good coxwain, who can set the right pace and adroitly steer the boat to avoid being "bumped" (in specific types of rowing races, bumping an opposing team's boat ahead of you allows both boats to pull over and exchange places for the next heat without having to actually row the entire course), is an import team member in coxed rowing so even though he didn't row he still contributed much to his school rowing team.
While my own knowledge of thermodynamics is minimal to say the least (never really studied physics at university, got stuck deep in comp sci instead), I seem to remember something about heat tapping generators reducing the thermodynamic efficiency of an internal combustion engine. If an additional load is introduced on an internal combustion engine, whether that be a direct load such as an extra belt on the output shaft to run the alternator or an indirect one such as a "waste" heat conversion alternator, then wouldn't that also reduce the output power of the engine (necessary in the case of the alternator since gasoline engines will not run without one)? Perhaps I am missing something that a physics geek could easily explain or is there really a "free lunch" here with regard to waste heat?
Make all public transit fare-free and ban toll roads. It'd actually be a very good idea.
No, that would be a terrible idea actually. If you want an example of a country were most private economic activities are banned, everything is socialized, and nobody has to "pay" (although a long wait in line, paying bribes on the side, or risking arrest by going through the black market are all simply alternative methods of paying) then look no further than Cuba. I wouldn't want to live there and I think that if you are honest with yourself, you really wouldn't want to live there either.
Meanwhile, $75,000 would build a school, supply it, and provide money for staff for five years in Afghanistan.
Which nobody would be able to attend without armed protection because the Taliban shut down any non-religuous schools that they come across (only Madrassas that teach koran + jihad are allowed to continue operating) and kill people who send their daughters to any school. Nobody will attend school if they believe that they will be shot and killed for doing so.
So when you're trying to prevent a young muslim from becoming a radical, what's the better option - allowing him the chance to have an education, or blowing up his brother's wedding party and then air dropping him some pudding cups with little American flags on them?
Your'e being naive, its not that simple. As long as the Taliban and the tribesmen are running around the countryside blowing up schools, shooting people who cooperate with us, and then escaping back across the border into Pakistan (the border is a line drawn by long dead white men really, it has little or no meaning to the Pashtun tribesmen who inhabit the region) nothing much is going to change and progress will be extremely slow if it comes at all. The Taliban are not reasonable people; they will never negotiate in good faith with the United States or anyone else from the west (they even stab their fellow Pakistani muslims in the back when they think the tables have turned and peace no longer suits them) not now and not ever and it is a waste of time to try and negotiate with them.
As a commercial software developer who works very hard and doesn't want to see my work made available for free, why would I approve of what TPB are doing?
I too work in the commercial software development industry and, to tell you the truth, the support for TBP founders doesn't bother me in the least. Unless you are self-employed, all of the copyrights, patents, and other rights to the design work and code that you write belong to your employer anyway (i.e. it was effectively work for hire). I don't know about you, but I like sharing my code, seeing the contributions made by others, and then improving again on the contributions of others. As steel sharpens steel so the work of one developer sharpens many others and no programmer is an island. The money is not in the code, but rather in your ongoing professional labors to adapt, setup, configure, and modify as necessary existing code and libraries into solutions that your patrons are willing to pay for, be they your employer or your business clients. Finally, realize that any work that you do "in secret" has probably already been done before (and done better) by other developers so why re-invent a poorer version of the wheel? We all benefit much more from openness and sharing than we do from selfishness and hoarding of knowledge and code.
that's a necessary thing because it's a public good.
You might believe that it is a "public good" in that it is "good" for the public at large, but transportation is NOT, in the strictest economic terms, a public good according to the definition which states:
A Public Good is one that is non-rivaled and non-excludable. This means, respectively, that consumption of the good by one individual does not reduce availability of the good for consumption by others; and that no one can be effectively excluded from using the good.
People can be excluded (prevented) from riding the subway, train, bus, or getting onto the turnpike in their private vehicle if they don't pay the fare. These transportation methods are all subject to both rivalry and exclusion. Real examples of public goods include the air we all breath and the national defense, neither of which are subject to either rivalry or exclusion.
One: The existing rail infrastructure in the united states is ill-suited to speeds above 100 miles per hour (i.e. no banked curves, street level crossings, not enough straight stretches of track, etc).
Two: The existing rail infrastructure is owned by the freight companies who don't care about passenger service. Here in California I once took the Amtrak from San Diego to San Luis Obispo, a distance of ~325 miles, and I must say that the experience was a test of patience. There were three hours of delays, making for an eight hour total trip. We had to pull over and stop for half an hour on side switch tracks so that freight trains loaded with sugar beats, a higher priority than making 1000+ people wait in the eyes of the freight company, could pass us by going south...twice. If high speed rail is to happen here in the United States then it will need dedicated and exclusive tracks like shinkansen in Japan or TGV in France...period.
Three: The United States is the land of lawsuits and we are a nation of NIMBYs who will not want to see their neighborhoods "degraded" or their property values reduced by a noisy high speed train passing nearby. If a train is traveling at 200+ mph with steel wheels on steel rails then it is going to make a fairly large amount of noise when it passes. In Europe they make it more difficult for individual special interests to stand in the way of progress on such issues, but here in the United States just getting the right-of-ways established for the tracks would be a nightmare and just about every community along the proposed route will sue to prevent the train from exceeding 80 miles per hour along the stretch passing through their neck of the woods. So, what you will end up having is the high speed train that can do 200+ mph, but in practice is limited to no more than 100 along much of the route due to NIMBYs and their lawsuits, which mostly defeats the purpose of high speed rail.
Didn't Steve Ballmer say that using an iPod or Google in his house is a punishable offense?
It astounds me how many companies get trapped thinking that copyright is somehow different for free and open source software.
The association appears to have been started or gained currency after Steve Ballmer referred to Linux in an 2001 interview as a "cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches."
It seems to me that open source software has LESS of a change of a license violation
Not necessarily, a particular company might discover that some of their copyrighted code has made it into an open source project, but then wait until some large company with deep pockets starts using it in their product. The copyright holder could then conveniently "discover" the infringing code and proceed to sue the large company for infringement (this is a similar scenario to the "submarine patent" which surfaces and attacks when there are good targets available).
This problem is not unique to the state government of Georgia, but is present at some level, greater or lesser, in all government finance at all levels in the United States. That is why I scoff every time I hear some starry-eyed liberal wax poetic over how Obama and his administration are going to save the planet through increased government spending when every small business owner and government employee (at least those who are honest about it) knows that it simply will not be so. In case the Slashdot liberals missed the point, government spending will NOT be the salvation of the American economy. The government caused the problems which lead to the financial meltdown, both directly and also indirectly (by enabling and encouraging the creation of bad money) and massively increasing government spending (which will largely be spent wastefully, no matter how many czars or layers of bureaucracy are piled on to watch over it, in the manner described by the parent), and particularly direct spending (which is even worse than the government paying the private sector to do things), will not solve them. The economy may recover eventually in spite of the efforts of the Obama administration, but their continued "help" will not be as useful as the liberals suppose.
I thought that at least some cab drivers had their own medallions and owned their own cabs in NY. Is that not true?
I will concede that this probably true for Manhattan, which being a ~23 square mile area with at least 1.5 million residents, is a special case. However, in Los Angeles, for example, where everything is much more spread out and gas stations are everywhere the advantages of the gas cab come more into play. Why not a hybrid you ask? Well, there are specialized cab companies which field the Toyota Prius for cab duty out here in California, but they cost more to hire, don't carry as much luggage, and generally do not hold as many people. People tend to expect a large, late-model American full-sized sedan (or saloon to you Europeans) car when traveling by cab (i.e. the Ford Crown Victoria, the Chevrolet Caprice, or for higher end service the Lincoln Town Car). The hybrid cab market is a niche. As other posters have noted, the most common (and only really feasible) alternative choice to gasoline is Natural Gas which, following a surge of interest with the high gas prices preceding the meltdown, has returned once more to its niche status.
So if the cab company has to outfit all of their cars with the necessary equipment will it pay off? Perhaps, but it is a substantial risk. How many of their customers have smartphones and would use the service? Also a $3 non-refundable charge isn't enough to cover the risk of a no-show, this is NY after all. The charge would have to be more like $20 non-refundable if you are a no-show for the pickup.
There are already many services that schedule pickups via phone, web, and probably smart phone too (isn't there an iPhone app for that?). The driver doesn't need a smart phone, he just needs a way to receive updates and pickup assignments from base regardless of how the requests arrived at the dispatch server (i.e. the cab computer/meter w/wireless in his cab). This is probably already happening/already been done many times in many different cities by many different cab companies. Also, consider this: what if you schedule a pickup and then you are a no show? There is no difference (in most consumer's minds) between one cab or another so if the cab driver blows off your pickup and takes a fare straight of the street (aka: cash in hand) he experiences no downside (unless the cab company punishes him for doing it and making them look bad). Why should he risk a pickup fare, which may not materialize, when he can get one immediately off the street without having to drive anywhere else to start the trip?
Even if they could get 20% participation from the NY cabbies the gas cabs would still have an advantage because they would not have to return to base to refuel which means more time on the prowl for additional fares while the competition is driving back and forth to base several times per day to get the battery pack changed. The gas powered cab can stop at the nearest gas station, fill up the tank, and be right back out there. The cab driver is a practical creature and will only switch to "green alternatives" if the law forces everyone, including the competition to do it, or it offers a competitive advantage over gas.
That's the issue: More and more stuff is being criminalized.
"Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."
-Ayn Rand, 'Atlas Shrugged' 1957
Defense: Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, this is Chewbacca...