The US economy is doing just fine. We are recovering from a cyclical recession after an incredible dot-com runup. Unemployment rates are extremely low (compared with the period before the dot-com era). We are still a couple of million jobs down from the peak (when unemployment was below 5% due to the dot-com crazy world where seats needed hot bodies for IPOs instead of real talent). However it is very likely that 1 million more jobs will be added this year. No, 2.5 million new jobs this year probably won't happen, but the administration backed down from that recently.
Not only that, interest rates and inflation are incredibly low.
Yes, India's socialist government repression of the free market has kept them poor since independence in the 1940's, while other poor countries like South Korea and Taiwan have developed near western-level economies in the same time span.
Only since 1980 has there been major free market reform in India, and in the last ten years you have seen significant GDP growth there year after year.
19.2Mbps is the ATSC standard (using MPEG-2) for DTV. There are some DTV stations mulitcasting 1 HD signal at 14 Mbps with 1 SD signal at 4 Mbps.
I have important news: HD at ATSC rates looks horrible when there are more than about 20 motion vectors on the screen. It totally pixelizes if you are shooting, for example, a crowd at a football game.
HD is professionally recorded as HDCAM at over 100 Mbps. Some producers demand uncompressed HD at over 1 Gbps.
Advanced codecs such as Windows Media and H.264 reduce bandwidth requirements for equivalent quality by about half.
First, there is no way you could get $70 billion for TV spectrum. TV spectrum is almost worthless. Must-carry of TV channels on cable and satellite is what makes most TV stations bother to still put out a RF signal. The vast majority of TV reception is cable and satellite today.
DTV was a federal mandate, although broadcasters were excited at first, they rapidly recognized that the cost was very high for a very uncertain return. Billions and billions of capital dollars have already been spent on the digital television transition, waiting for the payback which may never come.
The real key to biofuels would be the ability to use cellulose as the feedstock instead of just simply sugars.
Currently there is work going on to reduce the cost of using cellulase enzymes in the bioethanol process. Currently, cellulase-based bioethanol requires 30-50 cents of cellulase per gallon. To be economically competitive with sugar processes, the price has to be brought down to 5 cents per gallon.
At that point, bioethanol production could use the entire plant, including a large amount of plant waste that is simply thrown away today.
I just stayed in a Raddison in Chelmsford, Mass, with free WiFi. It was set up so they could charge if they wanted to, but they didn't. Excellent!
I wanted to go visit the MIT Bookstore in Cambridge, but didn't remember where it was. I picked a random spot on Mass Ave between MIT and Harvard to pull over my car, found an open AP, googled for the MIT Bookstore, and got directions.
My favorite restaurant refuses to get WiFi "so people don't come in all day and surf the Web and not buy anything." Which is sad, because I go there with a lot of friends, and I'd like to videoconference with friends who are in other states.
One of the problems is that camcorders are sold by tape technology & pixel count. What is missing is a frank discussion of image quality, which is often really missing from some of the lower-quality cameras.
"Real" video cameras that cost $5K and up are specially designed to capture color images well, and in some cases will make people look better than they actually are. My favorite camera is the Panasonic Supercam. Despite being S-VHS, its image looks way better than any DV camera I've ever used. This is because it has a high-quality ($1000) lens, and good digital signal processing to make the image look great.
I suggest looking at DV.Com if you are serious about image quality review.
Of course, form-factor is also important. A lot of people don't mind a horrible looking picture if they can put the camera in their pocket. That too is a valid choice.
Poverty rates in India went from 50% in the mid-1970's to 25% today, thanks to the Indian government reforming its formerly highly anti-trade and socialist economy during that time.
Synthetic biology. We now need to harness the power of biology the same way we harnessed the power of logic for computation.
Medical technology - a richer world, living older, can afford it and need it.
Dare I say nanotechnology. Already nanotech has been used in textiles, and it is the one remaining aspect of the textile industry that the US is competitive at.
No. Consumer good prices have dropped tremendously.
Many Americans are having a hard time making ends meet because they try to live a two-income life, which includes an additional car and often day care.
Cost of housing on a per square foot basis is lower than it has ever been. Most Americans buy houses that are huge though, and thus cost more than they used to.
US exports to developing countries like India and China are continuing to rise. As the economies of these countries improve, they purchase more from the US as well.
The problem with that is to achieve equilibrium, two sides need to meet in the middle and that means decrease in the std of living for the higher income group.
This is not true. Economies are not zero-sum gains. Wealth is created through free market exchanges, not merely exchanged. The basic proof is that the standard of living in the US is much higher now than it was 10 years ago.
Your "dissapearing middle class" is a combination of former middle-class members moving into higher economic states, combined with an influx of poor immigrants into the US.
The free movement of labor should bring much greater economic benefits than the free trade of goods. Global price differentials for goods are much less then global price differentials of labor.
"Markets" don't exist. People exist. People have wants. They engage in free trade.
Markets don't exist to maximize freedom. Markets exist because people want to trade. Markets were not "invented," markets have existed forever whenever people were not forced not to participate in them. Markets are part of our innate psychology.
Granted, the invention of money, government security of property rights, and laws against fraud make markets more effective in creating wealth. But they are based in our humanity.
We can come up with all kinds of artifical government force to make markets less effective at creating wealth. But we need to remember the cost of whatever benefits we are trying to achieve.
The benefits of global capitalism is that fewer people in India and China starve.
I would ignore moving from medicine to computers right now, for reasons I'm sure other posters will mention in detail.
The next big technological revolution will be synthetic biology, harnessing the power of organic processes in the same fashion that computers harnessed the power of inorganic logic circuits.
Especially if you already have done classes in organic chemistry, human enzyme pathways, and genetics, you have the base to begin to move into this evolving industry. The first large international conference on synthetic biology will occur in June at MIT.
Slashdot Mirror
The US economy is doing just fine. We are recovering from a cyclical recession after an incredible dot-com runup. Unemployment rates are extremely low (compared with the period before the dot-com era). We are still a couple of million jobs down from the peak (when unemployment was below 5% due to the dot-com crazy world where seats needed hot bodies for IPOs instead of real talent). However it is very likely that 1 million more jobs will be added this year. No, 2.5 million new jobs this year probably won't happen, but the administration backed down from that recently.
Not only that, interest rates and inflation are incredibly low.
Some people would argue there is no need to paint any more because of cameras.
Which is wrong, but so is requiring you to show your ability to paint to get a camera license...
Yes, India's socialist government repression of the free market has kept them poor since independence in the 1940's, while other poor countries like South Korea and Taiwan have developed near western-level economies in the same time span.
Only since 1980 has there been major free market reform in India, and in the last ten years you have seen significant GDP growth there year after year.
19.2Mbps is the ATSC standard (using MPEG-2) for DTV. There are some DTV stations mulitcasting 1 HD signal at 14 Mbps with 1 SD signal at 4 Mbps.
I have important news: HD at ATSC rates looks horrible when there are more than about 20 motion vectors on the screen. It totally pixelizes if you are shooting, for example, a crowd at a football game.
HD is professionally recorded as HDCAM at over 100 Mbps. Some producers demand uncompressed HD at over 1 Gbps.
Advanced codecs such as Windows Media and H.264 reduce bandwidth requirements for equivalent quality by about half.
First, there is no way you could get $70 billion for TV spectrum. TV spectrum is almost worthless. Must-carry of TV channels on cable and satellite is what makes most TV stations bother to still put out a RF signal. The vast majority of TV reception is cable and satellite today.
DTV was a federal mandate, although broadcasters were excited at first, they rapidly recognized that the cost was very high for a very uncertain return. Billions and billions of capital dollars have already been spent on the digital television transition, waiting for the payback which may never come.
The real key to biofuels would be the ability to use cellulose as the feedstock instead of just simply sugars.
Currently there is work going on to reduce the cost of using cellulase enzymes in the bioethanol process. Currently, cellulase-based bioethanol requires 30-50 cents of cellulase per gallon. To be economically competitive with sugar processes, the price has to be brought down to 5 cents per gallon.
At that point, bioethanol production could use the entire plant, including a large amount of plant waste that is simply thrown away today.
Oh mgod, we better stop outsourcing our precious programming jobs to Florida!
It is unpatriotic to move them from California, where they belong! I bet they pay the people in Florida a lot less.
(This is a joke)
I just stayed in a Raddison in Chelmsford, Mass, with free WiFi. It was set up so they could charge if they wanted to, but they didn't. Excellent!
I wanted to go visit the MIT Bookstore in Cambridge, but didn't remember where it was. I picked a random spot on Mass Ave between MIT and Harvard to pull over my car, found an open AP, googled for the MIT Bookstore, and got directions.
My favorite restaurant refuses to get WiFi "so people don't come in all day and surf the Web and not buy anything." Which is sad, because I go there with a lot of friends, and I'd like to videoconference with friends who are in other states.
One of the problems is that camcorders are sold by tape technology & pixel count. What is missing is a frank discussion of image quality, which is often really missing from some of the lower-quality cameras.
"Real" video cameras that cost $5K and up are specially designed to capture color images well, and in some cases will make people look better than they actually are. My favorite camera is the Panasonic Supercam. Despite being S-VHS, its image looks way better than any DV camera I've ever used. This is because it has a high-quality ($1000) lens, and good digital signal processing to make the image look great.
I suggest looking at DV.Com if you are serious about image quality review.
Of course, form-factor is also important. A lot of people don't mind a horrible looking picture if they can put the camera in their pocket. That too is a valid choice.
New housing costs, on a square foot basis, are much lower than they have ever been in real dollar terms.
But average new home prices are increasing, some people need "McMansions..."
Health costs are rising, but it is because of increasing health technology.
My job was created in the last few years, and is technical.
Here are the top 10 US exports to China:
Civillian Aricraft
Semiconductors
Industrial machines
Telecommunications Equipment
Soybeans
Computer accessories
Plastic materials
Chemicals - fertilizers
Chemicals - organic
Measuring, testing, control instruments
Indian IT wages rise 14%.
Poverty rates in India went from 50% in the mid-1970's to 25% today, thanks to the Indian government reforming its formerly highly anti-trade and socialist economy during that time.
Synthetic biology. We now need to harness the power of biology the same way we harnessed the power of logic for computation.
Medical technology - a richer world, living older, can afford it and need it.
Dare I say nanotechnology. Already nanotech has been used in textiles, and it is the one remaining aspect of the textile industry that the US is competitive at.
No. Consumer good prices have dropped tremendously.
Many Americans are having a hard time making ends meet because they try to live a two-income life, which includes an additional car and often day care.
Cost of housing on a per square foot basis is lower than it has ever been. Most Americans buy houses that are huge though, and thus cost more than they used to.
US exports to developing countries like India and China are continuing to rise. As the economies of these countries improve, they purchase more from the US as well.
The short-term use for scramjets are for hypersonic long-range cruise missiles.
It will be a while before they show up powering manned craft of any kind.
The problem with that is to achieve equilibrium, two sides need to meet in the middle and that means decrease in the std of living for the higher income group.
This is not true. Economies are not zero-sum gains. Wealth is created through free market exchanges, not merely exchanged. The basic proof is that the standard of living in the US is much higher now than it was 10 years ago.
Your "dissapearing middle class" is a combination of former middle-class members moving into higher economic states, combined with an influx of poor immigrants into the US.
The free movement of labor should bring much greater economic benefits than the free trade of goods. Global price differentials for goods are much less then global price differentials of labor.
EE unemployment is 6.7% which the IEEE considers pretty high.
I'd go for synthetic biology. That will be the next technological wave.
"Markets" don't exist. People exist. People have wants. They engage in free trade.
Markets don't exist to maximize freedom. Markets exist because people want to trade. Markets were not "invented," markets have existed forever whenever people were not forced not to participate in them. Markets are part of our innate psychology.
Granted, the invention of money, government security of property rights, and laws against fraud make markets more effective in creating wealth. But they are based in our humanity.
We can come up with all kinds of artifical government force to make markets less effective at creating wealth. But we need to remember the cost of whatever benefits we are trying to achieve.
The benefits of global capitalism is that fewer people in India and China starve.
I would ignore moving from medicine to computers right now, for reasons I'm sure other posters will mention in detail.
The next big technological revolution will be synthetic biology, harnessing the power of organic processes in the same fashion that computers harnessed the power of inorganic logic circuits.
Especially if you already have done classes in organic chemistry, human enzyme pathways, and genetics, you have the base to begin to move into this evolving industry. The first large international conference on synthetic biology will occur in June at MIT.
Hey, Johnny Depp could be Zaphod!
Ozzy Osbourne should play the "old, tired" Zaphod in a sequel.
BTW, check out these Iraqi blogs:
Baghdad Burning
Salam Pax
The Mesopotamian
Iraq at a glance
Hammorabi
Nabil's blog
Baghdadee
Fayrouz
Iraq the model
Iraq and Iraqis
A Family in Baghdad
Road of a nation
Ihath - Losing myself
Sun of Iraq